What is Customer Loyalty?
Why is it important for a brand to establish a lasting relationship with the consumer?
When we talk about customer loyalty we are referring to the relationship of trust that is established between the customer and the company that leads the user to continuously buy from your company instead of a competitor. To simplify, we can say that customer loyalty is the customer loyalty that arises towards your company
Sweepstakes, points cards, loyalty programs: too often we reduce the concept of customer loyalty, or customer retention, as you like to call it, to activities aimed at stimulating repeated purchases, forgetting, instead, thata consumer’s loyalty to a brand is the result of a real relationship.”Businesses must shift their focus from short-term transaction-focused goals to building long-term relationships with customers,” writes Philip Kotler: it is in these few lines that lies the key to success for companies, transforming the concept of loyalty into a complete loyalty journey.
The Benefits of Customer Loyalty
Customer Loyalty as seen represents a very important metric. All marketing activities that are developed to improve loyalty have an impact on Customer Life Value by increasing it, and also have a positive impact on Brand perception and awareness.
Improving loyalty means first and foremost having a loyal customer, who will see your brand as the only one to buy from and will be willing to pay an even higher price such is the trust and relationship created with your company.
The loyal customer in turn through word of mouth will become an indirect promoter of your company by going on to communicate his or her relationship with your company and referring new buyers to it.
Difference between Customer Loyalty and Customer Retention
Customer Retation is a metric closely related to customer loyalty. When we talk about customer retation we are referring to all those activities that enable a customer to be retained over time, whether it is an ecommerce or a website. Through customer retation metrics we monitor customer engagement and the number of purchases that result. In contrast to customer loyalty, customer retation works on a customer who is not loyal, does not have a relationship that assumes an emotional commitment of trust with the brand, but buys again out of pure advantage and is ready to switch brands as soon as they find better offers. Instead, loyalty assumes the creation of a lasting and positive bond based on trust, satisfaction, and perceived value of the Brand
How to Increase Customer Loyalty
User profiling and segmentation: know to retain
In the era of the experienceeconomy, which we are living through, consumers’ approach to products is changing, and with it the modes of Customer Loyalty: we are attracted by the promotion, the advantageous price, the qualities of the product but, often, there is something more behind the purchase. We buy for passion, for fun, we look for something in the product that completes us and we recognize ourselves in the values that the brand communicates.
In Customer Loyalty the focus shifts from the product to the shopping experience: making this personalized and relevant in the eyes of the customer is one of the main drivers for loyalty, as it opens, with the customer, an emotional connection.
All this presupposes that in the two-way exchange between brand and consumer, information about the latter is collected, integrated from the different touchpoints and used to create personalized customer experiences. From master data, browsing behaviors, interests to purchasing behaviors: profiling and segmenting one’s base of users and customers is essential to configure marketing activities and strategies in line with their needs and aspirations, capable, as we said, of going beyond the user’s rational involvement, touching on their emotional sphere.Omnichannel marketing automation platforms, such as Blendee , thanks to a centralizeduser managementsystem according to the CDP(Customer Data Platform)model, allow for a single customer view, thanks to integrated and centralized data management.
Personalization of the customer experience for successful customer loyalty
Creating an emotional connection is the cornerstone of successful customer loyalty, but it undoubtedly requires strategies to personalize the user experience at every physical and digital touchpoint. From the personalization of content and products within the website, to the sending of emails, and customized messages, to a “tailor-made” point-of-sale experience and beyond: profiling and segmentation of users allows for in-depth knowledge of them and, consequently, the possibility of reaching them with personalized communications and offers of relevant products/services at the most opportune time. Blendee, thanks to the contribution ofartificial intelligence, makes it possible to create unique and personalized experiences for each user, coordinating and adapting marketing activities on all online and offline channels in real time.
A customer loyalty strategy, when designed with a view to creating a lasting experience with its customers, cannot ignore a mapping of their customer journey and an in-depth understanding of them, just as it cannot disregard the creation of customer experiences personalized.
