There’s been a lot of talk over the past few years about customer loyalty. But let’s take a moment to look at what customer loyalty really is and what it really means.

I’ve heard a couple of people talk about this over the years.

I remember listening to a CD from one of Dan Kennedy’s seminars where he asked everyone to stand up in the room and talk about why they were here. Many of them had also learnt from other marketing gooroos as well… and been to their seminars.

Hence, he pointed out, they were not loyal.

And nor can you expect loyalty.

John DeMartini sums this concept up incredibly well. He says that people will be loyal to their most important values.

For instance, let’s say you’re an accountant and you have a client who’s number one value is that you save him money on his tax. For as long as you can keep doing that better than anyone else he knows, you’ll maintain the relationship.

But truth is – he’s not necessarily being loyal to you. He’s being loyal to his value to save money on tax. Just try not saving him money and see how long he hangs around for.

It’s true, isn’t it?

Think of yourself as a consumer: you are not loyal to any one department store or supermarket. You are loyal to the values that shopping experience gives you.

It might be freshness… convenience or money saving for a supermarket.

It might be money savings for a department store where you go to buy clothes for your family.

If you have a baby, the most important value to you might be safety when buying a car. So you might opt for a volvo instead of another car which you’ve purchased all your life, simply because your values have changed.

You can see this playing out all the time. Our attention goes where our values are held. For instance, if I go for a walk in the shopping centre with my wife, I am always drawn to the things which I hold dear as my values: particularly book shops, newsagencies and coffee shops. My wife will be more interested in shops for our little boy and dress shops.

At the end of the day, values are what drives all of our behaviour.

And we’ll always be loyal to our values. Not to a particular company or product.

So what does this mean to you as a business owner?

It means you should work out what your customers hold dear by doing surveys… talking to them… and identifying what’s most important. And then creating products and services which meet those values.

That’s what I did when I created More Customers Made Easy – I created this product because my research indicated the most important thing to my clients was getting more customers. I also identified the fact most people were time poor and sick and tired of working in their business rather than on their business.

In essence, I matched my product to the values which were most important to my clients by providing step-by-step templates and real examples so every customer generating strategy could be implemented quickly and easily.

And you should do the same with your customers…identify their values

provide products and services based around their values (you might want to learn the art of writing an effective sales message by checking this out )

And never expect customer loyalty – because that’s an impossible game to win.

All for now,

Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS
Suite 21, Seabridge House
377 Kent Street
Sydney NSW 2000
1300 88 21 91