With only 1 in 5 Millennials describing themselves as loyal to a brand, what does it take to earn loyalty?

In a world of squeezing every cent out of the customer service function with chatbots, self-service kiosks, and app-based, human-less customer service, it is no wonder that some brands are struggling to keep and win customers. True customer loyalty runs hand-in-hand with emotions. With less and less human interactions within customer service, loyalty scores are taking a hit.

Why?

It’s emotional

At its core, customer loyalty is the result of consistently positive emotional experiences.  Your customer experience management needs to blend the right amount of the physical, emotional and value elements of an experience into one cohesive experience.  Relying on technology is a one-trick pony.

Not only do loyal customers ensure sales, but they are also more likely to purchase ancillary, high-margin supplemental services.

Wait, wasn’t all this new call center technology supposed to improve customer loyalty?

Because technology in the call center only assists with linear processes, simply resolving the issue on the first contact and minimizing customer effort isn’t a great conversation, and if companies continue to be satisfied with this, CX metrics will remain flat.

Technology has overwhelmingly eliminated almost 80 percent of inbound issues to the call center, but has dramatically increased the level of frustrated first contact calls.

Have a great conversation

Keeping and winning customers really boils down to engaging with your customer on a conversational level. Customers are increasingly calling about more difficult technical or billing issues after exhausting self-help attempts. Because at that point, they just need help from a real human being. Embracing this model of trust and loyalty through great conversations will help cement brand loyalty and emotional bonds, raise CX scores and increase sales. Great brands view the customer as a unique individual and place value on creating communication experts in the call center.

Business is personal

Brands should not be afraid to allow their agents to interact and connect personally and emotionally with customers. If a brand can achieve this level of loyalty, it becomes a win-win for both the customer and the company; and empowers engagement specialists who want to stay with the company.

In the past, contact centers and their engagement specialists secured high NPS scores with ease due to a predictable mix of complex, exceptional customer service issues and simpler customer service issues typically resolved on the first contact.  Today’s frontline engagement specialists are battle-weary warriors, constantly dealing with ever-complex customer issues – often involving escalation. Many brands deal with employee turnover issues and scramble to keep NPS scores from falling. Remember, it’s a battlefield, and you don’t want to lose one soldier in the fight for higher CSAT, NPS scores and loyalty surveys. Making a commitment to communication training before a specialist is released onto the contact center floor is critical because no industry is immune from the current barrage of seemingly impossible customer resolutions.

Lessons Learned

How do you foster a culture of customer loyalty without producing utter chaos? Here are our seven lessons for keeping and winning customers:

1. Engage with your customers on an emotional, intellectual or even spiritual level; when a customer cherishes your service before, during and after its use.

2. Don’t rely too much on technology. Remember, loyalty is built through an emotional bond. (When’s the last time you felt a warm and fuzzy feeling using the ATM. You get the point.)

3. Give customers a reason to be loyal. This may sound elementary, but people need a reason to like you.

4. Create a unique customer loyalty program. From coffee shops to airlines to pet food, millennials in particular love loyalty programs. They are a powerful tool to entice people to return.

5. Ask for feedback. The more you know about your customers, the better you can serve them. Ask people for their opinions as often as possible.

6. To win the customer, create great engagement specialists from the start. It’s easier to hire communicators and teach them technical skills rather than hiring an experienced specialist who lacks communication skills.

7. Despite all things digital, customers overwhelmingly want to interact with a human—no matter what the channel.