SPEAKER_01: 0:03

Well, hello friends, this is Keeper Lady 318, and I'm so glad you are here today because we're talking about how to create a loyal customer base, how to get repeat customers and have loyal fans. How do you do this? I know it's hard, especially if you're a new business owner. Like, how do I start building this loyal base and people that want to keep buying and that come back and that refer you? It's not as hard as you think. We're going to talk about it today. I'm so excited you're here. If you're new, welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast. I have no doubt it's going to help you along your business journey. If you are taking something that you love and you want to start making money with it, this is the podcast for you. I provide you valuable tips and strategies and motivational stories and all kinds of things to keep you moving and build this dream that you've had for so long. So I'm so happy you're here. You can get plugged in. You can join me on Instagram, start with Kimberley Brock. It's the same handle on Facebook as well. I have a Facebook group called Women Starting Businesses and Podcasts, Doing What We Love. And that's a long name for a Facebook group. But you can scroll down in the show notes and get access to all of this. So make sure you get plugged in that way. I do have some free resources for you on my WIPS website, printable things. So when you're starting your business, I've got a checklist for you. If you're trying to grow your business, if you're even starting a podcast, I've got great info for you. So I want to help you build the stream. I'm also a business coach and I do one-on-one coaching and have programs that can help you get moving faster and actually start making money doing what you love. If you've been listening a while, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. I appreciate you. Y'all are the ones who keep me motivated and keep me fired up for this. You know, because there's some days where I'm like, you know, is this really making a difference? And then I get amazing clients, I get people who leave me messages, and I get people like you who just simply listen every week and it means the world to me. And if you have been listening a while and you have never written a review, would you be so kind to just hit the five star rating? Like if you're an Apple podcast right now, you can just hit five stars. And if you have 30 seconds to write a review, it means the world to me. And I can't help but think that it shows the other people, shows the podcast to other people like you and I who just want to make money doing what we love, right? And make a difference in this world while doing it. And it shows it to more people like that. So they find this podcast. So I appreciate you more than you know. Thank you so much. Okay, on to the episode.

SPEAKER_00: 2:42

Well, hello, friends.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

How are you? How is everything going with you and your business and life? How have you been? How are you feeling? I hope amazing. I know, you know, that I talk to some people and they tell me life's been hard or things have been going on. And I want you to know that this is a season and God tells us this too shall pass. If you are having a hard time, I know you're like, wait, this is supposed to be a motivational podcast. Like, what are you doing? I just want to just reach those of you that right now have maybe been struggling with something. It's money, it's family, it's it's something going on in your life. And I just want you to know that God is with you and this too shall pass. And he tells us that, and you have to believe that. And it's very hard when you're in the middle of something to feel stuck in it. But today we are going to get excited about our businesses. Okay. We are going to get pumped up and we're going to learn how to build an awesome customer base of loyal fans, loyal fans, loyal buyers, repeat customers. It's one of the best feelings in the world when you have repeat customers. Like I always think about the fast food chains. Like, you know, if we go back to Chick-fil-A or we go back to something, I'm thinking, I wonder if they track how many are repeat customers. Like if they don't have any kind of loyalty program or anything like that, do they track it? I would love to know because I mean, I frequent the same places. I don't go a lot of different places. Like I kind of stick with my favorite ones. And I don't know if that's how you are, if you're a creature of habit, or if you're more brave and you go out into the wild and you try all kinds of restaurants and fast food places and all that. I mean, I don't eat fast food all the time, but when I do, it's just like certain ones. You know, we have our certain things. So um, I think it's super cool when you have repeat customers, and it's actually vital, vital for you as a small business to have repeat customers. Like you need a loyal base. You have to have it. It will fuel such a large percentage of your sales. I remember when I had my online boutiques, my gift boutiques. I mean, we would get repeat customers. People would come for a big chunk of gifts for their wedding, you know, uh party, like for their hostess gifts or bridesmaids' gifts or things like that. And we would get big orders like that. And then they would come back to buy them for holiday gifts and back to buy them, you know, like for cutting boards. We had monogram cutting boards that were so pretty, right? And people would give these as bulk gifts, even as corporate gifts. And then they would continue to give them and they would come back for other items as well for their children and things like that. So it is vital. I can't remember what percentage of my business I wish that I knew right now, off the top of my head. But I know that we would follow clients and we could see that it was just a reorder, reorder, and it's the best feeling in the world. And you need that. You can't keep going out and finding new customers. You've got to leverage the customers that you already have. You are you are so much more likely to get a sale from someone who has already bought from you than from a random new person. And it's so much less expensive to convert a person that's already a customer into another sale. Like that's the easier sale of all. Besides a really good referral from someone, a personal referral. Someone who has bought from you and you send out an email or you post on social media and they buy, do you know how much cheaper that is than you trying to beat algorithms to reach new people or pay for ads to reach new people? Y'all, it's just not even funny. You want to leverage people that have already purchased from you. It has to be a big part of your marketing. Now, I could talk about that in itself all day long. But we're what we're gonna talk about today is how do you actually create that loyal fan base, that loyal customer base that wants to keep buying from you. Okay. So I'm gonna go through three things with you here today. We're gonna talk about them. These will be easier than you think. That's the good news, right? They'll be easier than you think and more important than you ever imagined. Way more important. Okay. So let's dig in today. Number one, well, before I even get started with those, let's just think about it right now. What businesses you frequent and why you rebuy. Okay. So I'm sitting here thinking right now off the top of my head. What are the places that I frequent? There is a sushi place that I frequent. I frequent Nordstrom's and Anthropology. I love those stores. Even if I don't buy anything, I just go in there. Um, what else do I frequent? Costco all the time. I love Costco. It was so funny because Sunday we got home from church and we were just kind of hanging out. I've got one child left at home, my daughter, Ava, and she loves Costco as much as I do. She really likes it for the samples. I like it for the samples and the fantastic deals. And then I always feel like I'm going to find something new there that's a really good deal. Anyways, we're we're fans of Costco. And on Sunday, we were just kind of, we had gotten home from church, we'd eaten and we were just kind of chilling in the living room. And I was like, you know, I really needed to go to Costco. Costco would have been fun today. And Ava goes, oh my gosh, I was gonna say that too. I was gonna say something before we left church. Like I think she was embarrassed to say, can we go to Costco?

