BUILDING BRAND LOYALTY BY IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

In 2018, a study into the habits of consumers was carried out by professional services provider PwC. An insightful finding from this study was that there appears to be a distinct connection between a customer’s experience with a company and their intention to stay loyal to the same brand, with 73 per cent of people in the survey claiming that they would be loyal to a brand if they had a good customer experience with them in the past. Building customer loyalty for your brand is important both for the brand and the consumer. While the brand reaps the benefits of further spending from the same customers returning, the customers that are continuing to return are clearly enjoying the product or service the brand is providing. Additionally, it’s more cost effective for the brand, as marketing consultancy providers Bain & Company claim that it can be anywhere between five and 25 per cent more expensive to entice new customers than it is to appease existing ones. According to consumer experts Retail Customer Experience, brands that provide a superior customer experience are likely to bring as much as 5.7 times more revenue than brands that don’t. With this in mind, it could be worth gauging the thoughts of your customers in relation to their experience with your brand. In this post, we focus on how the choice of in-store background music could be the difference between keeping and losing valuable customers. But, as a manager or employer, it’s crucial that you keep members of staff engaged, focused and motivated when working from home. HOW DOES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DRIVE LOYALTY? In simple terms, a customer experience is a holistic perception of how a consumer has encountered your brand. Depending on the type of brand, a customer experience could involve a number of elements. In highstreet shops and many other bricks and mortar business spaces, in-store music is a key part of the customer experience. A report by the Journal of Marketing found that 70 per cent of retail customers polled said they preferred shops that played music. Additionally, 63 per cent said that they were actually likely to spend more money in shops that played music. Traditionally, an online customer experience would be based on how easy a website is to navigate and whether there’s sufficient support available for customers that require assistance. However, to enhance the digital shopping experience, many retail businesses now incorporate music into their websites. A positive offline customer experience is generally based on three factors: branding, atmosphere and customer service. And you may not realise it, but music actually has an effect on all three of these elements. Branding – Creating an identity helps to make your brand recognisable and memorable, and it also increases your chances of connecting with your target audience. In-store music plays a role in this process, as the type of music you play can improve the experience of your customers while reflecting your brand’s style and audience. Atmosphere – By creating an enjoyable atmosphere for your customers, you’re encouraging them to return in the future. People have increasingly high expectations when it comes to shopping experiences, and as well as being able to find the products they’re after, they want the time they spend in shops to be enjoyable and capable of generating feelings, changing mood and taking the customer back to past memories. Customer service – The soundscape of retail outlets can impact on people’s perception of how they’re treated. The right tracks have the potential to lift people’s mood, making them feel more relaxed and generally happier. In the case of employees, it can also increase motivation. Both of these things can help to make any interactions between shoppers and workers more positive and enjoyable. HOW TO CREATE BRAND LOYALTY THROUGH CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Encouraging loyalty among your customer base can be difficult so you should carefully consider your choice of in-store music and ensure it reflects your brand and resonates with your target demographic. Once you’ve started playing a specific genre of music in your stores consistently, customers may connect with it on an emotional level and recall it long after they’ve left your shop or business. Not only does this mean that the music could resonate with customers as being something relevant to them, but it could mean that they will hear the music in the future, recall the brand and return to it. Supporting this idea, a study by the University of Leicester found that companies that use music which fits with their brand identity were 96 per cent more likely to be remembered by consumers than businesses that play poorly chosen music or no music at all.

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