As a marketer, I’m fascinated by the psychological components that work together and create “brand loyalty”. I am a consummate consumer myself, and I can give you the rationale and reasoning (or lack thereof) behind many of the items I choose to buy.
Today, we were talking about a client’s business, and the different elements that contribute to loyalty. Our creative director talked about work on an account in a former life – an insurance company – who actually wanted their customers to file a claim. Unheard of, right? Well, this particular company had such phenomenal service, they knew that if their customer had one interaction with them, at a time of stress and worry, when something bad had happened – well, because they provided such great service, they knew that they’d have that customer for life.
That’s money in the bank, and that’s running your business well. Not many people have a product, brand, company that they’d commit to for life. But it also requires a commitment to that goal from the client. (important!)
Last month, when I was traveling (via train) with my interactive director, we were talking web stuff, and the subject of domain names came up. I asked him who he’s used – he answered, “GoDaddy” and then he asked who I used for my own website. DirectNIC, I told him. He laughed. Because he used to use directNIC, but as time went on, nobody seemed to recognize their name. I said that I’d happened onto them when I was helping my dad with his website, and had just stuck with them since. Plus, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the staff at directNIC was in the thick of everything happening – and they stayed in their offices through the whole ordeal, blogging a live feed, posting photos, etc. I felt good about them. They were dedicated, they were reassuring everyone their data was going to be protected as best they could – and then they also had a unique opportunity to give the world more information.
But I still don’t know if I’d call myself “loyal”. Just stickin’ with ’em. Until tonight. Because as I referenced earlier, I had a devil of a time this past weekend, getting my little shopfront up and running, and then trying to redirect a sub-domain in my blog to that storefront. I knew it was on me to do it, and let’s face it, skilled in this arena, I am not. I had two trouble tickets open – the first was closed quickly, refunding me the money I’d spent for a redirect, and then a day later, the second ticket was closed, stating that I couldn’t do what I’d figured out I couldn’t do. Ya know. Re-direct. As both tickets were closed, so was the issue in my mind. And then, tonight, I got an email from another tech specialist, who read my blog post about the situation, and he not only confirmed (in plain English) what wouldn’t work, but offered a solution, if I wanted to try to do something else differently. It isn’t something I’m going to do, BUT. BUT! BUT! He read my post. He responded to me when the ticket had already been closed. He went above and beyond. And now? I’m a loyal customer. Happy. Impressed.
There are other brands, products, entities, to which I’m fiercely loyal. Viva paper towels, for instance. Colgate toothpaste. Another brand (not mentioned) -out of the blue- asked us to pitch them, and I can’t even begin to tell you how that feels. Like I’ve waited my whole career for this, quite frankly. I’ve done some unique, creative, innovative stuff – and I’m not even in the creative department. But this account would be like ….getting to work on a crazy yarn consortium consisting of Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Colinette, Hand Maiden, Louet, Wollemeisse and Noro. And all of them are giving you free yarn. I know. All my knitters just kinda wet their pants. Sorry! But I’m just that excited. Brand loyalty can really be that cool.
(Should know shortly on the business, too.)
no brand loyalty here, many companies seem to abuse it. money talks.
The really great thing I’ve been finding on blogs lately is how many people bitch about whatever problem they’re having and then find an email from a customer service rep or someone trying to fix the problem or offer a solution. It’s so, so cool to me that companies care enough to Google something about them and, basically, hunt down problems and fix them.
It’s sad that businesses really under value the level of service. I bet if people actually received good service more often, there would actually be loyalty. However, for consumer goods like household items, it’s interesting how people are loyal for some products and not others.
Great post. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about political brand loyalty because I’m running for office as a Libertarian in a traditionally Democratic district. I think libertarian philosophy would be very appealing to most people in my district but I’m struggling to find effective ways to overcome the obstacle presented by brand loyalty at the ballot box.
It is much easier for me to create loyal customers as an attorney because I am dealing with individuals. As a candidate I would like to communicate with each voter individually but that isn’t feasible.
Congrats on the CR gig & I love your blog.