It’s a given: To have a successful CRM program, you have to successfully collect and analyze transactional data on your customers’ buying patterns. Everyone knows that. But this kind of information – these quantifiers – only complete half the picture.

Just as important as patterns, customer purchases involve emotional factors. And when you combine emotional response with transactional data, you get a clearer picture of consumer behavior – and the key to customer retention and satisfaction.

“Probably as much as 75 percent or 80 percent of what drives customer satisfaction and loyalty has little or nothing to do with the products sold or the prices charged,” says Jim Barnes, consultant for North American and European companies on customer relationship strategy. “To establish loyal customers, to get close to forging a relationship, companies must establish an emotional connection. This happens over time as a result of how companies and their employees behave toward customers, how they treat people, and ultimately how customers are made to feel.”

Barnes developed a survey methodology that he uses with his clients to measure the quality of customer relationships. He has consistently found the strongest relationships between companies and their customers exist when there is more face-to-face contact between customers and employees. Aliant, a Canadian telecommunications and information technology company, used this methodology and applied it to a survey aimed at learning about their customers and developing a communications strategy.

Aliant measured customer satisfaction and gauged their loyalty during face-to-face surveys of its wireless, Internet and phone service customers. The goal was to understand why customers purchased Aliant services and what the company could do to improve service , and ultimately boost brand loyalty and retention.

“We gained valuable insight from meetings with our large clients, telephone and online surveys with residences and small and medium-sized businesses, and home visits to better understand our customers’ telecommunications needs,” says Heather Tulk, vice president of marketing. “With this learning, we increased our focus on activities that our customers valued most.”

Researchers, for example, discovered many things the company was doing well regarding service and, in the process, found a critical emotional connection: Customers valued single points of contact because they believe interacting with one person is more efficient and less burdensome during service calls and because it’s easier to build a sense of rapport with someone who takes charge of their total experience.

Based on those findings, Aliant has set out to totally transform the customer experience. “We encapsulated this theme into our brand promise, ‘Aliant is the company that makes it easy for you to do what you want,’” says Tulk. This brand promise is supported in the “here. for you.™ ” tagline which communicates the meaning and importance of the brand promise to employees throughout the entire organization. Individual departments developed and implemented transformational projects to support the brand promise. The new brand promise was launched to customers through an advertising campaign, supported by direct mailings containing the new branding tagline, emphasizing reliability and how the company simplifies customers’ lives.