Loyalty

The secret of success for any business model is simple: acquire new customers. Keep the ones you have. That, however, requires loyalty. And that’s exactly where the problem lies. When even business consultancies that actively advise other businesses on how to succeed, believe that customer loyalty is a myth we enter that unique intersubjective space where perspective and expectations determine the reality we perceive.

But as I wrote in The Sniper Mind, “Reality is not a thought experiment.” You can think whatever you like and act as if your interpretation of reality is correct but eventually facts catch up with you and their accumulation makes it inevitable that you take action to re-think, correct or re-calculate your assumptions, perception and expectations.

A KPMG study that drew hard data from 19,000 customers across 20 different countries and cultures showed that customer loyalty is not dead, but it is ever-evolving.

That is exactly as it should be. Loyalty is an emotional response. It is the end-product of a relationship between a customer and a business that’s based upon the perception of care extended by the business to its customer. If the relationship is entirely transactional then the customer’s calculations will be too. Loyalty will never enter into it.

How To Show You Care

The question here then, and it is a deep and deeply troubling one, is how do you show you care? Pre-pandemic I had visited 19 different countries and spoken to professional audiences across the globe on trust, search, social media, marketing and branding. We would invariably have the “meal out after a keynote speech” moment in some expensive upmarket restaurant where the organizers of each convention would use the opportunity to pump me for my views, opinions and ideas on a variety of business topics.

Each time, at these restaurants, I would visit the restroom on purpose, before the meal. I am very particular about the food I put inside my body and when it comes to trusting someone I don’t know to cook it for me, I want to know they actually care for more than just appearances. A restroom is not part of a restaurant’s cash engine. It actually takes away from sitting space and its level of cleanliness and upkeep is an investment that does not contribute to the bottom line.

At the same time, I know that a restaurant that is willing to cut corners in its restroom is also quite capable of cutting corners in its food preparation practices. Every restaurant in the world will tell you outright that they value your custom, are proud of their food, invest in their staff and are there to make sure you have an awesome experience. But only the ones that are willing to expand time, energy and money to maintain comfortable, spotless restrooms are telling you the truth.

Just like with Amazon’s returns policy, a restroom in a restaurant or, even, an airport, is their way to show they care. It is the place where they are willing to be vulnerable. Expressed vulnerability breeds trust.

My article on customer service details details ten points on customer service. A true customer service experience builds a relationship and true relationships are based on emotion. The moment you understand that you then begin to understand that if your customers are not loyal to you, you, in turn, are only interested in their money.?