Customer Loyalty = Customer Service
What is the simplest way to foster loyalty? It’s great customer service. From word-of-mouth to loyalty reward programs, it is amazing customer service that brings repeat business. Training your employees to have superior service skills is the first pillar of loyalty success.

Simply think about the very best service you’ve witnessed as a customer. Is it the stellar smile a Kroger baker greets you with? The confidence you have in your favorite department store clerk who always knows where to find your size? The very same reasons you gravitate towards one grocer over another is what attracts your customers. The first step is to find out if your staff is providing stellar service. One proven way to determine what level of service your staff is giving is to utilize a secret shopper program.

Customer Loyalty = Step Up The Game
Think of the small town corner store whose clerk knows all the customers by name and maintains their favorite items in stock. That is a basic loyalty program. Think of a customer or client you know who always purchases the same item every month. They’ve been a customer so long you always give them free shipping. That’s a basic loyalty program.

Our associate, Terry Vavra, co-author of “Loyalty Myths”, provides USAA as an example of effectively using large-scale customer databases with loyalty programs:

“The system of the different USAA companies are integrated and designed so that they anticipate customer needs that USAA can help satisfy. For example, when a customer calls about purchasing an automobile, a USAA representative can arrange the financing, arrange the insurance, set up a bank account to automatically deduct car and insurance payment and even order the infant car seat.”

Think about the scope of services USAA provides their loyal customers. It offers a one-stop, no-hassle, take-care-of-every-need approach. Let’s go back to the baker with a great smile who now is trained to genuinely be interested in what and why a customer makes a purchase. He now offers additional advice on products or services that complement the customer’s current purchase. For example, a sheet cake for a promotion party. The baker now walks the customer down to the deli and suggests a great appetizer for the event or recommends a specific brand of disposable cutlery. This is building customer loyalty through superior customer service. It’s cross-selling, up-selling, and building rapport all through the basic skill of “service.”

Fostering Brand Loyalty
In a dream world, brands would love an abundance of loyal customers. Unfortunately we are in the real world which requires brands to foster loyalty with consumers. One of ICC/ Decision Services experts, Terry Vavra, has coauthored “Loyalty Myths: Hyped Strategies That Will Put You Out of Business and Proven Tactics That Really Work“. The authors found consumers who had high involvement levels with their brand where more loyal. So how does a brand engage consumers?

Taken from “Loyalty Myths” , customer involvement can be fostered by:

1.Increase the purchase’s importance for the customer
2. Adding emotional significant to the purchase
3. Associating the purchase with an ongoing interest
4. Associating the purchase with a relevant reference group.

All of these considerations are directly related to the customer’s experience. Significance can be added by brand’s promoting their top benefits. For example, take laundry detergent. Military members are a niche market whose uniforms require laundry detergent with no certain additives. There are very few brand which fill this need. These brand should ensure availability in every grocery store which surround military installations. This takes the importance of purchasing the right brand within the reach of the customer.

The only way for brands to foster involvement is to know your consumer. Proactive consumer and industry research provides important insight to consumer needs, interests, and emotional attachments. Brands should know which benefits they offer their customers. Whether it’s being gluten free, organic, or offer an advantage over the competition, this is the information consumers are looking for. This is information that needs to be visible at the retail shelves.

The point of purchase is the last place and the most important place brands can reach a customer. How is your brand using point of purchase to foster customer involvement? Do you offer coupons? Free samples? There is not one right answer for all brands. Brands who research and ask customer’s for feedback, will know what are the most effective ways to foster customer involvement.

What are the techniques brands get you, as a consumer, involved? Does it help foster brand loyalty?