Customer loyalty or the lack of it in America is a shame, years ago you could shake the hand of a future customer with honor for an agreement. You would earn the customer’s loyalty over time and they would be there for a very long time unless you totally and consistently messed up their business.
Today is another story, a new norm is in play that I disagree with, this new norm is a business cop out of our time.
Case in point, #1. We had a high tech customer of 13 years, they averaged 1 to 2 problems per year, and of those problems their old equipment was the cause 80% of the time. We did not charge them for additional support like other providers do, we assisted them in fixing their internal problems. We had very competitive rates, we provided 24/7 support, our support staff knew them very well and on a personal level.
Then came a long a BIG provider with lots of promises and only marginal savings. Boom, they were gone without even a notice or an opportunity to speak with them. This was like being served a divorce notice without even knowing your partner was unhappy.
We care about each customer and strive to do our very best all the time, do things happen? Yes, especially in a more technical world (another blog). We do our 100% of our 50% when it comes to speaking with our customers. We reach out to our customers, we send them letters, emails. We provide longer support hours than most companies, all domestic! We assist our customers in marketing their business so that they can grow. And much more…
Did we do anything wrong? The answer is basically no, perhaps we could have stayed in front of them more, that marketing touch. Perhaps we could have lowered their rates. Perhaps we should have done more?
I would love to hear about and post your experiences with a lack of customer loyalty. I will be discussing some ways to hopefully combat this in future blogs, please join me.