What Is Brand Loyalty — And How You Can Improve It

The morning rush. You're running late, grabbing your keys and wallet. You stop by the grocery vending machine and reach for that familiar blue can, almost without thinking. Not the red one beside it, not the one that's $5 cheaper! The blue one. Always the blue one.

Your fingers know its texture. Your taste buds expect its punch. When the vending machine is out, you walk away thirsty rather than compromise. You've never consciously chosen others over it. It just feels right.

Scroll through your phone, and you'll notice you have the same coffee shop app, streaming service, and grocery store. Your choices aren't really choices at all. They're habits wrapped in the comfort of familiarity. Brand loyalty, if you may.

How do you use it to your advantage so more people choose you over others? This read is for you.

What is brand loyalty?

Brand loyalty is a sustained commitment a customer makes to choose a brand repeatedly over alternatives.

It combines two core dimensions:

1. Behavioral loyalty - reflected in actions such as repurchase and renewal, and
2. Attitudinal loyalty - stems from an emotional connection, trust, and perceived alignment

Historically, brands have focused on transactional rewards, such as points, discounts, and incentives, to inspire loyalty. But that model is showing diminishing returns.

Emotional loyalty now has a more substantial influence on repeat purchases compared to points-based programs.

Customers who feel seen, heard, and valued are significantly more likely to return and to advocate for your brand.

The shift is also ideological. Loyalty today is shaped by belief systems, not just product satisfaction.

Most global consumers now consider a brand's ethics when making purchasing decisions, with sustainability, social impact, and transparency influencing their long-term purchasing preferences.

In fact, a 2020 McKinsey US consumer sentiment survey revealed 60% are willing to pay more for sustainable products and packaging.

In this context, loyalty is no longer a marketing tool. A brand can remain relevant, trusted, and aligned with customer priorities across every interaction.

🔥 Understand, engage, and serve customers consistently across all channels to boost loyalty with Sprinklr Unified-CXM

Listen to customers better, engage smarter, serve faster, and measure loyalty's business impact — all in one, unified platform!

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• AI-driven sentiment analysis to identify loyalty drivers
• Quick and personal responses to queries across 30+ channels
• Consistent, omnichannel support so customers feel valued
• Track loyalty behaviors (reward redemption, tier upgrades, subscription renewals) and correlate with revenue

💡Also read: What is social media listening? Guide, tools, and benefits

Key advantages of strong brand loyalty

Customer loyalty is a long-term business asset that directly contributes to revenue quality, operational efficiency, and brand equity. For enterprise leaders, loyalty is not a soft metric; it is a structural advantage that improves financial performance and reduces risk across markets.

1. Increases revenue stability and purchase efficiency: Loyal customers tend to make more frequent purchases, adopt new products more quickly, and remain engaged over extended periods.

2. Reduces customer acquisition costs (CAC) over time: The cost of acquiring a new customer is up to seven times more than retaining an existing one. Loyal customers also have a higher return on ad spend when targeted with personalized lifecycle messaging.

3. Strengthens brand resilience during risk: According to Statista, over 30% of customers cite trust, emotional connection, and a deep sense of commitment as the primary drivers of their brand loyalty. In times of operational failure, negative publicity, or external crisis, loyal customers are more likely to remain, engage constructively, and defend the brand.

4. Unlocks advocacy-driven acquisition opportunities: Loyal customers frequently promote the brand through referrals, user-generated content, and peer recommendations. These actions expand reach and improve trust in ways that’re difficult through paid ads. In sectors where trust plays a significant role in purchasing decisions, advocacy-led growth provides a clear competitive advantage

💡Also read: Social media reputation management: A complete guide

Top strategies to boost brand loyalty

Improving brand loyalty at scale requires more than rewards. You must embed loyalty across touchpoints, guided by emotional value, operational precision, and customer relevance. For this, you need to:

1. Operationalize emotional loyalty across journeys

True customer loyalty isn't built on perks or one-off gestures. It comes from making customers feel valued, understood, and confident in your brand.

That starts with consistency, empathy, and a sense of personal connection at every touchpoint. Small actions, such as remembering a customer's name, responding with genuine care, or adding gratitude to follow-ups, can make even routine interactions feel meaningful.

