Question:
Driving customer loyalty begins with…
- Consumer research?
- Implementing operational standards?
- Listening to customer feedback?
Answer:
All of the above! Read below to find out how.
All of these elements are equally important and related steps in the process of building, maintaining, and growing a loyal customer base. The TrendSource Customer Loyalty Insights Model Basics (CLIMB) outlines the key steps and systematic process for transforming your customer experience into one that turns customers into advocates of your brand. It’s something I refer to on a daily basis when consulting with my clients. If we aren’t executing or planning one of the phases of CLIMB, I know that I’m doing something wrong, and we need to refocus.
It’s important to note that CLIMB is a continuous process, designed to mirror the constantly changing business environment in which we all live and work. While I often find myself beginning in the Research phase, we may find ourselves reacting to something we found in Behavioral Measurement or Validation.
How it Works:
Phase 1: Customer Research
This phase gives you the information that you need to reshape your operational standards
Question Answered:
Q. What do my customers expect from me?
Q. What do my customers say they’re getting?
Q. Where are the service gaps between expectation and delivery?
Phase 2: Operational Standards
This phase is all about implementing what we learned in the research phase.
Steps:
1. Plan operational changes, focusing on customer deliverables
2. Communicate these changes and their purpose to your people – internal transparency is key!
3. Embark on the change initiative - implement!
Phase 3: Behavioral Measurement
Take what we’ve done to the streets! This phase measures the success of operational standard change implementation.
Steps:
1. Send trained Field Agents into your stores to measure the success of Phase 2. Are your associates following your new operational standards from a customer perspective?
2. Adjust associate behaviors based on results – reinforcement is key!
3. Continue to monitor until the transformation is ingrained in your culture
Phase 4: Validation
Now that operational standards are set and consistently achieved, it’s time to ask our customers if we’ve done right by them
Steps:
1. Listen! Whether this is done through online surveys, social media monitoring, or other means, the purpose is to listen to your customers, and measure against internal and/or competitive benchmarks*
*Don’t know how to set competitive benchmarks? We can help.
Phase 5: Increased Customer Loyalty
Happy customers come back, and they bring friends!
Enjoy your success, but don’t stop here. Now it’s time to take the new items brought up from Phase 4 and dig in! Back to Research!
Phase 6/1: Market Research
Take what our customers have told us in validation, and dig deeper!
Q. Why are customer expectations changing?
Q. How are they changing?
Q. How do we modify our customer experience to meet these needs?
As I said briefly above, CLIMB is the centerpiece around which I build client solutions at TrendSource. It’s as important to me as our mission statement, and I refer back to it daily.
Want to talk more about this? Leave a comment or find me on Twitter. I want to hear your thoughts! @RKellyMR