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Because we love the samples.

SPEAKER_01: 8:12

We love the samples and we love just shopping. It's so much fun. It's just the thrill of the hunt, right? I love it. Um, what else do I frequent? Um, I get my gas at Costco, so I try to frequent there. If I'm over there, I have a certain Mexican food restaurant that we frequent, a sushi place. Did I already say that? That we frequent. I just have my like go-to places, Amazon. Everyone frequents Amazon. Everyone I know frequents Amazon. Um, y'all know I told y'all this, right? That I had my home decorator back and we are redoing our laundry room and pantry. So I am reusing her again and I'll probably use her again. I need to get my dining room done. I'm kind of piecemealing some of these things. We did the big things, but now I'm already thinking again. And so you have to ask yourself, why am I a repeat customer? Like, why are you? So think about it right now. Why are you a repeat customer? And it's pretty logical. I think the things that we're gonna talk about today apply to the places that you frequent and why you buy. Maybe there's a gift shop online that you buy from or a boutique, a clothing store. Just think about it. Why? Okay. So here we go. Let's get into them. The three things that I know are gonna help you. Okay. Number one is you have to provide a good service or product. A good. Notice that I did not say exceptional. Because you don't have to provide something absolutely exceptional. We want to be exceptional. That is our goal, is to be exceptional. What I mean is like, let me say this. It doesn't have to be the most unique, best product or service in the entire planet. It doesn't have to be that. It has to be good. It has to be reliable. And you're saying, Kimla, you're telling me that I don't need to be really good at what I'm offering. No, I want you to pay attention to what I'm saying. The Mexican food restaurant that I go to that's right near me, is really good. It's good. But do you know why I go? Because the service is usually good every time. The prices are very reasonable. The food is good. Mexican food, it's right by my house. So I frequent it. It's here. Okay. There's other Mexican food places, probably in downtown Houston, an hour away, that are amazing. Okay. Amazing. Really good salsa, really good chips, the whole nine yards, right? Good queso, good margaritas, everything that we judge a Mexican food restaurant by. And I'm sure that is the most amazing, but it's not something that I'm gonna frequent all the time because it's far, it's really expensive, and it's just not something I'm gonna frequent. So I'm gonna frequent the one that's here, but it's good. It's it's good, right? I love the one that's here. So shout out to Gringo's. Gringo's is near me, right? And so my point is I want you to realize that you need to be good. You need to be the best you can be. Please don't take this as me saying don't be the best you can be. I'm just saying that you don't ever have to feel like you have to be the best in the world. You don't have to be, if you if you're a baker, you don't have to be the best pastry chef in the world. If you make jewelry, it doesn't have to be the absolute highest quality, best jewelry mined from, you know, some caves in wherever that have the best gold ever. Like you don't have to be the greatest in the world, y'all. You just have to be good and consistent and provide good service. Service is huge. It has to be good. If it's bad service, you're not gonna keep going there. Like if you have an issue with an order that you can't return, you're not gonna go there. Why do I go to Costco all the time? Because I love that I have confidence in whatever I buy because they are different than a lot of places, that they will accept returns after 30 days, even after 90 days. We had to return an ice maker. It was like a five or six hundred dollar ice maker, but it made like the sonic ice. It was so good. And it literally had problems and we toughed it out for a year. We toughed it out for a year. We talked to the manufacturer, we did all of our due diligence. We did all these things. We even had them exchange it and got another one. Okay, had it here. It kept making really loud noises. And I'm not going to say the brand because I don't want to bash them because I think they've brought out a new model since then, but I'm not 100% sure. But after a year, we were like, you know what? We got this at Costco for a reason because we knew that we would have a good guarantee and we returned it and got our money back. Now I feel guilty about stuff like that because I feel like I've used it for a year. But my husband is like, Kimberly, look at me. We have done everything. We got an exchange, we've talked to the manufacturer, we have tried all the little ways that they said to try to help so that it didn't make the loud noise and all this stuff. So he was right. And Costco