Recall the last time you stood in an aisle in your local supermarket, looking at the humungous variety of products in front of you. But was there a moment where you went straight to a product without even looking at the others? Perhaps a brand you’ve been using for years?
That’s exactly what customer loyalty is about – providing consumers with a product that directly solves their problems, makes life easier and even provides surprise benefits every now and then.
What is customer loyalty?
As discussed above, customer loyalty is an attribute of a consumer always opting for the same product from the same brand over their competitors. This generally happens due to the ease of use of the product, which prevents the customer from ever wanting a change in the product.
As long as you can meet the demands of your customer, they will remain loyal. And adding a few added benefits here and there strengthens their loyalty even more.
If you were to take the example of most tech companies today, including One Plus, Apple and Samsung, the products and services don’t just end at selling phones made with the latest hardware. Instead, they also focus on creating a space through software where every user feels welcome and has personal space, which brings us to a very important point.
If you need to convince your colleagues of this concept, you can present this as a case study or a research paper. As a management or any general student, it will surely help in your work and academic life. If you are looking for a good loyalty essay, you can refer to Samplius. By reading various essays on loyalty it makes the writing task easier and helps you perform better. The site offers essays on almost every other subject that you can come across while studying at college or in the workplace.
Retaining customers is easier than getting new ones
When it comes to running a successful business, you want to ensure that the clients and customers you have will be worth keeping. Your relationship with a customer does not end as soon as they pick up your product. Instead, it must stay consistent till the next time they need a similar product and so on.
Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes emerging businesses can make is not maintaining a proper relationship with existing customers. This is a big startup mistake as you will need to rely on these existing customers to spread the word and get more customers while they are giving you their business.
If you lose 5 of your existing customers and get 5 new ones, you wouldn’t grow. And to make matters worse, these new customers may not even be reliable enough to keep your business afloat. So, treat existing customers like they will always provide business and chances are they will.
Loyal customers provide higher profits
In the saturated markets of the 21st century, standing out can be difficult. To get new customers, businesses aim to provide free value to get them hooked on a deserving product. But when these customers turn into loyal customers, businesses must aim to provide consistent value.
Since these customers are loyal, they aren’t so hesitant to spend more money on your brand. If they are used to one product or service, they would be just as willing to try out a new product, just because of the trust carried on with your brand name.
Apple is still doing so well despite its high prices because it has built strong customer loyalty through its products. Customers aren’t so worried about spending more money as they know about the quality of products produced by Apple.
When your customers get consistent value, they are willing to put in even more money. They shift from only buying products for ‘needs’ to even buying products for their ‘wants.’
Provides feedback to stay ahead of the competition
Existing customers that are loyal to your brand know what you are worth. If there is ever a drop in quality or if you are unable to meet expectations, they would be willing to provide feedback to get you back on track.
Not only that, through these customers, you would also be able to get feedback that could aid your growth and keep you ahead of the rest of the pack. Every time a competitor provides something you don’t, your customers would want to see that in your product.
Based on how important it is and if it fits with your brand identity, you could incorporate the same feature in your brand, helping you recover the gap between you and the competition.
Such valuable feedback cannot be expected by new customers as they have no expectations. They are that much more volatile and ready to shift to another brand as soon as they provide something new. On the other hand, loyal customers will want to see you make those changes so that they could continue using your brand’s products.
Conclusion
Customer loyalty is essential in saturated markets today. With the huge variety of products in every market, having customers that would only look for your product is all the more important now. Respond to what your customers want, hear what they have to say, personalize their experience and reward them for using your products and services.
About the Author
Paul Calderon is a finance expert and works in various fields as a freelancer. He is a loan advisor, provides online classes to college students and helps them in writing research papers and essays in finance and accounting subjects. In his free time, he loves to go for long drives, watch anime and practice mindfulness.
