According to Cogent Reports, hard evidence exists that USAA earns its loyalty stripes by staying close to customers, and competitors would be wise to do the same. While year after year, USAA consistently ranks highest among distributors in customer loyalty, the firm¡¯s achievement is often dismissed by competitors as merely the result of brand affinity. This and other findings are included in the 7th annual Investor Brandscape®, a Cogent Reports study from Market Strategies International.
Over the last year, 72% of USAA clients reported receiving an email from the company, more than half (54%) spoke to a company representative by phone, and two-thirds (66%) visited the firm¡¯s website. In addition to strong loyalty, more tangible outcomes for USAA include the highest average number of investment accounts per household, and almost half (46%) of its clients reporting that they either purchased a new product or added to an investment sometime during the past 12 months, more than any other competitor.
¡°USAA certainly represents the gold standard for client interactions,¡± said Meredith Lloyd Rice, senior product director at Market Strategies and author of the report. ¡°However, there are a number of other major distributors that are also successfully reaching clients across a variety of touchpoints.¡±
For example, 14 of the 20 firms included in the report managed to reach 45% or more of their customers by email. Similarly, 10 firms have at least 46% of clients who reported visiting the company website. Finally, nearly half of the clients from four firms other than USAA recall speaking with a company representative by phone sometime during the past year, including clients of LPL (51%), UBS (45%), Raymond James (48%) and Edward Jones (49%).
¡°When you look at the firms that are best at engaging their customers across multiple touchpoints, it¡¯s no coincidence that these are often the firms with strong loyalty, deep client household penetration and enviable share of wallet,¡± said Lloyd Rice. And while a few of these firms also have big advertising budgets, there are notable examples of companies that are successful at reaching clients without that luxury and expense.¡±
