Best Medical Marketing Tips to Help Your Business Grow

The online landscape today makes it necessary for medical practices to implement a medical strategy that will help them grow their business.  However, difficult it may sound, marketing is a must for doctors. Though everyone needs a doctor, doctors too require patients to run their business. For a patient to visit you, they must be fully aware of your medical practice. Hence, you would require to set up a marketing strategy that will help you have a flow of loyal as well as new patients coming in.

So here are few doctor marketing tips that will help you excel in your medical business.

Build a website:

To start with, your medical practice would need an online home which would make it easy for your existing and potential clients to visit. Your medical website can have an online appointment booking system, your contact information, services your brand provides, offers, etc. To start with you can also make a free website online using the tools available.

Start a blog:

One of the best ways to market your business online is by posting some really amazing and unique content. If you start a website, then it’s a good idea to start a blog that talks about medical practice and topics related to it. Through the blog, you can share your personal experiences, offer valuable tips, etc. that would be of interest to your clients as well as to other people in general.

List your brand on review site:

Today a large number of patients are influenced by what others are talking about your practice online. Online reviews have become more powerful and can easily help you build a strong social proof and also increase business. So always list your medical practice on websites such as Rate MDs, Healthgrade, WebMD, Facebook,  Google, etc. Today patient reviews have become the mirror of your brand online. The feedback shared by the patients is read by individuals who would be interested in your service. Hence, if you have negative reviews for your medical practice then it can seriously damage your reputation and affect your business too. It is also important to constantly keep generating reviews for your business and you can easily do so by asking your patients to review your business or by making use of an online review generation tool.

Improve the SEO of your website:

Once you have started the website and the blog, the next thing that should be on your list is to improve the SEO of your website. With this we mean, you should look to improve your rankings on local search by creating original content on your blog and also getting links from other blogs and websites. Online reviews and ratings also affect the SEO of your website and the fresh user-generated content in the form of reviews can help your medical practice rank on the top of the search results page.

Have a presence on social media:

Social media has become one of the most powerful and influential tools to attract new patients and maintain relations with the existing ones. It plays a pivotal role in helping your medical practice become a known and trustworthy brand. Through social media presence on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others, you can engage with customers and can also keep them updated about various events and offers you have at your clinic.

Build healthy relations with other physicians:

One of the best ways to get more patients is by maintaining a healthy relationship with the physicians in your network. As you may specialize in treating one condition, the other physician in your network may specialize in something else, so always have a good professional connection with other physicians as they can refer your service to their customers.  You can also ask the physicians in your network to contribute to your blog and can also host various seminars with them.

Try to get reviews from your patients:

Marketing is a tricky business and can really make or break your business. Especially the feedback shred by your customer can add immense value and work in a positive way for your business. So after each patient visit, follow up with them and ask them to leave a review about your medical practice. If you offer good service, then word of mouth and online reviews are always going to work well for your business. So it’s imperative for you to create an exhaustive follow-up program that includes sending emails or SMS to patients asking them for their feedback. Remember, positive reviews always help you in creating a good online reputation which can have a direct impact on the finances of your business. Getting reviews is just not important, you also need to manage reviews and know how to respond to negative online reviews.

Start a referral program:

This marketing tip will not only help you get more customers but will also help in encouraging positive word of mouth marketing. Hand out a referral code card or send out a referral code via SMS or email to your existing customers asking them to refer their friends or family and get a free checkup or a small gift such as a medical kit or a wellness pack.

Ideally, incorporating the above medical marketing tips can help your business, but implementing them in tandem can provide you with amazing results in a month or two depending on how well you are able to manage it. Always remember, having a good marketing plan should not only be your sole plan but offering good, steady and hygienic service to your patients should be your first priority as well.

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Facts You Should Know About Online Reviews

Do you know why online reviews are important for a business? Have you ever tried to understand the numbers that make online reviews so important? If not, then here are 10 facts that you definitely should know about online reviews.

Today it’s no more a hidden fact that online reviews influence an individual’s buying decision. From helping one understand what to eat, what to wear, what to shop, what to not, etc. online reviews have become integral both for the business owners as they just not affect their online reputation but also their business revenue.

Here we help you discover 10 facts that every business owner should know about online reviews.

