Michael Lowenstein

We can all pretty much agree that much of customer loyalty behavior comes as a result of relevance, authenticity and trust, three essential elements in the way customers see suppliers through their own value lens and set of personal experiences. Inside the company, this is strongly influenced by customer-focused touchpoint and support processes, corporate leadership and culture, and employee interaction. As Professor Peter Fader, co-director of the Customer Analytics Initiative at The Wharton School, has stated (in his recent book, Customer Centricity):

Customer centricity can help you create a passionate, committed customer base that will spread word of your company’s attributes to potential new customers. Customer centricity can improve the way your customers view you – even as those customers pour more money into your coffers. But most important, it will also generate profits – for the long term.

There's much that needs to...

Daiji wa shoji kara: "Serious disasters come from small causes"
—Feudal Japanese proverb

The polar opposite of Advocates are Saboteurs (or 'Badvocates', as coined by leading PR firm, Weber Shandwick). Saboteurs are the extreme of what we label as 'Alienated' customers, whose assessment of a supplier can range from mildly annoyed and disaffected to outright, revenge-seeking anger.

In B2C situations, more than half of customers report problems with one or more elements of their transactions with suppliers. These are customers who, having had a bad experience will a) typically not tell the company about it (and there are multiple, well-documented reasons why so few customers actually complain), but b) also typically tell many of their friends, colleagues, and relatives through offline and online means. This is 'badvocacy', the alienated and resentful flip side of customer advocacy which may be 20%, or more, of the consuming B2C and...

"The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation"
—Othello, William Shakespeare

Corporate trust and reputation matter. In fact, they are every company or organization's most valuable assets. Trust and reputation go hand-in-hand, and need to be protected and enhanced. An excellent reputation doesn't necessarily translate to a better bottom line; but, a bad reputation can definitely be damaging to a company's future. Any negative hit to a company's reputation often results in a decline in consumer trust; and any erosion in trust equals a negative hit to business growth. Not something a CEO wants to treat lightly.

A 2008 study by the CMO Council found that almost 100% of the customers surveyed claimed that they would either scale back or terminate relationships with companies that fail to build customer trust. Customers need to see that a business is working hard to build a solid foundation of trust among its...

Whenever senior executives are asked to identify their most important corporate and marketing priorities, at the top of their lists, they invariably include issues involving the provision of optimized value to customers, linked directly with stronger business performance. For brand and customer researchers, the recurring challenge is to provide their organizations with actionable, real-world metrics and diagnostics that link directly with customers' marketplace behavior. The most contemporary, actionable, research approach for meeting this objective is customer advocacy.

What is Customer Advocacy, and Why Should It Be A Key Organizational Focus?

Advocacy plays an increasingly pivotal role in influencing consumers' opinions and behavior toward companies. Extensive customer research shows that, today, b2b and b2c customers are quicker to take action, make decisions to buy products and services, and express satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their experiences....