Shep Hyken, a leading CX expert, bestselling author, and host of Amazing Business Radio, explains this well.

He says, "You don't go over the top and blow them away with the most incredible service they've ever had. That's impossible to do. Just do what's expected. And when you do that consistently and predictably, your customers are gonna say, 'They're amazing.'"

In his book, The Convenience Revolution, he refers to this as the "Cheers Effect" — customers returning to places where they feel recognized and welcomed.

Emotional loyalty, built on trust and shared values, consistently outperforms transactional rewards in sustaining long-term relationships.

You can listen to his full podcast for more practical insights on creating customer confidence and loyalty.

2. Connect support experience to loyalty outcomes

Support is often where trust in your brand either needs reinforcement or has eroded, making it a critical lever for loyalty.

To operationalize this, you must directly connect support KPIs, such as CSAT, resolution time, and first-contact resolution, to loyalty metrics like retention and repeat purchase.

For example, a pattern of long wait times or repeated complaints should serve as an early indicator to flag at-risk customers before they disengage.

The support interaction itself should draw on CRM context so that customers don't need to repeat their history and preferences every time they engage. This enables your agents to provide solutions that are both efficient and empathetic, as well as relevant to the customer's needs.

For example, your agents can use loyalty playbooks containing recovery tactics, tailored offers, or next-best actions to ensure they can turn potentially negative experiences into opportunities for rebuilding trust.

You need customer support software to enact your loyalty playbooks. Sprinklr's AI Agent Assist console is an example — it acts as a copilot and cockpit for your agents to enforce loyalty playbooks at every stage of the customer journey.

The dashboard displays customer details extracted from the CRM, and the "Recommended Actions" panel utilizes AI to suggest the next best steps your agents can take in real-time, based on the conversation.

Tracking post-support sentiment, also a feature on Sprinklr, further strengthens the loop, enabling your agents to identify and resolve issues before they escalate into attrition.

For example, a customer leaving a negative feedback score after a resolved ticket could trigger an automatic follow-up, ensuring their voice is heard and closing the gap before dissatisfaction hardens into disloyalty.

3. Reward advocacy, not just transactions

True loyalty is expressed through repeat purchases and also through advocacy — when customers actively share their experiences, invite others, and amplify the brand's message.

Unified customer experience platforms like Sprinklr can help you track behaviors such as referrals, reviews, and user-generated content, which generate organic exposure and trust far more effectively than paid advertising. It also makes it easy for your agents to reward such behaviors.

For example, tiered rewards can recognize both purchasing activity and community participation, so that advocates feel acknowledged for their broader impact.

Celebrating these advocates publicly adds another dimension of value. Simple actions, such as community shoutouts, early access to new features, or exclusive invitations, reinforce a sense of belonging and elevate customers' roles in your brand's growth.

To make these programs measurable and fair, tracking links and referral codes can be integrated, allowing your business to reward advocacy with accuracy.

➕ Read more: How to leverage social media data to drive growth

4. Align loyalty programs with your brand's purpose

Loyalty strengthens when customers see their own values reflected in the programs they engage with.

Beyond discounts and points, you can integrate cause-based options such as charitable donations, community investments, or environmental offsets into their rewards catalog.

Transparency is key to reinforcing trust in this model. Sharing clear impact reports, such as the number of trees planted or the amount of funding donated, ensures customers understand the difference their loyalty is making.

AI-led insights on Sprinklr's Live Chat Support software may indicate a customer's interest in sustainability.

This could be a cue for your agent to present options, such as donating to eco-friendly causes, directly within the conversation flow. Here's an example of different prompts your agents can receive on Sprinklr based on the context of the conversation.

Highlighting your initiatives across loyalty communications and broader marketing channels further reinforces your brand's purpose-driven identity.

🧑‍🏫Learn how to inspire brand loyalty from Hyatt

To deepen customer loyalty across its global footprint, Hyatt implemented Sprinklr to unify guest communications and empower frontline teams.

Hyatt reduced response times by 34% by bringing over 700 distributed employees, who engage directly with local customers, onto Sprinklr. Unifying customer touchpoints helped them deliver timely, personalized care that reflects the Hyatt brand promise of empathy and hospitality at every touchpoint.

