Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Expectation matching key to customer loyalty

Each brand's customers have similar yet distinct interests and expectations, and long-term customer loyalty is dependent upon the brand's ability to understand them, not only when they're acquired but also to use a data-centric marketing strategy to drive brand engagement and make them into loyal brand advocates.

According to Mark Johnson, CEO for Loyalty 360, "When the expectations of both the consumer and the brand are understood and refined through a process of interactive dialogue, the expectation is matched, and mutually beneficial outcomes and financial benefit for the brand are created."

So 'expectation matching' happens when customer-centric brands create both brand loyalty and engagement by using behavioural insights gleaned through a proactive dialogue with their customers.

"Marketers believe that they know what is best for their customers, and through countless customer experience surveys they think they understand what their consumers want. Yet, we know that people are inherently irrational and what they tell you in a feedback mechanism may not mirror their actual behaviour or desires," warned Johnson. "Marketers that successfully cultivate loyal brand advocates do so by implementing a true voice of the customer model to create a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the customer. Only with this insight can marketers deliver a brand experience that matches and ultimately exceeds customer expectations."

Brands that do not meet the expectations of their customers typically resort to using discounting, gimmicks and other methods to entice potential customers to purchase from them. This practice is not new; it has been around for years in the form of coupons, free-standing inserts (FSIs), and other price-conscious campaigns. The idea is that the brand should offer a significant discount that will encourage customers to buy it, try it, but it's not a long term strategy because customers never know if the brand will do so more than once.

Johnson believes that this 'acquisition without expectation' mentality is detrimental: "I would argue that you harm the brand indefinitely when, from the onset of the relationship, you tell the customer that you will give them a huge discount to purchase their brand. Doing this creates divergent expectations and, since the brand is not going to exceed or even meet customer experience, there's really no hope that the customer will re-engage with the brand."

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)