As more brands are building emotional loyalty into their customer loyalty strategies, it's important to know how best to approach this task. It's no secret that the relationship between consumers and brands has changed drastically over the last few years. There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is that consumers are no longer loyal to companies in the same way they used to be.
It can be challenging for brands to know the best approach to building these types of relationships. The key to success is understanding your customers' wants and needs. This allows for developing a plan that will help you build a lasting relationship. There are many ways to accomplish this, but one of the most powerful is by building emotional loyalty. Emotional loyalty means that your customers like you for reasons beyond their basic needs – it's about emotional connections that go beyond a transaction. And it's not just about customer retention either; emotional loyalty leads directly to brand loyalty in terms of repeat purchases and word-of-mouth referrals from existing customers. In the following Q&A, Cassie Preston, Director of Client Services, CRM & Loyalty at Baesman offers advice on how brands can create emotional connections with their customers.
What is Emotional Loyalty?
Emotional loyalty aims to create trust and belief in the brand's vision by making customers feel valued and understood. It involves understanding what each specific customer feels, down to their tastes and interests, in order to create a personalized interaction with them—from advertising to the purchase of the product.
How have brands’ loyalty programs evolved regarding emotional loyalty offerings?
Emotional benefits have always been a part of the purchase decision set. They've become more prevalent as customers seek experiences with brands that help them live their ideal lifestyle. The increase in loyalty offering we have seen is likely due to the pressure American consumers have been facing between the pervasive inflation and other economic and global events, there's no shortage of consumer behavior influences in today's world. And a brand's vision must be palatable and must provide ideals that attract customers—whether those ideals are altruistic in nature or reminders of life’s simple pleasures, customers want to know how a brand’s products will fit into their lifestyles.
What are the pros and cons of brands embracing emotional rewards versus transactional?
There are many pros to incorporating emotional loyalty concepts into your existing hard benefit or earn and burn rewards program.
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Connectedness with the customer:
Psychology plays an important role in meeting a customer where they are with the solutions that help them live their best lives. The same is true when creating lasting loyalty; a benefit that pulls at the heartstrings or encourages a stronger relationship between a brand and its customers can be much more effective than occasional discounts.
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Trust in the brand:
Without the trust of consumers in today’s environment, brands won’t be given the time of day. Building benefits that connect on a deeper, more personal level will build trust, which in turn brings a brand’s customers back again and again.
If you're considering emotional loyalty, it's important to listen to your customers. Be a steward of the information that you gather from your customers and make sure you validate your hunches before rolling out new benefits for them. If you're considering new benefits for the brand, it can be valuable to get feedback from your customers on how they might perceive such offerings. It's important to consider what loyal and prospective customers think about any new benefit set so as not to negatively impact existing or prospective customers.
KPIs and metrics to measure customer loyalty.
You should always strive to implement emotional loyalty as a strategy to help drive toward the pursuit of your overarching business goals. Some additional metrics might include:
- What is the take rate on the benefit?
- What are you hearing from your customer service teams – on the phone or in person?
- What are customers saying on social media?
This can help you shape your execution of emotional benefits to make them easy for customers to engage with.
Most successful companies today are those who understand the power of emotional loyalty and how to build it. Knowing how to use a brand’s personality and values, as well as what makes your customers unique, is key to creating an emotional connection with them. A strategy partner like Baesman can help you reward your existing customers, encourage viral engagement with your content, and motivate potential customers to take the desired action—all with the goal of creating an emotional connection that leaves your audience feeling valued.
