What is Customer Loyalty?

Although we often talk about customer loyalty in terms of metrics and equations, the truth is that there are near-countless different factors that can influence how loyal a customer is to a particular brand. Many of these factors are relatively consistent across industries: Value, convenience, and service are all essential elements in determining brand loyalty. However, just how loyal customers are may also be influenced by industry and channel.

Online customers may be more loyal overall than customers that prefer to shop in person, and this loyalty may tie back into the rise of self-service and other support channels.

For many customers, being able to connect via their preferred channels is a major factor in having a positive customer experience. Physical stores tend to limit contact and support options—customers can only speak with a store employee, or possibly call a support line. Online businesses have a wider selection of possible service and support options, unrestricted by store hours.

Google reports that 75% of online grocery shoppers are still shopping with the first retailer they tried for online grocery services.

The kinds of products and services being sold can also play a key role. In industries where every option delivers essentially the same service, oftentimes the only distinguishing elements are cost and service. For example, in areas where customers are able to choose between more than one internet service provider, customers will probably prefer the provider who offers the lowest overall price with the least number of hurdles. And, should a different provider start offering a better discount and improved service, the customer will likely switch to the new service without much concern for loyalty.

On the other hand, industries that rely more heavily on providing a distinguishing customer experience (such as mobile device service providers) will see increased impact in customer loyalty rates.

Industries that offer products or services that customers purchase regularly are more likely to have increased customer loyalty than industries that only see customers make occasional purchases.

As an example, consider restaurants and grocery stores; as customers purchase food and other consumables on a weekly (or even daily) basis, they build relationships and develop brand awareness. As a result, they are more likely to return to the same business. Conversely, an airline might see decreased customer loyalty, particularly among customers who do not fly regularly, and are only looking for the best available deal.

Your industry and the kinds of products or services you provide can help determine how loyal your customers are, but it’s not the end of the discussion. Even the least customer-loyal industry can improve, by implementing customer-loyalty strategies.

The customer service you provide can make or break your business—particularly when it comes to customer loyalty. Your customers’ experiences, positive or negative, will shape how they view your brand, and will determine whether they want to do business with you in the future. There are countless strategies for improving customer service, but most of them come down to how well you listen to the people you do business with, and how you use that information to improve your customer service.

Providing excellent customer service is not a one-and-done task; it’s an ongoing responsibility that incorporates nearly every aspect of a business. This means that as you make decisions throughout your organizational structure, the question of how these changes may affect the customer experience should always be top of mind. Collect feedback from customers as they interact with your product or service, and then loop in the appropriate teams and departments within your organization who can address the root causes. Click here to learn more about managing your customer-service offering.

Delivering on customer needs is a sure-fire way to improve brand loyalty. Unfortunately, if you are only responding to needs as they arise, then you’ll always be a step behind. Anticipating customer needs should be an integral part of the product-design process, built on the problems you want your product or service to solve, as well as the audience you are solving the problems for.

As with most aspects of customer experience, anticipating customer needs relies heavily on your ability to listen to and analyze your customer base. This can be as simple as communicating with customers on social media or asking customers to fill out surveys, or it may be as complex as performing in-depth search-engine keyword research or implementing predictive analytics to identify trends.

As an example of delivering on customer needs, consider a digital service that experiences a brief outage. The customer might not even notice the momentary interruption of service, but you can proactively address the issue by reaching out to the customers who might have been affected, and even offering them some compensation—such as a special discount or free credit. Proactively monitoring and acknowledging service disruptions helps demonstrate your commitment to the customer experience and can improve customer loyalty.

Humans are social animals, and customers are much more likely to do business with a brand that they feel a connection with. To promote that kind of connection, companies need to personalize the customer experience on an individual level. This means not only developing detailed customer profiles and segmenting audiences based on preferences and demographics, but also documenting and recalling all of the past interactions you’ve had with your customers.

Being able to speak directly to individual customers, using their names and referencing their past experiences and the products or services they use will help demonstrate that you are invested in their success.

Customers want more than just solutions; they want solutions without the hassle. Convenience reduces friction in the customer experience, allowing for more streamlined, anxiety-free interactions.

To promote convenience, take a look at the customer journey from the perspective of the customer. Is your signup process needlessly complex? What about at checkout? Are support options clearly available across multiple channels, or do you force customers to use only one or two specific channels? Any part of the journey that slows down the process or creates confusion with your customer is an area that needs attention.

Unfortunately, there are times when your support agents themselves might be standing in the way of a quick resolution, simply by virtue of being another step in the process. The ServiceNow^®️ Service Catalogue offers a solution—centralizing common, automatable support requests without involving an agent. These requests may include everything from resetting passwords to reporting lost credit cards. By streamlining service and support requests, you can reduce resolution times and provide a better-overall customer experience.

Easy to say, potentially very difficult to achieve, increasing customer loyalty is simply a matter of being better than the competition. Take a look at your key competitors. More importantly, take a look at their customers.

Read reviews to identify where your competitors are succeeding at providing exceptional customer service, and where they are falling flat. Then it’s a matter of matching what they are doing well and outpacing them where they could stand to improve.

Feedback is essential in creating an atmosphere of customer loyalty. Make it easy for your customers to contact you with any suggestions, questions, comments, or concerns they might have, and don’t hesitate to reach out to them as well.

As you solicit feedback, be specific about the kinds of answers you’re looking for, and always remember to follow up by providing any necessary solutions and thanking the customer for their honest critiques.

Loyalty programs are a great way to say ‘thank you’ to those customers who stand by your brand. They’re also a great way to encourage undecided customers to stand by your brand. Rewarding customers with discounts, special treatment, prizes, etc. can help ensure that they keep coming back to do business with you again and again.

It can be easy to view the customer relationship as existing between two parties: your customers, and your brand. But the reality is that the customer relationship includes a number of other individuals as well—namely, each and every one of your customer-facing employees.

In your customers’ eyes, your employees are the embodiment of your brand. If your employees are unhappy with your company, that will show through in their interactions, and your customers won’t be happy either. Additionally, your employees will need the right tools, training, and resources for providing efficient service. This includes everything from having easy, on-screen access to the right information, to incorporating machine-language to provide suggested solutions while they interact with customers. Treating your employees well, rewarding exceptional behavior, and giving them the necessary assets will inspire them to provide a more positive experience to your customers.

No matter how fairly you deal with your customers, they are always going to be more willing to trust their peers. The downside of this universal truth is that any mistake, real or perceived, that you make in dealing with your customers has a chance of spreading like wildfire across forums and social media, negatively affecting your standing with other customers. The upside is that you can use this desire for community to your advantage.

Building a community forum into your customer self-service portal will encourage customers to interact over their shared experiences with your brand. Positive experiences will strengthen trust among more of your audience, and even negative experiences will give you the opportunity to step in and set things right before it gets out of hand.