Building valued relationships that customers would "fight to keep"

Customer loyalty is the act of choosing one company's products or services consistently over their competitors. In highly competitive industries, companies often fight to win over the loyalty of customers, sometimes triggering "price wars" that lower costs but can also dilute value.?

However, one could argue that, if you have to differentiate yourself solely on price, then what you get in return is not really customer loyalty, because truly loyal customers aren't swayed too easily by price.?One could even argue that truly loyal customers would "fight to keep" the companies that deliver greater value to them.?

Two questions beg to be answered: First, how exactly do customers "fight to keep" a given company or brand that serves them, and second, how do you define "greater value"?

"Fight to keep"

In professional services and many B2B sectors, relationships are the main currency through which value is delivered and communicated.

"In a people business," says Will Tang (real name withheld on request), who leads the #digitaltransformation initiative of a professional service firm based in Hong Kong, "if your company provides a valuable service, say, you're a lawyer or a PR agency or a recruitment consultant, then you're dealing not just with a client company, but with specific individuals -- real people -- in HR, in legal, line managers, or senior decision-makers at the C-level who will vouch for you because of the value you create for their organization.?You have to cultivate relationships with people who will 'fight to keep' the relationship they have with you because of this value."

As you move up the value chain, he adds that it's no longer about what you know or who you know -- it’s how well you know each other that counts.??

In the recruitment industry, for instance, few clients feel obliged to work exclusively with just one firm as they prefer to keep their options open.?Hence, it's not enough that you deliver to your clients an intrinsic value (i.e. a product or service that helps them achieve a goal, or solves a problem, or addresses a need), you need relationships that will be your "champions" within their organization.

"Creating Greater value"

According to Jerry Chen, Senior Partner at CGL and head of its Hangzhou office, "Customer value is the goal, and long-termism is the faith."

Chen, who has nearly 20 years of experience and has served as an HR leader at well-known Internet companies such as Tencent and Douyu, has extensive practical experience in comprehensively building a talent management system and N-1 upgrade strategy. He also has a deep understanding and on-the-ground experience of the talent needs of enterprises at different stages.

"Many times it is not that we do not know what customer value is," he says, "but it is difficult to achieve unity between knowledge and action, that is, to connect what we know with how to implement it."

He adds that there are many definitions of customer value, and draws on Huawei's interpretation of customer value: "customer-centric", that is, to treat customer needs with religious piety, to attach importance to universal customer relationships, and build strategic partnerships; good quality, good service, low operating costs, and priority to meet customer needs; customer satisfaction as the basic criterion for measuring all work in the company; "deep taotan, low weir", and establish a good environment for the company's development through a win-win approach.

To highlight the imporance of creating greater value for clients, he cites as a recent example the rapid growth of CGL's Hangzhou team.

"There must be a direct relationship. In my eyes, customer value is about: delivery is king, consultant growth, and long-termism, or the ability to take the long view instead of the short gains."

"Delivery is the key word here, and the Hangzhou team is a very strong delivery team. To do a good job in terms delivery, first of all, we must pay attention to the goals, problems, and needs of our customers," he says. "The focus of different customers is different, and on the basis of effectively identifying customer goals, problems and needs, we take fast action and accurately set a standard for measuring customer delivery. In our case, we always quickly respond to changing customer needs, accurately recommend candidates who meet customer needs, and strive to understand candidates."

The Hangzhou team also pays great attention to the growth of its consultants, as employees who have been employed for more than half a year in the team have achieved 100% promotion.?

On long-termism, he cites a recent quote by Professor Chunhua Chen, Chairman and CEO of Kingdee Group Xu Shaochun: "The more changes there are, the more long-termism is needed."

As the external environment is always changing, only by stretching the time period long enough can we see what remains unchanged amidst all the change.

In practical terms, he says what this means for the CGL Hangzhou team is to "take the long-term view over making fast money, to resiliently adhere to value delivery, to create word of mouth through value delivery, and to enhance our industry influence through word of mouth and trusted relationships."

Rapid change can be distracting, but the essence that doesn't change -- that's where greater value lies.?And it's only with delivering greater value that one can become somebody a customer would "fight to keep."