Types of Loyalty: Understanding and Mastering the Key to Success

Customer loyalty, is the An essential pillar of any successful business. It consists in establishing strong and lasting relationships with your customers, keeping them coming back again and again. In this article, we are going to explore in detail the different types of loyalty to help you perfect your loyalty strategy.

Induced or Subed Loyalty

Induced loyalty, also called sustained loyalty, occurs when customers stay with a business for lack of alternatives or by duress. This type of loyalty can be deceptive because it's not based on genuine brand preference.

For example, imagine a subscription to an essential public service such as water or electricity. Customers often have no choice and are “loyal” out of necessity rather than deliberate choice. The objective here is to transform this loyalty suffered into a loyalty sought after by offering good customer experiences and creating an emotional attachment to the brand.

It is important to note that the loyalty experienced is generally not not desirable for businesses, because it is not based on positive relationships, but rather on a lack of options for customers. Companies that operate in markets where loyalty is frequent must be aware of this situation and strive to offer quality service to maintain the customer satisfaction despite the lack of competition.

The Loyalty Wanted

The loyalty sought is the holy grail of customer loyalty. This means that customers deliberately choose your business among a multitude of options available. So they generally enjoy the quality of your products or services, your customer service, and maybe even share values common with your business.

The loyalty sought is based on active efforts to create emotional connections, provide an exceptional customer experience, and keep customers coming back voluntarily.

To achieve this type of loyalty, it is essential to understand your customers, meet their needs, and maintain constant communication to retain them.

The loyalty sought is based on these 5 pillars:

Emotional Commitment : This means that customers feel committed to the brand, appreciate the values of the company, and have a positive relationship with it.

The customer experience : This includes excellent customer service, product or service customization, simple processes, and positive interactions at every touchpoint.

Listening to customer feedback : Actively listening to customer feedback and using it to improve their products, services, and processes greatly promotes customer loyalty. It shows customers that their opinions are valued.

Creating a community : Businesses can encourage the creation of communities around their products or services. For example, a video game company might create an online forum where players can discuss their experiences.

Proactive loyalty programs : Loyalty programs are designed to reward customers for their ongoing engagement with the business. However, in the loyalty sought, these programs are designed to anticipate customer needs and encourage them to return.

Behavioral Fidelity

Behavioral loyalty is a crucial concept in the field of customer loyalty. It refers to the measurement of customer loyalty based on their repeated actions towards your business. It can occur in several ways such as the frequency of purchases, the length of the customer relationship, and the propensity to recommend your business to others.

This form of loyalty goes far beyond simple intentions and declarations of loyalty, because it is translated into concrete behaviors.

Actions can be put in place such as Loyalty programs. Based on rewards, loyalty points, or discounts for loyal customers, they are examples of strategies to strengthen behavioral loyalty.

Example: A loyalty card from a bookstore that rewards customers for each purchase. Customers are encouraged to come back to earn points and benefit from exclusive discounts, which reinforces their loyalty to the bookstore.

Attitudinal Loyalty

Attitudinal fidelity focuses on sentiments And the attitudes customers towards your business. They have a positive attitude towards your brand and are emotionally attached to it. These customers are more forgiving towards the occasional mistakes and are more likely to forgive you. An example of attitudinal loyalty is that of an unconditional fan of a sports team who remains loyal to his team even in times of defeat.

To cultivate this type of loyalty, be sure to create memorable customer experiences, ofActively listen to feedback of your customers, and to show a genuine concern for their satisfaction.

You can use the social networks in order to offer a good experience to your customers, responding quickly to requests.

Example: A cell phone brand can gain attitudinal loyalty by providing excellent after-sales service, resolving customer issues quickly, and maintaining an active social media presence to listen and respond to customer concerns.