There’s this little hole-in-the-wall in Fort Worth that I visit on almost a weekly basis. It doesn’t have the swankiest atmosphere. None of the dishware or cutlery matches. The service is just alright, and I’m pretty sure that I could find better tacos elsewhere in town for less money. But none of that matters to me. It’s the familiarity of it…the experience. I discovered the place my senior year in college. The owners know me by name and always stop by to say hello. I sit at the same little booth, and the server doesn’t have to ask me for my order. I am a loyal customer.
Understanding why customers are loyal to your brand, from an emotional standpoint, is extremely valuable. SmartBomb Creative utilizes its emotional loyalty discovery strategies and research to ensure the effectiveness of your campaign. It’s also helpful in ensuring your message resonates and increasing your company’s value proposition.
Transactional Loyalty vs Emotional Loyalty
Is it more important to win customers’ hearts or minds? Most agree that emotional loyalty is the pinnacle of success, where consumers will look to one particular brand regardless of price, convenience or other outside factors because they have a personal connection to the brand.
Transactional loyalty differs slightly. It refers to the retailer closest to home, or the one that consistently has the lowest prices. However, when certain conditions change (say a retailer opens even closer to home), then the customer's dollars are at risk of being spent elsewhere.
Emotional Loyalty-Earning Behaviors
There may not be a science to earning emotional loyalty, but we’ve discovered there are strategies that can be exercised that will put any business in position to connect on a deep level with customers.
1. Customer Involvement
Consumers want to know the organization they're doing business with. What are their values? Do your values match theirs? Organizational transparency helps people feel like they're part of the overall effort. This is especially true for young adults, 80 percent of whom prefer to do business with an organization that supports good causes. TOMS shoes and its One for One model are the perfect example of this. This also means an organization must be highly responsive. Poor customer service is the leading reason people bail on brands. If customers are dissatisfied with an aspect of a brand, let them win and change it. It sounds obvious, but a lot of companies still miss the mark on this point.
2. Customer Empowerment
If a business wants its customers to go all-in on loyalty, the entire organization needs to go all-in on serving their needs. Every attempt should be made to ingrain a product or service into customers’ lives. That means constant customer engagement and making every effort possible to make customers experts at using that product or service. Customers should be involved in shaping almost all aspects of the business, from product development to marketing. They need to feel like they have a say.
3. Customer Recognition
In general, people want to feel important. We're all suckers for personal recognition. Why do you think the bar Cheers was so popular? Examples of this might be a bottle of a guest's favorite wine when they check into the hotel, or a personal text just before a blowout sale. These are the relationship-building tactics that put a human face on a brand. Loyalty programs are another great way to do this.
See infographic below for a snapshot of SmartBomb Creative’s Emotional Loyalty Discovery Strategies and Research.
