Why a Customer Loyalty Mindset Is the Secret to Long-Term Success

At Gladly Connect Live 2023, Gladly CEO Joseph Ansanelli kicked things off with an engaging session that evaluated both the current state of customer service and its future. He spoke in depth about the importance of embracing a customer loyalty mindset to be competitive in 2023 and beyond.

Here, we recap Ansanelli’s 2023 keynote address, which focused on these key themes:

• Rethinking the treatment of customer service agents
• Enhancing customer engagement
• Creating a sustainable support system to fuel long-term business success

Shifting to a Customer Loyalty Mindset

“There’s all of this research that shows when someone is loyal, they are dramatically a better customer.”

Joseph Ansanelli

CEO and Co-Founder, Gladly

Brands need to embrace the Loyalty Economy rather than rely solely on acquisition. New data proves that loyalty drives more revenue, creates more consistent business for each customer, and prevents shopper attrition. Loyal customers are:

• 6x more likely to buy again from the same brand.
• 6x more likely to buy a new offering from a favorite brand.
• 6x more likely to recommend their favorite brands to others.
• 6x more likely to resist a competitor’s offer for similar products.

“Expertise plus experience plus empathy equals loyalty,” Ansanelli said. Brands that follow this calculation can build customer loyalty and drive revenue — it’s just a matter of achieving each part of the equation, and doing so at an exemplary standard.

Long-Term Revenue Starts With White-Glove Service

Did you know brands using Gladly are able to drive revenue growth by up to 20%? With a customer-centric, ticket-free platform, agents are relieved from duplicate tickets and repeat tasks and can focus on providing one-to-many, white-glove customer service. Learn more about revenue-driving capabilities for customer service teams, or listen to our podcast about how brands like Crate & Barrel generated $100,000 in new revenue on one channel alone thanks to Gladly.

Envisioning the Future of Service

“Unlike building a case management or ticketing system, we said, ‘What if we made the person the core record in Gladly?’”

Joseph Ansanelli

CEO and Co-Founder, Gladly

Rethinking service from a people perspective — including both customers and agents — helps brands enact a more sustainable form of relationship building. Ansanelli highlighted three key pillars.

1. Thinking of customers — and agents — as people

Our data — along with numerous other resources — have repeatedly shown the direct, positive correlation between agent happiness and customer happiness. Brands that prioritize the experiences of both their customers and customer-facing staff will be far more successful at building consistent, favorable relationships.

2. Helping customers help themselves

Brands now have the resources and technical capabilities to create a balance between high-quality, white-glove service and practical, functional self-service. With tools like Gladly Sidekick, brands can make the practical application of chatbots far more personalized and effective by identifying the precise needs of a customer and solving recurring issues with ease, helping customers help themselves.

3. Turning disconnected interactions into a single, lifelong conversation

According to Ansanelli, innovation and investment are what make Gladly and our conversation-driven platform so unique. ”We invested a ton to make the experience in Gladly something which is akin to using more of a messaging product than a legacy enterprise case management or ticketing tool.” Through solutions like the Gladly conversation timeline, agents can view customers holistically and, by default, make customers feel far more comfortable and listened to in a service context.

Bringing Innovations to Empower Service Staff

“If you can make [agents] more efficient and effective, they’re going to deliver better experiences to your customers, your guests — and they’ll do it in less time.”

Joseph Ansanelli

CEO and Co-Founder, Gladly

The agents in customer experience are just as important as the shoppers. When agents are equipped to do their best work and provide high-quality service, strong and loyal relationships with customers will naturally follow. Ansanelli identified three areas where Gladly excels, particularly in revolutionizing the agent experience.

1. Self-service tools that complement live agents

In developing our solutions, Gladly has thought repeatedly about a simple question — “What would make an agent’s life easier?” The answer is typically to lessen repetitive tasks that prevent them from providing more critical hands-on support and solving more complex issues — or even creating new revenue opportunities by developing relationships.

With the introduction of Gladly Sidekick, coupled with quick responses from Gladly Answers, our comprehensive self-service apparatus improves customers’ ability to help themselves and lets agents turn their attention toward bigger and better things.

2. Automation that elevates agents into heroes

We at Gladly have always advocated for the concept of agents being brand heroes. When equipped with powerful CX technology like Gladly Hero AI, agents are given far more room to proactively solve issues and interact with customers.

With Hero AI, agents can leverage automation to draw on quick responses or suggestions in conversation, rapidly summarize and submit reports on support conversations, and even direct outreach to the best available agent for each interaction.

Supercharge your growth by transforming support agents into heroes

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3. Data-driven insights that are actionable and legible

Oftentimes, overloading staff with complex line graphs and charts on support center performance can be less helpful than intended. Instead, brands should invest in a hub for all support data — like Gladly Insights — that is not only far more comprehensible for the average agent but goes the extra mile to provide actionable next steps for agents of all expertise levels.

Applying the Customer Loyalty Mindset

C-suite and CX leaders have an opportunity to reinforce their commitment to bolstering customer loyalty. To win in the Loyalty Economy, they need to be investing in technology that works for both agents and consumers alike.

Powerful innovations like Gladly Sidekick help maximize support efficiency and make reaching solutions for shoppers an integral part of a brand’s behavior. Working hand-in-hand with this consumer-facing tool is Gladly Hero AI, which provides transformative capabilities for agents behind the scenes in CX to provide answers and solve customer issues.

Watch Ansanelli’s Gladly Connect Live 2023 keynote to learn more about today’s ecommerce trends, the future of AI in customer experience, and the importance of the Loyalty Economy.

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