By Rob Markey
You have great loyalty scores and low customer churn. But sales are flat—or worse. What’s going on? You may have failed to capture the economic potential of the goodwill in your customer base. Here are three ways to transform loyalty into bottom-line results:
- LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR MOST LOYAL CUSTOMERS. Converting feelings into action requires knowing exactly what you did to earn their loyalty, so you can replicate the action and extend it. The Vanguard Group, for example, makes a point of interviewing a sample of clients who have convinced others to bring business to the firm. The company asks these clients how they came to be enthusiastic about Vanguard and what they told the other person.
- TUNE YOUR OFFERINGS TO MEET THEIR NEEDS. Banks have developed smartphone apps to enable instant deposits and other forms of self-service—which both pleases customers and allows branch staff to concentrate less on routine transactions and more on providing the personal services that their customers value. Some utilities help customers finance, install and maintain their own systems for solar-roof panels.
- HELP THEM SPREAD THE WORD. Provide customers with the kind of experience they’ll want to share with their friends.The employees of First Service Residential, a property-management company, create goodwill when they take the time to open doors and carry groceries for residents. Or, a customer’s story might reflect exceptional service in a crisis—like the time I tweeted my dismay about my flight being rescheduled and suddenly got a call from a JetBlue representative.
- Set up a platform for customers to tell their stories to a wider audience. These platforms can take the form of online communities, such as Adobe Marketplace & Exchange Classic, or real-world communities, such as LEGO user groups.
Rob Markey is a partner and director in Bain & Co.’s New York office.