Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

Profitably loyal customers are the best customers for a company to know, but also the hardest to identify. Liz Miller of the CMO Council said in the roundtable that for a company to truly know if its loyal customers are profitable, it must have a total view of the customer across all channels. Most companies looking to build loyalty instead go for the easiest win, which is to build emotional loyalty by getting them to "feel" something about the brand.

Jill Noblett, former SVP of Loyalty and Direct Marketing at Wyndham Worldwide, added that the way to build profitably loyal customers is by delivering on a consistent brand experience across channels that is as relevant, customized, and targeted as possible. Once again, it's not an easy task for companies to get that holistic view of customers across the enterprise. But companies that identify their most profitably loyal customers, understand what makes them so loyal, and work to build and grow the customer base, will see a strong and meaningful relationship for both the customer and the company.

And of course senior management would love to see "loyal" and "profitable" in the same sentence in reports and during progress updates.

Daly, Miller, and Noblett discuss more about what companies can do to balance different types of loyalty. Watch the 1to1 on the Run video to see how your company can build loyal customers.