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June 2025: Building customer loyalty

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June 30, 2025 at 12:22:58 PM PDT June 30, 2025 at 12:22:58 PM PDTth, June 30, 2025 at 12:22:58 PM PDT
Shop talk June 2025

Customer loyalty is one of the key foundations of a successful business, but how do you begin to build this within your business?

First, we need to understand what is one of the fundamentals of building customer loyalty which is creating a positive, memorable experience that encourage repeat business and advocacy. What do we mean by advocacy? When someone advocates for you or your business it means they promote it positively and speak about it to others in a positive way. These are the people you want to come back time and time again.

Now, we have that clear can briefly discuss promoters, detractors and passives. This is known as a net promotor score or NPS scale.

We’ve all been given a customer feedback form that has little smiley, neutral and angry faces on – and for anyone who hasn’t seen them here’s an example with a little more information on what those faces really mean.

Most people would consider a 7 or 8 as a good score meaning it wasn’t bad but there could be improvements. However, 7 and 8 on a customer feedback form means passive. Customers who have a so, so experience may choose to go elsewhere or promote other businesses over yours. Although this is deemed as passive it is not a good thing, it’s bad. Your steadfast promoters are 9’s and 10’s. In an ideal world we would love all customers to be on the higher end of the scale, though that’s not realistic because things do go wrong sometimes. However, what we can do is aim for the majority to sit in the promotors category, so how do we do this?

Build loyalty.

As mentioned before; building customer loyalty comes down to good experiences. This is demonstrated by how we conduct ourselves as a business, do we offer loyalty programs, are we friendly, easy to shop, do we treat the customer how they want to be treated? And so on.

Customers are special, they’re the reason we get out of bed in the morning, without them we wouldn’t be able to live the dream of owning and working in a reptile business. So, here’s some things you can do to make them feel loved and keep them in that higher end of the NPS scale:

1. Go above and beyond – nothing is too much trouble for them and only them.

2. Respond and acknowledge– if you have socials or a mail inbox make sure to either reply or have an automated response message letting them know you don’t frequently check this line of communication and if you do check it but don’t have time to reply then and there – quickly reply with a polite holding message such as: “Thank you for reaching out, I am currently unable to answer your query but will respond soon.”

3. Personalise where you can – and do it with meaning: Use their name and their reptile’s name – personalise a package or offering for them when they next come into your store. Example: a customer “Jane” has a gecko called “Ralph” and you’ve chatted with her before about Ralph. When she next comes in have an item or two ready with her in mind “Hi Jane! Nice to see you. Oh, while I remember we just got in SFG from Arcadia and I thought of Ralph, the picky little guy he is! Would you like to take some to try him on?” The worst she can say is “No.”

4. Resolve issues in a reasonable time frame - and be effective. It is less than ideal for “buyer beware” to become part of your reputation. If there is an issue, help solve it where you can – within reason.

5. Customer loyalty programmes– these are so valuable. Be it a stamp card that gives them a perk discount after 10 purchases, a birthday discount or even a small thank you card with a bag of sweets – these things go a long way in making sure your customers know they’re appreciated.

6. Run an online promotion: like, share and comment on this post and tag 2 friends to be in with a chance of winning XX item or receiving XX discount. This is by proxy promotion.

7. Manners - Thank them for coming into your store that day. It seems obvious but it does make customers feel good when they feel genuinely appreciated and who doesn’t like to feel valued?

Of course, this is subject to situation and everyone is different, that is why the community around your store is so important. Build connections, promote good keeping practices and get to know your customers.

And with that; thank you for reading and thank you for continuing to support Monkfield Reptile.

We truly appreciate you.
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