According to new research, customer service and leadership behaviour are in correlation with brand loyalty and customer retention. Especially in the current economic, Gavin Walsh at MarketStorm Global Ltd recommends business owners to rethink their strategies in order to maintain their customers.
New research by Accenture and Ketchum published last week shows that failing to provide satisfying customer service and professional leadership behaviour can affect customer loyalty and sales. According to Accenture, 85% of the 3,500 UK consumers surveyed say that their loyalty could have been maintained if companies would have done more efforts to keep them. Furthermore, the Ketchum service reveals that in the past year, 60% of the people questioned stopped buying or reduced their purchases from a company that shows poor leadership behaviour (marketingweek.co.uk). Gavin Walsh at MarketStorm Global Ltd says: "In our current economic climate, it is crucial to win and maintain customers in order to guarantee sales and return on investment. Companies need to focus on consumers and leadership skills of those in charge."
The results of the two studies demonstrate how much customer behaviour is influenced by how much a company cares. "The market place has a lot to offer, competition is high", says Gavin Walsh at MarketStorm Global Ltd. "Consumers have the choice and will chose a company that looks after them well, especially when things don’t go by plan", he continues. The Accenture survey confirms this behaviour. 69% of those consumers who felt that it could have been done more to maintain their loyalty, would have stayed with a specific brand if appearing issues would have been resolved the first time and 55% would have stayed if they had been offered rewards for their continued business with a company (marketingweek.co.uk). Gavin Walsh at MarketStorm Global Ltd states: "Businesses should not expect a customer to come back and buy again if they can’t offer anything in return, such as excellent service, loyalty programmes or a reliable service recovery strategy."
Gavin Walsh is of the opinion that great leaders know that maintaining customers is one of the main priorities in order to remain successful in business. The second annual Ketchum leadership communications monitor, a global study which polled 6,000 people in 12 countries on leadership, communication and the link between them, reveals that leadership has an enormous impact on brand reputation and consumer behaviour. 51% answered that they would buy less of a company’s products or services as a result of poor leadership perceptions, and 44% would even boycott it; while positive leadership perceptions would only encourage 36% of the people questioned to purchase more (marketingweek.co.uk).
Gavin Walsh, managing director at MarketStorm Global Ltd, a direct sales and marketing company based in Leeds, Yorkshire summarises: "Customer service and leadership determine how loyal consumers will be to a brand. It is therefore very important that business owners focus on their real asset, their customers, and provide effective strategies to exceed customer expectations and implement techniques for a quick service recovery." MarketStorm Global Ltd helps raise brand awareness on behalf of its clients and its representatives build trust through excellent service to thousands of consumers on a daily basis. MarketStorm Global Ltd has successfully helped increase customer retention and brand loyalty for its clients. Its success leads to further expansion into 3 UK markets by the end of 2013.