Emotional customer retention ensures a strong connection between the customer and a company or brand. The deeper this relationship, the greater the chance of repeat purchases and recommendations. In this article, I explain the importance of emotional customer retention and show you how to turn your customers into your allies or, better yet, your fans.

What is emotional customer retention?

The word emotion contains “motion”, which means movement. Emotion is a movement of your mind, a feeling. Feelings are emotions that we can clearly identify. A positive emotion, for example, is the bond to another person. But there is also the bond to a product, a brand, a company. Then we speak of emotional customer retention. If you manage to trigger a positive feeling in your customers and consolidate it through appropriate customer experiences, then you have created the most valuable type of customer retention. But what are the most useful customer retention strategies?

Customer retention: About customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and customer enthusiasm

There are different types of customer retention. You can bind customers contractually, which sounds unsexy and it is. The longer the terms and conditions, the more mistrust it evokes. Trust is a much more valuable asset. Customers who trust you will come back. Customers to whom you offer good service will be satisfied. Customer satisfaction will likely result in customer loyalty. But the emotional increase of this is customer enthusiasm, the highest level of customer retention.

Why are emotions important for customer retention strategies?

95% of all purchasing decisions are triggered by emotions. About two-thirds of all customers say that they have developed an emotional bond with the brands they buy most often. Market research studies show that more than half of a company’s revenue comes from just 15% of its most loyal customers. Emotional customer retention is the kind of relationship that generates the greatest profits for companies. This is true even when customers buy only a little, but they remain loyal, buy more often and more sustainably.

Emotional customer retention is the kind of relationship that generates the greatest profits for companies Share on X

Customer journey vs. emotional journey

A key concept in marketing is the development of a customer journey. This involves looking at the different phases in which customers come into contact with a company’s product or service. This ranges from becoming aware that the product even exists, to the consideration phase and the actual purchase, to experiences that customers have with the product and customer service. Finally, an important phase is the advocacy phase, in which a customer shares his – hopefully positive – experiences and becomes a brand advocate. It is often neglected that every customer also goes through an emotional journey. It is not just about rationally satisfying the needs of a clearly defined target group, but also about the feelings with which customers experience the individual steps.

Retaining customers: Turn them into fans

In my keynote on the Fan Principle – how to turn your customers into fans – I draw comparisons to sports. Fans are followers who have built up the highest level of emotional relationship to their team or idol. Sports teams know how to get fans to proudly wear the team’s colors through shared experiences, appropriate communication in the stadium or via social media, and special events. A company or brand can also use such retention strategies to maximize loyal customer feel.

The key moments of the emotional customer journey

The phases of the customer journey are well known. But what are the key moments of the emotional journey, the emotional processes that increase the customer retention rate? How can you get your customers feeling to be valued customers and act as your brand advocates?

Understanding emotions: Needs and feelings of your loyal customers

Let’s start with sports again. When the Austrian national soccer team, for which I am the stadium announcer, plays against Liechtenstein, the fans’ expectations are quite different than before a game against archrival Germany. I say that with all due respect for Liechtenstein. In the first case, a clear victory is expected; in the second case, a spectacular game with high intensity in which one might be able to trip up the big opponent. This can be transferred to the business world. A customer who goes to an insurance agent to take out compulsory car insurance is emotionally involved quite differently than someone who comes to a bank because he needs financing for his new home. This starting situation, the expectations and the hopes of the customers must be understood in order to pick them up emotionally. Understanding this paves the way for sustainable customer retention strategies.

The purchase: What does your customer feel when he leaves your store?

People buy something because they want it. Wanting is an emotion. As a rule, purchasing decisions are not made rationally, but emotionally. People only need a bit of rational reasoning to justify their emotional behavior when buying, be it a favorable price, technical advantages of a product or an increase in status. The trick is to take the customers along with their purchase-deciding emotion and to provide them with the reasoning that encourages customers to buy.

Don’t get me wrong, this has nothing to do with talking people into buying something they don’t need. Understanding the “why” behind a potential customer’s desire puts you in a position to meet his needs perfectly. When they buy your product or service, they should feel good about it. And that feeling should last beyond the purchase.

