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Building a customer base takes at least 6 months and a lot of legwork.

It’s not a fast process, by any means, and it’s one you need plenty of patience and empathy for. Which is why it’s so important to maintain your customer contacts once you’ve got them – you don’t want to lose out on this profitable connection!

It’s one thing to show your customers some appreciation, but it’s another to keep up with them on a regular basis. But it’s the latter that’ll build the best connection between your business and its target market. Here’s how to strengthen your customer relations and ensure they’ve got a reason to come back for more.

Eliminate Your Customer Service Queue

How long do people have to wait for a reply from your customer service desk? Maybe a couple hours? Maybe a couple days? Both are bad when your customer doesn’t know if they’re coming or going! You need them to know when to expect a response, and if you’re not able to reach that window, you need a good way to apologise.

When you provide a good customer service period, customers will come back for more simply because they know you’ll take care of them. So let anyone who emails you with a query know where they are in the queue, and focus on cutting the time down by both automating FAQs and getting plenty of hands on deck.

Develop an App

If you’ve got an app for customers to reach you through, you’ll be right there on their home screen. They’ll see you every time they open their phone, you can send notifications right to their touch screen, and you’ll be in their personal world. Everything happens through mobile devices these days, and that’s why so many companies fund apps of their own.

Could you do the same? It’s not even as expensive as you may think; you can check out this DreamWalk pricing guide to get a rough idea of the funding you’ll need for app development. Once you’ve done that, come up with an idea, and then work with the best you can find in the software world.

Design Your Social Media Feed Around Them

Social media carries a lot of power, and if you want someone to follow you, you need to give them a good reason to. Not just because you want to sell them something, but because you have real valuable information to offer them – tips, guides, and the like.

Make your Facebook profile or your Instagram page look good, and have something to come back for time and time again. What updates do you have next? What discounts are on this month? What new ‘life hack’ ideas can you provide for existing customers?

If you have a reliable connection to your customer’s world, brand loyalty will come far more naturally to them. So most of all, make sure you’re going the extra mile to make it easy to shop with you.

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