The Importance of Being Customer-Centric to Maintain Loyal Customers

In today’s podcast, a team from Momentum Labs: Stefano Longo, VP Partnerships & Alliances, Sander de Bruijn, Head of Business, and Dana Eliyahu, Marketing manager discusses the importance of being customer-centric to maintain loyal customers.

The consensus coming from the experts who took part in the podcast is outlined below:

Brands should leave the job of attracting new customers to their current loyal customers and upgrade them to ambassador customers. The steps to take in making your current customers into loyal customers is to give them a personalized experience and supply what they need for today and tomorrow. But in order for companies to satisfy the needs that the customer will have tomorrow, companies need to know what their customers of tomorrow will want. Using AI and other technologies, customers’ needs and behavior can be accurately predicted.

Question and Answer Session

Question: Why is trying to attract new customers the absolutely wrong approach? Answer: Studies have shown over and over again certain business facts: that a loyal customer spends way more, it will cost a company less to maintain their loyal customers, and it is way more expensive to attract new customers.

Question: What advice would you give to businesses in 2022?

Answer: Get your current loyal customers and soon-to-be ambassador customers to do your marketing. Your loyal, ambassador customer does fantastic free marketing for your brand. Once your customers are happy with the service you give, they will become your best marketers. So, the task is not so much to attract new customers but to advance your current customers into loyal customers and your loyal customers to stellar company ambassadors.

Question: How do you advise businesses to go about making loyal customers? Customers need a personalized experience. They need to feel that you know them, know their needs and are at least desirous to know and fulfil those needs. Businesses must have the attitude, ‘We’re here to really serve our customers’ needs.’ Customers need to know that your company is trustworthy, that you are not looking just to make a first sale and could care less about their satisfaction.

Question: How does Momentum Labs technology help you with Customer Retention?

Answer: Momentum Labs offer to help support and run your business using innovative business-transforming AI and other technologies. Our technology solutions get you that information that helps you to know your customer. You will know what your customer wants before they ask. You will know which customer can potentially be a loyal customer as opposed to the passing customer, thus you will know how to direct your costly loyalty programs.

Question: How can using AI help to build a loyal customer base?

Answer: AI is here to stay, and many businesses mess up in their use of AI:

●      They fail to use AI.

●      They use AI but don’t understand it, thus they don’t benefit much from it.

AI technology is an effective weapon in predicting the future for companies — Think of AI as a time machine. You can go to the future and see what customers buy a year or two from now and offer it a year or two before the competition.

AI can help your company see advanced obstacles and avoid them.

Question: Which companies will benefit from AI technology?

Answer: B2Bs, energy companies, financial service companies, retail companies, any company with a consumer before them — need to access the benefits of AI technology.

The only drawback to AI is that it takes special technology companies like Momentum Labs to help you leverage those advantages.

Question: Who should businesses be targeting with their customer marketing budgets?

Answer: It costs 5 times more to attract a new customer. An existing customer will spend 67% more on purchases when compared to a new customer. A returning customer is 60-70% more likely to make a purchase compared to a new customer at 5-20%?  So, it is pretty clear. Spend the funds on retaining your current customers and upgrading them to ambassador customers.