Do you have satisfied customers or a loyal customers?
Jeffrey Gitomer in Charlotte, whose expertise is in successful selling techniques, says he will take a loyal customer over a satisfied customer, anytime. A satisfied one may move on to a competitor, still being o.k. with your product or service. A loyal customer will stay with you through thick and thin.
The key reason, experts say, that you lose customers is “emotion.” Facts sometimes, but emotion most of the time. I had that experience with a major airline. Over the past twenty five years I have flown 1.5 million miles with them.
A year ago I reached their “ultimate level” of over a 100,000 miles in one year. Then this past year I made my last flight on December 14th and had 99,380 qualifying miles. I was 620 miles short, 6/10 of one percent.
I called their frequent flier desk and asked if exceptions were made when you had flown this much and were so close. The male reservation agent was nice but firm. No exceptions. I said I had just booked two flights in January of the following year. He said it didn’t make any difference. I asked if they valued a “loyal customer” and he said absolutely…..but rigidity set in. So I thanked him and hung up.
My “emotions” were in high gear and a lot of anti-feelings against that airline were coming out. But as my Parents used to say: “Sleep on it before you make a harsh decision.” Two days later I received a phone call from a Supervisor at that same airline doing a quality control check on my phone call to the frequent flier desk. There were a series of questions about how the call was handled. Finally she asked: “Did you get the result you wanted from the call?” I replied, “No,” and explained why. She quickly checked my mileage account and said: “I will over-ride the system and you are qualified for next year. You are a loyal customer and we need your business and support.”
They were very close to losing a significant customer. She saved it. Look at your own department or company. Are you standing in the way of loyalty with rigidity?
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Howard Putnam speaks on leadership, change, transformation, customer service, teams and ethics. He is the former CEO of Southwest Airlines and the first CEO to take a major airline, Braniff International, into, through and out of Chapter 11, getting it flying again in less than two years.
This article was originally included in Howard Putnam’s Leadership eSeries. You can sign up to receive his weekly thoughts on leadership by going to: http://www.howardputnam.com/eseries.asp
How can you inspire loyalty in your customers?
