When your competitors are just a quick internet search away, building loyalty in your customers requires a strategic approach. By using market data to predict your customers’ needs and by staying in touch during the slow times, you can keep your customers around for years.
Give Them What They Want
When your customers know you understand their needs like no one else, you become their go-to provider. They’ll have little reason to shop around for anyone else. Keeping up on the trends helps you anticipate your customers’ needs so you’ll always be ready with the products and services they want.
Reviewing building permit data tells you what types of construction projects are happing in your area. If you sell lighting fixtures and there’s a rise in office building construction, chances are a lot of your customers will be looking for LED task lighting. An increase in warehouse construction, on the other hand, suggests they’ll be coming to you for batten and high bay fittings. Data on the top companies in your field can help, too. If local contractors are making a killing on kitchen and bathroom remodels, it’s probably worth having a good inventory of lighting for those rooms.
Stay in Touch
Construction work is seasonal and cyclical, so your customers might not always have a constant line-up of building projects. No matter how happy they are with your work, it could be months to years before they need you again. Staying in touch with them during their down times helps ensure you’re the first company they think of the next time they’re ready to buy.
A blog and email newsletter are both efficient ways to stay connected with your customers, but the topics you choose have to be relevant. Construction industry data can help you find those topics. If recent building permit data tells you home additions are hot now, blogging on the subject will encourage customers to keep visiting your website even when they aren’t ready to buy immediately.
Nice blog, thanks for sharing.