Chapter 04 - Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction and Loyalty

 


We are living in a digital era, in which almost everything is digitalized. Rapid developments in technology do immense innovations and conversions to the old-fashioned processes and procedures to develop new versions of products and services to make the customers feel comfortable and have a new experience. The latest version of marketing is to create customer value through the organization’s products and services. Customers always expect a product or service that gives them their desired perceived value for their money. Sometimes they use their past experiences to measure the quality of the marketers’ offerings. That so-called perceived value may depend on person to person based on their buying behavior and other individual factors. As marketers, their new assignment is to identify the real requirements of the customers and tailor-made their existing product line with the expected value to satisfy the customers’ needs.  

 

Different ways to add value to the customer 

  • Enhance the quality of the products and services 
  • Deliver an unforgettable positive experience 
  • Regular review of customer feedback 
  • Upgrade the organization’s processes and procedures efficiently and effectively 
  • Think from the customer’s point of view 
  • Providing regular training and development for employees in the front line 

 

There are many other ways to create value for the customers. Customers now expect a product or service and experience with them. They will not be satisfied just with a product. They need the attention and caring for them from the marketers. They expect tailor-made solutions for their requirements. If it is in the product market, it is possible to add value to the product by giving after sales services, customer feedback, providing guidance for using the product etc. But, if it is the service market, it is a quite challenging for the service providers to add value to the service they provide, since the quality of the service mainly depends on the person who provides it even there are some other factors are affecting. Marketers in service industry can implement SERV Qual model to enhance the quality of the services they provide with value additions which includes: 

  • Reliability 
  • Assurance 
  • Tangibles 
  • Empathy 
  • Responsiveness 

 

In the long run, this value creation process through customer relationship management will create loyal customers to the organization who will voluntarily bring more businesses to the organization. Being a loyal customer, he/she will be with the business for more years. Marketers are responsible for retaining those loyal customers by delivering customized products and services with memorable positive experiences.  

 

Brand loyalty  

When we make our purchase decisions, sometimes we stick to certain brands for some goods or services. Since we have immense solutions for a certain need, usually we tend to use different products to see which brands suit our requirements. After some time, we will commit to a particular brand which fulfills our requirements which is called “Brand Loyalty”.  

Ex: Mobile phones : Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi 

      Watches : Rolex, Tissot, Titan 

 

To build brand loyalty, marketers must reach their customers strategically by delivering a superior experience to them. It is not that easy to build brand loyalty in the customers’ mind. A proper marketing plan along with correct segmentation and targeting will position the brand name in the customers’ mindset. However, today we are living in a digitalized world where everything is just one click away. As a result of digitalization, most of the marketers do not meet the customers physically. Hence, it is quite challenging for the marketers to build brand loyalty in a digital world. Anyway, they must reach them strategically by providing high quality products and services. 




 

Brand loyalty in a digital age 

As I mentioned earlier, todays’ businesses transactions are one click away from the customers. Due to Covid-19 pandemic situation, all the business organizations turned their steering from usual physical marketing approaches to digital platforms. As a result, a few concepts like work from home, online purchasing, online meetings, online learning etc., became more popular among the community. People got used to it because it made them comfortable doing their transactions or office work at home, which is a cost reduction for them. From the business point of view, it is a cost reduction for them also, since they need less resources to provide their services to the in-house customers. It is somehow easy to build brand loyalty, if the customers come physically to the premises since they can see each other. However, it is quite challenging to build brand loyalty through digital platforms since the buyer and seller do not meet each other.  

 

How can a marketer build brand loyalty through digital platform? 

Usually, a strong business relationship is built purely based on “trust”. For any kind of transaction, trust is the most important factor all the time. A customer to have trust in the business organization, he must have the confidence to transact with that company continuously. To build that confidence in customers’ minds, marketers must implement proper mechanisms to provide an excellent product or service with a memorable experience.  

Example  

Let's take the banking industry as an example. Previously, customers used to visit the bank to do all kinds of transactions which took lots of time and effort to complete them. With the technological advancements all the banks are now providing digital banking services for the customers who do not have enough time to go to the bank and who prefer privacy when doing their banking transactions. In this kind of a situation, first, marketers must have a proper procedure regarding the privacy and the confidentiality of customers’ sensitive information which is provided at the initial stage of the digital transaction. Because sometimes we heard about hacking of websites and getting customers’ information for any other reason. Hence, customers think twice before entering a business transaction online.  

When introducing digital banking or mobile banking facilities to the customer, marketers should be mindful of using high-quality software with higher level of data security. Then make the customers aware of those implementations when introducing the digital banking facility to them. It should be a user-friendly app that gives the control of managing sensitive information of the customers to them and it should be a comfortable experience for the customers. When customers are getting used to the digital platform for a considerable period, they realize that their information, transactions and money are safe and secure with the bank. That sense will lead to build a brand loyalty in the customers’ minds. Because the bank is providing a secure digital banking platform for their customers to do all the banking transactions without any hesitation. That trust between the bank and the customer will create a good business relationship and the customers become loyal to the bank because of their “superior banking experience”. 

 

**** Todays’ customers expect experiences from the business organizations rather than just products and services. Hence, it is the responsibility of the marketers to provide their products and services to the customers with a great experience.  

 

 

 

 

 

References  

  1. 1. Avgeropoulos, I (n.d.). Marketing Planning: Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction and Loyalty (PPT). Chapter 4 - Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction, and Loyalty.pptx (sharepoint.com) 


  1. 2. Henderson, C (13.09.2018). Salesforce Blog: How Do Brands Build Customer Loyalty in a Digital World. Retrieved February, 01 2024, from How Do Brands Build Customer Loyalty in a Digital World? - Salesforce   

    

  

 

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