Stop Creating Customers & Start Creating Brand Proponents

There are customers, and then there are brand proponents. Customers might come to a site or store and purchase a product, but then never use the company again and never tell their friends about it.

Brand proponents, on the other hand, are so impressed with a company that they go out and tell everyone about it; they are brand loyalty in action. They are the people who write positive reviews on critical sites and give five stars on a customer satisfaction survey. When their friends and family members ask them about their experiences they excitedly recommend the company. Brand proponents are crucial for taking companies to the next level because they are a part of having a brand vision come to life.

You can start creating customer proponents using these three tactics:

Understand why customers choose (or don’t choose) your company

One of the most important pieces of information companies can obtain is why customers select them over their competitors. This can help companies refine their niche and understand what motivates buyers. Armed with this information, companies can work to further improve how they serve a specific consumer base.

The best way to understand the thinking of your customers is through customer research with a customer survey. Such surveys offer insight about what customers are happy about and what they believe could be improved. Implementing improvements based on customer suggestions allows the business to better meet expectations, increase loyalty, and increase the likelihood that the customer will become a proponent.

Improve your customers’ experiences

The customer experience could be described as the prerequisite in the success of creating a brand proponent. Customer Experience Surveys offer key insights into this area. Ask customers about how well they were served throughout their shopping and buying experience, and inquire about how well their questions were answered and their needs met. With targeted demographics, analysis, and reporting, you can learn about specific areas in your organization where breakdowns occur, such as a help line passing customers from one representative to the next.

In addition to developing proponents, surveys that tell you how your customers think can also prevent the reverse from happening.  Dissatisfied customers tell an average of 9-15 people about their poor experience, and you want to be sure to correct that poor experience before they tell anyone.  Research also shows that customers who encounter problems that are resolved satisfactorily are often more pleased and are greater proponents for an organization than satisfied customers who encountered no problems at all!

Develop your customers’ loyalty

Customer loyalty is a key component of getting people excited about the brand.  To increase customer loyalty, you first need to measure it to establish a baseline to build upon.  Continued measure of your customers’ loyalty will show you what you have done that works and what doesn’t work, and continue to guide you with hard data. The more loyal your customers are, the more they will speak positively about your business to others, and the more customers you will get.  Word of mouth advertising is the most powerful, the most effective, and it’s free!

When it comes to growing a company, encouraging brand loyalty and creating brand proponents is a crucial step, and a customer survey is an integral part of the process. Get inside the customer’s head and start making progress today with research from NBRI.

NBRI helps companies just like yours become global leaders by combining powerful research with deep analytics. If you’re ready to join their ranks, here’s how we can help:

• Give us a call at 800-756-6168
• Contact us by clicking here
• Download our free e-book, How to Conduct a Survey