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As the owner of a brand or business, you might be thinking about the types of loyalty that best suits your company. Customer satisfaction and retention are essential. Working as a product manager in an organization makes you think of the best ways to satisfy customers. Customer retention comes from an organization’s ability to create loyalty.
Customer retention exists when there is loyalty. This is done by creating series of programs and activities to show progress and support to customers. It is not only to keep them happy and satisfied. The end goal is to keep them coming and become advocates for the organization – recruiting others to come and buy from the company.
Customers’ satisfaction is not only promised in words; it should be promised and delivered. Many people go into buying with different reasons in mind. Some are going into the market to get average but good products, while others go in for the best of the best irrespective of the price tag.
An organization’s focus on customer retention should be part of a comprehensive customer loyalty and satisfaction strategy. No customer will come back or recruit new people if they are not satisfied.
It requires having a reasonable perception of what the customer wants, putting systems and processes to meet those needs and exceed their expectations—wondering what type of loyalty is suitable for your business. You will find out shortly.
6 Important Types of Customer Loyalty
There are six types of customer loyalty; since customers have different reasons behind their buying, one or more types of loyalty keep them coming.
Transactional Loyalty
This is claimed to be the easiest of all the six types. It is accomplished by making offers or offering discounts on goods and services to customers. It is a potent tool for bringing back customers. It comes at a price, but if effectively used, it can bring great results. The aim is to bring back customers. Transactional loyalty offers discounts and more offers to bring back customers for future purchases.
Social Loyalty
Other essential types of loyalty are social loyalty. This is done by engaging your customers on social media channels. A customer loyalty program is put in place to award points to customers for sharing some critical posts about the company. The action to be carried out differs from the social media platform used – retweet, like, and sharing actions. This is another way of getting your customers engaged. The task could involve the customers tagging a specific number of their friends on their platform before sharing. To track and keep the rewards in check, you could customize the sharing model. An example of that is creating a unique hashtag. Social loyalty offers additional marketing opportunities when customers share your brand.
Engagement Loyalty
Taking advantage of social loyalty, this type of loyalty is essential too. This customer loyalty program is similar to that of social loyalty. It offers rewards to customers for subscribing to newsletters, watching YouTube videos, downloading apps or journals. It ensures that the coming and repetitive customers are gaining from you. It helps to improve the rate of conversion of your marketing strategies.
Emotional Loyalty
Emotional loyalty is another type of loyalty that keeps your customers coming. This customer loyalty program engages with customers to be glued with their emotions positively. It offers what discounts and other promotional offers cannot do. It is aimed at getting an emotional connection with the customers. This can be done by awarding points to regular customers on their birthdays or anniversary. Another way to achieve that is personal letters from the CEO or Chief Managers to the customers. Retaining the loyalty of the regular and VIP customers can be done by engaging them emotionally. This gives them a sense of belonging as a core part of the company.
Behavioral Loyalty
Another essential type of loyalty is behavioral loyalty. This customer loyalty program is directed at making the customers do what you want them to do. Studying the behavioral pattern of your customers can yield the best loyalty results. Behavioral loyalty is a crucial tool to influence your customer buying behavior. An example of this is to buy two to get three sorts of buying. This affects customers to get more when they buy two and expect to get an extra free one as a gift. Another example is offering coupons for customers who pre-order ahead of a national memorial day.
Advocacy Loyalty
Just like awarding points to social media shares and retweets, advocacy loyalty is focused on rewarding referrals. Customers are happier and more willing to bring in new customers when they gain from it. Statistics show that a referred customer is likely to get more than three sales spread across different times at the least. The most minor a company could do to reward referrals either by giving discounts or awarding points. Advocacy loyalty makes customer acquisition easy without getting to spend much on adverts. Referrals on their own are a great marketing strategy that can improve your marketing campaign.
The Importance of Transactional, Emotional, and Behavioural Loyalty.
There has been a long time debate on which loyalty is best. Do you know ways to make customers feel like they are a vital part of your company? This depends on how best you can create a customer loyalty program that suits your company. While some might work for you, one might be the very best practice for you.
Over the years, the three most effective types of customer loyalty are transactional, emotional, and behavioral loyalty. And different companies have exhibited either of those three types and have achieved excellent results. Emotional loyalty is seen as the best by some because it makes some customers stay loyal to one brand – irrespective of the price, proximity, convenience, and other factors. This is because they have a personal connection with the brand.
Transactional loyalty, on the other hand, is influenced by cost and convenience. This influence customer by giving offers and discounts on their goods. Another factor that impacts transactional loyalty is proximity. For example, a store opens close to your neighborhood and sells at the same price as others far from you. Transactional loyalty is underrated; the goal of every brand is to be in the mouth of the masses.
Customer behavior and interest are different from one another. That is why transactional loyalty might not work for all. What is your customers’ behavior? What do they want? In recent times, I have seen people who only purchase because of the high prices of products. Studying the behavior of your customers and influencing it can yield the best results. Emotional loyalty makes customers feel like a core part of your brand, and behavioral loyalty makes the customer feel like you are giving them what they need per time.
Creating a family-like customer base who are emotionally connected to the brand is one of the primary goals of any business. Emotional loyalty breeds a deeper level of commitment in customers and can lead to all other types of loyalty. Transactional loyalty can be good to get customers for a start, but retention on a long-term basis is far beyond prices and incentives.
Emotional loyalty creates a genuine connection rather than laying too much emphasis on prices. Data analysts have said that emotional and behavioral loyalty tend to create a long-term allegiance and advocacy to a brand. They are taking the leading smartphone producers in the world today, for example. Samsung and Apple have been leading producers of intelligent gadgets for years, and both have held on to their loyal customers. This has been achieved by transactional, emotional, and behavioral loyalty.
Five levels of customer satisfaction
There are five levels of customer satisfaction:
- Not Satisfied –This is an incident when a customer’s needs are not met. Such customers would be looking at other brands to give a trial.
- Slightly Satisfied –A customer is slightly satisfied when not all of their needs are met. A customer like that may return, but there is a high chance that they will go somewhere else later.
- Satisfied – A customer is said to be satisfied when their needs are met. They get exactly what they are looking for in the product or services they paid for.
- Very Satisfied –A delighted customer has not only had their needs met but has experienced some other surprises that have enhanced their satisfaction.
- Extremely Satisfied –A delighted customer has consistently experienced satisfaction from the products and services they paid for. They are also potential advocates for the brand.
Advantages of Loyal Customers
- Beating off competitors
- Honest reviews
- Advocacy and referrals
- High sale and revenue
- Tolerance
How to build loyalty as a brand
- Offer affordable quality products
- Engage your customers
- Constantly study your customer behavior
- Build trust and honesty
- Offer good customer service and relationship
- Give your customers a sense of belonging
- Reward loyalty
- Keep the customers posted on any incoming changes
In conclusion, building a loyal customer base is essential for the sustainability of a brand. We have seen the types of loyalty and how best we can implement them. Do you need more questions, contact us at The Black Sheep Community today.