Skip to Content
  • Offices

    Offices

    North & Latin America
    • Atlanta
    • Austin
    • Bogota
    • Boston
    • Buenos Aires
    • Chicago
    • Dallas
    • Denver
    • Houston
    • Los Angeles
    • Mexico City
    • Minneapolis
    • Monterrey
    • Montreal
    • New York
    • Rio de Janeiro
    • San Francisco
    • Santiago
    • São Paulo
    • Seattle
    • Silicon Valley
    • Toronto
    • Washington, DC
    Europe & Africa
    • Amsterdam
    • Athens
    • Berlin
    • Brussels
    • Copenhagen
    • Dusseldorf
    • Frankfurt
    • Helsinki
    • Istanbul
    • Johannesburg
    • Kyiv
    • Lisbon
    • London
    • Madrid
    • Milan
    • Munich
    • Oslo
    • Paris
    • Rome
    • Stockholm
    • Vienna
    • Warsaw
    • Zurich
    Middle East
    • Doha
    • Dubai
    • Riyadh
    Asia & Australia
    • Bangkok
    • Beijing
    • Bengaluru
    • Brisbane
    • Ho Chi Minh City
    • Hong Kong
    • Jakarta
    • Kuala Lumpur
    • Manila
    • Melbourne
    • Mumbai
    • New Delhi
    • Perth
    • Seoul
    • Shanghai
    • Singapore
    • Sydney
    • Tokyo
    See all offices
  • Alumni
  • Media Center
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Global | English

    Select your region and language

    Global
    • Global (English)
    North & Latin America
    • Brazil (Português)
    • Argentina (Español)
    • Canada (Français)
    • Chile (Español)
    • Colombia (Español)
    Europe, Middle East, & Africa
    • France (Français)
    • DACH Region (Deutsch)
    • Italy (Italiano)
    • Spain (Español)
    • Greece (Elliniká)
    Asia & Australia
    • China (中文版)
    • Korea (한국어)
    • Japan (日本語)
  • Saved items (0)
    Saved items (0)

    You have no saved items.

    Bookmark content that interests you and it will be saved here for you to read or share later.

    Explore Bain Insights
  • Industries
    Main menu

    Industries

    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Agribusiness
    • Chemicals
    • Construction & Infrastructure
    • Consumer Products
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare & Life Sciences
    • Industrial Machinery & Equipment
    • Media & Entertainment
      Industries
      Media & Entertainment
      • Media Lab
    • Metals
    • Mining
    • Oil & Gas
    • Paper & Packaging
    • Private Equity
      Industries
      Private Equity
      • Due Diligence
      • Exit Planning
      • Firm Strategy & Operations
      • Portfolio Value Creation
    • Social Impact
    • Retail
    • Technology
    • Telecommunications
      Industries
      Telecommunications
      • Capital Expenditure
      • Telco Digital Transformation
    • Transportation
    • Travel & Leisure
    • Utilities & Renewables
  • Consulting Services
    Main menu

    Consulting Services

    • Customer Experience
    • Sustainability
    • Innovation
    • M&A
    • Operations
    • People & Organization
    • Private Equity
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Strategy
    • AI, Insights, and Solutions
    • Technology
    • Transformation
  • Digital
  • Insights
    Main menu

    Insights

    • Industry Insights
    • Services Insights
    • Bain Books
    • Webinars
    • Bain Futures
    View all Insights
    Featured topics
    • Tariff Response
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Thriving in Uncertainty
    • Executive Conversations
    • Macro Trends
    • Private Equity Report
    • M&A Report
    • Healthcare Private Equity Report
    • Paper & Packaging Report
    • Technology Report
    • CEO Insights
    • CFO Insights
    • COO Insights
    • CIO Insights
    • CMO Insights
    View all featured topics
  • About
    Main menu

    About

    • What We Do
    • What We Believe
    • Our People & Leadership
    • Client Results
    • Awards & Recognition
    • Global Affiliations
    Further: Our global responsibility
    • Sustainability
    • Social Impact
    • World Economic Forum
    Learn more about Further
  • Careers
    Main menu

    Careers

    • Work with Us
      Careers
      Work with Us
      • Find Your Place
      • Our Work Areas
      • Integrated Teams
      • Students
      • Internships & Programs
      • Recruiting Events
    • Life at Bain
      Careers
      Life at Bain
      • Blog: Inside Bain
      • Career Stories
      • Our People
      • Where We Work
      • Supporting Your Growth
      • Affinity Groups
      • Benefits
    • Impact Stories
    • Hiring Process
      Careers
      Hiring Process
      • What to Expect
      • Interviewing
    FIND JOBS
  • Offices
    Main menu

