Customers. Clients. Patients. Whatever you call them, every business has them.

I hope you’re happy for me to refer to them as customers for the purposes of this communication.

I’d like to talk about ‘customer stickiness’, something that is really important for every business right now.

For many businesses, lockdown represented a new challenge to stay connected with customers. We were obliged to establish new ways of staying in touch and maintaining relationships. It’s great to see that many successfully continued, or established new customer communication streams during this vital period.

By in large it hasn’t felt an appropriate time to hard sell products and services and so the businesses that recognised this have sought to be ‘of service’ instead.

There is a clear difference between ‘selling’ and ‘being of service’ to your customers. When you send timely, relevant communications which are of service to your customers you:

  • Keep your business visible and present in their minds – especially crucial if you have lots of competitors who are showing up with their own communications
  • Show you care about them and your business is ‘helpful’
  • Illustrate how you understand their current challenges and needs
  • Ensure your customers are aware of relevant developments at your business and increase the chances of heavier ‘sales’ messages being received positively
  • Support the development of long term customer trust and loyalty

The businesses that have nurtured customer relationships through lockdown with communications that succeed in the above ways are now enjoying increased customer ‘stickiness’, where their customers feel they still matter to the business and subsequently feel goodwill towards it. As a result, these businesses are in a better position to keep their customers coming back for more.

The question is will businesses stay sticky?

For some businesses that adopted a more proactive approach to customer communications as a result of lockdown, there may be the temptation to revert back to a more passive approach as lockdown eases.

Do this, however, and you stand to lose the benefits of having customers who will stick with you, buy more from you and tell others about you.

It’s not a great time to lose such benefits as I’m sure you’ll appreciate!

How you stay sticky

It’s the continued demonstration of the care, understanding and empathy you have for your customers which will help you keep and enhance your customer stickiness as lockdown eases.

Demonstrating this involves asking the right questions and tailoring your content around your answers.

These questions include:

  • What are your customers continuing to deal with?
  • How can you help them deal with their changing circumstances?
  • What will they be interested to hear about your business and – vitally important – why?

Whether or not your customers are already used to receiving communications from you which successfully address these points, you can build your customer stickiness.

I’d be delighted to discuss your customer communication strategy with you. We can have a chat about appropriate communications for your customers, as well as how and when you should send them. Just call me on 01249 712074 or email me at [email protected] .

Stay safe and well

Dee