5 Easy Ways to Build Greater Customer Loyalty in Startup Tech Companies

Loyal customers are hard to come by, but these five strategies can help you keep your fan base coming back for more.

Customer loyalty is tricky. It’s one of the most important elements of your long-term business plan—after all, businesses with large recurring customer bases tend to succeed while other, flash-in-the-pan style customer acquisition approaches tend to fizzle out quickly—but it’s also one of the hardest to accomplish. Customers are finicky and hard to predict, and there’s no single strategy that can guarantee anyone becomes loyal to your brand.

There are, however, several smaller strategies that, when working together, can help you increase the likelihood of an older customer coming back for another purchase (or to start, another interaction).

Showcase your brand consistently. Your first step is to showcase your brand consistently across all your marketing channels. If your brand isn’t obvious and repeatedly top-of-mind, you have no hope of winning customer loyalty.
Use a loyalty program. Loyalty programs are a straightforward and old, but reliable way to ensure customer loyalty. Give rebates or bonus points for repeat visitors, and you’ll guarantee some level of repeat business.
Add something new with every interaction. People don’t like stagnation. Whether you’re selling a product or just attracting people to your website, try to add some kind of new element with every new interaction. It will give your customers more reason to keep coming back.
Be personal. Don’t think of your brand as an object or even as a corporation. Your brand is a personal identity, and you need to treat it as such. People want to have experiences with other people, so the more personal you can make your consumer-brand experiences, the more your customer loyalty will improve.
Make good on your promises. Over-promising and/or under-delivering are sure ways to alienate your customers, or leave them so frustrated they’ll never come back. But if you make consistently reasonable promises, and see them through, your customers will learn to trust you and there will be nothing to stop their loyalty.

Put these strategies to good use in your own startup, and don’t be afraid to experiment. Play with one strategy more than another, or combine them in different ways. Don’t stop experimenting until you find a combination that works, and even then, keep improving indefinitely to maximize your customer return rates.

About the Author

Jose Vasquez is a serial entrepreneur and tech specialist dedicated to helping startup tech companies grow and succeed. As the founder of Build. Brand. Blast., Jose has worked with dozens of enterprises to find direction, gain momentum, and achieve results.