Top Nine Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty

Customer satisfaction is not enough; companies need to focus on loyalty and engagement.

Contributed by Allegiance, Inc.

Research shows that the reason most customers leave has nothing to do with the product. In fact, most customers say they’re satisfied right before leaving. According to Allegiance, Inc., a provider of enterprise feedback management solutions, companies need to go beyond customer satisfaction to build loyalty and engagement. “Companies are losing customers at a staggering rate without really hearing from them or understanding why,” says Kyle LaMalfa, Allegiance best practices and loyalty expert. “By identifying what drives customer loyalty and engagement, companies can begin to develop best practices that will have a direct impact on customer retention and profits.”

Allegiance has identified the following nine ways to increase customer loyalty in order to help companies keep valuable customers coming back.

Give customers what they expect. Companies first need to identify and understand customer expectations and then provide value for the dollars spent in terms of product quality and service. This is fundamental.
Go beyond simple reward programs. Points and rewards encourage repeat purchases, but don’t actually build loyalty. True loyalty comes when customers purchase products without being bribed.
Turn complaints into opportunities. Quickly resolve customer complaints to build loyalty and show them you care. Monitor things like time to resolution and customer satisfaction levels once complaints are resolved.
Engage customers in a two-way dialogue. Gather feedback consistently from multiple sources, respond to feedback quickly and personally, and then organize feedback to track results.
Build opportunities for repeat business. Monitor what customers request most and offer products or services that complement other purchases. Use technology to track, classify, and categorize open-ended feedback.
Survey customers and solicit feedback. Use short surveys that are unbiased and well structured. Employ random sampling to avoid survey fatigue.
Create a centralized system for managing feedback throughout the enterprise. Technology such as enterprise feedback management will help to centralize surveys and customer feedback and track both qualitative and quantitative information.
Tie customer loyalty and engagement to business outcomes. Track customer feedback over time and compare with revenues and profits over that same period. Determine how outcomes should be measured, whether by satisfaction, likelihood to purchase again, likelihood to recommend, or other factors.
Use analysis to predict future loyalty. Analyze information to reveal the most important area of focus for customer loyalty and how it changes over time. Use feedback data to understand customer intentions and motivations (not just what they buy, but why).

Allegiance, Inc. is a provider of enterprise feedback management solutions designed to drive growth and increased profitability through improved customer loyalty, employee retention, and engagement. Additional information on increasing customer loyalty and engagement is available in the white paper "The Top Nine Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty." For more information, visit www.allegiance.com.

Top Nine Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty

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