Your Loyal Customers Shouldn't be Loyal to Your Products!

Customer loyalty is the highest form of consistent satisfactory experience for a customer with your business.

However, there are different outlooks on customer loyalty.

When you say you have loyal customers, you neglect the fact that there is a thin line between customers being loyal to your products VS to your business.

Will you be confident enough to say that your customers would still turn to you even if you change the factors that keep them hooked to your business??

For example, what if you stop offering lucrative money-saving deals? Will they still stick with you and continue their journey? Or choose some other brand that offers it?

Okay, let's bring a little narrative to this angle.

As per the NPS Benchmarks, Apple's NPS score in 2022 was 72! That's a higher score than the average NPS score of the entire consumer electronics industry!

The reason??

Their products? Well, no.

You might be surprised to know that Apple has more than 12 of the biggest product flops of all time. Also, back in September 2022, when The iPhone 14, 14 Pro, and AirPods Pro Gen 2 went live, people had issues with the Apple Store app and website not loading, financing not working, failure to verify phone numbers, and credit cards not working, etc.

So, despite quality issues, what still earns them the “throne of the Top Tech Company" among consumers?

Of course, the company works hard on maintaining its quality, but most importantly, its customers love them and not just their products.

Ever since Steve Jobs took over in 1977, every decision taken for the company had a "sense of emotional connect" with their customers. Before 1977, Apple computers were sold through chain stores. However, the brand felt that third-party resellers would have a negative impact on their reputation and the way customers buy their products. Because the third-party resellers would never be able to even resemble the values Apple wanted to offer to their customers. Soon, they launched their first-ever Apple Store in Virginia and overhauled their website. The focus was to carefully choose the right channel to engage with their customers.

Also, employees at an Apple store do not work for sales targets. Instead, they focus on selling products the A.P.P.L.E way!

A - approach the person in the store with a personalized welcome.

P - probe to understand what the person is after.

P - present a solution for the customer to take home.

L - listen for and resolve any issues or concerns the person might have.

E - end the conversation with a fond farewell.

Apart from this, their rigorous hiring process and strict policies for customer experiences say enough about how they have established a connection with their customers.

"YOUR CUSTOMERS NEED TO LOVE YOUR BRAND ALSO AND NOT JUST YOUR PRODUCTS"

Zhecho Dobrev, a principal consultant at Beyond Philosophy and the author, says that "Emotional connection creates preference over the competition. Customers don't just come back out of convenience. They see a difference between doing business with your company and other companies."

The connection we are talking about is based on emotions.

Professor Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli-American psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making says that customers don't choose the experiences but the memories of their experiences.

They remember the memory of their previous interactions with a salesperson or customer support, and if it is a good memory, they come back for a second and third time for a similar experience. Your customer expects the same experience and wants it to happen again.

THIS IS THE TIME when your relationship with them starts becoming solid, and eventually, your brand becomes a favorite for them, more than just a place to do business.

So, once you have your product and features in place, start working on building that emotional connection with your customers.

Because while emotional connection earns you loyalty, it makes the prices less relevant. And that can be your turning point, to eliminate customers from going to your competitors.

How to build an emotional connection with your customers

• Focus on details. Consistently deliver at every touchpoint, whether it is via customer calls, emails, any social media, or basic support.?
• Never forget the human connection. Digital communication often lacks the human connection with emotional touch, leading to unintended consequences. Address them, and build relationships. Because relationships often outweigh the technicalities. Apple's iPhone 14 series sales hit 26.09 million units two months after its release. Inspite of glitches in its prerelease.
• Make your customers feel special. There is a reason why Apple ads do not show product features. They don't sell products but rather a brand that represents dreams and aspirations. And remember that emotions can't be expressed in words but triggered unconsciously when you interact with them.
• Invest carefully in tools. When you set a direction for your customer service, it is important that you make it a part of your SLAs (Service-level agreements). While managing SLAs through customer support tools, it is important that it aligns with your approach.? A customer support tool has to have an architecture that lets you be as free as you can to serve your customers and earn their loyalty toward your brand. So, don't look just for "Advanced features'' but also an ecosystem that is sustainable for your business in the long run.

We would love to know how do you build an emotional connection with your customers? Leave a comment down below.