Buying Time or Earning Loyalty?
At the end of the day, retention or the lack thereof is a loyalty question. It's not ultimately about a contract, feature, or competitive advantage.
You can buy your would-be customer's time and attention. You can engage them, lure them, and excite them. Ultimately, a contract might lock in their time for the upcoming year.
But what about loyalty?
At the end of the day, retention or the lack thereof is a loyalty question. It's not ultimately about a contract, feature, or competitive advantage. Those things will always be necessary but are secondary to retention and customer loyalty.
Loyalty must be earned. We know this instinctually. Our hearts and minds reel as we hear stories of misplaced loyalty—people blindly following someone who doesn't seek to preserve their good.
Yet, regarding business, we rarely approach churn from the loyalty angle. Business problems have business answers, right? Wrong. OK—better said, that's not the core answer. Business problems are people problems. People problems have, at their core, people-driven answers.
So, how do you build loyalty in your customer base? Sturdy loyalty is built on three pillars:
Care
If you drive loyalty from a self-focused, money-oriented, "what magic lever can I pull" perspective, it will fail—or at least never attain its full height. People know when you care about them personally. People aren't levers. That means your genuine care and interest must be invested in their pains, wins, and needs.
Questions to ask:
Authentic listening results in action. Would your customers say you listen to their needs and concerns?
Are you deeply invested in delivering the best possible version of the product you sold them now and in the future?
Competence
If you stink at your job, or your product or service is sub-par, people can't be loyal to what continues to disappoint. It's that simple. If the boat has holes, don't blame the passengers for jumping off and swimming for shore—or the nearest boat (competitor). Competence is a means of maintaining trust; people cannot remain loyal to what they cannot trust.
Questions to ask:
People reach for the right tool for the task. Would your customers say your product or service is "good at its job?" Do you make it easy for them to succeed?
Does your product or service inspire trust? Nothing is perfect, but would your customers affirm that you sweat the small things to preserve trust?
Camaraderie
Camaraderie differentiates itself from Care in one distinct way. Care is about moving beyond your desires and seeking to serve someone else. Camaraderie is a spirit of "These are my people." Camaraderie is about fellowship: You see your customers and envision yourself in the trenches, fighting their battles.
Questions to ask:
Do you focus on telling your story or the story of your customers? If you tell your story, you'll eventually reach a fundamental misalignment in the goods, services, or products you offer.
Comrades in arms say, "Hey, so-and-so is with me. He's alright." Do your customers talk about you that way? Do they see you as "in it with them?"
Last Thoughts
I wouldn't say these are the only pillars of loyalty—but you cannot achieve loyalty without these three pillars standing strong.
Likewise, these three pillars bear an overlapping load. Can you have true camaraderie without competence? What about care without camaraderie? All three pillars must work together to bear the load.
If you have a retention problem, know that you ultimately have a loyalty problem. Start by circling your leaders and customer-facing teams. Ask them these questions and listen. Start working on the pillars. The people will drive the business changes that follow.
As always,
Stay humble. Hang tough.
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