does that because it's probably very few that actually take them up on that offer, right? My point is they have really good service. And I love that. That's their way of offering service. We go to a Perry Steakhouse up here. I forgot about that too. It's a Perry Steakhouse, but they have this really good happy hour. My husband and I will go sometimes on Fridays, and we'll just get like one beverage or whatever, and we get the appetizers. And the appetizers are like half the price that they normally are, which you're thinking, like, what are appetizers? No, smoked salmon appetizer with bread and this awesome like tartar sauce. And it's, you know, instead of$20 something dollars, it's like nine dollars. I can't even buy a piece of smoked salmon and it's good. It's a whole serving, like a dinner serving of salmon. To me, it's it's the most that I would eat in a setting of salmon. Okay. So it provides a great value, and I we get the best service every time we're there. Now, I'm not expecting that all the places I go to, I have to be treated like a princess. I am not like that. I'm just saying it's reliable, it's good. Um, you know, even Perry's doesn't have all these other offerings that I would want on a happy hour menu. It is not the best happy hour menu in the entire world, but it's reliable. I go, it's good service, it's right here. I frequent it and I'm happy. So think about your business. How are you providing an environment where you've got a good product or service? I'd like to say you have a great or an excellent. Okay, let's go for that. But I'm just saying to lift the pressure off of you because we get in our minds that we have to be the best in the world and that we don't feel like we're good enough. And you just need to have something good, really good, would be great and or excellent, right? Good service. And you provide a good service. You are happy, you are doing your very best. You are going above and beyond for your people. Okay. You're communicating with them well. If you do that, you will have a loyal fan base. You will have a loyal customer base because you are reliable. Why do people like Chick-fil-A? Because they zip through the line and it's reliable every time. Although a couple of times recently they messed up our order. But anyway, it wasn't that big of a deal. They just left something off. But it's okay. I, they're humans. It's all good. But for the most part, right, 95% of the time, everything runs smooth. And so that's why you like it. That's why you don't like going to the DMV sometimes or the post office. It's not as reliable. The people that work there may be rude because they are not happy working there. And it's just not a happy place and you don't want to go there, right? Your business has to be a happy place, whether it's online, whether it's in person, whatever you're offering, product, service, whatever, it's reliable. You give good service. Number one, that is how you will have loyal customers and fans. Okay. So that's number one. Number two, you need to communicate with them well, be grateful for their business, and even offer some type of perk, like a loyalty card, a punch card, something like that. I have noticed now that so many places that we go to are offering a little punch card. My daughter went to this really cute little Christian coffee shop not far from us. And it's small. Y'all, it's small, it's cute, it's adorable. Shout out to Sycamore Coffee in Magnolia, Texas. And they had like a point system. And I think it was through Clover, which is the checkout point of sale system. Do y'all know what I'm talking about? Anyone that has point of sale, you might know what I'm talking about. But it had a whole system set up. And I'm like, let me look at that. Cause right when we went, she was like, I want to go there. And we went, she goes, Oh, can I put a my phone number on getting points? And I'm like, I love this. This this little coffee shop is using the point system to get people to come back. And my daughter is so excited to buy there and she loves it because she can go sit there with her friends. It's a safe little place and it's just a fun, cozy environment. They provide a good service. They provide service. They are thankful to have you there. They are happy. They are sweet. Is it the number one world's best coffee that you would find in Italy? No, but it's great. It's good. It's great. They have some food and I loved it, right? But they keep coming back. They do something to keep you coming back. You can offer coupons. You can get people on an email list. That's how you get people coming back. Back in my day, when I was running my gift boutiques, that's all I did was get them on my email list. That was it. And then I would email. We had promos, sales, discounts. I would randomly send coupons. And when social media started coming out, I did start posting sales and all of that on there. My business was not based on social media. It was