This article explores the relationship between repurchase loyalty, satisfaction, and value. Clients often find it easier to express satisfaction with tangible aspects of a service, or to describe the value they receive, than to articulate advocacy. By measuring four components of value, service delivery, quality, brand, and price model, firms can identify levels of client loyalty and gain insight needed to retain and grow client relationships.
What to measure
Firms often look for a single metric to assess client, company, or brand sentiment and to predict acquisition or retention. Common measures include intention to repurchase, client satisfaction, client effort scores, and Net Promoter Score (NPS).
These measures can provide useful indicators and a benchmark of current position, and we sometimes include them in feedback programmes. However, professional services relationships are nuanced, and our experience shows that no single measure reliably captures client loyalty.
NPS is often promoted as a proxy for relationship strength because it is simple and widely used, particularly in surveys. However, published research highlights limitations. Feedback typically comes from existing clients, which can miss negative sentiment from lapsed or non-clients and overstate results. Benchmarking against public NPS scores can also be misleading where sample composition is unclear, making comparisons unreliable.
The challenges of measuring client loyalty
Client loyalty in professional services is rarely straightforward. Clients may be loyal to a specific partner, practice group, or work type, rather than to the firm as a whole. Conflicts and procurement constraints can also limit a client’s ability to concentrate work with one provider, meaning loyalty is often shared across multiple firms.
A paper published by Emerald Insight reported that service, quality, image and price model had a significant correlation to client retention. It concludes that each of the four components of value (service, quality, image and price) are directly related to client retention and therefore should be used by service professionals and managers as an important strategy to retain their clients.
What we have found
Our own research shows a clear relationship between expectation management, service delivery, perceived value, overall satisfaction, and client advocacy. When measuring loyalty, we favour combining multiple measures through an algorithm rather than relying on a single question.
This approach provides a more accurate picture of relationship strength and helps firms understand where to focus improvement efforts.
The driving forces behind client loyalty
In 'Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work', the author describes that profitability and growth are driven by client loyalty (retention), that loyalty is driven by client satisfaction, and that value drives customer satisfaction. We have found it useful with firms to help them to try to understand what drives clients to perceive they had received value and to measure this.
We have successfully used a similar measure to assist identify priority areas for intervention, to help firms target their approach and to use it as a risk measurement for their Key Account Management (KAM) programs. The measure plots results from a satisfaction question against a loyalty question to give a square box matrix as shown below and proposes a segmentation to indicate client loyalty.
Figure 1 - Taken from Putting the Service profit chain to work, Heskett et al NB: Acuigen’s preference is to use a 7-point scale in this matrix
An alternative approach
An alternative way to explain and assess loyalty focuses on brand and service reputation, using an adapted 'ServQual' framework. This approach links client opinion directly to internal processes and marketing activity. The model supports questionnaire design and provides a practical way for partners and service teams to understand service gaps and client experience.
Figure 2 - Adapted from the ServQual model, Zeithmal, Parasuraman & Berry, 1988
The aim is to map client touchpoints, assess experience at each stage, and identify gaps between expected and delivered service. These insights are then translated into clear action plans. Research shows that when service failures are handled well, they can strengthen rather than damage client loyalty.
Summary
When evaluating client opinion, satisfaction typically comes down to a small number of fundamentals:
- Meeting client objectives and expectations
- Doing what was promised
- Resourcing work appropriately
- Delivering work on time
- Charging a fair and transparent price
Consistent performance in these areas builds stronger client opinion and brand reputation. When assessing willingness to repurchase, service delivery, quality, brand, and price model, viewed in market context, remain the most relevant measures for understanding and strengthening client loyalty.
References
1 Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld
2 The NPS and the ACSI: a critique and an alternative metric, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 53 No. 3, 2011 p.327–346
3 Value, satisfaction, loyalty and retention in professional services, Click here
4 https://hbr.org/2008/07/putting-the-service-profit-chain-to-work