    Offices

    • North & Latin America
      Offices
      North & Latin America
      • Atlanta
      • Austin
      • Bogota
      • Boston
      • Buenos Aires
      • Chicago
      • Dallas
      • Denver
      • Houston
      • Los Angeles
      • Mexico City
      • Minneapolis
      • Monterrey
      • Montreal
      • New York
      • Rio de Janeiro
      • San Francisco
      • Santiago
      • São Paulo
      • Seattle
      • Silicon Valley
      • Toronto
      • Washington, DC
    • Europe & Africa
      Offices
      Europe & Africa
      • Amsterdam
      • Athens
      • Berlin
      • Brussels
      • Copenhagen
      • Dusseldorf
      • Frankfurt
      • Helsinki
      • Istanbul
      • Johannesburg
      • Kyiv
      • Lisbon
      • London
      • Madrid
      • Milan
      • Munich
      • Oslo
      • Paris
      • Rome
      • Stockholm
      • Vienna
      • Warsaw
      • Zurich
    • Middle East
      Offices
      Middle East
      • Doha
      • Dubai
      • Riyadh
    • Asia & Australia
      Offices
      Asia & Australia
      • Bangkok
      • Beijing
      • Bengaluru
      • Brisbane
      • Ho Chi Minh City
      • Hong Kong
      • Jakarta
      • Kuala Lumpur
      • Manila
      • Melbourne
      • Mumbai
      • New Delhi
      • Perth
      • Seoul
      • Shanghai
      • Singapore
      • Sydney
      • Tokyo
    See all offices
  • Alumni
  • Media Center
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Global | English
    Main menu

    Select your region and language

    • Global
      Select your region and language
      Global
      • Global (English)
    • North & Latin America
      Select your region and language
      North & Latin America
      • Brazil (Português)
      • Argentina (Español)
      • Canada (Français)
      • Chile (Español)
      • Colombia (Español)
    • Europe, Middle East, & Africa
      Select your region and language
      Europe, Middle East, & Africa
      • France (Français)
      • DACH Region (Deutsch)
      • Italy (Italiano)
      • Spain (Español)
      • Greece (Elliniká)
    • Asia & Australia
      Select your region and language
      Asia & Australia
      • China (中文版)
      • Korea (한국어)
      • Japan (日本語)
  • Saved items  (0)
    Main menu
    Saved items (0)

    You have no saved items.

    Bookmark content that interests you and it will be saved here for you to read or share later.

    Explore Bain Insights
  • Industries
    • Industries

      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agribusiness
      • Chemicals
      • Construction & Infrastructure
      • Consumer Products
      • Financial Services
      • Healthcare & Life Sciences
      • Industrial Machinery & Equipment
      • Media & Entertainment
      • Metals
      • Mining
      • Oil & Gas
      • Paper & Packaging
      • Private Equity
      • Social Impact
      • Retail
      • Technology
      • Telecommunications
      • Transportation
      • Travel & Leisure
      • Utilities & Renewables
  • Consulting Services
    • Consulting Services

      • Customer Experience
      • Sustainability
      • Innovation
      • M&A
      • Operations
      • People & Organization
      • Private Equity
      • Sales & Marketing
      • Strategy
      • AI, Insights, and Solutions
      • Technology
      • Transformation
  • Digital
  • Insights
    • Insights

      • Industry Insights
      • Services Insights
      • Bain Books
      • Webinars
      • Bain Futures
      View all Insights
      Featured topics
      • Tariff Response
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Thriving in Uncertainty
      • Executive Conversations
      • Macro Trends
      • Private Equity Report
      • M&A Report
      • Healthcare Private Equity Report
      • Paper & Packaging Report
      • Technology Report
      • CEO Insights
      • CFO Insights
      • COO Insights
      • CIO Insights
      • CMO Insights
      View all featured topics
  • About
    • About

      • What We Do
      • What We Believe
      • Our People & Leadership
      • Client Results
      • Awards & Recognition
      • Global Affiliations
      Further: Our global responsibility
      • Sustainability
      • Social Impact
      • World Economic Forum
      Learn more about Further
  • Careers
    Popular Searches
    • Agile
    • Digital
    • Strategy
    Your Previous Searches
      Recently Visited Pages

      Content added to saved items

      Saved items (0)

      Removed from saved items

      Saved items (0)

      HBR.org

      Make It Easier for Happy Customers to Buy More

      Make It Easier for Happy Customers to Buy More

      Low churn and high loyalty scores mean customers feel good about your company—but economic benefit only comes when customers act on those feelings.

      By Rob Markey

      • min read

      Article

      Make It Easier for Happy Customers to Buy More
      en

      This article originally appeared on HBR.org (subscription may be required).

      You have great loyalty scores and low customer churn. But sales are flat—or worse, falling. What’s going on? In most cases, this happens because you’ve failed to capture the economic potential of the goodwill in your customer base.

      Low churn and high loyalty scores usually mean that customers feel good about your company. They like doing business with you. They’re inclined to stay longer, buy more and tell their friends about their good experiences. Great! But the economic benefit comes only when customers act on those feelings—and companies can make it easier or harder for them to do so. Here are three ways to transform loyalty into bottom-line results:

      Learn more about your most loyal customers. Most companies work hard to determine the root causes of customer dissatisfaction. But it’s equally important to determine the sources of customer delight. If customers are happy because of product quality, what do they cite as evidence? If their delight stems mostly from their buying experience, what was it about the process that most impressed them? Converting feelings into action requires knowing exactly what you did to earn their loyalty, so you can replicate the action and extend it.

