There are more than a few loyalty-esque proverbs that float around marketing departments and boardrooms everywhere: "repeat customers spend more," "it costs five times more to acquire a customer than to retain a customer,"  "80% of your revenue is driven by 20% of your customer base." If you are reading this blog post, chances are that you have uttered at least one of these phrases at some point in your career. But, if you've ever tried to put your money where your mouth is, you also know that achieving true customer loyalty requires strategic alignment, deliberate planning, and financial and cultural commitments. Loyalty is both behavioral and emotional, and companies that really want to compete for their customers’ loyalty need an evolved approach that extends beyond the program.

To help you understand where your loyalty strategy stacks up, Forrester has developed new self-assessments that examine loyalty from two points of view: the business' and the member's:

  • ​​Use the business self-assessment to examine five core dimensions of your loyalty approach. Advanced approaches to loyalty demonstrate mastery of strategy, customer data, performance management, program design, and program execution. Even if you don't have a loyalty program in place, you can still use this assessment to evaluate your strategy, customer understanding, and measurement practices. Find new insights in my report, "Advance Your Approach to Customer Loyalty," and use the interactive assessment tool. The results will outline your loyalty maturity level and determine whether you are a laggard, a learner, a leader, or a legend.
  • ​​Take on your customer's point of view with the member interaction toolkit. If you have a loyalty program in place, use the member interaction assessment to see how your program enables flexible participation: from enrollment and account management, to earning points, recognition, and reward redemption. This recently published Toolkit is designed to supplement to the business assessment above.

So, are you a loyalty legend or a laggard? Take the assessment, download the Toolkit, and I look forward to discussing your results!