This shift transformed customer service into a key differentiator, enabling Hyatt to build trust and foster long-term guest relationships worldwide.

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How businesses can operationalize brand loyalty at scale

Scaling brand loyalty programs across diverse markets and customer segments requires integrated infrastructure, cross-functional alignment, and clear KPI ownership. For this:

1. Define loyalty objectives aligned to business KPIs

Begin by identifying what success looks like for your loyalty program. This could include:

• Increasing repeat purchase frequency
• Lifting average order value
• Driving higher retention rates
• Expanding wallet share among high-value customers

For example, a coffee chain wants to boost revenue by 15% annually. Instead of generic "make customers happy" goals, they set crystal-clear loyalty targets: increase repeat purchases by 25%, grow the average order value by $3, and achieve a 40% membership enrollment rate.

Each loyalty objective directly feeds into their profit engine — more frequent visits drive revenue, larger orders boost margins, and members spend 60% more than casual customers.

This laser-focused approach transforms vague customer satisfaction hopes into measurable business wins that shareholders can track and celebrate.

2. Unify customer data across touchpoints

Scaling loyalty requires a complete and connected view of the customer.

Disconnected data across CRM, point-of-sale, ecommerce platforms, and service interactions makes it challenging to deliver relevant rewards or experiences.

Say one system only shows product purchases, but another shows service complaints, you miss the chance to design loyalty actions that reflect the whole relationship.

By unifying data, you could automatically exclude dissatisfied customers from promotional offers until their issues are resolved or send bonus rewards to those who consistently engage across multiple channels.

⚡Pro tip: Unifying customer data is just the foundation. The real value comes from identifying actionable patterns within that data. Once you've consolidated profiles in your CRM, use AI to surface loyalty signals that static segmentation often overlooks.

Sprinklr AI helps detect these signals by analyzing behavior, sentiment, and journey progression across touchpoints. It can flag when a customer is nearing churn, ready for a tier upgrade, or showing advocacy potential. These insights help promote loyalty actions such as surprise rewards, personalized outreach, or lifecycle-triggered offers.

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3. Design flexible, modular loyalty frameworks

Avoid rigid, one-size-fits-all program structures.

Instead, build loyalty mechanics with modular components such as earn-and-burn models, tier-based incentives, or value-based rewards that can be dynamically adjusted based on region, seasonality, customer segment, or business priorities.

For example, you might keep the same core points-earning structure across all markets but add temporary boosters during local festivals, tier accelerators for high-value customers, or non-monetary perks for specific cohorts.

This lets you maintain consistency while adapting to unique contexts.

💡Also read: Social media collaboration: How to plan it effectively

4. Automate execution to drive efficiency and control

Manual loyalty program management is unsustainable at enterprise scale.

Look for marketing automation and workflow engines to manage enrollment triggers, reward issuance, tier upgrades, and re-engagement sequences.

These systems should also include built-in controls (such as fraud detection, redemption limits, and jurisdiction-specific compliance rules) to ensure operational consistency and mitigate risk across markets.

Sprinklr Service supports trigger-based journeys and workflows, where actions are initiated based on specific events or conditions — such as an API call triggered by a purchase (e.g., completing a transaction) or profile property updates.

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Your agents can set workflows based on events, such as a customer's first purchase, via integrations or API triggers, and reduce manual effort while ensuring the automatic and consistent application of the loyalty program.

5. Establish continuous feedback and optimization loops

Loyalty measurement cannot be an afterthought.

Set up real-time dashboards and attribution models that track how loyalty behaviors (like reward redemption or tier advancement) impact financial metrics such as revenue per user, churn rate, and upsell conversion.

Share these insights across marketing, product, and finance to inform loyalty redesigns, pricing strategies, or even product development.

For example, a dashboard may show that customers who advance to higher tiers increase their spend by 20% within three months.

This insight could guide future tier designs or justify introducing early-access perks for lower tiers to accelerate progression.

Traditional KPIs, such as NPS or CSAT, are often too limited on their own. Instead, your brand needs real-time signals and unified dashboards that capture sentiment, behavioral, and financial data together to drive stronger decisions.

