What’s in it for me? How to earn customers’ loyalty in a crowded, complex brand environment

Ongoing cost of living pressures have had a profound impact on shopper behaviours. Customers are shopping with more intention, and less spontaneity. They’re bulk buying, and they’re planning ahead. And, with budgets stretched to the limit, brand loyalty is being put to the test. 

In fact, a recent report by M&C Saatchi Group found that a staggering 71% of shoppers are less loyal to the brands they usually use. But the same report finds that prioritising loyal customers will continue to pay off — particularly given that it can cost five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

How can you do this? You need to give customers what they want. Three quarters of Australians agree that connecting with their preferences, needs, and expectations is the most crucial factor for brand loyalty. The same study found that 88% of consumers prioritise brands that offer tangible, personal benefits.

In the face of this shift, brands need to rethink how they connect with customers. Instead of focusing on ways that your values align — which certainly helps to build an emotional connection, which in turn strengthens a customer’s allegiance to your brand — it’s time to change tack. So, less about how you share your customers’ vision for a sustainable future, for example, and more about how you’ll help them save money on their next purchase. 

Personalisation is paramount

To show customers that you’re listening and that you understand their needs, personalisation is key. Whether they’re signing up for a service, initiating a subscription, changing plans, looking up their transaction history, applying for financing, or anything else to do with their relationship with your brand, they want a simple way to find personalised information and act on it. 

To deliver this in today’s multifaceted, multi-channel world, you need to invest in modern tools and technologies; and you need to leverage automation, AI and analytics that support personalisation at scale.   

Eliminating friction fosters loyalty

As well as this relentless pursuit of personalisation, you should also be finding ways to eliminate friction from the customer journey. Customers want seamless, speedy interactions with you — deliver anything less and you risk losing them to your competitors.

Again, technology is key here. You should be synching all customer information on a single, integrated platform, and then applying automation where possible to not only accelerate the customer journey, but also to free up your team’s time to focus on delivering exceptional customer service.

A great example here is any form or agreement that a customer needs to fill out. They want simplicity and speed; they want the convenience of having most fields already filled out for them; they want the ability to complete the form on-the-hop between meetings or on their commute. As this ebook shows, improving the agreement process can be the difference between a happy customer and a lost sale

Customer experience is everything

Across it all, customer experience (CX) is the glue holding all your efforts to build brand loyalty together. Considering that 80% of customers consider the experience a company provides to be as important as its products and services, you can’t afford to get CX wrong. 

So what does “right” look like? According to research from PwC, the majority of consumers say that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help and friendly service are the most important elements of a positive customer experience. People are much more willing to pay more for efficient, convenient services than they are for those that look good or offer a unique experience. 

Figure 1: Research from PwC showing what people value most from CX. Purple circles highlight areas addressed by modern agreement tools. 

Nailing your approach to CX and brand loyalty is worth the effort. Get it right, and you’ll pave the way for greater retention and more sales — wins all around.