First of all, what’s customer loyalty?
Customer loyalty measures how loyal a customer is to a brand. Meaning, how likely a customer is to do repeat business, or repeat purchases with you. Encouraging customers to choose your business over your competitors is what drives and increases customer loyalty which is hugely beneficial in the long term.
Loyalty has proven to be a virtue in many aspects of life. And when it comes to brands, loyalty adds extreme value to the business. The combination of consumer satisfaction, a positive purchasing journey, and a positive feedback to your brand or services, is what customer loyalty entails. Loyalty also makes a customer forgive misunderstandings easier and is a much more patient customer.
So, how do you inspire customers to stick around? And how do you make them loyal to your brand?
Let’s read on.
It all depends on the type of customer.
Firstly, we have the price-focused customer. This shopper is driven solely by price and if they find the same product at a lower price, they’re likely to leave your brand. However, if your brand offers the same product at a better value, they’ll return.
Then, we have customers who value convenience. These shoppers stay loyal if you just make their experience simple and you’re easily reachable. These shoppers might be intrigued by price, but it’s the easy experience that makes them stay loyal.
Thirdly, we have the freebies customer. (We all know one.)
These shoppers love discounts, personal coupon codes, add-on benefits, any free events and so on. As long as you give them any of these every now and then, they’ll remain loyal to the brand.
Lastly, and most importantly, we have the forever loyal customer. These shoppers have repeated interactions with the brand and they’re open to recommendations or suggestions. These are also the shoppers that are most likely to recommend the brand to peers and colleagues. Hence, their importance.
Measuring the loyalty of a customer is tricky.
There’s no simple formula for measuring a customer’s loyalty to your business or brand, or a simple measuring scale that flashes a magic number. However, there are a few simple ways to keep track of it.
Make sure you’re implementing NPS at the end of their purchase or at checkout. NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a metric that simply assess your customer’s loyalty through simple questions such as – ‘How likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend?”. The higher the score, the more loyal the shopper. NPS metrics can be implemented in marketing emails, newsletters, pop up surveys, etc. To be honest, the only real limit here is the brand team’s imagination.
Loyalty can also be measured through active subscribers and number of subscriptions. Customer engagement with the brand can be converted into brand loyalty.
So, how does a brand retain customer loyalty from all four shopper groups?
It’s all about a good, well thought-out implementation of the above strategies in a way that benefits your business. Read more on why customer engagement is important for a business, and how to achieve it.