80% of consumers look for products online:

With technological advancement, people mostly like to purchase products online. As per a survey, over 80% of consumers search for products online. So if your online reputation is strong, then you can expect the customer to do business with you. But if you have a bad reputation online, then you really need to take steps to improve your online presence.

88% people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation:

Though word of mouth plays an important role, online reviews have started showing its impact and today over 88% individuals them as much as a personal recommendation. So having a good reputation helps your business get recommendations, thereby helping you increase sales.

Consumers read many reviews before forming an opinion about your business:

As online reviews have a huge impact on your business, it’s important for you to know that 90% read as many as 10 reviews before deciding to invest their money in any product or service. at such times, having positive reviews definitely be of great help as negative reviews negate your chances of getting customers.

 Positive reviews help you get more traffic on your website:

As per a survey, your business stands a good chance of getting more traffic on the website as 54% people visit your website on reading positive reviews. Today social channels let your share your reviews on various review websites, thereby making more people read the review posted about your business.

Online reviews are more trusted than product description:

No matter how fancy the content of your product is, if you have a negative presence online, your customers won’t be ready to do business with you. Online reviews are12 times more trusted than product descriptions.

Reviews written within 30 days are considered relevant:

Today fresh reviews that are written within 30 days are considered relevant to online buyers.

Responding to reviews is important:

Engaging with customers is essential as over 26% of customers feel that it’s important for local businesses to respond to reviews.

Negative reviews can affect your business:

Having negative reviews can make you lose over 67% of the customers. Here’s how you can handle negative reviews.

Online reviews help you increase sales:

Getting online reviews can help you achieve 18% higher sales. The fact that customers today are highly influenced by positive reviews helps you increase the sales of your business.

35% of customers post review when they have a bad experience:

Make sure you are treating your customers well because bad behaviour or service can incline your customer to write a negative review.

Star ratings are extremely important:

Today various review websites allow customers to not just write a review but also rate a business on the basis of which other customers can make an informed decision. Also, a one-star rating increases 5-9% of a business’s revenue and the rankings on local search.

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Steps for Fixing Negative Reviews Online

Negative reviews are every business owner’s nightmare. Knowing the importance of online reviews, today a business owner cannot ignore them as it can drastically hurt his business.

Online reviews speak volumes about a brand’s as they have become an important part of a brand’s online presence. Also, as per a survey conducted by BrightLocal, two-thirds of customers today form their opinion about investing in a business, only after reading reviews online.

As per another study, 80% of the customers changed their minds about buying a product after reading a bad review online.

Such is the impact of negative reviews as they can literally break your business. But what you need to know is that getting negative reviews isn’t the end of the world for you and your business. Don’t let negative reviews stop you from doing the best for your business. Instead, what you need to do is learn from negative reviews and turn them into a positive thing for establishing a strong positive presence online.

Try to build positive reviews online:

This does not mean that you constantly keep on asking your customers to post positive reviews about your business online. Knowing that you can never have control over what your customers talk about you online, what you can do is work on diluting the negative reviews with positive ones.

For this, what you can do is:

Link online review sites to your website.

Display badge or logos of online reviews sites

Claim your business listing on various review sites

Use review generating tool like Fame Ms that helps you generate reviews for your business by reaching out to your customers via email.

Always respond:

No matter how bad a review you are about your business, what you need to do is always respond to the negative reviews doing so will help you build a sense of trust with your future potential customers as they would notice that you care about providing your customers with top-notch quality service.

While responding to a negative review, apologize if needed and don’t be rude and unprofessional in your response.

Promise to give them a better experience:

While responding to a negative review, ensure that you write your response in such a way that it promises to provide a better experience to your customer in the future. If your customer has faced a customer service issue, then ensure him that how you will implement few changes to make sure they are offered with the best service in the business.

Look at what went wrong:

Instead of feeling bad about a negative review posted, take some time to figure out what went wrong so that your customer wrote such a review about your business. Look for positive in negative to understand the issues that need to be addressed in your company. Take steps towards improving the quality of service or products that you provide.

Thank the negative reviewers:

Instead of giving a harsh reply, thank your customers for taking time out to post a review about your business. Offer them a deal of discount to make up for the bad experience they have had with your business.

