Shep Hyken’s Seven Powerful Strategies for Creating Loyalty at Your Business

In a tough, competitive, and price-sensitive economy, customer service is one of the most essential tools to separate your business from the competition. Shep Hyken, customer experience expert and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Amazement Revolution, joined us in the studio recently to discuss the seven powerful strategies that any organization can implement to create greater customer and employee loyalty.

1. Membership: American Express, for example, has decided that they don’t want to call their cardholders customers, they wanted to elevate the term and create a sense of exclusivity. If you give your customers a membership-like experience, there will be a strong feeling of connection. Ways to create membership:

• Hire people who remember customer names
• Know who the regular customers are
• Have a good CRM

2. Serious F.U.N.: Let have serious fun internally at our company, and that doesn’t necessarily mean a party.

• Fulfillment – How the employee feels about working at your company. Are they proud to work there?
• Uniqueness – Do they have a unique talent you can leverage?
• Next – What’s coming up? What’s the new project?

3. Partnership: Shep wants all of his clients to view him as a partner rather than simply a vendor. Partnership is like being a vendor on steroids. Make yourself and your service irreplaceable.

4. Hiring: Hire people who understand what customer service is all about. Find people that already have a people-focused attitude.

5. The After-Experience: Get feedback from as many clients as you can. Try to create a memorable, positive experience.

6. Community: Find a cause your entire company can support. Get involved in your community, and people will continue to gravitate towards you.

7. Walking the Walk: You wear it on your sleeve. To be a great leader, you have to be the role model and live and breath your core values and mission.

For more expert advice and insight, check out Shep’s customer service blog, and follow him on Twitter here.

The Atlanta Small Business Network, from start-up to success, we are your go-to resource for small business news, information, resources.