The old doctrine of satisfied customers' equal loyal customers no longer applies. Satisfied customers are only in the store until they receive a better offer from a competitor or until they feel that you stepped them over their toes or taken excessive charges for services. The idea is to create enthusiasm among your customers, so that they will recommend your company to others. When your customers recommend your company and your services to others, they put their personal reputation and prestige at stake. Most people will only run the risk, if they can really vouch for their recommendation. That is if they truly are sincerely loyal to your business.
The reason to use recommendation and loyalty as key indicator on the customer side rather than a satisfaction measurement is that satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal customers. It is more likely that customers have not yet:
... been contacted with a better offer from a competing firm
... have been greeted by poor service or experienced that expectations have not lived up to reality
A satisfaction survey alone is no guarantee of more satisfied, loyal and recommendation willing customers. What's really accelerating the development of your business is when you start working with the results and translate survey results into action plans. But often the many good initiatives are stranded, since you cannot follow up effort. A management tool is missing to be able to monitor the outcome of the effort.
The key to be able to follow up on the effort is that you have a single, action-oriented and easy to communicate indicator, which are measured continuously and as the result of the initiatives being undertaken. Research has shown that the question: "Would you recommend company X to friend/colleagues?" is a solid indicator of a company’s future economic growth.
Based on this question we can provide a simple C7-score. The question is answered on a scale of 1-7 and in the light of this the customers are divided into three segments based on their willingness to recommend. The C7 score is an important component of Enalyzer’s newest concept for measuring customer loyalty.
Do you also have challenges with disloyal customers, then please contact Senior Consultant Henrik Nielsen at +45 70107006 or directly at henrik.nielsen@enalyzer.dk
