Customer loyalty is becoming an increasingly difficult fish to catch. It is widely thought to be one of the most valuable assets any company operating in any industry can have at its disposal, and yet it is growing increasingly clear that modern consumers are weary of corporations and businesses, even when they continue to make use of their services.
As of 2019, one statistic demonstrated that only 34% of customers trusted the brands they used. For anyone considering investing more into customer loyalty, this can cause a little confusion. Is it worth investing so much into fostering loyalty in a customer base, if so many of them are in a somewhat dichotomous relationship with brands?
Absolutely – and the relationship doesn’t need to be founded upon a contradiction, either. From consumer-facing incentive schemes to B2B customer loyalty programmes, there are many case studies and statistics demonstrating how valuable loyalty remains to building customer engagement and retention.
What do the Statistics Show?
It is thought that around 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers, as of 2021. For any consumer-facing company, large or small, it is clear that investing significant time and attention into fostering loyalty is the key to growth, rather than doggedly pursuing new business and leads.
Similarly, according to the renowned B2B customer loyalty agency incentivesmart.com, their incentives schemes have been shown to increase customer engagement by 25% – and, in so doing, driven sales by 19.5%. So, even in the realm of business-to-business loyalty programs – where sales and longstanding customer relationships work totally differently – a decided investment into this area clearly does not go amiss.
This paints a clear picture, one that spans the very disparate worlds of B2C and B2B, of customers still looking to form those lasting relationships. Actively boosting loyalty via B2C or B2B incentive programs, then, represents the ideal way to meet them in the middle, and begin growing your platform from there.
Will it Work for You?
There are so many short- and long-term benefits to pursuing customer loyalty schemes, and this is precisely why the approach works across the separate realms of consumer-facing and business-to-business sales.
From avoiding the disruption and high cost of short-term customer retention strategies to the palpable benefits of repurchases over one-of sales, actively developing loyalty is something that has worked for the overwhelming majority of businesses in operation today. It offers a sustainable option for altering customer behaviours for the better, and, most importantly, investing directly into the most valuable asset a business can have: a retained customer base.
Building trust and loyalty with customers is still a distinct possibility, and one that many companies are already benefitting from. It takes a measured and highly specialised approach – one of the reasons why working with an incentives scheme agency comes so highly recommended from those who have already ‘made it’ with regards to their own loyalty programs – but, with a tailored scheme at your disposal, you stand to see many benefits from the get-go.