A Twitter post my marketing guru, Malcolm Levene prompted this post. He said:
“We all want our customers to be loyal. And in order for that to occur, we must provide them with enough reasons…”
So my question may seem a little odd – as many business and brand owners, large and small, measure customer satisfaction and equate this to how loyal their customers will be to their business.
However, it is apparent that customer loyalty and customer satisfaction are not necessarily the same thing! Evidence suggests that customers can remain loyal without necessarily being altogether happy with a product or service.
I’m sure you can recall times when you have been disappointed with a purchase or something went wrong with a service. Are you still still using this product or service now?
Often we are, and this is because generally customers do not want to go elsewhere, we want to be loyal (sometimes it’s easier!!!) unless a company makes it impossible for us to stay. A bit like a personal relationship, divorce is the last resort!
And sorry a low customer churn or defection rate does not equate to satisfied customers either.
Managing your brand goes further than simply sending out a customer satisfaction survey and requires complete management of the customer experience. So start by mapping your customer journey and making sure you also price for loyalty – to reward customer for staying loyal to you!