I was reviewing some notes and I found something referring back to a April 2011 Success Magazine article about customer loyalty by Erin Casey (pg 26 if you are looking).
In rereading the article, I remembered why I made the note, I completely disagreed with one statement: “Customer loyalty isn’t dead, at the very least it is declining”. This is not true in the world I interact with.
I admit that there is a percentage of the world that make decisions only on price, but it is so small I do not feel the need to discuss it.
People are no longer loyal to brands that suck and abuse their customers since there are better options. For instance, a few years ago I was considering a loan with Bank of America. I called them to see how much I could get, so they ran my credit. During the process I specifically stated I did not want the loan and I was only wondering how much I could get so don’t sign me up. A few days later I received a check in the mail from Bank of America for the load I told them I did not want. I called them and cancelled it. Now that loan shows up on my credit report and I cannot get it removed because it was done verbally over the phone and not in writing. By the way, this was before I was fully on board with Dave Ramsey.
Guess what, I am no longer loyal to Bank of America since they hired a person that was either dishonest or stupid (which I would not want to do business with them in either case).
If a company is willing to care about the relationships they have with their customers then the customer will be loyal.
I was going to share some examples here, but the post was getting super (like how I worked that in there) long, so I am going to make it a series where I can share good and bad experiences that solidify or remove customer loyalty.
What bad experiences have you had that reduced your loyalty to a company?
It was H-E-double-hockey-sticks getting our home short sold through BOA. I refuse to ever do business with them again.
Hopefully they are going to learn from their mistakes or go away
Customer loyalty is still alive in our business as well. People tend to buy from those they like. If ou treat them well, they’ll return.
Customers are not numbers, they are relationships
I had been with the same insurance company for over 10 years. Our house and 2 cars. Their bad customer service cost me and my wife hundreds of dollars. I switched and will never go back.
It is hard to gain trust but so easy to lose it