Sneak has been sent a press release entitled "How To Make Your Promiscuous Customer Faithful Through Symbiotic Loyalty". This arresting item was issued by Forrester Research and comes to the startling conclusion that customers don't tend to remain loyal to suppliers that try to squeeze too much money out of them. According to Forrester's Hellen Omwando, "Consumers have become less loyal because they believe that most competing products offer the same value and that price is more important than brand." Or, to put it another way, customers have found that changing supplier typically brings little improvement in the third-rate service on offer, but can save a bit of cash. So what can suppliers do to break out of this cynical circle? According to Forrester, vendors should seek to win truly loyal customers: "Those who stick with particular firms or brands because of their emotional connections."
And how are companies supposed to make this emotional connection with their customers? "Firms need to start measuring the return on loyalty (ROL), which quantifies the value that loyal customers generate and will tell them when to invest in these loyalists - or when it's time to break up," Forrester concludes.
Sneak would suggest that offering value for money and good old-fashioned customer service might be a better start, but perhaps that would sound a bit too bleeding obvious. After all, Forrester doesn't want its loyal customers to conclude that they could come up with this kind of stuff themselves, for nothing.

25 Nov 2004