Building Long-Term Customer Relationships

With branding being a form of communication, it’s conveying things you want your customers to know with pictures, colors, and icons, in addition to words, sounds, and textures. I often joke that adults like picture books like we did as kids and as the world keeps making us move faster, it couldn’t be more true. We want quick queues to help us make a decision: are we in or are we out?

Therefore, branding is much like dating: it’s an ongoing relationship with your customers. They want to know what you’re up to, where you’re going, and if you’re still interested in them.

It’s not just the first few dates to lock them in–it’s making sure there’s a future for you two. What are your goals, where are you going? Do we want the same thing?

This is why customers love to see new items added to the menu, to read emails that are more than promotions, and to see elements that show you’re growing with them. It’s also the reason there’s an uproar when logos are redesigned, new fonts are added, or a new package design seems like the end of the world.

Customers are dedicated to the company that makes them feel a certain way. While they want new and fresh things in their lives, with your brand, they also don’t want it to be too big of a surprise. Being unpredictable could feel like a betrayal, confusing, or misaligning.

So, it’s best to figure out how to bring the customer along for the ride, making them feel like they were part of the decision making, if you can.

• Consider a promotion announcing an upcoming reveal of new menu items, a brand refresh, or new big decision makers.

• If there’s a way to add some of the ‘why’ in any of your messaging, share something to help customers buy into your reasoning.

• If you’re excited about something and have big plans, find safe and subtle–if not bold and big–ways to convey these things.

Help customers understand how you’re growing. Keep them invested. Let them join in on the conversation and share things they love, would love to see shift, and ideas they’ve had while being a loyal part of your organization.

Send me a message and share how you have connected with your audience.