Loving the one you’re with : How behavioral factors influence responses to customer rewards and incentives

"Winning customers’ hearts and minds—or more specifically, wallets, good feelings, and positive word of mouth—is a perennial top-of-mind business issue across sectors. But many firms struggle with how best to thank their customers, not only in terms of the amount of resources they should devote, but also the most effective way to acknowledge this good behavior. While saying thank you as a way of kindling loyalty seems straightforward enough, research suggests otherwise. People are actually quite sensitive to exactly how an organization acknowledges their good behavior, and the field of behavioral economics teaches us that a number of cognitive biases weigh heavily on perceptions. It’s worth noting that overall, appreciation has been an underutilized measure of today’s consumer’s loyalty. While the majority of loyalty research has focused on satisfaction and willingness to recommend, the role that customer acknowledgment (appreciation) plays in both customer satisfaction and repurchase behavior has only recently started to receive attention as a driver of both customer behavior and choice." Susan K. Hogan & Timothy Murphy, Deloitte University Press, 16 June 2016 Read more