The Best Ways To Encourage Millennial Customer Loyalty

Crafting long-term loyal customer relationships can serve as a huge differentiator between a brand and the rest of its industry competition. There are many different benefits that come from optimizing customer retention capabilities, including a direct impact on an organization’s bottom line. One customer segment that can yield particularly large bonuses when converted into loyal customers are millennials. Brands that endear themselves to the millennial consumer population will find that they quickly become a leader within their industry.

The best way to start converting millennial customers into brand ambassadors is to encourage individualized interactions between employees and consumers. Rather than focusing on the one instance of a sale, employees should put effort into encouraging a positive customer perception of the brand. The first way to influence these interactions is to have a competitive price point. Price has the largest impact on the average millennial’s purchasing decision, and by selling a product for a lower cost than the competition, brands are proving that they hope to build a relationship beyond this one interaction.

However, it is important that your Customer Experience is aligned with this lower price point. If your employees are not effectively relaying your brand promise, then customers will quickly find a brand that better fits their values, regardless of the price. According to Conversocial, over 50% of millennials will stop doing business with a brand if they experience poor customer service. Utilize self-assessment and measurement programs to ensure that employees are retaining the brand identity crafted by brand leadership. Transparency is key, both within and outside an organization, to curating an environment where employees are acutely aware of performance expectations, and customers have easy access to information about how a brand is representing itself to its employees and the community it encompasses. Utilize social media and community events to portray the kind of brand identity that provides value to customers and communities beyond just the products or services being sold.

While it is not a new method, loyalty programs have been shown to have a profound effect on millennial customer relationships. 80% of millennials participate in loyalty programs, providing brands with an easy way to initiate a long-term transactional relationship. These added incentives help brands prove to customers that they are more interested in forming a relationship than making the most profit out of each individual interaction. Within the loyalty program, it can be helpful to offer additional coupons and incentives, as 80% of this customer base are swayed by points or rewards for purchases. While these offers may hurt the profitability of each individual interaction with a customer, these offers will both encourage customers to return to a brand as well as influence in the creation of brand ambassadors who bring their networks directly to an organization.

Millennials are widely considered to be a group with intense purchasing power. This group is typically a trend setter across different industries, and brands that correctly cater their services towards this base will find they quickly become leaders within their industry. Teach employees to treat every interaction carefully and passionately, while also offering extraneous incentives to encourage more return millennial customers.

1,3,4 https://blog.accessdevelopment.com/millennials-loyalty-statistics

2 http://www.conversocial.com/blog/the-7-most-important-customer-service-stats-for-2017

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