Types of Loyalty Part 2

The best way to look at all of the different definitions for loyalty is to simply take a look at articles that are used to describe these loyalty measures. Let's start with SaferPak , an organization that looks at how to improve the food packing industry but also dabbles with improving customer satisfaction, among other things. They describe the following types of loyalty.

Monopoly Loyalty – This is when a customer stays with a company because they essentially have no choice. We've used the example of the grocery store in the small town before. If you're the only grocery store in the area, it doesn't matter if you have good service – you will still get repeat customers because they have nowhere else to go.

Cost of Change Loyalty – With employees, this would be a financial cost. Losing a job means losing money. For customers, this is more about the mental hassle.

Rarely is a customer invested financially in a company, but they may be unmotivated to try to find a new place of businesses. Incentivized Loyalty – The best way of describing this would be a coffee shop that has a "buy 9, get the 10 th free" card. It would be loyalty due to nothing more than the benefits you get from attending.

Habitual Loyalty – Habitual loyalty is a lot like normative loyalty from the previous article. It is loyalty because going to that particular store is "normal" as part of your daily routine, rather than because you have any strong feelings about the store. Committed Loyalty – This is idealized loyalty.

The customer or employee is committed to you because they have strong feelings toward you. This is the type of loyalty most companies strive for, because it indicates that your company is doing something right overall. While the terms themselves may not be flashy, these are pretty good descriptive terms for what the types of loyalty there are.

Far too many companies fall into the trap of believing the only kind of loyalty is committed loyalty. The reality is that customers shop at dozens of places every week, and employees have countless jobs they would rather be doing. Your company should be working for committed loyalty, since that is the only loyalty type that is based on true belief in the company.

The other types of loyalty are not nearly as strong. We'll continue looking at some loyalty terminology in the next article.