Naturally Embed Yourself into Your Customers' Habits

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“Young brands must take product-market fit very seriously and nail that intersection of sustainable value and what customers consider important. Mature brands have grown beyond this phase successfully, and their challenge is to offer and sustain the delivery of value with a great customer experience every single time,” says Sathya Anand, Digital Strategy Director at Iris.

Iris is an advertising agency with over 14 offices worldwide. The agency prides itself on building participation brands, using creative and commercial expertise to help brands tap into cultural moments, and embed themselves into people’s daily lives. It has worked with brands like Samsung, Samsonite, Starbucks, Adidas, Suzuki and many more. 

Martechvibe spoke to Anand about a few common questions on every marketer’s mind.

Excerpts from the interview:

Why do customers churn, and what can make them stay? 

Customers sign up with a brand based on its promise of offering a sustainable value or solving something important. ‘Sustainable value’ and ‘Important’ are the keywords here. 

• If brands don’t offer sustainable value (prime example – acquiring users through discounts and promos), customers come for the discount and churn the moment discounts disappear. 
• If brands don’t solve something important, customers lose interest after the initial honeymoon phase and gradually drop off the radar. 
• When a brand has both but does a lousy job at delivering the promise (execution), it results in a bad customer experience, and customers lose trust and, therefore, churn. 

In today’s commoditised market – how can brands create more value for customers to keep them loyal? 

Young brands must take product-market fit very seriously and nail that intersection of sustainable value and what customers consider important. Mature brands have grown beyond this phase successfully, and their challenge is to offer and sustain the delivery of value with a great customer experience every single time. 

• Build habits and frequency: Constantly seek opportunities to naturally embed yourself into your customers’ habits and align your growth and retention efforts to this single goal. Buying coffee on the way to work and watching Netflix during daily commutes are examples of this. 
• Focus on Customer Experience (CX):  CX is a vast and complex aspect to nail, but one that offers the most rewards. Brands must have their end-to-end customer journey mapped, keeping it as close to reality as possible. Prioritise key moments and design the ideal experience you want to offer. A key thing to remember is to design a sustainable experience because CX will be critical throughout your existence. 

Which metrics or indicators do you use to assess the success of retention marketing initiatives? 

The most essential thing brands should do is understand their product’s usage intervals. With that out of the way, the following metrics give you a good measure of your retention performance: 

• Growth in User Activity & Engagement 
• Growth in Avg. Frequency
  • Customer LTV 
• Avg. Basket Size (for D2C, eCommerce) 
• Breadth of Product/Features adopted 

Now, these are outcome metrics. It’s essential for brands to measure their input metrics as well. 

Some examples: 

• CX Score 
• Voice of Customers 
• Funnel drop-offs