based on internet being findable on Google. And then I kept them in with the email list. Okay. So think about for you, what are you doing to keep people coming back? Like you actually have to do something. Okay. You can mail out stuff, you can post stuff on their door, like you can go around the neighborhoods and do something. My son did that with his power washing and fence staining business. He would put little flyers out, right? You can put a sign in people's yard. If you are, if you do something like landscape design or something like that, or you're home renovating, put a sign that says my company name, and you can contact us here. Every neighbor wants to know what you're getting done. We're getting our laundry room and pantry done. My neighbor texted me. I need to know what you are getting done. And right, everyone wants to know, and they want to know who you use. So you should be doing that. If you have an online business only, you should be doing Instagram, whatever else you do. Maybe you show up on YouTube, maybe you show up on TikTok. I don't know where you show up. Do something to bring in repeat customers. I would have a point system. I would have a referral system if you have a physical store for sure. And it looks like Clover. I'll have to look into it. Let me just even see why, because now I'm curious because what I saw when my daughter did that. Clover point, look, I'm typing this in. Point, point of sale rewards program. Clover point of sales system, question customer loyalty points and rewards. Okay, it looks like there's several, but yes, Clover POS, which is not what not the bad word POS. Clover point of sale offers, built-in loyalty programs for various third-party apps. So you can probably get a third-party app and then do it that way. That's amazing. Clover rewards. Like, y'all use stuff like this. This keeps people coming back and they get excited for that purchase when they get$5 off for a free coffee. My daughter was already perusing the choices. She's like, oh, I can already get a coffee. So she's waiting for the next time she brings a friend back. That is a win. That is a win for your business. Some type of loyalty, some type of email marketing. You have to keep reminding them special coupons, birthday coupons. You know, Kendra Scott does that, where your birthday month, you get half off of one of their pieces of jewelry. Like, yes, that gets you back in every year. I go in. Now I don't necessarily buy every time. I will say that. This year I didn't buy. I couldn't find anything that I was just like, I have to have this. But you get 50% off. It gets you in the door. It gets people shopping in your store. So already you need to be thinking of some way to keep people coming back. Okay. Email list with promos, coupons, specials, some kind of, you know, reward system when they buy a certain amount, they get this. My local Hallmark star does that store does that. They mail me coupons and they they do it old school, which fits their whole brand, right? Because it kind of feels like this, this vintage not vintage. Is Hallmark vintage? No. But it's just like old school, right? But it's so cute because it's your like down home little store and then they mail you coupons, right? So that's the way they do it. That fits their brand. So what fits your brand? What can you do to keep coming back? You have to be doing something. You have to be putting your line in the water to try to catch these people to come back. Okay. So that's number two. So what was number one? You got to offer something good, really good, good service, reliable. It works. It's great. People love it. It's easy for them. Okay. They know that you're dependable and they they love what you got. Okay. Number two, you need to have something to draw them back in, some type of loyalty program or some way to be notifying them by mail, by door hangers, by email, whatever it is, point system when they check out loyalty program, keep them coming back. The local yogurt shop does this, has a little punch card. My daughter uses that too. So people love those. Okay. And then number three, okay, here's one you may not have expected. Okay. So the first one was about you creating a good product and service. Number two was about loyalty programs. Number three, allow people to get into your life. Allow customers and shoppers to get to know you. Share who you are, whatever it is. If you're a sports fan, if you like pickleball, if you are a Christian, if you love whatever it is, if you're from another country and you want to share about your heritage, let people in. I think a lot of times we think we have to be a business face forward all the time. Like I'm business, I wear a suit, I look like this, and that's it. If you are not the kind of business that people can get to know and understand and love for all the facets of you, you are missing out on creating a local, local, a loyal fan base and a loyal customer base. A lot of