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Diane Harvey gets in on the Facebook phenomenon to maintain customer loyalty
ow do you get your
H
message to your
It’s surprising
customers and who are
they?
how many people
One of the easiest and cheapest ways
is to use Facebook!
have a Facebook
Facebook is a free-access social
networking website. Users can join
account and because
networks organized by city, workplace,
school, and region to connect and women are natural
interact with other people. People
individual to see how it worked. It seemed address on bags or on the bottom of till
can also add friends and send them
communicators to be aimed at students to keep in touch receipts but the best communication of all
messages, and update their personal
and network after they had graduated. is word of mouth, so tell your customers
profiles to notify friends about themselves.
they’re signing up
Ideal for us as the students were as you are serving them in the shop.
All you need is a PC or laptop, a little bit
already the core members of Facebook, This means you can get your
of creativity, a few photos and you are off.
to Facebook in the
but as with all successful things on the message out there easily and as quickly
Best of all it’s free!
Internet it doesn’t take long for it to catch as you want.
It really is that simple!
millions
on. For me it’s great way to remind
Whether social networking on
I think you would be really surprised everyone that it’s Mothers Day or
websites will actually increase sales is
about how many people have a Facebook Valentines Day or we have new stock in
a hard question to answer. Personally,
account - half the UK population and the store.
I view it as a means to maintain
growing. Because they are natural We sent reminders to our Facebook
customer loyalty. The way I look at it, if
communicators, women are signing up group about the posting days for
my customers are hearing from me on
to Facebook in the millions and as we all Mothers Day but you can send whatever
a regular basis with news of upcoming
know the majority of greetings cards are messages you like.
events and latest products then that
brought by women. Photos are really easy to upload and
has to help stop them buying from a
My store, Cats, has a Facebook then remove or change.
competitor retailer.
group, which we update regularly. It The updates to your page are also
I’m no computer wizard and I’m purely
started off being the same as a personal sent out as email messages so your
self-taught but I can manage my way
profile but I found the setup of a group is friends don’t have to be actually logged
around the Internet even though when it
much easier to maintain and looks more into Facebook to see the immediate
comes to the techie stuff I only know the
professional. message. And because many people are
basics.
One person doesn’t have to do receiving emails on their mobile phones
At Leeds we’re fortunate to have a
all the work either because when you these days you are hitting people virtually
fantastic IT department helping us with
set up a group you can add others as 24/7. Facebook itself is also accessible
the back office set up of all our websites
administrators to the site so they can via mobile phone so it really is becoming
so I can process the orders and try and
update it as and when. an essential element of modern life for
keep the sites looking fresh with new
Once your group page is done you many people.
content. But this can be time consuming
are ready to go at the click of a button by With Facebook you also get to see
and expensive.
inviting people to join the group. If your who your customers really are by viewing
What I really wanted was to be able
customer doesn’t want to be part of it their own profiles. They also get the
promote things quickly and make it as
they can just ignore the invitation. They opportunity to write comments on the
easy as putting up a poster or a sign.
can also leave the group at anytime. page, which can be great if they want a
I wanted to be able to tell people a little
Once people start accepting your certain product or want to ask ‘do you
about who we are, how to contact us, the
invitation to join it rapidly gathers pace as stock?’ questions meaning we can react
store’s opening times, and be able to let
more people invite their friends to sign up. quickly to popular demands for products.
our customers know when we have new
I ask all my staff, as well as the students, Obviously having your own website or
products coming in, what they were like,
to invite their friends and on it goes. Internet store is the way the forward but
plus recent news for every trading month.
We also have a ‘Join our Facebook it can be costly. Facebook is free and by
Then someone invented Facebook
Group’ message on our sign outside the improving your computer skills you can
and my prayers were answered….
store. hopefully improve your advertising and
Initially I signed up to Facebook as an
You could also print the Facebook customer loyalty as well as sales.
Greetings Today 29
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