What about Customer Loyalty?

Customer Loyalty. Two single words yet one powerful asset for every business, regardless of its size and industry. Do you agree with me?

Customer loyalty can be seen as the result of consistently positive emotional experience, satisfaction and perceived value of a buying experience.

Consider who you are loyal to. I am sure that you will answer family and friends. Have you ever considered why? The answer is simple. Because of the emotional bond you have with them. Your family and friends might do things you don’t like, but still you stay loyal to them because of that bond. The same applies with customer loyalty. To excel in customer loyalty, you must build an emotional bond with your customers.

Another definition of customer loyalty focuses on the choice of consumers to use a particular business or buy a particular product/ service over and over, rather than use other businesses or products. As a result, it is widely seen as a key determinant of a firm’s profitability.

According to the above definition customer loyalty can be differentiated between behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. Behavioral loyalty refers to customers buying exclusively or mostly only one brand. On the other hand, attitudinal loyalty is all about having an emotional attachment to a brand, liking it more than other, and even loving it. True loyalty requires both loyalty dimensions!

Why customer loyalty is so important?

Retaining customers is found to be less expensive than acquiring new ones. Customer experience management is the most cost-effective way to drive customer satisfaction, customer retention and customer loyalty.

Loyal customers will ensure sales, but they will also reduce costs associated with consumer education and marketing, especially when they become ambassadors of your brand and business. Moreover, a loyal customer base will generate more predictable sales, steady cash flow and improve profit stream.

Is there a correlation between customer satisfaction, customer value and customer loyalty?

Customer perceived value is the consumer’s overall assessment of the utility of product, based on perceptions of what is received and what is given. Better customer value as compared to what the competitors deliver will make customers feel satisfied an in turn will drive them to be loyal. Therefore, customer satisfaction almost always leads to customer loyalty.

According to Kotler, “a highly satisfied customer generally stays loyal longer, buys more as the company introduces new products and upgrade existing products, talk favorably about the company and its product, pay less attention to competing brands, and is less sensitive to price, offers product or service ideas to the company and costs less than new customers because transaction is routine”.

Last but not least, customer loyalty can be enhanced by creating an outstanding customer experience throughout the whole buying journey of your customers.

To conclude…

We have a question for you…. What does the butterfly customer need to become loyal? Is there anything crossing your mind?

Well, they need just one thing, to find you worthy of their trust.

Win loyalty, and profits will follow as night follows day!

Want to know how to create true customer loyalty? Read more here and take customer’s level to another level.

Originally published at e-satisfaction.com.