One of the pillars of customer retention is engagement. When a bond exists, it’ll be difficult for customers to detach themselves from the business or brand. At a time when we are spoilt for choice, this dependency is a premium. In this post, we’ll discuss three tactics hospitality businesses can use to achieve this outcome.

1. Divide and conquer

Small businesses tend to treat their customer base as a homogeneous, universal group. For example, single young adults may not respond positively to a “free babyccino with two large lattes” promotion in contrast to those married with young children. At a time when marketing personalisation is increasingly important, small businesses are not immune from the need to understand their customers as individuals or groups of individuals, each with specific needs and wants.

2. Differentiated incentives

Once you have segmented your customer base, it is easier to develop and implement differentiated offerings. Remember, the key to successful customer engagement is treating customers as unique individuals or groups of individuals. And this differentiation must be experienced in the incentives offered to them too. While a one-size-fits-all incentive may appear to make economic sense, from a marketing perspective, it can be a recipe for failure.

3. Grow a brand community

Thanks to social media, building a brand community is easier. Creating a channel where like-minded customers can communicate with each other is a good way of achieving this. But your business or brand has to be an active participant as well. And more importantly, it should not be purely focused around the products or service you offer. For example, if you run a coffee shop, you can rally the local community to be more environmentally friendly. The idea is to make your business or brand one of the focal points in their hearts and minds, especially on things that matter to them.

It’s financially prudent to build loyal customers. But you must have an active customer engagement policy. How much are you spending on this effort? Connect with us to learn how to develop a budget for this purpose.