Developing Loyalty and Brand Awareness with your Home Business

Developing a rapport with your customers so they’ll remain loyal and keep returning for your products and services is an important aspect of generating income for any business, including home businesses.  Some call this branding…others regard it as developing customer/client loyalty.

Ron at Brand Curve presents an interesting discussion about loyalty (Care to learn “loyalty”?) and points out how loyal football fans are toward anything connected with their team. 

So….how does a business, or home business, generate such loyalty in their customers?  How will you develop a business whereby customers return repeatedly for your products or services?

*Produce a quality product; never shortcut on quality.

*If yours is a service, give your customer good measure.

*Always meet deadlines; if you can’t, let your customer know and have a good reason.  Then let them know when you will complete the job.

*Have return policies and guarantees stated from the very beginning, in your shop or in the contract.

*Decide beforehand how you’ll handle difficult customers.  You can’t anticipate every situation, but have a good idea how you will do this.

*Have a payment policy stated beforehand. This leads to less misunderstandings. (For instance, when I made quilts, I asked for one half upon starting the item…this gave me most of what I needed to purchase supplies…and the remainder before mailing it or when the customer picked it up.)  If you’re selling online or by mail order, it’s very important to have payment agreed upon.

*Become a good communicator.  Lack of communication often leads to dissatisfaction and thus displeased customers.

*Smile…even when you aren’t face to face with your customers.  It comes across in your voice.