{"id":31996,"date":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-a-sydney-startup-ensures-customer-loyalty\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","slug":"how-a-sydney-startup-ensures-customer-loyalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-a-sydney-startup-ensures-customer-loyalty\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Sydney startup ensures customer loyalty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Listening closely to its users\u2019 concerns and problems has helped a Sydney startup to gain strong traction in Sydney and prepare to expand nationally as it begins the hunt for seed funding.<\/p>\n

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Loocl,<\/a> an app promoting local last-minute business deals in Sydney, has excelled in converting users gathered from cold calls into repeat customers, founder Elie Shuggi says.<\/p>\n

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In any given week, four out of five users are repeat customers and active users open Loocl almost three times, he says.<\/p>\n

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From the beginning, Shuggi and his team have spent time listening to the challenges and concerns of their core consumer base.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re working really intimately with a few dozen businesses of all different types,\u201d Shuggi tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople overestimate the complexity of startups and underestimate just the sheer patience, tenacity and resources required to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He says this has helped them design a product to meet the fundamental needs of their users.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvery time we do things, we go out and observe with them what\u2019s happening, their sentiment, their engagement, their pros and cons,\u201d Shuggi says.<\/p>\n

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He says this has allowed them to enhance the app\u2019s technology in a way that has accelerated user engagement and will position them well as they plan to establish Loocl in capital cities across Australia this year.<\/p>\n

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Growing rapidly across Sydney\u2019s eastern fringe, Elie says they are seeing sporadic demand from random locations outside this targeted market.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne is as far as the Gold Coast and we\u2019re having to reach out to them to manage their expectations,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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However, Elie and his team are strategically focusing efforts in Sydney as they continue to improve the product and accelerate demand from app users.<\/p>\n

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Converting customers <\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Elie has been commended by Capital Pitch founder Jeremy Liddle<\/a> for his ability to convert customers in cold marketing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not rocket science, it\u2019s about addressing their pain points,\u201d Elie says.<\/p>\n

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To gain an understanding of Loocl\u2019s customers, Elie and his team meet businesses in person to hear first-hand their needs and concerns with the deals market.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey had a visceral reaction to deals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey felt so exploited and messed over with deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This process helped them identify specific problems with existing deals sites that they could then overcome through Loocl.<\/p>\n

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This includes providing better value, more user-friendly technology to upscale and upsell, time-sensitive offers and improved customer relations to promote repeat service, Shuggi says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLoocl might get you less customers but they\u2019re quality customers from your local area and if you show them the love they\u2019ll come back and back,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Lessons for founders<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Elie says it\u2019s critical to factor in mistakes and integrate a process to validate your assumptions about what the market needs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPart of the growth process is to make lots of quick mistakes early on and learn from them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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He recommends considering mistakes when planning timelines or budgets and having focus when launching.<\/p>\n

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In developing a good product and a successful venture, Elie says founding teams should spend time out on the streets working with customers, testing the product, reviewing metrics and understanding the market before figuring out the next step.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat you don\u2019t know can shoot you in the foot so you\u2019re better off taking your time figuring it out, nailing what your product is and ensuring that everything your gut, research and interviews tell you is actually true,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Follow\u00a0StartupSmart\u00a0on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0LinkedIn<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0SoundCloud.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listening closely to its users\u2019 concerns and problems has helped a Sydney startup to gain strong traction in Sydney and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}