Customer Loyalty Again?

The popular topic of the century! Firstly, we gain customers and then try to make them happy as it’s the only way to boast having loyal customers. Loyalty in itself is much more than having best customers, it’s like having success in ones hands. Loyal customers will defeat your competitors in such a way that a company cannot. They will never let the product down.

Once again remembered “Apple loyals”, they can fight with you for hours if you say something negative about any Apple product. I have a colleague, who is a bright example of the mentioned; I call him an “Apple addict”. I don’t like this much of addiction, but at the same time I do realize the Apple “power” and I’m sure that most of Apple buyers become loyal to their products.

Loyalty in its turn can have different degrees. It can be light, it can be extreme. I myself never become so much addicted to any product or service. I may like it or dislike.

There are lots of “Starbucks” and “McDonald's” lovers. It’s said that loyal customers represent no more than 20 percent of the customer base.

Is loyalty emotional, or maybe intellectual?

Loyalty comes in different flavors. Sometimes it’s emotional, sometimes intellectual. The widely spread type is the emotional component. So creating strong emotional connection between the company and the customer is the key element in company’s success. 

Beyond Philosophy states that customer loyalty is “the result of consistently positive emotional experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction and perceived value of an experience, which includes the product or services.”

Customer Loyalty Measurement

One thing is having loyal customers and the other is loyalty measurement.  And how to do this? The easiest, but not the only way, is a short customer survey. Remember short! I like the “KISS” (Keep It Short, Stupid!)

In this busy world no one can afford answering endless questions. But when they see a few questions, they do it with pleasure.  It could look like this: 

• How satisfied are you with the product?
• How likely are you to continue using the product? 
• How likely are you to recommend the product to others?

You can also offer enticements to your customers to take your survey. In fact, it works and it’s worth doing. Loyal customers are promoters of your product or service and the more you do for them, the more they will recommend you to others.