Where previously price-quality was paramount, today more emphasis is placed on the core value of sustainability. With sustainability, you can build and expand customer relationships.

In a customer relationship, the favour factor is most important. You are trying to win a place in someone’s mind. To gain sympathy, sustainability is increasingly valued. Meanwhile, 2/3 of consumers take sustainability into account and almost half want to pay more for a sustainable product. Even a third of that group wants to pay up to 25% more for a product. This percentage is expected to keep increasing.

Currently, customers return based on quality, but sustainability is now number two. The sustainability customer experience is expected to become more important than the price-quality ratio.  More than two-thirds of consumers are loyal to a brand if the brand shares the same emotional values. If your brand ensures that you respond to this with sustainability in your product offering and it is a core value of your company/brand, you will come top of mind and certainly modern consumers will become more loyal to your brand.

When a company capitalises on sustainability by including it in its DNA, you ensure that the target audience remains sympathetic to your company and/or brand. Single-use plastic has a high irritation factor. Replacing plastic straws with high-quality paper straws is an example of how this is being consciously addressed. First and foremost, it is better for the environment and fits with the customer’s commitment to avoid single-use plastic as much as possible. If, as a brand, you make sure you fit with a customer’s personal values, it helps to prolong the customer relationship. It even causes the consumer to recommend it to his or her network. If you really touch someone, more than 70% of your customers will share this experience with at least six people. Make sure you provide social proof as a company and in doing so, you will automatically ensure more customer recommendations. A substantiation builds trust and this arguably makes people want to make it known to others. Both your product and services can use substantiation, but consider a delivery driver in town who brings your parcel by bike. If you consciously act with your last mile, it helps with the overall image. After all, it is the only face-to-face moment when you physically meet the consumer. Not for nothing does Cool Blue ensure that deliveries are made to your home with a personal smile, preferably by cargo bike. This enhances the company’s image and shows that they take sustainability seriously.

In short, it can be argued that if a company adopts environmental awareness as a core value and acts on it, you realise customer loyalty not only in the short term, but especially in the longer term.

Knowledge article – June 2022