While dealing with negative reviews, it’s important for you as a business owner to understand that you cannot take them lightly as they will largely damage your business in the long-term. Failing to react and not take any steps can affect your online reputation too. But if you are constantly getting negative reviews, then first fix your business and then look onto improving your brands presence online.

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Simple Ways to Get Customers Review Your Business Online

Customer reviews play an essential role in determining the success of your business; they help your brand establish a strong social proof that majorly influence your potential customers.

Today most entrepreneurs don’t know the right way of obtaining reviews for their business and often bribe the customers to share positive feedback. In the midst of all of this, business owners lose their valuable time and also the money, which they could spend on building a large business. However, when online reviews can make a good profit for the business, it is imperative for business owners to find ways which will help them get customer reviews online.

So here are six easy ways by which business owners can get customer reviews:

Ask for a review:

One of the simplest and easiest ways to get customers to review your business is by asking for a review. Tell your customer that you would like to know their feedback and request them to post a review for the business. Also, if a customer sends you an appreciation mail or a letter, then ask them to share the same feedback on online review platforms.

Set up your profile on various review platforms:

Your customers would rate your business or review your business on various review platforms such as Yelp, Facebook, Zomato, Trip Advisor, Google, etc. So to obtain reviews online, first, set up the business profile on various review websites that will help you gain reviews.

Share the reviews on social media channels:

Today, social media has become one of the easiest channels to get sales for a business. Sharing the positive reviews written by your customers increases your chances of being followed or liked on Twitter or Facebook. Even if you aren’t doing any Facebook Ads now, reviews will certainly help you get more followers, which will eventually turn into customers.

Offer an incentive: Occasionally offering a coupon or a discount to customers for leaving a review can be a good idea as you would have a fresh flow of reviews coming in.

Automate the review process:

One of the easiest ways to receive more reviews online is by using a review generation software that helps you receive reviews for your business. As soon as a customer does a transaction with you, the customer is sent an email, asking to leave a review for your business online. Fame MS is one such review generation software that also helps you manage and track reviews posted for your business.

Respond to reviews:

When it comes to responding to reviews, don’t just respond to the negative ones. Always respond to all the reviews both good and bad as by doing this you can build a strong social relationship with your customer. If good customer service is your priority, then you should always respond to all types of reviews posted.

Conclusion: Generating reviews shouldn’t be a painful process if you know about the right ways to get them. Incorporate the above things in your marketing strategy and see the reviews flowing in.

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Know how Google Reviews Impact Your Business in Local Search

In the past, consumers would largely resort to advertising or personal recommendation while choosing to invest their money in any business type. But today things have drastically changed as now people rely on search engines and online reviews to help them make an informed decision.

Out of all the reviews platforms, Google makes it easy for a user to locate a business in their area and also provide with reviews that help in making a suitable purchase decision.

Today Online reviews have become one of the most important factors that help your business rank online. Since Google map pack and reviews go hand in hand, people are left wondering how reviews influence their businesses ranking on local search results.

So first, let’s understand what a Google review is.

What are Google Reviews?

Google reviews are an integrated feature within Google My Business and Google Maps that allows customers to publicly share their feedback about a business or a product. These reviews have a big impact on local search as they are often featured in Google’s map pack that consist of top 3 businesses that appear near the users search location.

Why are Google Reviews Important?

Google reviews play an important role in not just determining a business’s online presence but also in the sales of it as they have a huge impact on a customer’s journey.

  • Helps build brand awareness:

Online reviews help in making a customer aware of all the products and services offered by your brand. On the basis of the reviews, a customer becomes aware of the offerings by your brand and considers making a purchase decision.

  • Generates sales:

As per a survey, over 93% of consumers make a purchase decision on reading online reviews are 82% customers are influenced by the content of the reviews.

  • Gain insights:

Customers are likely to leave reviews after making a purchase which helps businesses gain insights into what they truly think. Business owners today use the content of the reviews in improving their business.

How does Google determine local ranking?

Relevance, distance and prominence are the three factors that Google considers important while helping a user find a match for his search. Google’s search algorithm makes the ranking system fair by providing the users with the best search results. For Example, the Google algorithm might rank a business that’s far away on the top than the business that’s closer-all depending on the reviews.