times you support businesses you believe in. Okay. Like there's a little boutique near us, and I'm like, we have to go support the local business. The sycamore coffee shop, I love Starbucks, but I was like, let's go support the local business. I want to support them. Right. And they're a Christian-based company, so I feel at home there. I want to support them. Because of that, if they had not expressed that and said, we're just sycamore coffee, and they didn't have the Christian theme to their business, I would still think it was a cute place. I would still think the coffee and food is good, but I wouldn't feel as emotionally tied where I wanted to be a loyal customer. Does that make sense? Okay. So everyone has to think about this. When you are building your business online or a local store, local shop, boutique, let people know you, put up things about you, talk about things online or social media. You might alienate some people. Heaven forbid you're going to alienate some people. You may not. But you know what? You build loyal fans by being yourself and really letting people in. Let people into who you are. Maybe you donate to certain philanthropies or charities. Maybe you're part of something else in your community. Maybe you support kids sports, like my dentist. She puts up the local high school cheerleaders picture and things like that, right? But then she also has all kinds of things in her office that let you know about her and her life and you get to know her. And she talks to you and asks about your kids and she talks about her kids and things that she's doing. Let people in. Don't be a robot. Don't be a bot. Don't be someone who is just business face forward. Okay. Don't do that. People today want authenticity. They want to give their money to things that they believe in. They want to support businesses that make them feel good about pulling out their credit card or Apple Pay, whatever it is. We all feel better as humans when we get to support businesses we believe in and that we feel an emotional tie to. Think about it. Right? And you're a small business, you should be leveraging that. That is your best like asset, is that you don't have to be corporate. You don't have to be following rules that someone is telling you. Think about it. If you've ever worked for any kind of company, business, government, whatever, you have had to follow their lead on how they want their business to appear to the public and look like and image and branding and all colors and attitudes and values and all of that. And you may not have agreed, right? You may not have agreed, but you did it anyways because it was your income and you did it for your job. The good news about your business is you get to be you and you need to be. You need to let people in. Some of you have a hard time letting people in and share it. Share stuff behind the scenes on social media, share stuff on your website and your about me page. Email out a funny story. Uh, decorate your store with stuff that represents you, if you're faith-based or whatever it is, right? I think when you do this, you create a bond and you create loyal customers and fans. So please do not be a corporate bot. Be a small business owner who is proud of who you are, who can build your business around that and realize that this is why people will fall in love with you. This is why people will fall in love with you. And y'all know what I'm saying. Not like because they're gonna marry you. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about they will love the idea of supporting you. That's what it's about. They will be so excited to give you money, whatever your cost is, because they want to support you. They know about you, and they feel like they like know you. Isn't that what you want? You are not a corporate entity. You're a small business that gets to leverage everything about you. Your niche is everything about you that you love that you can share. Okay. This is how you build a loyal fan base and customer base. This is how you get repeat customers. This is how you make money. This is how you stay in business. This is how you build a fulfilling business that creates the impact and income that you have been dreaming of. I'm so excited for you. I'm so happy you're here. And I'm so honored that you're listening and learning from someone who has gone before you. I do the same thing. I listen and learn from those that have gone before me. And I just am so happy for you. This is like such a great experience when you get to live your business dream. So that's it. Y'all have a great day now. Again, scroll down in the show notes. You can go over to my website, check out the programs that I have, look at one-on-one coaching, get the free resources, and make sure you subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. That's it. Y'all have a wonderful day. Until next time. Bye.

SPEAKER_00: 28:43

Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.