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ambassadors of your company or brand. Keep in mind that a satisfied customer is not yet a
loyal customer. Only when there is an emotional connection with the company or brand does
loyalty arise.

We can distinguish two types of loyalty: Active loyalty and passive loyalty. With active loyalty,
the customer will not make a new purchase. He buys the same product again. The group that
is passively loyal has sympathy for the brand or product that he purchased earlier but is open
to other brands. This group will start to orientate again. This group is larger than the actively
loyal group. To keep this group as customers, it is important to let these potential customers
come into contact with touchpoints in a good way after the purchase. This can be done, for
instance, by using newsletter marketing.

American Express, the credit card company, has analyzed the effect that loyal customers have
on the turnover of various industries. The results are striking:

In retail, loyal customers spend 16 times more than other customers.
In restaurants, loyal customers spend 13 times as much.
In aviation, a loyal customer spends 12 times more.
In the hotel business, loyal customers spend five times more.

How do you create a positive experience?
We now know that Customer Experience is about the contacts the customer has with the com-
pany or the brand. And that the impact of a good customer experience is great. But how do you
create a great experience? Here are a few tips and suggestions:

• Make a plan aimed at strengthening the customer experience and evaluate it regularly.
Make sure that everyone in the organisation is involved. Without a systematic approach
and involved employees, you will miss opportunities.
• Know your customer's needs. Without this knowledge, you cannot respond to what the
customer finds important. The customer-centred SIVA model can help you do this.
• Make sure you have high quality applications. Create a great website, Facebook page and
pay attention to your e-mail marketing template.
• Research how your competitors shape the customer experience and find ways to improve it.
• Make it possible for customers to get in touch with you in multiple ways, such as by phone,
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and email.
• Respond to customer reviews.
• Always respond to customer posts in social media.
• Personalise your contacts with customers. Address the customer by his name and try to
personalize information or promotions as well.
• Always do more than the customer expects!
• Conduct a user test with 5 people.
• Use humour.

The use of humour usually works well, provided it is not exaggerated. The van der Valk hotel
in Brussels has understood this well. Just look at the confirmation mail after a reservation. You

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