Although there is clearly a link between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, a satisfied customer may not actually always be a loyal one. Still, there is no doubting that every business wants to achieve as many loyal customers as possible.
You could be forgiven for thinking that loyalty card schemes – such as those operated by many supermarket chains – are all about creating loyal customers (the more cynical among you might say they are purely for collecting data on said customers…). However, new YouGov SixthSense research in fact indicates that loyalty card programmes are not creating customer loyalty for retailers.
More than 90% of shoppers surveyed for this study would not stop shopping at a retailer if they scrapped their loyalty card scheme, and only 17% choose where to shop based on such schemes. What’s more, in spite of the widespread use of loyalty card programmes, half of shoppers don’t think it’s worthwhile to collect points and would prefer to convert points into a money-off discount at the till. A quarter would rather retailers offer more promotional deals and one in ten rarely redeems points even if they have collected them.
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