One of the most important pursuits for any company is maximum customer loyalty. In fact, we’ve devoted countless blog posts to this idea, and we’ve structured our mystery-shopping service around the idea of earning that loyalty. Why? Because loyal customers equate to repeat business, naturally, and they also lead to referrals and positive word-of-mouth. Loyal customers represent the foundation of any business that aspires to grow, and they are a massive boon to your company’s reputation.
Consequently, keeping that loyalty is just as important as earning it. In fact, one could even think about it like you’re having to re-earn that loyalty over and over. On its face, that may sound Sisyphean, but maintaining customer loyalty is really about having great customer service habits. Do everything right all the time, and the loyalty will happen naturally.
Loyalty Is Easily Lost
In a recent article for Forbes, Shep Hyken discusses how tenuous customer loyalty can be in the face a bad experience: “67% are likely to switch from companies they are loyal to after a rude or apathetic experience.” But inconsiderate employees aren’t the only weak point: “63% are likely to switch because of the inability to connect with someone for customer support.”
Consider those two statistics. One is about how a customer feels underappreciated, and the other is about how inconvenient it is to work with a business. There are potentially a lot of reasons a customer chooses to shop with one company over another, but one such triumvirate is care, convenience, and cost. We don’t have to tell you that chasing cost is a race to the slimmest margins and the biggest compromises, so throw that one out.
Understand Why
Instead, think about how care and convenience are worthy pursuits, and how they’re well within your power to influence through training and strategy. Hyken encourages us to ask ourselves some questions to really understand our relationships with customers, two of which are really critical: “Why do customers do business with us instead of the competition?” and “Why do customers choose to do business with a competitor instead of us?” As he admits, it’s easy to generalize our answers and just say “great service,” but you need more detail to understand why. What about the service makes it great? Knowing the answer to that question, especially regarding your competitors, is crucial. “If you don’t have intel on what your competitors are doing that you’re not, you’re missing out on some great information. Figure it out, because it’s important!”
Quantifying what makes your business (or your competitor’s) more caring or more convenient is more complex than, say, comparing cost. To find those answers, you need to look closely, to gather as much information as possible so you can compare and contrast. It’s been a while since we last mentioned competitive mystery shopping, but that’s the key.
Competitive Intelligence
Mystery shops give you the tools you need to understand what your customers like and don’t like about your business, what facets of the experience are making or breaking it. Competitive mystery shopping gives you that same information—but not just for your company, but also for your competitors too. We encourage you to check out our page on the service, and to reach out as soon as you’re ready to begin. Customer loyalty is out there for the taking; don’t stand by and watch your competitors make off with yours. Let’s get started asap!
