Converting Holiday Shoppers into Regular Customers

How to Transform Seasonal Shoppers into Year-Round Shoppers

Impress consumers during the holidays

 

Experts predict that the 2014 holiday shopping season will be record breaking, and many businesses are already poised and ready to bring in big sales numbers. While the holiday season offers businesses a unique opportunity to drive sales, what many owners do not realize is that this time of year is also perfect for transforming seasonal shoppers into loyal customers. By creating a year-round customer base during a time when consumers are more willing to spend, businesses can help boost overall sales into the upcoming year and beyond. By implementing some creative strategies, it will be easy for you to change those holiday only shoppers into loyal shoppers who do business with you year round.

Collect Customer Information

The first key to creating repeat business is to keep in contact with customers. A simple way to do this during the holiday season is to collect customer information, namely email addresses. Having a customer’s email address will allow you to keep in touch with them even after Christmas has passed and continue to let them know about special promotions and sales. It is important, however, to always give consumers a choice of whether or not they want to provide that information – forcing a customer to provide an email to complete a transaction will be a complete turn-off for them and will not have them coming back to buy again. Ask customers at the register if they would like to provide their email address to receive coupons and promotions, and even consider offering a special discount for providing one.

Provide Great Customer Service

When you ask a consumer about their favorite business and why they like it, chances are they will begin to gush about how good the customer service is. Customer service is one of the most important aspects of building a strong, loyal customer base and this is even more important during the busy and sometimes stressful holiday shopping season. New customers can easily be won over and become repeat customers if they feel the business and its employees have gone above and beyond to meet and fulfill their needs – this initial impression is so important to brining consumers back again and again. The holiday shopping season can be stressful for employees too, so make sure to take the time to prep your team about what you, and consumers, are expecting as a level of great customer service.

Hand Out “Next Visit” Coupons

Consumers love a great deal, especially when they are shopping from a long Christmas list, so if a holiday promotion or sale is what brought them to your business for the first time, chances are another one will bring them back. It is important to give new customers a reason to visit and purchase from the business again and a great way to accomplish this is by using a “next visit coupon.” Next visit coupons are a great incentive for consumers to shop again, especially if they feel they are getting an exclusive discount that regular customers are not receiving. These types of coupons are especially effective in retail stores, beauty salons and other businesses where the client’s needs can be met year round.

Would you like more tips on how to make your small or home business more successful? Stacy O'Quinn has helped dozens of people just like you already! For more information about Stacy and to see how he can help you, click here.

*Photo Courtesy of Erika Smith via Creative Commons License