Create brand loyalty
All companies have a brand, whether they realize it or not. Having a brand is an inevitable consequence of being in business. A positive brand builds brand loyalty. If managed properly, brand loyalty is a powerful source of sustained profitability. However, very few business leaders know how to maintain brand loyalty in their customers. They direct their attention to the “look and feel” of the brand: the marketing and advertising aspects of brand identification. They strive for a unique and recognizable “look,” like the McDonald’s bows or the Nike swoosh. The emphasis is on the appearance of the brand, not what the brand looks like in action.
However, neither the advertising nor the appearance ever created a moment of brand loyalty. The main factor influencing brand loyalty is how employees respond to customer expectations. Regardless of the business, all customers buy the same thing: “A satisfying emotional experience.” Whether the business is delivering a cake or a car, a house or a horse, it must deliver a Satisfying Emotional Experience if it wants to create Brand Loyalty among customers!
It is the enthusiastic effort of the fully engaged employee to understand and exceed customer expectations that creates the Customer’s Satisfactory Emotional Experience. Such experiences create habit; they build feelings of reliability and trust in the integrity of the Brand. A satisfying emotional experience builds a positive relationship with your customer. The importance of this relationship is especially true when things go wrong.
When something goes wrong, committed employees have the greatest opportunity to create “loyal apostles.” Open brand loyalty is created when disappointed customer expectations are promptly recognized and met. As apostles, these clients spread “the good word” that multiplies and attracts more clients to the Brand.
Conversely, when employees don’t really care about the customer, when they’re indifferent to exceeding customer expectations, it’s easy for the customer to go elsewhere next time. These employees mechanically go about their tasks and say “have a nice day” while the customer passively completes the transaction and leaves. Both the employee and the customer are indifferent to doing business together again.
When something goes wrong, these disinterested employees are indifferent and resistant to meeting customer expectations. They politely say that it’s simply not possible to meet the customer’s expectations or, worse, refuse to answer phone calls, letters, or emails in response to the problem. When a company’s employees resist or ignore a customer’s expectations, a “terrorist” is often created. Typically, an angry customer spreads “the bad word” to more than 20 people. This negative reputation multiplies quickly. No advertising budget can begin to offset this damage to the Brand.
Such damage is easily avoided. There is a direct connection between how management treats their frontline employees and how employees treat customers. When employees feel recognized and appreciated, your customers feel recognized and appreciated too. When employees believe what their managers and supervisors tell them, then customers will believe what employees tell them. When employees develop long-term emotional loyalty, customers also develop long-term brand loyalty.
In an unsuccessful attempt to increase brand loyalty by improving the customer experience, many companies invest in customer service training. Often this money is totally wasted because management expects employees to treat customers with more courtesy and consideration than management shows employees.
Relationship-leadership principles state that “All leadership is example, all else is coercion.” This means that if management wants customers to be treated “well,” then they must treat employees “well.” Building sustained brand loyalty is not rocket science or brain surgery! It’s about treating employees in a way that makes them want to create an emotionally satisfying experience for the customer.