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In today’s hypercompetitive market, businesses are constantly upping their game to stand out. It’s a battlefield where strategies like price wars, flashy 360-degree marketing campaigns, and relentless product innovation take center stage. But in the race to win customers, one key element often makes all the difference—customer stickiness.
Building strong brand stickiness is all about creating lasting connections that keep your customers coming back, even when the competition heats up.
Customer stickiness refers to a customer’s decision to repeatedly choose a product or service due to its unique value propositions. This value could stem from various factors such as product quality, competitive pricing, convenience, exceptional customer service, or an engaging overall experience. Simply put, customer stickiness measures the likelihood of customers staying loyal to your brand, even in an increasingly competitive market.
Sticky products and brands provide a distinct benefit that resonates deeply with customers, fostering satisfaction and loyalty. Whether it’s seamless convenience, unmatched pricing, or personalized interactions, these elements create a strong connection that reduces the chances of customers switching to competitors. When customers are sticky, they aren’t just satisfied—they’re committed, forming a foundation for long-term brand loyalty and sustained growth.
There are two types of affinity a customer can have toward a brand – customer stickiness and brand loyalty. The two are certainly similar but there are a few minor differences as well.
Brand loyalty is when a customer is actively choosing a brand; maybe because he/she relates to what the brand stands for or finds utility in the brand’s product offering. An example of brand loyalty would be a customer who chooses TOMS shoes solely because of the company’s promise to deliver a pair of free shoes to a child in need for every sale of their retail product. A more mainstream example would be Apple and its ability to create a strong and very obvious divide between the brand and its competition. This, coupled with the feeling of luxury and exclusivity is part of the reason why Apple’s products are so well received despite the steep price tags they often come with.
Customer stickiness is when you set up your customers to return to your business because you create convenience. In this scenario, it becomes inconvenient for your customer to migrate to a competing brand. The classic and oft-cited example of brand stickiness is Amazon Prime. The program packs a winning combination of convenience, savings, and trust; which has rendered Amazon the default online shopping destination for millions across the globe.
Ultimately, the end goal of creating both brand loyalty and brand stickiness is the same – to acquire a customer and retain them in a setup that makes it convenient for a customer to choose a business repeatedly, and in the long run, it becomes profitable for the business to retain loyal customers and serve them to their satisfaction. And the best brands manage to build stellar brand loyalty while focusing heavily on brand stickiness.
Every business encounters two types of customers – transactional customers and sticky customers. A transactional customer is clear about what the needs are and is not necessarily keen on getting it from one particular brand. A transactional customer tends to weigh the different options that he has in front of him before he makes his decision and most of his decisions are purely cost and efficiency-driven.
A sticky customer finds value in your business because he relates to your brand offering on a personal level. A sticky customer is one who continually returns to your business and the best way to retain him, beyond loyalty programs and discounts is to build a long and lasting relationship with him. If you can serve the customer’s needs beyond his own expectations and deliver efficient grievance redressal, then you have won your customer’s loyalty.
It is also important to strike the right balance between continuously communicating with your customers and over-communicating with them. Since we live in a hyperconnected world, it becomes easy to reach a customer through every medium of communication that’s available but the flip side of doing that is that you risk spamming a customer. Therefore it becomes vital for brands to strike the right balance through hyper-targeted, personalized, and high-value engagement that’s a win-win for both customers as well as the brand.
Let us explore some of the ways that a company can introduce stickiness into its brand offerings.
Think of gyms and fitness centers that charge a customer on the basis of 6 months- 1 year. Ensuring that a customer has recurring transactions with your company is a way to ensure that the customer interacts frequently. In a hypercompetitive market, it helps to have a customer think about your brand repeatedly because being forgotten is one of a marketer’s biggest nightmares.
Customer stickiness works only if it’s consistent. Keep your communications and marketing messages consistent in their language, style, and design. Consistency also helps a brand build recall, something that is crucial in a world that currently has a lot of clutter in terms of the number of brands present in each category. Each brand takes up a concept of ‘headspace’, which is directly linked to recall and brand recognition.
The quality of your end product, the ease of transaction, and the efficiency of your customer service all play important roles in retaining a customer. The easier it is for a customer to integrate your brand into his life, the higher your chances of retaining a customer and possibly converting a transactional customer into a sticky one.
Emotional advertising is a popular technique employed by many brands in order to create a connection with their customers and improve customer stickiness. This has more to do with marketing than with efforts to retain customers but nevertheless, it is an important way of nurturing a customer connection. A brand can make a customer feel as if they are supporting a cause by supporting a brand that stands for the cause itself. If a brand can succeed at pulling at customer’s heartstrings, it can create a connection and once the customer is happy with the quality of the product offering, they will willingly convert into returning customers.
