Happy People Are More Loyal Customers

July 19, 2012 4 Comments

I’ve been following the research on happiness for several years, because I think it has a strong link to customer experience. The theory is that happy people tend to be more loyal customers and more engaged employees.

So I took a look at our consumer data to see if there’s a quantifiable link to loyalty (look for the same type of analysis around employee engagement later this year). My analysis looked at the likelihood of consumers to recommend companies across 18 industries based on whether or not they agreed with the statement “I am typically happy.” Please note that we were not asking consumers if they were happy or unhappy with a company.

It turns out that happy people are more likely to recommend companies across all 18 industries. The largest gap between happy and unhappy recommenders is in rental cars, where happy people are more than twice as likely to recommend. Even the smallest gap, 11 percentage points for retailers and parcel delivery services, is still substantial.

In my next post, I’ll examine which consumers are happy.

The bottom line: Happy people are more loyal customers

Filed under Customer Connectedness, Customer experience Tagged with

About Bruce Temkin, CCXP
I'm an experience (XM) management catalyst; helping organizations improve results by engaging the hearts and minds of their employees, customers, and partners. I enjoy researching and speaking about these topics. I lead the Qualtrics XM Institute, which is the world's best job. We're igniting a global community of XM Professionals who are inspired and empowered to radically improve the human experience. To achieve this goal, my team focuses on thought leadership, training, and community building. My work is driven by a set of fundamental beliefs: 1) Everything starts and ends with human beings, so you need to understand how people think, feel, and behave; 2) XM is a discipline that needs to be woven throughout an organization's entire operating fabric; and 3) Building the XM discipline requires a combination of culture, competency, and technology.

4 Responses to Happy People Are More Loyal Customers

  1. Kym says:
    July 19, 2012 at 9:24 am

    I am a very happy person and a very loyal consumer. I would have never imagined there is a link! cool finding! (I also have always been a very engaged employee….)

    Reply
  2. John Sperry - CEO Mindshare says:
    July 19, 2012 at 9:28 am

    Hey Bruce, great stuff. We are actually having Shawn Achor speak at our conference. I hope you can make it out this fall!

    Reply
  3. Dave Fish says:
    July 19, 2012 at 10:21 am

    Good stuff. We also found a similar link between age and experience ratings (http://research.forum.winter12.mr-2.us/angels_assassins.phtml).

    Reply
  4. Tucker M says:
    July 19, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    It’s such a simple concept, yet can have such a great impact on a business! Along to the road to customer loyalty (http://www.impactlearning.com/the-road-to-customer-loyalty/) a major component is also ensuring that your employees are happy as well. Think about it, if your customer service reps are happy, chances are a little bit of that happiness will rub off on your customers as well!

    Reply

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