A Real Customer is a Brand’s ‘True’ Advocate

Examining customer delight has become a rare phenomenon nowadays, a critical element in defining a brand’s loyalty story. Consumers’ instinct to penalise bad service plays out more dramatically than to reward delightful service in this enterprising age. Today, customer loyalty is more related to how well the brand delivers its tall claims and dazzling promises to fulfill. To establish a deep connection between customer service and customer loyalty, it’s a known fact that customers stay more loyal to the brands that rise above and go beyond. Exceeding customer expectations to bridge the trust deficit gap is the essence of real customer growth. Brand affinity helps in building customer’s consumption habits and ambitious brands have now adopted Referral and Reward driven Loyalty programs to gain a pool of genuine customers.

Today, customer buying is influenced by the three R’s- Review, Referrals & Rewards.’ The idea that drives a successful loyalty program is to leverage the happy pool of existing customers for the new customer acquisition. To achieve this, the brands orchestrate engaging loyalty programs to swiftly onboard new customers by weaving a safe space of familiarity, trust & comfort. In the age of fake news, the right communication becomes imperative to anchor the right customers by striking a chord with their soft spot of ‘emotion’ and ‘trust.’

Today the real customers are the most valued brand ambassadors, who augment the virality loop of the brand by self-experienced ‘word of mouth’ tools. It is one of the most trusted recommendation tools & also a cost-optimised channel in the customer acquisition journey. This will help companies to foster their referral sales generated out of the fraternity of loyal customers. The loyalty reward program acts as a yardstick helping in the customer retention process, and further extending its periphery to a newer customer base. This motivates brands to incentivise existing real customers to amplify the probabilities of gaining a closely knitted customer cohort network. This program results in a win-win scenario for the brands, as it secures the sales drive and ensures customer stickiness.

Customer propensity refers to the actions of the customers and the likelihood of being loyal and referring to others. The brand needs to identify this definite customer brigade in order to formulate the best possible reward program suiting every individual’s aspirations & desires. The old age adage of the real estate business now spins toward customer-centricity and customer service as its new business epicenter. Customer segmentation at a micro-level not only helps to better the reward program but also adds to the brand’s future decisions. In today’s cut-throat world of competitive business models, curating a ‘wow’ customer experience will mark off the brand in a sea of labels. Making the customers escapade into a world of seamless comfort through the product deliverables sets the performance bar high. Such a successful customer-oriented model will magnify the likelihood of customer retention towards the advantage of business growth.

Genesizing a satisfactory rewarding program, ensures to give the loyal customers a byte for a tantalising experience. Going forward in this competitive age world, it will be imperative for the industry players to change their game & design new rules focusing on a distinctive customer experience. The one single slogan- ‘Customer First’ reeks the nimble customer journey into the brand cycle.

The brand’s health and happiness are inextricably linked with customers’ innate emotions. A community-building program is critical to serving a strong purpose, accentuating a brand’s story in the lives of ‘real’ people. A network of like-minded ethnic people will make a milestone of a difference in resonating the classic brand story. An emotional affinity of the brand towards its real customers scripts a compelling brand evolution story. Therefore, the real customer is conferred with the brand advocate title to conquer the brand’s ageless presence in the customer’s psyche.

The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.

Ritika Shah

A communication maverick with 17 years of experience leading corporate communication with multi-dimensional aspects of Public relations, Media Communication, Current affairs, Brand storytelling, Social Media, Reputation management, Events, Content strategy, Content writing, Video content and Digital Marketing.
As the Lead (GM) – PR & Communication at Hiranandani Group of companies, I spearhead the development, curation and execution of communications strategy that builds, shapes, and sustains the positive reputation of the organisations and Leadership.