Most of Your Customers are Happy. Why Aren't They Loyal?

Are you mad at a business right now?

Maybe the laundromat lost your favorite shirt.

Perhaps the local chicken place served up fried vermin instead of chicken.

Or it could be that your preferred work commute coffee stop ran out of your favorite blend. (That's mine. Curse you, Carl's Coffee Haus!)

The odds are good that you're at least a little upset with some business out there, but it probably isn't that important. You'll move on after venting to a friend and maybe firing off a tweet or three.

But what about the other 50 businesses you've engaged or transacted with in the past few weeks? The ones that didn't screw up your order.

You're satisfied with them, right?

So you'll return, and give them your business again?

Some of them, maybe.

Most of them? Probably not.

This is the core issue at the heart of engagement and loyalty marketing. How do we take a satisfied customer and turn them into a loyal one?

How do you move someone from a single transaction to two, and three, and four, and so on?

We put together an article around this topic for our friends at Thanx, a loyalty program company.

Click here to give it a read.

A summary, if clicking isn't your thing:

You'll never capture every customer and get them to return.

Put forth a great experience and open communication channels with as many customers as possible, and you'll put your business in contention to bring back way more than you do today.

Whether it's a loyalty program, an SMS club, an email list, or even a social follow, don't let anyone leave your business without connecting to you in some sort of ongoing fashion.

Then, build customer engagement. Give them a reason to return.

The best aspect of this scenario, outside of return visits? You'll hear from upset customers - which has a huge value unto itself.