The following section explains the metrics that you should measure, monitor, and evaluate to ensure the brand loyalty-building strategies are delivering the desired outcomes.

❓ How much can brand loyalty cushion customer churn?

The exact percentages of churn vary by industry and context. But research suggests that, while brand loyalty doesn’t eliminate churn, it lowers its likelihood in the face of price hikes:

• Approximately 10% of customers account for 40% of the profits. These loyal customers resist churn even with price increases
• Customers without loyalty agreements have 10-18% higher churn rates. Responding to social media complaints, however, increases loyalty by a significant percentage, thereby strengthening resistance to churn

One way to understand if brand loyalty is cushioning churn post events such as a price-hike is by using a combination of sentiment analysis + social listening on Sprinklr Insights:

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Step 1: Set clear goals - Define what to measure: sentiment shifts from price messaging or spikes in negative conversations. Track themes like “pricing,” “value,” or “cost vs. Benefit" across channels

Step 2: Gather data with social listening - Monitor thousands of conversations across 30+ channels, including social media, forums, and blogs. Sprinklr's AI accurately detects nuanced sentiments, including sarcasm and frustration

Step 3: Monitor in real-time - Deploy Smart Alerts to capture negative sentiment spikes after price announcements. Use the built-in anomaly detection feature to identify emerging issues or trending topics

Step 4: Analyze segments - Break down sentiment by customer segments (loyalty members vs. others) to identify reaction patterns. Compare pre- and post-announcement sentiment to assess customer resilience

Step 5: Tailor engagement - Respond quickly to negative mentions with clarifications. Research indicates that this can increase loyalty by ~25%. Emphasize value justification: quality improvements, added services, or brand values that resonate with loyal customers

Step 6: Measure and iterate - Track KPIs like sentiment changes, mention volume ratios, and engagement patterns. Continuously refine messaging using insights from integrated channels, such as reviews and support tickets.

Brand loyalty KPIs brands must track

The following metrics enable organizations to monitor performance across customer retention, engagement, and long-term value creation:

• Customer retention rate - Indicates how effectively your brand keeps customers over time. High retention signals strong loyalty and reduced churn-related losses
• Repeat purchase rate - the percentage of customers who return to make repeat purchases. A rising repeat purchase rate reflects growing behavioral loyalty and program effectiveness
• Customer lifetime value (CLV) - the total value a customer brings over their relationship with the brand. Loyalty efforts should aim to increase CLV through deeper engagement
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) - how likely customers are to recommend your brand — is a strong proxy for emotional loyalty and advocacy-driven growth
• Loyalty program participation rate - how many customers are enrolled and actively engaging. High participation suggests relevance and perceived value
• Redemption rate - how frequently rewards or benefits from customer loyalty programs and campaigns are redeemed. High rates point to program usability and meaningful incentives
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) - insight into the immediate experience across touchpoints. Consistent satisfaction supports long-term loyalty
• Emotional connection score - derived from surveys or sentiment analysis, this reflects how strongly customers feel aligned with your brand values and identity
• Churn rate among loyal segments - tracking attrition specifically within your most loyal cohorts helps isolate breakdowns in experience or value delivery

Tracking loyalty metrics in isolation limits their value. The real advantage lies in integrating these insights into broader CX, CRM, and marketing analytics.

As a result, teams can assess loyalty performance and identify the factors that drive it. This can support the ability to optimize spend, refine messaging, and scale programs with precision. For enterprise brands, this level of measurement rigor is essential to sustain loyalty-led growth driven by loyalty.

💡Know more: Social media marketing best practices to follow

Build brand loyalty that lasts

In 2025, brand loyalty is no longer be driven solely by discounts or transactional incentives. The most resilient customer relationships are built on emotional alignment, ethical relevance, and consistent, personalized engagement across every touchpoint. Enterprises that treat loyalty as a brand strategy, rather than just a rewards program, see more substantial returns across retention, advocacy, and long-term revenue growth.

Sprinklr Social gives global brands the infrastructure to scale these outcomes. Its unified platform brings together real-time customer insights, AI-powered social listening, and personalized publishing. This enables teams to identify what drives loyalty, act on signals instantly, and deliver brand experiences that resonate.