A customer who visits a coffee shop every morning may love its drinks. Equally, the shop may be directly below the customer’s office, serve quickly, or offer a prepaid deal that has not run out. The same pattern of repeat purchases can have different explanations. Looking only at transaction frequency makes it easy to mistake convenience for attachment.
In their conceptual framework, Dick and Basu (1994) examine loyalty through the relationship between customers’ attitudes toward a brand relative to alternatives and their repeat purchasing. The practical value of this perspective is that managers should investigate both the choice and the reason for it. An order history shows what customers did; it does not explain their reasons by itself.
Why do customers return?
Consider a hypothetical example: two customers each buy coffee four times in a week. The first values consistent flavor and the way staff handle requests. The second finds the drinks ordinary but chooses the shop because it is nearby. They may respond differently when another café opens next door. This is an illustration for analysis, not a survey finding.
Convenience is real value that a business creates. The problem arises when a business assumes customers will continue choosing it after purchasing conditions change. Once a promotion ends, a workplace moves, or a more convenient alternative appears, the original reason for returning may disappear.
Read the numbers against the purchase cycle
Before assessing repeat purchases, establish whether customers have had a reasonable opportunity to buy again. Coffee and washing machines have very different purchase cycles. Labeling someone a lost customer because they have not bought again within an arbitrary period can lead to a mistaken conclusion.
A practical approach is to track groups of customers who first purchased during the same period and compare them over an observation window suited to the product. Within each group, distinguish regular-price buyers from those who purchase only during promotions. These comparisons help frame better questions; a difference between groups does not itself show that promotions caused a change in behavior.
Ask about the most recent purchase
Rather than asking only whether someone is loyal to a brand, ask which alternatives they considered for their most recent purchase, why they ultimately chose the business, and what almost changed their mind. These questions anchor the conversation in a particular experience that can be explored more clearly than a general declaration.
It is also useful to approach some customers who have stopped buying, with their consent, to understand what changed. Listening only to those who still return leaves out people who have found another option. A small number of conversations can reveal hypotheses to investigate; their feedback does not represent the whole customer base.
Match retention efforts to the reason
If customers return mainly because the service is quick and convenient, sensible priorities may include availability, shorter waits, and reliable ordering. If they value expert advice, ensure that advice does not depend entirely on one employee. If they buy only at a discount, examine profit after promotional costs before expanding the offer.
Simply withdrawing a promotion from a group and treating every subsequent change as proof of loyalty would be misleading. Assessing the effect of a change requires an appropriate comparison, with attention to seasonality, customer differences, and other sales activities happening at the same time.
One practical next step
At the next customer review, choose a group with relatively frequent purchases. Place its purchase history alongside customers’ own explanations for their choices, and distinguish what is known from what is still an assumption. Then select one improvement and track subsequent purchases over an appropriate cycle, alongside profit and customer feedback.
A repeat purchase is encouraging. Understanding what keeps customers choosing the business helps managers decide whether to invest in the product, service, convenience, or pricing.
Reference
Dick, A. S., & Basu, K. (1994). Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22(2), 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070394222001.
Illustrative photo: Tim Samuel / Pexels.
