Sarah Chane, Senior Client Strategy Partner, rDialogue.
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the rDialogue blog.
It’s not enough for customers to be loyal to brands; brands must be loyal to customers.
A recent Wunderman study contends that there is a new measure of customer engagement called “wantedness” or “the degree to which a brand provides their commitment to earning a customer’s business across every touch point.”
We don’t believe, though, that there is a single strategy that applies to all brands. Not every product category warrants a relationship. In fact, a recent article in the Harvard Business Review reports that most brand loyalty is simply habit, with inertia responsible for loyalty more than anything else.
Is wantedness right for your brand? Consider these three factors.
Customer Identification
Customer identification is central to that one-to-one relationship. For example, when you capture a phone number at the point-of-sale, you are enabling the link between your brand and the customer.
Identification can be trickier for brands that sell to customers indirectly through a store like Target. While technology can tie the customer to a product purchase, what’s missing is the permission to enable that relationship. When I buy cereal from Target, I expect them to send me cereal offers. When I hear from Cheerio’s directly, I’m less inclined to engage.
Real Engagement
Does your brand engage directly with consumers? You don’t need a physical store to build relationships, just a mechanism for ongoing dialogue.
Take StitchFix, the online women’s clothing curator. After each “Fix”, you can provide feedback to your stylist regarding your next shipment. That’s creating a relationship.
Knowing Your Limits
Sometimes the product category dictates the level of customer engagement, as some are highly transactional while others are more emotional. The question is, which brands are you more likely to engage with: the brand that makes your favorite kitchen sponge or your favorite retailer who always recommends the right thing?
Wantedness is the right idea: show your customers you appreciate them at every step of the customer lifecycle. But it’s just not that simple. As with life, wantedness is a serious commitment that sets new standards in customer relationships.