So here are the three factors that play an important role in determining the ranking of your business on local search.

  • Relevance:

This refers to how well your Google listing matches with what a user is looking for. To ensure that your business looks relevant to the searches, it is important to keep your listing up to date with all the information and keywords that can help Google understand your business in a better way.

Distance: Google serves as a search result that is in close proximity to the users search location. If a user doesn’t specify a location, then Google automatically calculates the distance and displays the most relevant search.

  • Prominence:

This factor refers to how well-known your business is. Few places or businesses that are more prominent in the offline world are likely to rank at the top in local search results. Prominence is also defined by the information about a business across the web including articles, online reviews, directory listings, etc. Complete information, good reviews and high ratings help in improving a business’s ranking on local search.

How to improve your ranking with Google Reviews?

Best ways to improve ranking on Google is by generating more reviews for your business.

Send a Google review invitation:

The timing of your Google reviews matter the most as the longer you wait the customer is less likely to leave a review. So it is important to bring their experience online by sending them a review invitation request after closing a transaction.

Send a review request via text:

Eliminate the barriers by sending a review request to the customers via text. Text messages are one of the fastest ways of communication and tend to have a high open rate.

Respond to Google reviews:

More reviews and ratings on your business on Google can largely influence your businesses rankings on Google search. Brands that have positive reviews and ratings are more likely to rank on the top. Responding to reviews help drive engagement and also shows that your business values customer feedback. High star ratings combined with good reviews improve your business's visibility on Google and make it more likely for your potential customers to visit your business.

Use an online review generation tool:

The best way to generate more reviews on Google is by using a review generation tool that helps you collect reviews. A review generation tool like Fame Ms can help you get reviews by sending review requests to your customers by also helping you manage and respond to reviews-all from one dashboard.

Other factors that influence your rankings on Google

To enhance your business's presence on Google search and maps, it is also important for you to keep the below factors in mind.

Verify your business on Google:

Take control of your Google business profile by verifying it. Visit your Google My Business page and update all the information about your profile. To complete the verification process, you will be sent a verification code via postcard, email or SMS. Once the profile is verified your business will appear on the top of the search.

Add photos:

Adding photos of your business or product on Google gives your customer an insight into what it looks like. Post appealing photos to serve your customers with what they are searching for.

Verify the location of your business:

Verifying your business location of Google increases the chances of your businesses relevancy, thereby ranking it on the top.

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How to Remove Fake Google Reviews?

Reviews, in general, can make and break your business, however, the case varies with Google Reviews as having a string of negative reviews on this platform can lead to the demise of a business.

Today, while looking to avail a product or service, people check reviews on the Google search engine. Considering how important reviews are for business, Google now displays reviews on the top of the search result page. Having negative reviews for your business can not only affect the sales of your business but can also affect its rankings on Google. So as a business owner, if you think that the negative feedback received for your business is fake, then here’s how you can get it removed.

Determine the authenticity of the review:

Fraudulent reviews are sometimes left by your competitors to damage your business's online reputation. So first check if the person who has posted the review has ever engaged in doing business with you. The more you know about the situation, you will get a better picture and will handle the situation well.

Respond to the fake review:

Never ignore a fake review because if you do, then your potential customers would think that the review posted is true and would never invest their money in your business. So be professional and respond to the review. Responding by saying that you know the review posted is fake and state all the evidence that does not determine its authenticity. Don’t be too defensive and present your response in a nice way.

While responding to the fake review, address the complaint and apologize to the reviewer for the inconvenience caused. Also, let them know that you can’t find them in your business contacts.

Flag the review:

Google allows you to flag reviews that are fake and you can also get them removed.

Here’s how you can flag the fake reviews.

  • Open Google Maps and type the name of your business
  • Look for the review you want to get remove
  • When you hover over the review you want to remove, a little grey flag will appear
  • Then flag the review as inappropriate

While flagging a review, have your friends, family members or colleague flag the same review. Doing this can give you an instant result. After flagging a review, wait for a few days for Google to remove it.

If you think that the review posted can do serious damage to your business, then report the review to Google Business Support.

  • Log in to your Google My Business account
  • Click on the reviews section
  • Select support and choose a point of contact-phone or email
  • Fill the required details and wait for Google to contact you within 24-48 hours.

