9 keys to brand happiness and satisfied customers

9 Keys to Brand Happiness and More Satisfied Customers

If you need a recipe for making satisfied customers, here it is. Here are nine factors satisfied customers say contributes to their happiness with a brand.

Satisfied Customers Say These 9 Things Make Them Happy with Brands

Customer satisfaction is the basis of repeat purchases, loyalty and referrals. Without it, a brand has to win over the buyer with each new transaction. With it, the brand can focus on moving the customer relationship to the next level, or even leverage the relationship to create new relationships through reviews and referrals.

More than one-third of men (36%) and nearly as many women (29%) say that brand loyalty notwithstanding, they would consider other alternatives (Crowdtwist). Given the high cost of customer acquisition, understanding the factors that contribute most to customer satisfaction, repeat purchases and loyalty can help you refine your marketing and the buying journey.

Forget the wow factor; focus on the “now” factor to make more satisfied customers.

Many companies devote all their marketing resources to creating a “wow” factor, in the form of a brilliant campaign or memorable moment in the buying journey. While neither is wrong, a new MarketingSherpa study shows that it’s not the “wow” but what’s happening in the “now” that matters most. For a majority of satisfied customers, consistently having positive experiences with a brand each and every time – in the “now” – was key. Let’s take a closer look at the nine factors cited as contributing to their happiness with brands by satisfied customers.

9 Keys to Brand Happiness and More Satisfied Customers

54% – Consistently Good Experiences

You can’t afford to have “a bad day” in a competitive marketplace. Satisfied customers didn’t point to surprise, delight, or any other “wow factor” when talking about brands that made them happy. Rather, they pointed to brands that made them happy every time, time after time.

43% – Easy to Do Business With

Any time your processes, procedures, policies, practices or people get in the way of customer success, it detracts from their experience. Customers want you to make it easy for them to engage with your brand, buy from it, get information, and so on, on the channels they want to use to do so (website, email, phone, in-person, etc.)

35% – Not Always Closing

The memorable line spoken by Alex Baldwin’s character in Glengarry Glen Ross “Always be closing” became symbolic of sales and marketing; and indeed, seems to be the mantra many in sales follow today. However, satisfied customers say that the brands they’re happiest with aren’t always trying to sell them, but always try to provide value, instead.

34% – Not Intrusive

You might have tools that allow you to track a prospect’s every move; however, consumers don’t necessarily want to feel like they are being tracked (or stalked!)  73 percent of Baby Boomers and 58 percent of consumers age 35-54 disagreed or strongly disagreed with the idea that it would help them if a physical store new about the online research they’d done on them prior to arriving.  82 percent of Baby boomers and 68 percent of consumers age 35-54 also said they don’t expect a brand to know about the online research they’d done prior to arriving at a physical store.

The reverse is true when it comes to younger shoppers, with 58 percent of Millennials saying they expected a brand to know about their online research and 52 percent saying it would be helpful if a physical store knew about their online research in order to receive better service. (2016 Industry Research: Retail Connected Shoppers Report by Salesforce)

33% – Respectful of Privacy

Satisfied customers like brands they perceive as respectful of their privacy, whether that means taking ‘no’ for an answer without adding pressure or protecting the client’s information and data.

31% – Feel Like It’s a Relationship

No one wants to feel like just another transaction. “Take a number” might work in the DMV, but satisfied customers feel like they have a real relationship with the brands they like.

25% – Engaging and Interesting

The best marketing tailors and times messages so they reach the right people at the right time. It doesn’t bore connections with “one size fits all” thinking.

23% – Understands Preferences

Smart brands “learn” what individual clients like and don’t like and personalizes their marketing and the customer experience accordingly.

18% – Puts Customer Best Interest Above Business Goals

Marketing is all about getting customers to take actions you want them to take (buy, return, rebook, refer, review, and so on) but this doesn’t always lead to satisfied customers, especially if the business is being built at the customer’s expense. When customers perceive that a business’s representatives are operating from the point of view of what’s in the best interest of the individual customer, rather than the business, satisfaction arises as a result of taking the actions your business wants them to take.

When was the last time you evaluated “the customer experience” at an individual level, to determine the extent to which these nine things are true? Doing so could be the key to customer satisfaction and long term loyalty.

You might also like: What Does an Ideal Customer Experience Look Like, Anyway?

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  1. […] Customer happiness can lead to all these actions and more. If your point-of-sale marketing strategy is inadequate or non-existent, it’s doing nothing to contribute to customer happiness. Now is the time to take a closer look to see what you can improve. […]

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