Started reading your blog, like three times, but always get interrupted. I like the approach of using affective and calculative commitment, and the use of Spock and Vulcans to highlight the emotional-rational perspective. very interesting blog. will comment when i am done reading it

Thanks
Esteban

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I think that, if I read your comment right, you are making some great valid points.

1) There is a difference between rational (price-driven as an example) and emotional (harley davidson is the perfect example, the early macs are another – not anymore) loyalty where the product or service does not matter (emotional) or it does (rational). I totally agree that one can get away with more due to the emotional investment that customers make into it. I wrote this in another blog, as a comment, and I think it is interesting to repeat (I also briefly mentioned it above) emotional loyalty is slowly dying due to the increased complexity in offerings of brand and service, the slow rise of Generation Y (also called the Me generation) and the generational shift it brings with it, and the fact that companies are training customer to not be loyal by not corresponding. Unrequited love only goes for a short time before it ends.

2) you recognize the importance of customer experience in fostering rational loyalty (even emotional in some cases) where products have become commodities (which is often the case with services and established products). There is no difference between Coke and Pepsi (let’s not start that war – yes they are different) so both focus on the experience of drinking it more than in their differences. There is no difference between going to one hotel or another in Maui (same beaches, same water) so the hotels focus on the experience delivered while there. These differences in experience are critical for brands trying to establish a pseudo-emotional loyalty (it is not true though, since a bed is a bed is a bed – the client just thinks they want a better bed, better food, etc.).

3) you are highlighting the importance of feedback management (as someone who has said that for a long time, thank you) in managing the experiences, the loyalty etc. i can only agree with you 1,000% on that.

Thanks for reading, and the detailed feedback.
Esteban

I tell you what, from now on you can write my posts.

I think you hit, brilliantly, on two key items in measuring loyalty: it is a hindsight experiment (cannot be predicted or manipulated going forward) and perceptions and expectations play a key role in it. I still want to be able to distinguish between emotional and rational (and there is a way to manipulate results and sorta-kinda predict “loyalty” when dealing with rational based on past experiences) and be able to measure them separately.

Alas, with the differentiation I would like to keep, I cannot make your definition better. Great Job!

Thanks for reading and for that great comment.
Esteban

I agree with you that business often overestimate the level of loyalty they get from their customers, even count on it sometimes – and get shocked when they don’t get their expectations met. Emotional loyalty is a very tricky thing that the company cannot do much about – they either have a cult-like following or not. And that is up to the customers, not the company to determine.

Thanks for your comment.

However, it seems like products and services that require ongoing contact with a company have an easier time sustaining loyalty because the frequency and need for interactions place a premium on the customer care provided, which in turn can create a real relationship that matters to the consumer and clearly brings the value proposition beyond price and product.

Products that do not require a lot of post-sale interactions seem to build loyalty largely on a couple of factors: quality and brand image. Quality is assessed through usage with the product over time: it works well and it keeps working. Brand image has two forms: how the brand is perceived and what the brand is perceived to impart on the consumer.

A product that develops a reputation for quality and/or value can cause some people to accept and embrace the brand far beyond their own personal experiences with it. Image imparted on a consumer from a brand latches onto people’s inherent insecurities and vanity and can be so strong that it trumps the perceived quality of the brand. A great example is Harley Davidson, whose bikes’ image is perceived as calling its riders out as rebels and general bad asses, which allows it to charge upwards of a 40% premium over comparable alternatives that have proven to be more reliable and offer more functionality.

Ironically, the one place that all companies have an opportunity to earn loyalty is when the consumer is unhappy, which could equally be created because of a lapse in customer care as a lapse in product/product quality. Depending on how the situation is handled, the outcome can run the continuum from either a lost customer to an advocate. Like our closest friendships, business and brand relationships get stronger when you successfully work through the tough stuff.

This is where I believe technology can make a difference to ensure that customer feedback:

Gets quickly and easily from customer-facing staff on the front lines to appropriate management.

Is captured so that customer-facing staff know when the consumer being worked with has recently expressed any dissatisfaction with the company and have the feedback and current status on things at their fingertips. This gives staff the ability to demonstrate to consumers that their feedback is heard throughout the company and taken seriously.

Is managed and followed up on like any other case within expected service levels.  This is where the company demonstrates it has the walk to go along with the talk, which is vital to get consumers to expend the time to provide feedback in the first place

Can be viewed in aggregate to identify potential trends so that preemptive action can be taken before too much loyalty has been unnecessarily eroded..

Beyond exposing feedback to management, effective feedback management tools must make it easy to capture feedback from any channel and must be fully integrated into the case management tools used to provide customer care. 

Thanks for starting the discussion, Esteban. Good stuff!

Chuck
http://www.fuze.comhttp://www.fuze.com/modules.aspx#feedback

Measuring loyalty is an exercise in hindsight. Sure, you can look back and see what worked and what didn’t, but brand loyalty is merely the result of your actions as compared to those of your competitors.

Mark Gallagher
Brand Expressionist®
Blackcoffee