Tweet to Google Small Biz team:

  • Log in to your Twitter account
  • Leave a tweet to Google Small Biz team
  • Wait for them to connect with you and explain them the situation.

Recommended Read: How to Get More Reviews on Google?

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How to Get More Google+ Reviews?

Online reviews are one of the best ways that helps consumer judge your business; they stand as a social proof providing your future customers with the exact information about your business. In simple terms, online reviews influence your customer’s buying decision, helping them make a choice between your company and the competition.

Online reviews are not only important for your business, but also for local search as they help you increase your rankings on various search engines. With Google dominating the online search and being a platform that is widely used by consumers, Google reviews play an important part in helping you grow your online presence as well as your sales. Getting a high star rating on Google listing increases the click-through rate of your website and also helps you in generating more leads.

But first, for getting online reviews on Google, you need to have a listing on Google My Business that will appear when a user searches for your business on Google search or maps. Having a listing on Google Business page displays all the essential information about your business and by also helping you engage with your customers through the reviews posted by them.

Having a Google business listing also helps you gain visibility on Google local pack that displays three local businesses related to the user's search query.

  • After each transaction, ask for reviews:

After a customer has made a purchase, ask him/her to review you on Google. Be gentle and ask them to spare a moment to review your business on Google. Hand them a reminder card or sent them a separate email asking them to review your business. You can also use a review generating tool that will automatically send an email to your customers, asking them to review your business.

  • Add a Google review link to your website:

On your website, mailers, newsletter, customer surveys and social media pages, add a call to action button that will directly take your user to the review page. This makes it easy for your customers and also increases your chances of getting reviews on Google.

  • Offer a special discount to customers to review you on Google:

To put it simply, offer a special discount to customers in exchange for asking them to review you on Google.

  • Put up a discount code on your website
  • Include the discount code in email
  • Call your customers and talk to them about the discount they are getting.

 

  • Respond to the reviews:

Whether positive or negative, respond to the reviews to show people

If a customer leaves a negative review, address the issue, apologize them for the inconvenience caused, if any and make an attempt to resolve the issue privately. Here’s how you can respond to negative reviews online.

Recommended Read: Why are Google reviews important for your business?

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Five Things a Business Owner Needs to Know About Yelp

There’s no doubt that Yelp is a great source of information provider for customers, but have you ever thought about using Yelp for your business? If not, then here’s a starter guide that helps you discover five facts that you need to about using Yelp as a business owner.

Claim Your Listing:

As a business owner, the first thing that you need to do is claim your Yelp listing. If you have been running a business for quite some time now, then chances are high that you would already have a Yelp page for your business. But before some stranger takes it over, it’s necessary you as a business owner have your own Yelp page. As a business owner, what you need to do is keep your Yelp profile updated by posting the right information about such as your business hours, phone number, photos, etc.

Yelp can also help you grow your business and help you with analytical information about various reviewers and number of visitors who visited your website through Yelp. Yelp also optimizes keywords which will help your brand rank high in search rankings. As per Boston Consulting Group over $8,000 average annual incremental revenue is generated by a business owner claiming its free Yelp business page.

As a business owner you can ask for reviews:

Yelp doesn’t necessarily let business owners ask for reviews, but doing so is also not a violation of their terms of service if you put a link to your Yelp profile on your website or social media pages.  A business owner can violate Yelp Guidelines if he is compensating a reviewer in exchange for a positive review on the platform.

Respond to negative reviews:

A positive review on Yelp is encouraging, but no one likes to read a negative review. However, responding to negative reviews can help you establish a good relationship with your customer. On Yelp, you can respond to a review publicly or privately. What you can do to turn things in your favour is respond to the negative review publicly by stating all the right facts and showing other readers that you care about your customers. Respond to a negative review nicely and do not be rude to the reviewer. Also, you can flag a negative review on Yelp, if think it is violating any of the Yelp’s content guidelines.

Yelp filters out all the reviews posted:

Yes, at times you would come across reviews that are ‘not recommended’ by Yelp. Each review posted on Yelp is automatically evaluated by its software that flags off reviews that are biased, unhelpful or fake.  The Yelp algorithm favours quality over quantity and the brand says that 25% of all reviews are not recommended by Yelp.

