Customer loyalty is always shifting

Over time customer loyalty shifts.

At first they were unsure about you. They never heard of you but decided to give you a shot.

As their trust slowly grew, they'd order again and again. They were satisfied.

Then either something happens (e.g. bad order handled poorly), they find someone else, or they grow out of your products.

Suddenly those loyal customers are gone.

1. New
2. Growth
3. Defection

This cycle happens everyday, all over the place. I've had it happen twice in the past month: once with our microwave and once with some software I've used for about seven years now.

You can't stop the cycle, you can only speed up or delay the next step.

Investing into that is difficult but it'll payoff more in the long-term. First you have to measure how long until each step.

How long before a new customers orders again? (New to Growth)

How long is their purchasing lifetime until they defect? (Growth to Defect)

(Both of these are measured by Repeat Customer Insights in the 2nd order Customer Purchase Latency and Customer Lifetime)

Figure those out and you now have the foundation needed to actually improve customer loyalty (beyond just giving away free things and hoping...)

Directive: Measure how long until a customer orders a second time and how long until they defect.

Eric Davis