Five timeless nuggets of wisdom on customer loyalty

Five CX experts share their advice on how to drive customer loyalty and boost retention

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Adam Jeffs
Adam Jeffs
01/26/2023

cx customer loyalty quotes list

When it comes to nurturing customer loyalty, the go-to model is the loyalty program. Whether it’s a mobile app or old school card, the average customer is a member of 15 loyalty programs – and although this proves the popularity of loyalty programs with customers, such fierce competition is unlikely to help the brand behind the offers.

This article presents five nuggets of wisdom on the topic of customer loyalty. This carefully curated advice from the experts looks beyond discounts and dives into the nuances of customer loyalty and retention, the need for omnichannel, self-service and personalized experiences, and the importance of emotional connections in a digital age.

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Let your customer tell you how to retain them

In CX Network’s Digital Customer Experience: Expert Insight eBook André Grandt, customer experience chapter lead and transformation officer at Roche offered some insight into just how important customer feedback can be.

Grandt explained: “The needs of your customers is your destination and your customers are the pilots of the transportation. Get to know your pilots the best you can and they will take you to where you need to go. They know the shortcuts as well.”

Grandt’s advice can help to take the strain away from many brands that are seeking to deliver on unique and innovative experiences that delight their customers and secure long-term loyalty. What Grandt is highlighting in this quote is that brands do not need to reinvent the wheel or innovate at the forefront of their industry as, in many cases, customers already know what they want and are not afraid to tell you if you ask.

Serve your customers on the channels they prefer

In the CX Network guide Personalize CX with data-driven self-service Michele Carlson, senior product marketing manager at NICE, discussed the increasing complexity of customer interactions and why a wide array of options with regard to how customers interact with brands is detrimental to customer loyalty.

Carlson said: “Technology advancements enable consumers to interact with more brands and more channels than ever before. With more interactions, brands must manage the increasing opportunity for comparisons and higher expectations. The increasing emphasis to meet customer needs on digital channels is rapidly shifting their expectations and, therefore, businesses’ priorities.”

In this quote, Carlsen summed up the trend of increasing customer demand for choice with regard to channel interactions and how this is affecting the approach of businesses. Since the Covid-19 lockdowns which prevented physical interactions with brands for a period, convenience and choice have become a must have for customers across the globe. Forcing customers to come into a store or office or to call a phone number with heavy tolls is simply not acceptable to the customers of today.

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Make experiences personal and let customers serve themselves

In CX Network’s Driving customer loyalty and retention in financial services report Shirley Campbell, director of CX at digital payment platform Payoneer offered some advice for improving on customer retention levels in the financial services field.

Campbell said: “Digital experience investments must be made around the core of CX. When customers choose your digital channels, they look for an easy, personalized, fully self-serviced experience. If your company is looking to stay up to date with digital CX trends, I strongly suggest making it about choice. Focus on personalization, on end-to-end self-service flows and allow automation that will simplify the process for customers and reduce their efforts while interacting.”

Campbell’s advice can be seen as a warning to brands that have not made keeping up with digital trends a focus of their business. Customers are very much aware of the way these trends are going and are not blind to the offerings of your competitors. The fact that many customers would expect experiences to be personal to them and would prefer to serve themselves is now undeniable and a failure to meet these demands results in the isolation of entire customer segments.

Build an emotional connection with your customers

In the CX Network guide Personalize CX with data-driven self-service Jan Richards, CX Network advisory board member and head of customer experience for Irish Life Group discussed the idea that while we live in a world that is increasingly digital since the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for a human touch is still very much present.

Richards explained: “We increasingly need an emotional connection. This is about showing you understand your customer and care about them. The human touch, in person or online, is crucial, as is trust. Keep my data safe. If there has been a problem, tell me. Years of overselling and data breaches mean it is harder for companies to earn this trust. If you want self-service to be your gateway to a more loyal customer base you need to think more strategically than before the Covid-19 pandemic, not less.”

The Covid-19 pandemic and the disruption it caused left many customers feeling understandably frustrated with the level of service that was available to them. As a result of this, many of the interactions were emotionally charged and customers required more care than usual. Brands that delivered on this set themselves apart by seeking to build emotional connections in their digital offerings and the demand for such service has not faded since.

Balance the needs of the business with those of the customer

Like his colleagues at Bain, NPSx co-founder Stan Swinton is the authority on CX over profit and the gains that can be found in putting customers first. While it is a longer route to achieving business outcomes, it is the fast-track to customer loyalty.

Swinton said: “What we are finding is that if you focus on the customer longer term the financials tend to work themselves out as opposed to the other way round. If you focus on the long-term and the health of customer relationships, then over time the companies that do that are outperforming others financially.” 

In light of this, it is always worth considering how customers will engage with your experiences and what you can do to ensure that they deliver what customers are looking for. Brands that focus only on the bottom line will miss key opportunities to attract new customers that will improve the brand's prfitability in the long-term.

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