One of the best tools a business owner can have in their arsenal is a group of totally dedicated clients who not only return again and again but who will bring more clients with them. I am talking about turning a favoured guest into an advocate for your business. These are the types of guests come to your defence online if there is a negative review, they tell anyone and everyone that is travelling near your business to come and stay with you, and they are most certainly the ones that use your online marketing tools like Facebook to help sell your branding across the social media channel.

But how exactly do you turn clients from normal, every day satisfied clients into the golden advocate client? I’ve found over the years there are many ways to turn happy clients into advocates, and in this article, I want to share with you my top 10 methods.

Provide Awesome Customer Service

This method might sound obvious, but it’s something that is not that easy to achieve. To provide truly ‘awesome’ service to a client, you must go above and beyond what their expectation is. If you only provide them with a standard level of service – like clean rooms, easy check-in process and a satisfactory stay – you aren’t really moving into the realm of ‘awesome’. One of our awesome approaches that I have shared before is offering social media classes, free of charge, to our guests. This has the double bonus of helping and encouraging our guests to get online and write reviews for our business.

Create a Loyalty Programme

You don’t have to be QANTAS or Woolies to offer your clients a loyalty programme. There are some easy and cost-effective ways that you can offer repeat guests discounts or offers that can provide them with a fantastic experience. The simplest way of doing this is via a loyalty card. With this, you can offer your guests freebies; for instance, a free night after a certain amount of stays in your business. Or you might base it on a points system where a night in your business accumulates points to be used on activities in your park.

Offer a Referral Programme

One of the best ways to encourage people to talk about and recommend your business is by giving them a way to do it. You can incorporate a referral programme with your Facebook page and give a small discount for each share that your clients make that results in a booking. Or you could integrate it with your booking system and provide a discount to both the referrer and the new booking. You are only limited by your imagination (and bottom line of course).

Design a Personalised Service

The services that you offer in your business can always be tailored to provide a personalised service. There is usually an investment of some kind as you create bespoke options for your customers and, depending on what your accommodation business offers, you could be limited in personalisation. Taking the time to work out packages for different types of visitors can give the impression of a personalised experience while keeping your costs and business model in check.

Give Out Free T-Shirts

Everyone loves a freebie, and these days getting T-shirts with your business’ branding on it is a very small investment. This can give you the bonus of having walking billboards with your business blazoned all over it that can get a conversation started about your park when your guests return home.

Under-Promise and Over-Deliver

You might be thinking that under-promising sounds like an awful way to run a business. I get it – it doesn’t sound great. I’m not saying, for example, that if you run a caravan park, you should offer a one-night stay and then give them one night for free. I mean that you should promise on what you know you can deliver, without fail, and then, when possible, you should over-deliver on that promise. It’s as much about ensuring you never let your customers down as it is about surprising them with more than they bargained for.

Send Thank-You Notes

Another relatively inexpensive and easy way of showing your customers that you care for them and their business is by sending thank-you notes. You could do this either via the old method of sending them something in the post, like a handwritten thank-you note, or you could take advantage of an email nurture campaign and send thank you notes electronically. Little touches like this can turn happy guests into true brand advocates.

Remember Special Occasions

Your customer database is one of the handiest tools your business can utilise, and it is filled with information you can use to create brand advocates. Sending a client an email or a note on their birthday is one of the obvious ways; however, you could also send out Christmas notes, Mother’s and Father’s Day notes, or recognise international guests on significant anniversary days of their country – like sending all the aussies a ‘Happy Australia Day’ note.

Ask For (and Use) Customer Testimonials

A quick way to turn someone into an advocate is to ask them for a testimonial on your business, and then use it on your website or social media pages. You would be amazed at what this type of interaction can do for your business when one of your guests is personally, and publicly, attached to your park. It becomes their mission to ensure your business is successful.

Be Up-Front and Honest with Your Customers

Nobody is perfect and your customers know this. They understand that occasionally every business will mess up. Some customers will take a poor experience more to heart than others. But most customers are rational and understanding, and if when something goes wrong you don’t try to hide behind excuses and are simply up-front and honest with them, you’ll have the chance to gain their trust and earn their respect.

So that’s it – 10 of my favourite ways to turn customers into brand advocates. Why not try implementing some of them today and see what results you get. Most of them are easy and cost-free, so don’t delay in getting the most of your visitors.