Yelp can help you grow your business:

Yelp not just helps you build customer engagement, but you can also advertise your business online by doing sponsored ads on the platform. If you run a food business, then you can reach out to customers by running your online business on Yelp through Yelp Eat 24. Yelp’s business analytics tool also makes it easy for you to track leads and customer engagement.

Yelp has several products and services designed especially for business owners that can help them grow their business steadily. Boston consulting group reported that Yelp helped its advertisers generate average revenue of more than $23,000.

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10 Easy Ways by Which You Can Build Customer Loyalty

Getting customers is hard, but keeping them is challenging as it’s tough to get them hooked on to your brand. I say this because many business owners and marketers today are constantly struggling to retain customers due to fierce competition.

To sustain a long-term business, it’s very important for brand owners to build customer loyalty which will, in turn, help them grow their business. Every business owners aim is to build a herd of loyal customers who will always come back to him to avail a particular product or service. But doing this requires a brand owner or marketer to take efforts in building a loyal customer base.

In simple terms, a business owner needs to build an effective system through which he can make a customer visit him again and again.

So here are 10 easy ways by which you can build customer loyalty

Provide excellent customer service:

Providing excellent customer service is a key to ensuring that your customers keep coming back to you. All you have to do is go above and beyond to make it easy for your customers to interact with you. On your website or social media page, include your customer care number or email ID that would help your customers get in touch with you.  Also, while talking to the customers, ensure that you never give them a negative answer and instead help them in resolving the issues faced by them.

Provide discounts and rewards to your customers:

One of the best ways to engage a customer is by offering him discounts and rewards as who doesn't love a great deal. Customers feel pampered when they know that a particular discount or reward is offered just to them. You can do this by running a loyalty program discount or reward offer through your website or social media pages.

Keep your customers updated:

To make sure your customers keep coming back to you, ensure that you keep them updated with all the latest products or services you have in store. You can simply do this by posting about it on your social media pages. You can create a sense of awareness about a new product launch or service by giving a sneak peek of the product, sharing behind the scenes pictures, etc.

Don’t make your existing customers feel neglected:

In a bid to get new customers, make sure you do not neglect your old customers. Make sure you serve your old customer with the best product or service available.

Get personal:

With this, I don’t mean that you have to ask your customers about their personal life. This simply means that all you have to do is send them personalized emails or messages. Address them by their name, send them an email wishing them on their birthday, anniversary or offer them a discount or a coupon for the special occasion.

Know about their feedback:

Make sure you get a review from every customer that visits your store or website. How do you know what a customer likes or dislikes about your product or service? How will you offer your customer the best service? If you aren’t aware of all of this, then how will you improve your business? So whenever a customer buys a product from you, ask for their feedback via emails or SMS.

Get their email address or contact number:

After a customer makes a purchase, ask them for their email address or contact number so that you can stay in touch with them. This means that you can send emails or messages about new product launches, inform them about the sale at your store or you can even ask them to rate your service.

Use the right words:

Your job doesn’t just end by sending customers emails or messages. You have to step up your game and use words that would increase your call to action. This means that you should be using words that would make your customers keen to know more about the product or service that you offer. Make more use of words such as You, Free, Instantly, Because and New.  Using these words in your email subject line increases the chances of the customers reading the whole email and converting into sales.

Ask them to review you:

Online reviews have become an important part of one’s business as they can make or break your business. As per a study, over 88% read online reviews to determine whether they should invest their money in a particular product or not. So always make sure you ask your customers to post an online review of your brand online. Also, if they do so, never forget to thank them.

Read here about how important are online reviews for local businesses.

Offer loyalty benefits:

One of the best ways to make sure your customer stays loyal to your brand is by introducing effective loyalty benefits such as giving points on a purchase, extra benefit for VIP customers, making them feel special by giving them first preference and not making them wait in a queue, reserving the first day of sale only for them, etc. Doing things like these would make the customers feel special and hence, make sure they are engaged to your brand for a lifetime.

Building a loyal customer base is cost effective and is also a lot better than spending millions on acquiring new customers. Always remember, it is the little things that you do matter the most. So stay happy and keep your customers happy

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