by Irene Lizarraga

Created on: November 16, 2010

Web designers may think that customer loyalty isn't important for them. After all, a web designer isn't selling a product that will be bought many times over a lifetime and the chances for repeated custom may seem slim. However, customer loyalty is vital for the success of a web design business, since it can bring many more clients through referrals and recommendations. At the same time, while a client may only need a full website design every few years, chances are that he'll want changes, updates and other digital resources. And if you have built a good reputation and have many loyal customers you may reduce your dependency on big one-off projects and increase the number of smaller and more frequent projects instead.

Building customer loyalty means making sure that every time one of your clients thinks of adding a newsletter, creating banners or marketing material or sees something cool on a website, they immediately think of you. It can mean unpaid time answering questions about how a Facebook page works, or why everybody seems to have an iPhone application. But it will also mean that when your client decides to spend money on said Facebook page or iPhone application, they call you first. And that is the main benefit of customer loyalty for web designers: the fact that your clients will call you again and again for projects besides their website, and you can help them notice other online tools that they may need.

Another important reason why customer loyalty is important for web designers is that, in a world of cowboys and scammers, people are wary of paying money to a stranger they only know through online. However, if the stranger is the nice web designer that made a website for a friend or colleague, things change. While a former client may be happy to give you a reference on request, if you build customer loyalty your clients will have a higher tendency to recommend you to others when they know others need a website. That's because the concept of a good web design is associated, in their mind, with you. By taking care of your clients, even after they are no longer paying you, they know that you exist and feel positive about their relationship with you.

Customer loyalty may not bring the same benefits to a web designer than to an online shop or other services that thrive in repeated custom. However, it can bring in new custom in the form of referrals or associated marketing materials, and will definitely tip the scales in your favour when your client decides to embrace any new online technology or just update their website. Keeping a professional and warm relationship with your existing and previous clients will reduce your need to go out hunting for new ones and increase your success as a web design freelancer.

Learn more about this author, Irene Lizarraga.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.