Customer Loyalty = Brand Loyalty

by Bob Grant

It is often said that it is easier and less costly to keep a customer than to acquire a new customer. So, in today's weak and volatile economy, it would be prudent to consider customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is not loyalty to a discount or a deal. It is the loyalty to the brand and to the company. Brand loyalty is the customer's trust that the brand will continue to deliver on its promise to the customer.

How do you maintain that customer’s loyalty to the brand?

1. Communication

Communicate Through Research - Understand the key to the needs and benefits required by customers by conducting surveys on why they will continue to do business with you. A recent article in Marketing Sherpa illustrates how a company, Veritude, was able to increase customer loyalty by surveying why customers would recommend Veritude to others, and also determine where Veritude might make improvements with its relationships with its customers.

Stay in Touch - Through newsletters and enewsletters, phone calls and visits.

2. Customer Service

Be sure those who interface with customers present a positive experience in dealing with your company. For those who have an unpleasant experience, an astounding 60% of customers will terminate his or her loyalty to your brand in order to get better or more reliable service elsewhere (note the Accenture study below). Customer service is relationship marketing.

3. Trust

According to an Accenture consumer study on loyalty, consumers surveyed place a high degree of importance in a company’s credibility and in knowing that a company’s offerings will perform as promised. When asked why they continue to purchase products or services from a particular company, 45 % of respondents said it’s because they have grown to trust the company’s products or services. But trust can be broken easily—such as when a company solicits feedback from consumers on how to improve its products or services, but seemingly fails to act on the input consumers give.

4. Loyalty Programs

Is there a place for loyalty programs in your company’s marketplace? Of those who belong to a frequency program, 43% say that they believe the program causes them to purchase more from that brand. There are other ways of adding value to customer experiences, and every company needs to determine what kind of a loyalty program works best for its kind of customer.

When sales are soaring customer loyalty does not seem to be important, but solidifying your customer base in good times as well as bad is fundamentally sound business strategy.

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