How do Startups Keep Customers Loyal?

Startups can find it hard to build their product and keep customers loyal at the same time! While studying the startup industry across the country, we have noticed that one thing is always true… customer loyalty remains a key part of any startup’s success. There are many techniques for building customer loyalty, but we are going for focus on the three most effective ones that every startup should use.

Customer Loyalty

There is a big difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal customer.” — Shep Hyken

Tip #1: Hold feedback sessions with customers (on a regular basis)

How:

1. Keep track of who you talked to during customer discovery and market research, especially those who are interested in your solution.
2. Contact them individually for feedback sessions (that way, you know you have their undivided attention during those moments).
3. Schedule a meeting online, in person, on the phone, etc..
4. You can even offer to buy them a coffee or beer for their input.

Benefits:

1. They know how much you care about their opinion.
2. They feel they had a say in building the product with you so they feel connected and familiar with it.
3. It brightens the sense of product disposition and awareness in the customer’s mind. You remind them of your solution and benefits. Each feedback session is another opportunity to market to them.
4. Customers get the VIP experience of seeing their ideas come to life.

Customer feedback

Tip #2: Create the waitlist of future customers

How:

1. Start early!
2. Some startups may not be ready to sell right away but you can still create that waitlist of people who are ready to buy when your solution is ready.

Benefits:

1. Organizing a simple waitlist will save you a lot of time in the long run when your product is actually ready to sell. You don’t have to go back and rumble through your notes to find those leads.
2. Great for investors! If you are running a startup that has not yet generated any revenue, you need to show that potential customers are demonstrating interest. This is the best way to show early stage investors that your business is viable.

Waitlist

Tip #3: How to regular updates

How:

1. Create a monthly newsletter to show consistency and progress to your fans. Here is a quick video on how to create a newsletter.
2. You can create multiple segments in the newsletter. For example, VenturX has a newsletter for startups that is more product-focused, and one for investors. The newsletter for our investors gives a bigger overview of VenturX’s market penetration across the country.

Benefits:

1. This keeps your company at the top of mind.
2. Founders can reflect back on what was accomplished the past month and analyze what worked and what didn’t work. This reflection is often overlooked by startups.

Here is an example of our last newsletter.

VenturX newsletter example

These tips may vary from business to business. One thing that doesn’t change, though, is how important customers are. Loyalty is something that takes years to build and minutes to destroy. Like any relationship, it takes a effort but with these 3 tips you’ll be better equipped to tackle this business challenge! And trust me, the relationship you have with your customers is definitely worth every ounce of effort — and then some.

Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram!

Subscribe to receive exclusive content and notifications!

About VenturX

VenturX is a web platform that helps entrepreneurs through their journey from idea to launch and beyond. VenturX uses data-driven analytics to score and connect startups and investors at Seed and Series A financing.