What is Customer Loyalty and Why is it Important?

Customer loyalty is described as a relationship between a consumer and retailer of a brand that came together as a result of the level of service and quality of product the retailer provides. A loyal customer trusts you and will come back to you for future purchases. The modern consumer today expects more from his online retail experience. A first time customer may become a loyal customer once they experience the level of attention and detail your store provides them with. 

Who do you think is more persuasive? Someone who has been providing regular useful content on finance applications like student loans, has an active finance blog, or newsletter and goes the extra mile to make the customer remember them and in this way creates loyalty, or someone who does none of this?

Loyal customers shop regularly with you and recommend you to others, especially on social media.

Here are methods that you can use to build customer loyalty but we will discuss briefly different types of loyal customers and how to consider them.

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What are the Types of Loyal Customer?

There are different levels of customer loyalty. To enjoy success its important to differentiate this level. The section also gives you more insights into methods you can use to gain loyalty. There are six groups of loyal customers and we are describing each one.

Happy Customers

The happy customer is a term applied at a broad level to all customers. Shipping with you or using a service doesn’t make every customer happy. They chose you because you are convenient and not because the service makes them happy. These are also the easiest customers to lose. A competitor launches a marketing campaign with better deals than you can ever offer. They will jump ship before you can blink. Keeping the customer happy means staying on top of your competition.

You have to do better than them.

Price-Loyal Customers

The modern consumer values price as an important consideration. If you offer your service at a better price than what your competition does the price-loyal customers will stay with you. However note that price is the only reason they are with you. This is especially true for customers on fashion websites.

If there’s a better deal elsewhere they will jump ship without thinking twice about that.

There’s a line between keeping price-loyal customers happy and spending a lot of money to do so. There’s another reason why you need to analyze your customer base regularly.

It’s not a sound strategy to continually drop your price for your competition. It simply cuts into your income and price loyal customers may jump ship anyway.

Convenience-Loyal Customers

The convenience loyal customers are yet another class will stay as long as they have to.

They shop regularly with you because the service and price is good and your website is super easy to use.

Convenience is important as many don’t have the time to keep hunting for the right service provider or the right outlet.

These set of customers are likely to switch to others because of better prices. Changing means signing up to a new account, sharing information and finding their way around the shop with which they don’t have much information.

They already know where they can purchase and what they can get quickly and easily. Keeping convenience loyal customers happy translates to creating great customer experiences for them.

Loyalty Program Customers

This is the fickle customer who’s only with you because the loyalty program serves them well.

They shop with you because the rewards you offer are better than what the competition offers up until now. That’s good meaning you can attract customers through good deals. But this isn’t a customer who maintains a genuine relationship with you.

If they see a better loyalty offer elsewhere there’s a reason for them to move. The way to keep this customer is to ensure your loyalty program is improved over time.

Freebie-Loyal Customers

These customers don’t come to you because of the product or the service you offer.  They are here to mop up all possible freebies. If you offer free wifi while no one else does they will be happily around you. If your garage offers free oil change they are with you. This customer may buy your service but the attraction is in the freebies.  For instance, they may be a part of your  new project management courses only because it’s loaded with several free modules.

One of the easiest ways to attract this type of customers is to run a giveaway on social media and offer branded freebies. Not only can it help to boost following fast, but it can also attract people who have interest in your brand and therefore can become your paying customers with time. For example, to attract freebie-loyal customers, if your niche is HVAC learners, a course detailing HVAC license exam is a must-have. Give it to them for free.

Truly Loyal

The truly loyal customer is one that has a genuine and ongoing relationship with your product or brand. These consumers are emotionally inspired by what you do. They believe in your offer across products or services. You can book easy appointments with truly loyal customers and gather their feedback on what they need from you.

Because they already tied your business to them that doesn’t mean you can get away with paying them less attention. This is the customer who tells everyone else how good you are and they will help you grow your customer base. They are your brand ambassadors and you need to keep them happy.

These six groups are well defined and each arrrives for a different reason. For a segment that’s profitable you can determine how to improve customer loyalty through loyalty management.

How to Gain Customer Loyalty?

There are different ways with which you can gain loyalty among customers and the above categories lend us al some inspiration.

How to Earn, Build and Increase Customer Loyalty?

Customer loyalty comes as a result of giving your customers what they want, at the right process and with the highest degree of convenience. Let’s start by understanding where to start and how to earn customer loyalty.

Fully explain your program and who’s it for. You can always use the help of an AI writer to edit the text.

Earning Customer Loyalty

You have an online store selling a product that other stores also sell. Why should new customers choose you over others. First off, you need SEO to make yourselves present in front of others. Have a website with great copy plus a great marketing campaign to put yourself on the map of your target audience.

Defining the audience is a function of how well you researched your market and how soon you are ready to go.