Editorial
The Gist
- Influence customer loyalty. Reinforcing positive memories can significantly enhance customer loyalty behaviors and brand relationships.
- Memory shapes experience. The way customers remember their interactions has more impact on future loyalty than the actual events.
- Survey-driven recall. Utilize customer feedback surveys as a tool to make positive memories more salient and drive repeat engagements.
The memories of experiences are more important to future customer loyalty behaviors than what actually happened in the experience. This is the harsh reality of customer experience and a pivotal aspect of customer loyalty strategies. If it isn’t remembered, it might as well not have happened.
CX Teams Overlook Memory's Role in Loyalty
And yet it is my experience that CX teams spend far too little time thinking about memories of experiences. Most resources go to improving the actual experience, and yes, that is the source of the memory, so it certainly merits time and attention. And yet the overwhelming focus on the actual experience is down to human nature as well, our bias for action, our desire to focus on where the events happen, the engagement with the customer.
To put the most positive spin on it, focusing on the experience feels like focusing on what is in our control — delivering a great experience and supporting customer loyalty strategies.
Related Article: 5 Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty
Shaping Memories: More Than Fate's Gamble
The problem with that though is that then companies leave it to fate and the fickle memories of their customers to reap the loyalty rewards that come from memories of great experiences.
That’s a mistake. Memory is malleable. Companies are passing on an enormous opportunity to influence the perception of their customers’ experiences when they neglect to shape memories of those experiences.
Now, maybe you’re reading this and thinking that it is starting to sound uncomfortably like a dystopian sci-fi movie. And yes, memory manipulation brings to mind "Total Recall" (the Arnold Schwarzenegger version obviously), "Minority Report," or "Stranger Things" for those under 40.
I get it. I do. I would not recommend that you manipulate your customers, and I promise not to walk us down a dystopian path. Rather, I want to show you how to make positive memories more memorable — a pleasant thing for customers — and to use your understanding of what loyalty behaviors you want your customers to exhibit, to guide the ways you reinforce their positive memories as part of effective customer loyalty strategies.
"Reinforce." "Guide." These words hopefully don’t sound too dystopian.
Read on and be the judge of whether I’ve upheld my promise.
Related Article: Customer Loyalty Programs: Delivering the Most Bang for the Buck
Customer Loyalty Strategies: Why Memory Matters
First, a refresher about memory. Human memories are selective. They have to be — there are far too many events and stimuli coming in via our senses for us to retain. We economize in several ways including remembering:
- Peak moments, good or bad, and how experiences end (Peak/End Rule).
- Experiences that make us feel strong emotions.
- Experiences where we interact with a human.
Those are the elements that contribute the most to a memory of an experience. But why is memory so important?
Memory is a time machine. It brings past experiences forward to the future where customers use their memories to decide whether to do business with you again. Memory is absolutely vital to determining the loyalty of your customers.
Related Article: 4 Ways Brands Are Boosting Customer Loyalty
How to Reinforce Positive Memories
You’ve created a positive experience memory for a customer. Great. But your work is just beginning. If you want that positive memories to contribute to future loyalty behaviors, you will want to work hard to reinforce those memories for customers, and make them more salient. The more salient these experiences are in their memories, the more likely they are to act on them.
Reinforcing positive memories is also good for the customer. You’re evoking a positive memory, which is a pleasant experience — to think back on a nice stay in your hotel, or a successful consulting project that helped them reach a key decision and made them look good in the eyes of their colleagues.
Here are two considerations for reinforcing positive experience memories:
- Use your customer feedback survey to create active recall opportunities with customers.
- Determine what you want customers to do as a result of their positive memory.
Related Article: 3 New(ish) Ways to Think About Customer Loyalty
Feedback Surveys: Missed Opportunities in CX
The first and most common opportunity to do this is through your feedback survey. In many cases today, this is an opportunity that companies are not taking advantage of. Indeed, most of the surveys that I get from companies feel mistimed, ask questions that seem irrelevant to the experience I just had, and don’t fill me with confidence that the company will do anything with my feedback.
Conversely, companies can keep their surveys, simple and conversational, and they can ask customers to give specific feedback in verbatim comments. If the customers gives a high score on the survey metric — say a 9 or 10 on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question — the verbatim field should prompt them to share what made it an experience worth recommending. In this simple act, you are getting the customer to recount what they enjoyed about a positive experience with your company. This active recall process makes the memory more salient in their memory, reinforcing customer loyalty strategies.
Related Article: Customer Retention Strategies for Driving Loyalty in Uncertain Times
Direct Actions From Memories Boost CX
The second idea to consider when reinforcing positive experience memories is what you want customers to do as a result of their positive memory. Purchase again? Purchase a different product? Recommend your company? These are important distinctions to understand.
For example, Tripadvisor will follow-up with users of its app or site to encourage them leave reviews about destinations or hotels they researched on the site and traveled to. This prompt is critical to Tripadvisor’s business, which relies on user-generated content. But it is also critical to making the memory of the trip more salient in the customers’ mind. And by asking them to leave a review on the site, Tripadvisor is consciously focusing on asking its users to make recommendations to other potential users.
Conversely, CVS and other pharmacies, will provide a coupon with your receipt when you check out of the store encouraging you to return again soon. This prompt is clearly focused on repeat visits.
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Different tactics are crucial depending on the loyalty behaviors you want your customers' positive experience memories to inspire.
How memorable the great experience you delivered is determines whether the customer remains loyal. That is why it is so important for companies to focus more on reinforcing positive experience memories with customer experience strategies.
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