As it isn’t a physical or numerical sentiment, customer loyalty can sometimes be rather difficult to measure or keep track of. Proof of a person’s loyalty can usually only be seen through an action, but with the competition heating up for every type of business, companies cannot afford to let customer loyalty fall by the wayside.

Love Energy Savings is one of the UK’s leading energy price comparison websites, and for them, customer service is just as important as helping people switch suppliers. By tracking their customer retention rate alongside reasons that are given for non-renewal, Love Energy can clearly see where their service can be improved.

Coupled with their formula for monitoring how happy their customers are, Love Energy Savings show that tracking customer service doesn’t have to be difficult or a chore. By putting a little time and effort into customer service and retention, businesses everywhere can get ahead of their competition by showing customers they care. Following these three steps will certainly help.

Ask the important questions

Too often, companies bombard their customers with questions, and then having retrieved this valuable data they don’t do anything meaningful with it. If you want to know more about what your customers want and what makes them happy, why not just ask them?

Love Energy Savings send just two surveys to their customers: the first when a person successfully switches their business energy tariff with them, and an annual survey designed to discover more about their overall experience, satisfaction and value received. A tactic such as this provides the perfect opportunity to find out exactly what you need to do to improve; who better to ask than the everyday users of your service? Finding the right balance is crucial; you want to get as much useful information as possible, but you don’t want to annoy your customers in the process. Make sure your questions are well thought out and get straight to the point.

Your next step: implementation.

Don’t be afraid to make changes

This is the step where you put all of your careful research into action. If you have conducted your surveys well, you will have a goldmine of data at your fingertips where your customers are telling you exactly what would make them use your services again.

The results from their two customer surveys, along with the list of reasons given for non-renewal, is what inspires Love Energy Savings to make internal changes. If they find that a particular reason frequently appears for non-renewal, they can add or tweak a process specifically to address that. It’s all about using the data you have gathered to your advantage; your customers have told you what they want, you just have to make it happen.

Never forget your customers

Loyalty schemes, marketing deals sent via email and check-ups are all great and effective ways to get back in touch with your customers – as long as you don’t start spamming them! Again, there’s a sweet spot to be hit. They show that you, as a business, are thinking about them and that you actually care about their repeat custom. You never know, it could be the difference between them choosing you over a competitor.

One of the best ways to stay ahead is to make life just that little bit easier for your customers. If there is something you can do that would take the pressure off your customers or something you can do for them, then by all means do it! As part of their ongoing commitment to their customers, Love Energy Savings assign a dedicated manager to each account, who will call the customer before their contract is up for renewal, ensuring they get the best deal every single year.

Knowing as much as you can about your customers is the first step towards establishing an effective customer service system, and the best way to do that is to ask them the important questions. After all, it is the customers who will keep you in business, so don’t be afraid to find out exactly what they want, and give it to them!