Poor services, inappropriate pricing and poor product packaging for different market segments have made it difficult for service-oriented companies to achieve customer loyalty, described by experts as a ‘commodity’ more precious to any company in a complete competitive market environment.
In various sectors such as banks, insurance, manufacturing, hospitality industry and telecoms, experts believe that customer loyalty defined as philosophy of devoutness, faithfulness and attachment is largely none existent.
For example, in the telecom industry, Riaan Van Jaarsveld of Indian Atlantic firm, who spoke recently at a communication forum in South Africa, observes that subscribers, especially the pre-paid customers are not loyal to any particular brand due to poor quality of network, infrastructure and pricing challenges. “Mobile subscribers switch from one network to another based on various variables such as price, brand value and value added services. The infrastructure challenges, the network challenges, coverage issues and pricing make it difficult to achieve loyalty.”
For example, in the telecom industry, Riaan Van Jaarsveld of Indian Atlantic firm, who spoke recently at a communication forum in South Africa, observes that subscribers, especially the pre-paid customers are not loyal to any particular brand due to poor quality of network, infrastructure and pricing challenges. “Mobile subscribers switch from one network to another based on various variables such as price, brand value and value added services. The infrastructure challenges, the network challenges, coverage issues and pricing make it difficult to achieve loyalty.”
Abbey Wakama, a Brand analyst, also publisher of IT News Africa, who questioned loyalty among customers, said operators in various markets are focused on customer retention rather than customer loyalty. “They have not put in place the necessary services to ensure that the customers are loyal,” he said.
He explained that a customer becomes loyal when he or she sticks with the brand through thick and thin. “The customer gets to love the brand and the brand because the brand owners care. They care for me when I am in trouble and talk to me as a respected human being,” the analyst said.
These days, he said what brands do is customer retention through promotions. When the customer is about to switch over to another clients, the brands offer promotions to lure him back.
Assessing the concept, Steven Evans, managing director, Etisalat, said loyalty is fickle, in the sense that sometimes it is difficult to judge or calculate. For instance, a customer might like a particular airline but consistently fly another airline which he does not like.
Assessing the concept, Steven Evans, managing director, Etisalat, said loyalty is fickle, in the sense that sometimes it is difficult to judge or calculate. For instance, a customer might like a particular airline but consistently fly another airline which he does not like.
He also argues that customer retention does not mean loyalty. “Sometimes, people think that because somebody has been with you for a long time and it means loyalty. Loyalty means being faithful to clients because of the way they treat the customer and even if something goes wrong, the customer will stick to the brand. This will also depend on how the problem is dealt with and measures to correct it. He agreed that loyalty is not easy to own.” It is something you really have to work out in your organsiation and develop a culture that is customer orientated.
The client must think about the customer, do the right thing even if it costs the organisation money in the short term and in the long run it can lead to loyalty.” Over the time, organisations, who desire to entice customers and perhaps retain them have engaged in product promotions but many of the customers who key into the promotions leave the brand the moment the promotions end.
A marketing communication analyst said customer satisfaction and engagement has become a driving niche for marketing especially as competition increases in the Nigerian market. The concept is now critical more than ever before as many organisations realise that without customers, they would not be in business.
“Engaged customers are loyal to your brands over their lifetimes, they will spend more time with such brand than with the competition. Engaged customers are also passionate about your brand—so passionate, in fact, that they go out of their way to do business with the client. Engaged customers are advocates for your brand; they are happy to recommend it to family and friends. Satisfied customers may leave for better or cheaper alternatives; engaged customers are emotionally invested in a brand, because they feel the company is emotionally invested in them,” brand analysts noted.
Unfortunately, there is a bandwagon effect which has not given much to the original thinking. People see most things they do only at the convenient point of departure rather than what ought to be done based on the parameters they have set brand goals and their corporate objectives. Experts believe that bandwagon effect does not pay for some corporate organisations and a lot of money would have gone down the drain, and efforts and resources would have been wasted.
