Building Customer Loyalty

Customer retention vs. customer loyalty

While customer retention may result from a relationship, customer loyalty should be the desired result. Customer retention equates to someone who is simply using your product. Customer loyalty means that you have earned the customer's trust and confidence. While a loyal customer expects you to be competitive, your business is not always at risk because they view you as a strategic partner, rather than a vendor. Customer loyalty doesn't mean that you serve that customer for the initial life of that particular product, because people may buy things to use for a little while. Customer loyalty means that they buy their subsequent products from you because you are their partner.