A Guide To Developing Brand Loyalty For Businesses
A loyal customer base is brilliant for business. The probability of selling a product or service to an existing customer is 60-70%, with 65% of a company’s business said to come from existing customers. Companies such as Apple are the epitome of brand loyalty, with the tech company having a core of followers who will solely buy their products and stick with them throughout their lifetime. Join Lookers Group, reputable suppliers of motability cars and take a look at exactly what it is that makes customers stay loyal to a brand.
Customer service
By paying attention to customer service, you can ensure that customers will return to your company. If a brand provides you with consistent quality service, you’ll be more likely to stick with them. According to a Yotpo study, 23% of us blame poor customer service for choosing a different brand. This shows that people’s perception is crucial. Often, companies will provide a personal approach in a bid to entice the customer. A prime example is car dealers Lookers, whose slogan is ‘For You, For Life’. This indicates that the brand has your best interests at heart by saying ‘for you’ and they want to stick with you throughout your driving life experience – ‘for life’.
Identifying and exceeding your customers’ expectations is essential. Businesses are there to provide a simple service. If they can’t meet a user’s expectations, no matter how high, customers will ultimately look for answers and services elsewhere. So, in order to stop that from happening, it maybe prudent to gauge how well you’re meeting these expectations. As such, it maybe important to ask, “How to measure NPS?” (Net Promoter Score) as it is a widely recognized method for assessing customer loyalty and satisfaction. For example, using NPS can help a company like Lookers understand whether their personalized approach is truly resonating with customers. Similarly, a tech company might use NPS to determine if their customer service is effectively addressing user concerns, helping them build trust and loyalty over time. Now, alongside NPS, other tools like customer satisfaction surveys and customer effort scores (CES) can provide additional insights into the effectiveness of your customer service. At the end of the day, customer service is crucial to gaining a customer’s trust, and understanding how to measure NPS, along with other metrics, can be key factors in building that loyalty.
Trust
In a survey conducted by InMoment, participants revealed that they had kept brand-specific relationships for more than a decade, showing the value of customer service even where cheaper alternatives were available. A customer will often stick with a brand or product because they know what to expect. That trust factor has been built up and enables them to know exactly what they need to. The fear of the unknown is a major reason people would not choose a new brand or service in case they aren’t happy with their choice.
Developing trust within your brand requires plenty of thought. Firstly, they must prepare with the customer in mind. This will help to develop a clear client-focused objective and show the customer that a business understands their needs. It’s also imperative to be honest, and businesses should not offer a service or product that is not entirely what the customer is expecting. This is a sure-fire way to breaking any level of trust.
There’s a lot to be taken from the saying: “Trust is the easiest thing in the world to lose, and the hardest thing in the world to get back.”
Nostalgia
Get emotive with your customer relationships and use features such as nostalgia to build loyalty. This is because it’s not particularly in the hands of a business and is simply a matter of ease for the customer. This links into the trust factor too, as it’s the fear of the unknown. Many customers stick to what they know and this can be tracked back to family members, such as parents. Past data in the UK found that the public are, on average, more loyal to our banks than we are our marriage vows! The average Brit stays with their bank for 17 years, while marriage in the UK lasts only 11 years on average. Often, this relationship with a bank begins in childhood as a customer follows the bank account that their parents use.
Using nostalgia can help to make your customers associate feelings towards your brand with things that they are nostalgic about, and in doing so you’re essentially ‘reminding them of home’. No matter how far you move away, home comforts can help a customer stick with a brand that is local to them.
Discounts and special offers
It’s not uncommon for brands to fixate on attracting new customers to the business, but this means that longer-standing clientele can get left behind. Therefore, discounts and special offers are important to make sure that existing customers feel valued.
It may seem hard work to keep them happy, but this is a simple way to show them their worth. In many studies, it has come back that discounts and special offers are in fact the top reason for brand loyalty. This is because rewarding loyalty helps to provide a good experience and is beneficial for both parties, meaning they don’t feel the need to shop around.
It is often a good idea to create branded company rewards such as wristbands. This way your customers feel they are getting something back from you and you are raising awareness of your brand. It’s a win-win situation.
By understanding your customers’ needs and requirements, you can build trust and keep them engaged by catering to everything that they want. Therefore, it’s important to regularly conduct customer feedback to ensure that a business can fully understand what it is their customer base is looking for. Doing so will allow them to have the best chance to retain customers in the future.
Sources
https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/10/customer-retention-statistics.html
https://blog.accessdevelopment.com/2018-customer-loyalty-statistics
https://www.richardson.com/blog/build-trust-with-your-customers/
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/07/switching-banks-seven-day
