How to Make One-Time Customers into Loyal Customers for Your Jewelry Business

Because Loyal Customers Come Back Again and Again

Loyal customers are the foundation of any business—without customers there is no business. In this article we’ll give you the best ways to ensure that your customers will visit often. Have you ever wondered how to rope in the customers who come across your jewelry on Pinterest and purchase, or those who only buy one item? In other words, one-hit-wonder customers who you would otherwise never see again?

What about the customers who buy a couple of times per year from your company? Maybe you want to increase their loyalty and engagement with your company and make them regulars. Without a strategy to retain new customers, up to 50 percent of new customers will never return to your business. Considering that it costs five to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to take care of existing customers, it’s a good idea to nurture those who are loyal.

Customer service

Customers like conducting business with companies that are trustworthy and dependable. 73 percent of consumers say friendly customer service representatives can make them fall in love with a brand. The saying that the customer is always right applies. When a customer has a complaint, do your best to resolve the issue or at least compromise.

Responses such as “That’s our policy” will ensure customers never come back. To make sure this is so, trust your employees and empower them to come up with solutions that will pacify angry customers. Your Silver Jewelry staff will respect you for empowering them and customer service will improve. Jewelry Newsline has a great guide on how to speak with customers.

As Bryan Pearson, loyalty expert, says, “Pursuing a customer-intimate strategy requires a fundamental shift of focus, from product to customer.”

Pay attention to customer concerns and complaints and make sure to create a log of the complaints so that your team can address them to improve the products and the means by which your customers receive their products and updates about their orders. When customers voice dissatisfaction, look at it as an opportunity to improve your products and processes.

Capture Information So You Can Stay in Touch with First-time Customers

Create a funnel so that you can collect the needed information about your customer on their first visit. The most basic information you will get from their first order is their email address, home address, and phone number, and birthdate which are all great ways to get in touch with your customers to offer them coupons and special offers.

The date of birth is important so that you can find out the age group or demographic of your customers, giving you the ability to create imagery and copy that will entice them. A great promotion idea is to send them a promotional birthday email for a deep discount on the week or month of their birthday, in a Silver Jewelry business providing a specific  925 Silver Jewelry offering during this special occasion.

48 percent of consumers say that the most critical time to gain their loyalty is when they make their first purchase or begin their service.

Then you will be able to nurture them on your mailing list, engaging with them long after their first purchase and beyond.

Nurture Your Customers and Communicate with Them

Engaged consumers buy 90-percent more frequently, spend 60-percent more per transaction and are five times more likely to indicate that yours is the only brand they would purchase in the future

Some tactics for engaging with your customers are through email marketing and mobile SMS text messaging to tell customers when there are sales, special offers or events, or VIP coupons going on for your business. You can collect all of the necessary information through your loyalty program.

Segmenting your email marketing list by customers who are interested in specific types of products will make it easier to make targeted offers featuring the products that they would be most interested in.

One way to engage new customers is to send an automated coupon to first-time customers that incentivizes them to return within two weeks of their first purchase.

The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70 percent. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5 to 20 percent. Existing customers already know, like, and trust your brand. With new traffic to your website and new engagement with your brand, you need to start from scratch building that relationship. Put your focus on nurturing existing customers and you will create lasting business and relationships.

All of your messages don’t need to be advertising or promotions—you can create familiarity and relationship by sharing on-brand or useful information that creates a conversation with the customer.

Create a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are a must because a 5 percent increase in customer loyalty can result in more than a 25 percent increase in revenue. That’s a big jump! When you create a loyalty program, strategize so that the rewards are relevant and exciting for customers. The loyalty program also needs to be easy to understand and easy to sign up. Pitch it to your customers clearly with to-the-point copy or video. Make it easy for them to say yes!

Your business can use a variety of incentives and promotions such as buy two, get one free; frequent shopper points; rebates; adding a free service to the sale; gifts; and gift cards. All of these options offer an incentive for customers to choose your business when they decide to spend their disposable income.

Coordinate your incentive program with marketing so that the incentive is appropriate for the segment of your audience you are sending it to. Incentives and promotions are a great way to boost business during slow seasons and to promote new products.

Ask for Referrals and Social Media Sharing

Your most loyal customers are four times more likely than new customers to refer or share your products with their friends.

The best way to leverage this fact is to ask your most loyal customers personally to refer your jewelry business to their friends. Ask them to share on social media or to forward your email to their friends.

In fact, people are four times more likely to buy when they are referred by a friend

Give them VIP discounts and offers and release new jewelry lines and products to them first. Show them that they are your priority before you release your announcements publicly.

Upsell

When an existing customer with an account is shopping, create a special offer just for those frequent customers where you can upsell another product to them while they are in their shopping cart. Create messaging that says “We’ll throw in this product that you were looking at for $20 off!”

How could they resist an offer like that? After all, it is 10 times easier to upsell existing customers than win new ones.

Establish a Sense of Familiarity and Branding

Create a branded experience that is dependable and cohesive so that your customers know what to expect from you and can identify your brand out of a lineup. That means it needs to be unique and consistent. Create uniqueness and consistent messaging and visuals in your emails and social media promotions.

As Noah Fleming, loyalty expert, says, “Customer retention starts LONG before the sale is ever made.” This refers to the branded experience of the ambience and the customer service.

Packaging is important, especially for the jewelry industry! Make sure that the packaging of your beautiful jewelry pieces are packaged in a way that shows the customer you value them and that creates a special experience when they receive the shipped item in the mail.

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You can also add small gifts or hand-written notes to surprise and delight your customers.

Conclusion

Nurturing your most loyal customers is the best move you can make as a small business. As we discussed here, loyal customers are more likely to buy and more likely to share your business and products with their friends. Serve them. Ask them for their contact information on their first purchase. Give them promotions and offers. Keep in touch with them and make conversation with them. They clearly love your brand already—you just have to continue to be awesome and acknowledge that they are the reason you’re still in business.