When Kevin Roberts, the former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi — a top-notch marketing company, was asked about the secret behind sports brands’ customer loyalty, he said that many sports-related companies like Nike and Adidas had created a persona of aspiration, leading to a massive following from people they sell to. He called this phenomenon “love marks,” which transcends the usual business operations of traditional companies, and solidifies consumers’ trust and respect for them.
Satisfying your clients requires time and dedication. According to the United States Office of Consumer Affairs in Washington DC, loyal customers are 10 times as valuable as the first purchase they made from you. Also, in a 2009 interview with Time Magazine, Martin Lindstrom confirms that 90% of purchases are made with the emotions people have for the particular brand.
It doesn’t matter whether you create your own rideshare app, sell sports merchandise, plan sports events or is a sportsbook that offers NFL spreads and odds to punters, it’s important to know how you can harness customer satisfaction to build and promote your brand.
Why Customer Satisfaction Is Important
The most significant brands enjoy unwavering loyalty and followership from many customers worldwide. Buyers wait months to purchase a Gucci bag or an Adidas Summer Wear, and while these products might be limited edition, everyone wants to get them. It’s the same with sports brands.
Customer satisfaction is determined by how your products and services are able to meet your client’s expectations. Sports brands have access to a wide range of prospects, and how well they satisfy their clients determines their reputation, client retention, and overall brand value.
It’s important to tune your products and services to soothe the taste and expectations of your clients. This instills admiration and brings them back to you every time while reducing the customer churn rate.
Source: scholarlyoa.com
6 Ways To Increase Customer Satisfaction
Increased satisfaction boosts the growth of your client base. It also ensures that they keep buying from you. You can implement some of these tips to increase client satisfaction for your brand:
1. Ask for Feedback
A 2019 Edelman study revealed that 81% of consumers’ purchase decisions depend on the company’s customer service. However, it isn’t easy to know your customers’ experiences if you aren’t gathering feedback from them. You can ask them to leave feedback after buying from you.
It would help if you also asked about how they perceive your company. Was the service top-notch? Did they experience any difficulty buying a product? Asking these questions regularly will help you work on your business operations, from packaging and transportation to customer relations.
You can utilize communication sources like emails, live chats, online review forms, and surveys to get information on your shortcomings and ideas on how to improve them. Besides getting this information, gathering feedback tells your consumers that you care enough about their feelings and opinions.
2. Respond Faster
Source: pinterest.com
A 2017 survey discovered that 12% of Americans get frustrated by the slow response from customer service teams, 27% by lack of effectiveness, and 10% by lack of accuracy. These factors are business killers and can damage your reputation with potential clients.
The average consumer expects quicker replies to inquiries, orders, and delivery. Improving your response time and accuracy portrays you as a brand that cares about clients. You can achieve a quicker response rate by ramping up your customer service teams and constructing routines that ensure someone is always on the line. You can also use technological trends like automation services, chatbots, and other SAAS tools that can engage in real-life conversations with consumers.
3. Give Loyalty Packages
Getting your old customers to keep buying from you is cheaper than acquiring new ones. You can encourage your clients to buy from you regularly through loyalty programs and incentives to avoid the extra cost of marketing your brand. Surveys by Annex Cloud revealed that 87% of shoppers expect loyalty packages for being faithful, and 68% of millennials say they won’t even consider a brand with no loyalty program.
Loyalty packages are a way to express gratitude to faithful clients. Ideally, these sets of people have bought from you consistently, and some have referred you to their friends and family. These incentives can come in the form of free sneakers, free jerseys, demo sports watches, and other sporting gear depending on what you sell.
4. Try Discounts
Source: unsplash.com
Every consumer likes freebies. Give your shoppers discounts for minute things such as referrals, high purchase rates, and brand engagements. While this might reduce your profit margin in the interim, it can significantly boost your sales and entice old, new, and potential clients, increasing profit significantly in the long run.
Discounts can be coupons and price slash on fitness wear and equipment. This should only be for a short period — a week, at most. Consumers tend to purchase more when they believe they can get a product for a reduced price within a time frame. Inform them of discount sales ahead of time on your social media platforms, emails, and website page.
5. Build a Brand Community
A brand community aims at bringing people who are emotionally invested in your products together. It makes your followers feel less of a consumer and more of a family. Sports brands already have available target audiences. You can leverage this by creating a solid online presence that creates unique sports content and allows your followers and prospects to converse and discuss related topics.
This approach can also help you make better customer-driven decisions, as getting feedback information on these platforms is easier. You can create a community on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok, through steady engagements like group games and competitions with catchy prizes like using their pictures with a product as the face of the brand for a while.
You can also give valuable information to your audience through content that helps them understand upkeeps and easy usage of products they bought and inform them about discounts and free packages. Since sports is already a popular topic worldwide, setting up a community might take a while, but it won’t be difficult.
6. Train Your Team
Source: succeedasyourownboss.com
Improving customer satisfaction might not be attainable without investing in your team to perform well in their services. A satisfied team equals satisfied patrons. Dealing with customers is not an easy job, and it’s easy to get frustrated and lash out at them — which could lead to increased churn rates.
Train your team in the art of communication, the use of technology to solve problems, and the various strategies they can use to answer inquiries. Many companies use scripts to achieve this, but it’s best to teach your team ways to handle clients beyond the use of scripts. Rather than focusing on scripts, use them as training materials to teach human interaction.
Final Notes
Customer satisfaction is integral to your business, even beyond expanding the customer base. It’s the heart of expanding your client base as it’s the only medium to build loyal patrons and provide valuable products.
You can accomplish this in several ways, some of which have been shared in this post. Next is implementing these strategies and finding ways to scale your company for more profits through a satisfied client base.
