Your first customers are your most important customers. These are the people who bought from you when you were just starting. So not only do you want to keep them happy, you want to make sure your processes and products are such that these customers will tell their friends about how awesome you and your company are.

Customer success is a must-have to build up and retain the right customer base. It should be treated as a series of ongoing campaigns to align customer and business goals to different people. But at the core of it, you need to provide them with an experience that makes them feel welcomed, valued, and appreciated. It isn’t enough to just delight customers anymore—you need to stand out from the rest of your industry.

Here’s how to turn those first customers into raving fans:

Know your customers’ pain points

Make sure you know why they’re using your product and what problems they’re trying to solve. Then, when they need help with something specific, you’ll be able to address it in a way that makes them feel heard and understood.

Build a strong feedback mechanism

Make sure you have an easy way for your customers to send feedback—and then actually follow up on it. Ensure you’ve got a clear process in place for addressing their concerns and making sure they’re taken care of.

Turn every question into an FAQ

If someone asks you a question on social media or by email, turn that question into an FAQ on your site so that other people who are facing similar issues don’t have to repeat it later on down the line when they inevitably run into similar problems themselves. That way, everyone wins.

Create a customer success philosophy

It’s important that your company has a clear vision of what customer success looks like for your business, and then once you have that vision, guide everyone in the company to understand how to implement it in their day-to-day work. This can include anything from how quickly you respond when customers need help to how quickly you refund money if there is an issue with a purchase. This will ensure that everyone is working toward the same goal.

Respond quickly when customers need help

Customers want to know that they can reach out and get help if something goes wrong with their order or if they just have questions about how to use your product or service. Make sure that your website reflects this by offering 24/7 support options (phone, chat, email) so that customers know whom they can contact when they have questions or concerns. Having this information available on the website also makes it easy for future customers to find out where they can reach out if needed—which will make them feel more comfortable purchasing.

Customer loyalty is a powerful force, which every business should strive to nurture. And as you continue on your journey to acquire new customers—customers have grown accustomed to great experiences, so businesses must match those standards if they want to succeed.