Customer loyalty is not dead unless you kill it!

(Time to read this Blog article is about 60 seconds)

You could read a book two inches thick on the subject of customer loyalty, but here’s what you really need to know in one sentence…

“People are loyal to what’s best for them…or what they assume is best for them.”

That’s it.  Read it again. Sear that insight into your brain, or make up a sign and put in on the wall across from your desk.  The irony is that while business people say there’s no such thing as customer loyalty anymore, we’re all desperately searching for businesses to be loyal to.  To change suppliers of anything is a pain in the behind and we’d far rather find one great business or service provider in every part of our business and our personal lives…and then stick with them.

People are loyal to their ‘heroes’…and they’re desperately searching for heroes to be loyal to. That’s the real truth and anything we tell ourselves different from that is simply to avoid taking responsibility for the fact that we have failed to create and communicate compelling value. We have failed to be ‘best’ for our target customers. 

So, if you’re not experiencing the degree of loyalty that you’d like in either your business or your personal life, it’s for one of two simple reasons…

1. You’re not best for anyone yet…which means you have work to do.  You need to stop whining, stop blaming the universe for making people differently and do the work required to be ‘best’.  You need to understand who your target customers are and what life’s really like for them.  Then, you need to have the courage and the creativity to deliver compelling value and extraordinary experiences that will ‘grab’ those customers, clearly differentiate you from your competitors, make you ‘famous’ and grow your bottom line.
2. Or, perhaps you are ‘best’ for a particular group of people but, so far, you’ve done a lousy job of communicating your compelling value to those specific people.   Again, you have work to do.  How will you effectively and affordably communicate your compelling value to your target customers in a crowded and cynical marketplace?  There’s no point in being the best if you’re also the best kept secret.

So, simply put, your job is to be the best for your target customers, and then to help them to assume that.  Loyalty is not dead, unless you kill it.