“Satisfaction is worthless. Loyalty is priceless,” screams the headline on a blog post by Donna Peeples, a business strategist and engagement engineer at Motivated Inc. “Loyalty goes beyond satisfying needs or wants. It’s an emotional connection to a brand that customers love and will happily return for,” Peeples states.
Loyal customers spend 300 percent more than other customers and are five times more likely to choose the brand for future purchases. Peeples offers these tips for moving beyond satisfaction and harnessing the power of loyalty:
• Focus on customer-centricity. Before making any decision, ask how it will impact the customer and if it’s in their best interests. To be a truly customer-centric brand, you must let the customer influence everything: business decisions, daily routines, hiring decisions, website design and product development. Customer centricity is difficult to implement because it can go against the better judgement of many CEOs and business owners, who are primarily focusing on maximizing profitability.
• Resolution = satisfaction, speed = loyalty. Show customers you value their time by resolving issues efficiently and quickly. Nothing impacts loyalty more than a company’s ability to address customer inquiries efficiently. Whether it’s a complaint, a call for help or a general inquiry about a product, the longer a customer issue goes unresolved, the more it erodes their perception of, and trust in, your brand.
• Develop emotional bonds with customers. Your brand, not your product or service, plays a central role in building emotional connections with customers. To do this effectively, you must communicate to your customers that you’re human. Empower frontline staff such as customer service agents and your communications team to make better decisions for customers by focusing on customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value. Loyalty will develop when customers know they’re dealing with real, caring people when contacting your company.
You can win the battle by satisfying customer needs as they arise, but to win the war, you need to build a loyal following of customers that will champion your brand, spread your message and grow your business.
