Customer loyalty’s an ever-expanding topic. It can be tough to see the wood for the trees. How do customer loyalty and customer retention overlap? What’s the latest thinking? How can staff retention affect customer loyalty? What should I read or watch this year to stay up with the current trends?
So we’ve dug into our resources, our books, the events we go to and the people we follow to curate our top 50 resources for customer loyalty.
If you’re putting together a presentation, brushing up on your knowledge, or looking to go deeper into the topic, this post’s for you!
Got a resource you want to add to the list? Go ahead and leave it in the comments…
5 lists of companies who excel at customer loyalty
Companies who excel at customer loyalty also excel at staff retention. This Profit-Service link was originally uncovered by Harvard Business School and great companies ensure they keep their staff for the long haul. Peruse the Fortune Best Companies list for ideas you can use.
You don’t get onto the Superbrands list without a dedicated and passionate customer following. Take inspiration from how the world’s Superbrands retain their customers from this global listing.
The USA Today Customer Service Hall of Fame
The list highlights Customer Service leaders, and notes how an unswerving focus on the customer can result in innovation at every level in the company.
Forbes list of America’s Best Small Companies
Forbes claims all the small companies on its listing chose to be the Best, not the Biggest. Look here for inspiration from companies you’ve never heard of, but who knock it out of the park for customers every day.
Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For
This set of lists splits companies up into dozens of sub-categories including “Best for Women”, “Best for new grads” and “Best for Camaraderie”. If you’ve got a specific issue you need to solve in your employee retention, start here.
5 YouTube videos to watch
Discover the Forces Behind Customer Loyalty
What makes customers loyal? How do you get them to have a passionate interest in your brand? This is an interesting watch from the Cult Branding company, (with the addition of a classic Moby track for extra interest!)
Harvard Business Review’s Interview with Ranjay Gulati
An interesting take on creating a customer-centric business, and the importance of reorganizing your operations to cope with the (very different) modern customer.
5 Underused Customer Loyalty Strategies
A small business play here, but an interesting one. Some points that should be obvious for small businesses (but often aren’t) such as, have you set a budget for customer retention? And looking for tiny and unique enhancements within what you already do.
The StartUp’s Guide to Customer Retention
Lots of great stats and metrics in here to satisfy your inner nerd. Jerry Jao focuses on the science behind customer retention in 20 minutes’ worth of great content, including thoughts about how you need to acquire the right customers to start with; the ones that are easier to retain.
Behind the Brand: Gary Vaynerchuk: Customer Acquisition and Retention
Describes how we’ve all been focused on customer acquisition, and we’ve hired a lot of data people are a result. He highlights the danger of relying solely on data people when relationship skills and retention is all-important.
5 books to read about creating loyal customers
The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty
A fascinating read. This book investigates “wow” style customer service, and finds out that it’s actually “effortless” experiences customers are looking for. If you’re looking to retain more customers through your service, this is a must-read.
The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences
Hands on, practical guidance and techniques and ideas you can use immediately are at the heart of Watkinson’s Ten Principles. The emphasis here is on psychology and how to use it to change experiences for your customers in order to retain them.
Farm Don’t Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success
This book works at the intersection of customer success and customer retention. The author focuses on how you can orient your organization around a “farming” mentality, where customers are cared for, retained and grown, rather than a pure-play new business focus.
Customer Experience 3.0: High-Profit Strategies in the Age of Techno Service
This book argues that many organizations are failing to harness the power of technology to provide a seamless customer experience. It explains how there are many disjointed channels being employed by businesses, and offers up a technological framework for customer retention.
Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business
Featuring powerful case studies on Fidelity and Office Depot, this book highlights the financial gains that come with good customer retention. It shows how even in a flat stock market, customer experience leaders can outperform and describes how your business can achieve it too.
5 customer loyalty focused events to go to
Large 3 day event focused on customer retention strategies, trends, technologies, research and solutions.
Customer Experience Exchange (Europe)
Senior level networking and knowledge sharing exchange event focused on customer experience and customer retention.
ESOMAR Congress (USA)
100o+ attendees from 70+ countries gather to discuss the latest trends in marketing and customer research.
Forrester’s CXNYC (USA)
A forum for customer experience leaders who want to explore the changing relationship between brand, CX and business success.
Gartner Customer Strategies and Technologies Summit (Europe)
A conference focused on learning how to tap into customers’ defining moments.
