Interview with Hugues Senia: what his best practices are for a successful customer loyalty
We wanted to boost you with inspirational and instructive content.
So we talked with Hugues Senia, customer relationship consultant at INO.
With more than 20 years of BtoC and BtoB experience, Hugues has a great expertise in customer management issues: CRM deployment, analysis… These topics have no secrets for him! Within INO, his daily mission is to help our customers in their projects, both from a strategic and operational point of view.
Today, he is going to share with us his knowledge on customer loyalty! During all those years, Hugues was able to see how important it is to create a lasting and trusting relationship with customers. He will exclusively share with us his best practices for a successful customer loyalty!
Enjoy your reading!
For you, what would be the main benefits of customer loyalty?
Today, it is key to implement an effective strategy to create a lasting relationship with customers! The conclusion is clear: customers are increasingly volatile. Creating a real brand community of loyal customers and ambassadors can be a major differentiating factor for your company.
I see 3 benefits out of it:
1) The first one is economic.
“You have to build loyalty to improve your profitability.”
I have noted that companies tended to be more focused on winning new customers, but loyalty is much more profitable. I have to admit that initial costs of loyalty tools can be high, and effects are not immediate, but retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones. Some studies have shown that getting a new customer costs 5 to 6 times more than retaining an existing one.
2) The second benefit is notoriety.
“A loyal customer will become a true brand ambassador
and spread a positive image of your company.”
Customers fully satisfied with your products or services are likely to speak around them and to recommend your company to their family and friends. It’s perfect to attract new customers! Word of mouth remains the first channel of transmission, and it should not be underestimated.
3) Finally, the third benefit is the creation of a strong and unique bond between your brand and customers.
“Adopt a customer-centric strategy!”
Creating a strong emotional attachment will prevent customers from going to competitors and will increase their brand long-term commitment. On top of that, a loyal customer will spend more and on a regular basis. What does that lead to? A positive impact on the turnover and the profitability of your company. In short, a real virtuous circle!
Could you share with us your best practices to build customer loyalty?
Sure!
First tip: you have to take actions that do not expect feedbacks from customers.
“Implement selfless actions!”
Customers do not like to be cheated on or to give something in return. Create a relationship based on trust and transparency by valuing your most loyal customers, rewarding them and implementing sincere actions, without expecting anything in return! These little details will reinforce their positive vision and increase their confidence in your business.
Another good practice is to be clear about your indicators and measure all your actions.
“I like to say that everything
which is not measured or measurable does not progress.”
My extra tip: do not hesitate to expand your KPIs beyond Net Promoter Sales (NPS), which is very interesting, but which has to be completed with other KPIs to fully understand all the subtleties of loyalty.
A KPI that I really like to observe and analyze
is the Customer Effort Score (CES).”
It measures the effort made by customers to get answers to their requests. It is perfectly complementary with NPS: while NPS gives you an overall view of customer satisfaction, CES tells you precisely what your performance is in managing and solving your customers’ issues.
What are the essential tools for a successful customer loyalty?
A good loyalty strategy depends on the tools you use! These tools should help you make your customer journey smoother.
“Your customer service always has to be responsive and
provide relevant answers to customer requests.”
For instance, adopt an omnichannel customer interaction management solution. Phone, email, SMS, live chat… You have to be present on the right communication channels, adapted to customers’ needs and expectations.
On top of that, to me, it is important to have access to all customer information in a few clicks. History of interactions, last purchases… All these things will allow you to contextualize requests and provide quick and relevant answers.
Another tool that I recommend to my customers to use every day is the KPI tracking dashboard tools. Yes, as I said before, it is essential to precisely follow all your KPIs. One metric I really like to analyze is the repeat rate, which measures the quantity of customers who need to make at least one more call before getting in touch with your business, as well as the first contact resolution rate.
“An issue solved from the first contact
means less effort for customers!”
A last advice for our readers?
Yes! To fully succeed in a loyalty strategy, it is essential to involve the whole company.
“It is an essential and cross-cutting topic
which involves all stakeholders.”
Implementing quality customer service and putting customers on top your priorities require awareness among all employees and synergy within the company to make customer loyalty a strategic lever.
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