Fundamental
Loyalty Factors
As previously
mentioned, loyalty depends on three fundamental factors: client
satisfaction, the barriers to change and the perception of the competition.
a) Client
satisfaction,
the first fundamental factor, depends on the comparison that the client
makes on the expectations they had before consuming and the perception
after buying. The consumer compares what they expected before eating
in a restaurant with that they perceive after eating in the restaurant.
Therefore,
they are subjective valuations related to what the client expected
to receive before being attended to, with what they thought after
buying. As the company Xerox explains "the loyalty of those clients
that are absolutely satisfied is six times more than those that are
just satisfied".
b) The
exit barriers
are the second fundamental aspect when retaining clients. Think about
how easy it is to get a telephone line and then think about how complicated
it is to cancel it. Loyalty also depends on the barriers or costs
to change. This loyalty is not authentic as the client is staying
with us because of the high costs to change provider.
c) The
third fundamental factor is the value perceived
of what the compeitors have to offer. The consumer values different
options that other competing companies offer. A loyal client maintains
the relationship with our company without evaluating, everytime that
he buys something, the possible options that a competitor offers.
The moment the competitor gets the loyal client to evaluate alternatives,
his satisfaction with my company plus the cost of changing should
be greater than the evaluation of the competition to get him to stay
loyal. If I close my bar for a few days becuase of holidays, the clients
will most likely try different bars and at the end of the holidays
they will evaluate whether to remain loyal to me or not.
We should
be aware of what our competitors have to offer, analyzing their strengths
and weaknesses. Differentiate what we offer from what the compeitors
are offering. If our product is perceived by the consumers as exactly
the same as the competition, we will get into a price war. It is important
that the consumer perceives our product or service as being different
from the competitors, if we don't want to compete in a price war.
In the
bank services, the reputation, brand image and the services, which
are difficult to copy allow us to differentiate ourselves from the
competition. A typical strategy to differentiate yourself it to add
additional services and provide certain services which are better
than those of the competition.
Believing
we are better than the compeition. These marginal efforts that we
carry out should be highlighted so that they transform into a strong
advantage point. The office director that carries out the tax declarations
is loyal to the clientele with an additional service that the competitors
will find difficult to copy. These loyal clients are less sensitive
to price, you can charge them more and provide a greater margin for
a longer period of time.
As Francisco
Elvira explains "the key to loyalty consists in offering more
to a client than what he pays. It is important that he perceives this".