Customer loyalty is, as Suzy founder & CEO Matt Britton said in a recent webinar, the “holy grail of marketing.”

“Once you’ve developed loyalty, your customer acquisition cost drops dramatically,” Britton observed. “If you can actually turn that loyal customer into an advocate, into somebody who’s going to evangelize your brand, then you have your customer working for you.”

And many consumers are happy to oblige. In a Suzy market research survey of 1,000 consumers, conducted on March 22, 51% of respondents said they recommend brands that they love to friends and family.

But how can brands cultivate that kind of loyalty today, particularly as we enter the post-pandemic new normal? Here are three suggestions, based on Suzy’s market analysis:

Be Conscientious (And Don’t Be Shy About It)

According to a 2019 report from Havas Group, meaningful brands that are viewed as making the world a better place outperform the stock market by 134%. Between the pandemic, the presidential election, and perhaps most especially, the civil rights protests, 2020 did nothing to change that trend.

An Edelman report from June of last year said that 60% of Americans would buy or boycott a brand based on how it responded to the protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. And 66% of the consumers surveyed said that they think about how buying products from a brand reflects upon them.

“Brands can no longer sit on the sidelines when it comes to social issues,” Britton said. Not only will taking a public stand on such developments help build brand loyalty, he added, it could also build loyalty in-house, among employees, particularly mindful Millennials and Gen Z workers.

Offer A Product That Is Replenishable

Consumers are all over the map when it comes to willfully sticking with the same products. In the Suzy study, 37% of those surveyed said they lean toward repeat purchases of the same products, overall. However, that same percentage of respondents said the opposite, that they prefer trying new products. About a quarter of the consumers said they were neutral in this respect.

So compelling consumers to stay with a brand is tricky business, but there’s some Suzy data that points to an almost certain solution: People are more likely to make repeat purchases on items that must be replenished often.

An astounding 92% of respondents said they bought their favorite candy more than two times, while 81% said they have purchased their favorite makeup item more than twice.

“I have to purchase coffee every morning, so I don’t want to, every day, think about where I’m going to get my coffee,” Britton said, sharing his personal Starbucks addiction/preference as an example of why this is so. “I just want to go to the same place, every day, and it becomes very easy.”

So, in this respect, as Britton also said, “the category matters a lot.” Still, brands that offer items that are only purchased once in a while can generate customer loyalty; they just have to compensate for the lag time between purchases by constantly building brand awareness.

Offer A Product that ‘Performs’

Ultimately, though, in the consumer-driven world of products, it’s still all about quality. Neither a pandemic nor any other crisis will change that foundational fact.

Nearly two-thirds—62%—of respondents said that product performance makes them loyal customers. When asked how their favorite products make them feel about the brand that offers them, consumers told Suzy things like:

“I know I can trust them, that they will always work well and meet my needs.”

“Products I like make me feel understood by a brand. It makes me feel like the brand has people like me in mind and makes products that are good for me and help me and that I like.”

“They make me feel happy and loyal. I love when I find products I feel work well for me.”

The best way for brands to ensure their products are performing up to customer standards? Frankly, it’s through conducting market research and gathering direct customer feedback with consumer research tools like Suzy.

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