Customer Relationship is a process of establishing long term connections with your customers. Retailers must be able to make their customers come back to them often because of the strong relationship built. Customers reward Retailers with repeat buying in case the relationship is satisfying for them.
Customer loyalty refers to strong patronage to a single brand of products or services that a customer gets affiliated to, irrespective of significant noise about competition circling her/him. The critical point to note here is about not being influenced to switch to another brand or service. The loyalty is so strong that it is a deep commitment to re-patronize consistently
In my example, when I need to do international travel, I just lead to Emirates to book my tickets without even looking at what prices other airlines are offering. I do not get motivated to browse umpteen travel sites that provide a price comparison of various operators. Beyond just mere loyalty, this is genuinely blending your confidence onto a brand implicitly
In a Customer Relationship journey, the first step is to build a relationship with customers and then convert them to true loyalty status. To move Customers from relationship to loyalty, customization, and personalization come into play from the service provider angle. In return, the Customer becomes the brand ambassador to others, echoing brand uniqueness time and again.
Relationships are benefits that a customer enjoys over and above the product or service, she/he acquires and views it as her/his personal gain for being a regular customer. When such a relationship attains a solidarity position where he is unattracted to switch loyalties, she/he turns into a truly loyal customer. As the customer reaches true loyalty status, her/his perceived demand would be to get special treatment. If a brand can satisfy that aspiration of a truly loyal customer, the longevity gets further strengthened, and a solid bond gets established. This unshakeable bond makes the customer own the brand as if it is her/his own and fight for righteous demand if things are seen not being up to the regularly experienced brand status
Another critical aspect that merits attention in the Customer journey from relationship to true loyalty is constant communication from the brand to build trust. Two-way communication can enhance trust and lead ways to understand the customer better, further leading way to personalization.
In designing Retail ViVA, this vital aspect of two-way communication and personalization is integrated into our Customer Relationship Module (CRM) design since being so essential to build customer loyalty. A well-conceived CRM module is so vital to convert customer relationships to true loyalty
Every customer you acquire goes through a journey from being just a customer simpliciter to relationship customer to true loyal customer. While customer goes through this journey based on trust, experience, and perceptions, it is Retailers who need to work to enable such trust, experience, and sound perceptions. To conclude, the Retailer must give utmost importance to enhancing the relationship with customers to true loyalty.
Written by
(Ragu)nathan Kannan