A membership program or a loyalty program that offers benefits to customers and incentivizes their participation in your business can help make your brand sticky and memorable.
Beyond loyalty programs, there needs to be an element of personalization to grab the customer’s attention. This personalization helps customers feel as if the brand cares about them and thus builds a rapport with them. We live in an age of social media, therefore if a brand goes the extra mile to reward customers for using their products, it will result in positive conversations around the brand which will be beneficial for the brand and its reputation in the long run. Also, intelligent retail analytics platforms and campaign managers powered by Big Data and AI can automatically target the most receptive customers with hyper-personalized communications to achieve your business goals.
It’s important to remember that a customer’s experience with a brand or a company does not end once the product has been sold/the transaction has been made. If a customer reaches out to the company with a complaint, a grievance, or feedback, it is the company’s job to ensure that they get quick and efficient resolution. Many companies are leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots to serve customers and help address their grievances on a 24*7 basis.
Digitization can empower brands with an array of tools and technologies that are effective in driving customer stickiness and brand loyalty. The majority of solutions are focused on convenience and personalization as a means to achieve the end result.
Take the example of the global coffee brand Starbucks. One feature they introduced that the customers truly loved was their mobile order and pay feature. This allowed a customer to place an order for a beverage or a food item and then go to the nearest Starbucks and simply pick up their order. In this case, Starbucks made its product offering both convenient and accessible – two strong pillars in improving a customer’s experience with a brand.
At the crux of this, is integration. If you can find ways to integrate your brand offering into your customer’s daily life, then stickiness and thereby loyalty can be easily achieved.
A key aspect of measuring customer stickiness involves analyzing customer behavior and purchase patterns. So it’s vital to have closed-loop testing systems and retail analytics platforms to determine if the strategies that you are using are effective in driving higher sales and revenue.
When your customer understands your brand offering, and brand cause & can effectively evaluate why your business works better for them than your competitors, then you have not only successfully retained a customer, but they then become patrons of your business. For this reason, brands need to convey their vision and value in a simple and clear manner.
We live in a hyperconnected world and consumers everywhere are bombarded with alternatives and choices. If you can convince a customer to choose you amidst all the clutter, then you have succeeded in making a mark in your brand segment.
Studies show that it is easier to retain a customer than to convince a new customer to choose your business. There are various customer loyalty programs and schemes that can be used to retain your customers – pick the one that has the most benefits for your customers in order to keep them happy and entice them to return. Also, ensure your loyalty program software gives you insights regarding the number of repeat visitors and what offer/communication led to the repeat visit.
Now, with the help of social media and other broadcasting tools, a customer can talk about their experiences with brands and companies and if the user has beyond 10,000 followers on any given platform, they even have the power to influence customer decisions to buy a brand or to avoid the company. It’s imperative for a brand to implement social listening and social analytics tools to track these conversations.
Creating customer stickiness and loyalty in a hypercompetitive market is a herculean task, to say the least. Thankfully, enterprises now have access to powerful and highly effective tools powered by AI and Machine Learning that maximize the success rate by revealing Where, When, and How to engage with their customers to achieve the desired results.
At Capillary, we understand the nuances of customer stickiness and loyalty. Our cutting-edge loyalty solutions, powered by AI and data-driven insights, empower enterprises to craft seamless, personalized experiences that drive customer stickiness and enhance brand affinity. From designing innovative loyalty programs to leveraging omnichannel marketing strategies, we help you create an ecosystem where customers feel valued and connected.
Partner with Capillary and enhance your enterprise’s customer stickiness. Connect with our Loyalty Experts today!
Customer stickiness refers to the ability of a brand to retain customers and keep them coming back. It’s crucial because it drives repeat purchases, enhances customer lifetime value, and fosters long-term loyalty.
Brands can enhance stickiness by focusing on personalized experiences, rewarding loyalty through innovative programs, delivering consistent value, and engaging customers through multiple channels.
Technology, such as AI and data analytics, helps brands understand customer behavior, deliver personalized offers, and create seamless omnichannel experiences, which are key to building customer stickiness.
In competitive markets, brand stickiness differentiates businesses by fostering deeper customer connections and ensuring customers remain loyal, even with numerous alternatives available.
Capillary provides AI-powered solutions and robust loyalty platforms that enable enterprises to engage customers effectively, deliver personalized experiences, and enhance loyalty, driving overall customer stickiness.
December 21, 2024 | 7 Min Read
When customers are sticky, they aren’t just satisfied—th