Building customer loyalty is important for any business. Why squander your relationship with customers you've worked so hard to acquire?
But are your loyalty efforts working?
What if successfully addressing customer pain points and expectations only moves the NPS needle a little bit? What if your business gives it everything it's got to increase customer loyalty, but doesn't see churn rates go down, or NPS scores go up?
If you need to see a significant increase in NPS (like... 5-10 points or more), and nothing you've done seems to work, you may need to consider a different approach. Specifically, you may need ask: "How can I build customer loyalty before my customers become customers?"
Loyalty is about more than just experience.
Many assume that customer loyalty hinges on product/service experience and on the effectiveness of customer support. But in reality, loyalty has to do with much more than that.
Many people are fans of brands that they don't purchase from. Many folks love Zillow even though they've never used it to buy a house. A lot of people love Dior (or Prada, or Chanel) but don't own a single Dior item (even when they can afford it). Some admire Elon Musk even though they don't own a Starlink or a Tesla.
You can love a brand without being a customer.
If you love a brand before you're a customer, chances are your love will be strong after you've become a customer. And chances are that your loyalty to that brand would be stronger than, say, the loyalty of a customer whose feelings toward that brand are lukewarm.
Which means there's solid potential to transfer pre-purchase brand love into post-purchase brand loyalty.
How? Well... that depends on your brand.
Improve loyalty by researching pre-customers.
For many businesses, loyalty research is synonymous with NPS (Net Promoter Score) or CSAT (customer satisfaction) surveys, where you ask all of your customers how likely they'd be to recommend you to someone they know, or how satisfied they are with you. But you can do more than just track loyalty among those already buying from you.
Study how your target market thinks about loyalty.
It's normative to do research this way:
When surveying your target market (people you want to turn into consumers), study what will make them buy;
When surveying your customers, study what will make them stay and buy more.
But why stick to this? You can absolutely do research on your target market to understand what will make them purchase from you the first time and what will get them to keep buying.
Market research done well can uncover how consumers think, feel, behave, and decide when it comes to sticking with brands in your category. These sorts of insights can help you design products, services, and messaging that not only draws people in but also keeps them loyal after they've turned into customers.
Stay ahead of your customers' needs.
Knowing what consumers expect from you before they're customers helps you protect against churn and poor loyalty once they convert. In other words, know thy consumer as people rather than just customers and you'll meet their needs before they know they have them. And vow to stick with you before they've made their first purchase.
Book a free 30-minute consult to talk with us about how researching the market can help you make huge NPS gains.
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