What Loyalty Means to Customer Experience

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photo credit: stirling june 2015, via photopin, (license)

Actions speak louder than words, but actions are easy to misinterpret, and marketers who misunderstand the actions of customers can damage their brands' business and marketing results. Today, many marketers are measuring what they believe to be loyalty but is actually something very different and much less. Reminding ourselves what the word "loyalty" really means can improve our brands' marketing analytics, customer experience, and customer retention.

In my new report for marketing leaders, "How to Align Customer Experience With Marketing Channel Operations," we explore the customer journey in the age of the empowered consumer. Today's smart devices and social media do more than just change the ways people consume information and see ads--they also alter the way consumers consider, select, use and advocate for products and services. As a result, one of the key goals for customer experience programs must be to map a journey that identifies new ways to deliver not just satisfaction and usage but loyalty and advocacy.

Understanding the difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal one is vital if marketers are to deliver long-term success with customer experience programs. To read more about what loyalty means, how marketers often measure it incorrectly and how this damages brands' customer experience and business outcomes, please visit my complete Gartner blog post.