      To maintain that kind of intimate relationship with your most loyal customers, you have to create effective mechanisms for staying in close touch. The Vanguard Group, for example, makes a point of interviewing a sample of clients who have convinced others to bring business to the firm. The company asks these clients how they came to be so enthusiastic about Vanguard and what it was that they told the other person. Most of these customers, Vanguard discovered, had experienced an unusual “moment of truth” in their dealings with the company, such as receiving extra help after the death of a spouse or the birth of a child.

      Tune your offerings to meet their needs. Getting to know your most loyal customers will likely reveal both strengths and weaknesses in your product line. It may show you that competitors are offering something that you aren’t. It may uncover customers’ unmet needs—which they can’t quite articulate. Ideally, your offerings should be so attractive to your loyalists that they have no reason to look elsewhere for additional products or services.

      Nearly every company can find ways to tune its offerings to meet customers’ needs more completely. Banks have developed smartphone apps to enable instant deposits and other forms of self-service—both delighting customers and also allowing branch staff to concentrate less on routine transactions and more on providing the higher-touch personal services their best customers value. Some utilities help customers finance, install and maintain their own systems for generating power and heat through solar roof panels. Others help their commercial and industrial customers maintain small, decentralized generating units.

      By tailoring these products and services to fit perfectly into their customers’ lives, these companies make it easier for their happy customers to buy more and stay longer.

      Help them spread the word. When there’s a drum-tight fit between what you offer and what your best customers want, you’ll want to help them sing your praises. Provide them with the kind of stories they will actually tell to friends, giving those friends a reason to buy from you.

      Those stories might come from mundane, everyday service. The employees of FirstService Residential, a property management company, glean interesting anecdotes, and create tiny pools of goodwill, when they take the time to open doors and carry groceries for residents. Or, stories might reflect exceptional service in a crisis—like the time I tweeted my dismay about my flight being rescheduled, and suddenly got a call from a JetBlue representative.

      If your customers don’t already have a good one, you also want to provide them with a platform they can use to tell their stories to a relevant audience. These platforms can take the form of online communities, such as Adobe Marketplace & Exchange Classic, or real-world communities, such as LEGO user groups. They can also take the form of references, video testimonials and so on—particularly useful in a business-to-business context.

      High rates of loyalty are a huge asset in business. They provide a necessary foundation for profitable growth. But that growth doesn’t happen automatically—your company needs to make it easy for your customers to do more business with you and to bring their friends. The steps outlined here should help you convert loyalty into great performance.

      Rob Markey is co-author of the book The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World (HBR Press). Markey is a partner and director in Bain & Company’s New York office and leads the firm’s Global Customer Strategy and Marketing practice.

      Authors
      • Headshot of Rob Markey
        Rob Markey
        Advisory Partner, Boston
      Contact us
      Related Consulting Services
      • Sales and Marketing
      AI, Insights, and Solutions
      Reinvigorate Cross-Selling

      Three major trends have opened new opportunities to grow share of wallet.

      Read More
      Digital
      The Math, the Magic and the Customer

      Data-savvy digital marketers must still maintain an emotional connection with the people who do the buying.

      Read More
      Sales and Marketing
      Avoiding the Pitfalls of Personalized Marketing and Sales

      A number of deliberate processes can raise the odds of creating an effective segment-of-one approach.

      Read More
      Loyalty
      After Years of Customer Loyalty Programs in Insurance, What Works, and What’s Next?

      Based on Bain’s 10 years of research, five themes describe the progress and challenges of earning customers’ advocacy in an increasingly digital experience.

      Read More
      Sales and Marketing
      What Agency Consolidation Means for CMOs

      As agency holding companies get bigger and deeper, CMOs must rethink ownership, integration, and how to stay in control.

      Read More
      Published in October 2016
      Tags
      • Loyalty
      • Sales and Marketing

      How We've Helped Clients

      Sales and Marketing Boosting Sales With a Redesigned Commercial Operating Model

      Read case study

      Sales and Marketing Designing a Sales Compensation Plan Based on an Unusual Metric

      Read case study

      Operations Don't give customers options they don't want

      Read case study

      Ready to talk?

      We work with ambitious leaders who want to define the future, not hide from it. Together, we achieve extraordinary outcomes.

      Selected for you

      Global Private Equity Report 2026

      Powering forward in a new era: Our annual report examines key trends shaping the dealmaking landscape.

      For you

      Stay ahead in a rapidly changing world. Subscribe to Bain Insights, our monthly look at the critical issues facing global businesses.

      *I have read and understand Bain’s Privacy Notice.

      Please read and agree to the Privacy Policy.
      Bain & Company
      Contact us Sustainability Accessibility Terms of use Privacy Modern Slavery Act Statement Cookie Policy Sitemap Log In

      © 1996-2026 Bain & Company, Inc.

      Contact Bain

      How can we help you?

      • Business inquiry
      • Career information
      • Press relations
      • Partnership request
      • Speaker request
      See all offices