Excellent customer service: Strengthening customer relationships

Example Mercedes: After a fruitful cooperation, a large Mercedes dealer completely transformed its customer communication. Since then, every car handover has been celebrated. A souvenir photo is taken of an event that should be remembered with positive feelings. But it doesn’t stop there. Two weeks later, the customer receives a package with the framed picture and high-quality flip-flops, with the motto: “We not only ensure that your car has good tires, but also that your feet have the right tires.” A friendly reminder of future customer service appointments.

Such customer retention strategies further strengthens the customer relationship. Positive customer experiences even after the purchase express the appreciation that an entrepreneur feels for his customers. And this is where you should get creative, which leads me to the magic moments.

The magic moment: The unforgettable customer experience

Magic moments are positive moments that you ideally remember forever. These can happen by chance or they can be consciously planned. A good example of a planned magic moment is a marriage proposal. Anyone planning a marriage proposal knows how many thoughts and questions go into making this moment as special as possible… and, of course, into getting the other person to say “yes”. Exactly the same thoughts can go into creating magic moments with customers. How can you attract customers? What emotional highlights can you set in the course of your customer journey or emotional journey? Think of “Instagrammable Moments” here as well to increase customer retention. What do I mean by that?

Social media platforms are based on the principle of sharing information, images, impressions, feelings and magic moments. If something is cool, it gets shared. For your brand and your target group, you need to think about what kind of occasions are worth sharing and how you can create them. I admit that this is more difficult for a car insurance company than for the car that is being insured. Sharing requires a community in which your customers can come together and share positive experiences, thereby promoting your product. But… there is also a wonderful example of customer retention strategies in car insurance: the car insurer Hagerty has built up a fantastic community of 3.5 million YouTube subscribers forming a more than solid customer base, just because they have precisely understood the emotional journey of their customers.

What are the advantages of emotional customer retention?

Seven fundamental reasons why emotional customer retention is a must:

1. Your brand is perceived as unique: you are not interchangeable.
2. The risk of customers leaving is significantly reduced, and they will stay even if mistakes happen.
3. Your existing customers advertise for you and provide you new customers.
4. Emotionally attached customers pay higher prices.
5. Loyal customers keep coming back for more and ensure stable sales.
6. Retaining customers means there is a higher cross-selling and upselling potential.
7. Employees feel more comfortable and are more productive when the company’s reputation is perceived as positive.

How can you improve customer retention and establish loyalty programs?

As a keynote speaker and event host, I am used to performing in front of a large audience. No two performances are the same. I also take my viewers and listeners on an emotional journey. I also have to understand their expectations and be able to read my audience, and I need the ability to improvise if necessary. There is no magic formula for implementing an emotional customer retention strategy, but there are a few basic principles.

Designing personal customer relationships

Appreciation always comes from personal contact. Whenever you can leverage personalization and individualization, you should use this option. This gives your customers a sense of exclusivity and increases customer lifetime value.

Reward loyalty – Improve customer lifetime value

Part of customer retention strategies should be also to reward loyalty, especially for long existing customers. How you do this, whether through discount codes, special offers or other promotions, also depends on the product. As a general rule, emotional appreciation is more sustainable than price discounts, thus resulting in a higher increase of customer retention rate. Customer loyalty turns into emotional customer retention then.

Instagrammable moments: Key factor to increase customer retention

Let’s come back to social media to figure out the masterpiece of customer retention strategies. If you have built a community for your product or brand there, you can support it. For example, you can encourage customers to take part in challenges like “Share a picture of how you cross an Alpine pass with our bike!” or “What was the maiden voyage with your new car?” in a community forum. Or you can encourage your target group to come up with their own ideas for challenges. These personalized experiences with your products can be understood as public customer feedback which is highly valuable since it helps building trust.

Turn your customers into fans of your brand

What customer retention strategies have you used so far to strengthen the emotional connection with your customers? In my keynote on the  Fan Principle – how to turn your customers into fans I provide suggestions that companies like Mercedes and Allianz have already benefited from. In the article, I emphasized the importance of individualization and I stand by that. We will also find an individual solution for your request to strengthen emotional customer retention. Please feel free to send me an email to [email protected] or use the contact form.

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