How Does Your Brand Inspire Loyalty?

Brand loyalty is a customer’s tendency to purchase one brand’s products or service over another. A research discovered that the world’s top 500 companies spend 8% of advertising on rewarding and acknowledging existing customers, but the top 100 spend 32% or four times as much.

How can you figure out if your brand inspires loyalty? You can measure brand loyalty through annual customer satisfaction surveys and tracking how many clients leave each year and why. Conducting a customer satisfaction survey right after a transaction or experience is also helpful. But, only ask about a customer’s experience if you’re actually prepared to address issues.

Creating a “wow moment” is crucial to winning over a customer and retaining them. There are 5 principles of loyalty related to crafting these ‘wow’ moments

1. “Make me look good”

This is an emotive principle that speaks to self-expression. For the customer, just supporting your business or brand makes says something about them. Offer something to your customers that can make them look or feel important.

2. Leaving should not be easy

Airlines make use of this principles through frequent flier points. That type of loyalty programme reminds customers how much they’ve invested and what benefits they could lose if they choose another business.

3. “Set a high standard”

You should set a high standard in your industry whereby it is clear how you are able to add value. Give your customers a reason for their purchases so that they can preserve their reputation when explaining their choice.

4. Reciprocity

The concept of reciprocity is simple enough: when you give something that someone wants you to give, you give something back. This strengthens trust and loyalty. In a study about mechanics, some of them inspired loyalty through reciprocity by telling customers what they were not able to repair. This sense of goodwill and good intentions made the customers feel valuable.

5. Values Align

Sometimes, loyalty is forged when a customer can simply say, “I just like what you stand for.” This typically occurs when brands compete with other brands and people root for the underdog or the smaller, but hard-working brand.