5 LinkedIn profiles to follow
Whilst it may seem a bit odd to be following a retired four-star General on LinkedIn, Stan has recently left the armed forces and now brings his insight around data, organizational design, and people, to the commercial arena. People are critical to customer loyalty, so Stan’s posts are highly recommended.
An author and blogger, his LinkedIn features great posts including “How to measure customer emotions” and “CX is hitting a brick wall.”
We have a lot of fondness for Mr Peppers here at Customer Thermometer towers. His LinkedIn is a goldmine of great customer-focused content too.
‘The key to unlocking amazing word of mouth’ and ‘5 things customers don’t want to hear’ are just two of Tara’s many LinkedIn posts. Well worth a follow.
McKinsey’s lead partner for their Digital Marketing Strategy practice. Including content such as “Time for science to be part of your customer journey.”
5 blog posts to read about customer loyalty
A great guide to building a company that customers love. Find out how some of the most beloved brands manage to install legendary loyalty that keeps them ahead of the pack.
Customer Retention is King: The Future of Retention Marketing
A breakdown of three key things that you should be thinking about to ensure that you have a successful, long-term customer retention strategy.
Earn Customer Loyalty Without Losing Your Shirt
Empower your employees to ‘delight’ customers, but rather than just giving them free rein, create a framework which will help them to succeed. Give them clear guidelines, clear measures of success, and frequent feedback.
4 Ways to Improve Customer Retention in 2016
A concise article from Salesforce that focusses on four simple steps that will help you ensure that your customers stay happy…and stay with you. Customer retention should be prioritised, but it shouldn’t need to be difficult.
Why retention is the new acquisition
We’re passionate about focussing on customer retention ahead of customer acquisition – find out why you should be measuring your customer churn rate and taking active steps to reduce it.
5 PowerPoint decks to download
22 really useful customer retention stats
Fantastic stats from across the web covering customer retention, customer service, customer feedback, customer profitability and more.
20 Inspirational Customer Experience Quotes
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – Bill Gates. Some of the most successful companies have one thing in common – they offer an amazing customer experience.
5 Customer Retention Strategies that Work!
We all know that keeping customers makes good business sense. But the real impact to your bottom line is so big it might surprise you! These slides provide 5 practical ways in which you can reach your retention goals.
Customer Retention: The Key To Growth
Ability to keep customers coming back is crucial for your business. Companies that measure, analyze and experiment with ways to improve retention, grow much faster.
5 tops tips for improving customer retention
Keep more of your customers with these five retention tips.
5 infographic images for your next PowerPoint presentation
The Economics of customer loyalty
This graphic shows why customers are more profitable over time.
How to chart the customer journey and implement different processes along it
The Service Profit chain at work
How staff satisfaction can lead to greater customer loyalty
Total relationship loyalty
Peppers & Rogers Group’s diagram is really useful when depicting the profitability of customer loyalty
Global attitudes to loyalty programs
A useful chart highlighting different attitudes to rewards across different geographies
5 great quotes about customer loyalty and retention
“People think of loyalty as a customer for a lifetime. It’s really much simpler than that. It’s about the next time, every time.” Shep Hyken, author
“You are allowed to do this… don’t worry about the rules, don’t worry about getting into trouble, your job is to take care of the customer. Your job is to make the person leave happy” John Pepper, CEO, Boloco
“Excellence comes from human beings doing things of value that customers find memorable.” Tom Peters, Author
“By spending thousands of hours talking to our customers, we learn–to a super granular level–exactly what their challenges, needs, wants, and goals are.” Alex Turnbull, CEO, Groove
“Today’s marketplace is incredibly competitive in every industry around the globe. The difference between success and failure is talent, period.” Indra Nooyi, CEO, Pepsi
5 customer retention tools to use
Referral tools
Get more customer referrals and encourage positive word of mouth and cross-sale with a referral tool: try ReferralCandy or GetAmbassador
Helpdesk software
Make sure every customer interaction is logged and monitored. Try a helpdesk solution like: Groove, Zendesk or ConnectWise
Email tools
Keep in contact with your customers, ensure they have all the latest information they need to get the best from their relationship with you. Try: MailChimp, or Infusion soft
Customer Relationship Management tools
A CRM system is a must for keeping solid records of customers, and ensuring you can track their lifetime of engagement with you. Try: Salesforce, or Capsule
Survey software
And finally, it’s really important you know how your customers feel. If you don’t know how, you won’t be able to keep them. 1-click surveys give you real-time customer feedback you can use, that isn’t a burden on customers’ time. Try: Customer Thermometer
Try the micro-survey everyone’s raving about. Grab a free trial right here:
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