When we were preparing for the date, we'd all cleaned up. Shower, shave, cleaning up our uglies. We put our best foot forward to impress the other person. Forget about intentions. Forget about where that date could lead. Forget about maybe meeting your future wife or husband. At that moment all we were trying to do was meeting someone new.
People don't get married based on a first date.
Transactions with a customer is exactly like a first date.
The customer is trying you out.
A test drive...
The customer is trying to decide if you're worth a second date.
The customer has not decided if this relationship is worthy of her loyalty.
She is not committed to the business yet.
She's still dating other businesses.
When a customer has decided that you are worthy of her ultimate interest in your business category, the relationship becomes bonded.
Customer loyalty is like a marriage. The customer is the wife. The business is the husband. The customer will allow for mistakes. She will forgive you for minor mishaps. She may even forgive your major mishaps depending on how committed she is to the relationship. However the minute the customer feels that her commitment to the relationship is greater than the commitment the business has to the relationship the dreaded thought of divorce enters her thought process.
Losing a dating customer is unfortunate.
We expect it.
Losing a married customer is devastating.
She takes her stuff along with some of ours too.
80% of revenues come from 20% of customers.
That's Pareto's law.
The customers who drive that much volume are married to the business.
The goal in business is to create and keep a customer. The best customers are the ones in the 20% category. As a business owner, you want to be as big of a polygamist as possible. Convince the best ones to marry you. And marry as many of them as you can.
Marrying the brand is what marketers call brand loyalty.
For the relationship to remain strong there needs to be a give and take mentality. However, just like real life, its the husband that doesn't listen enough. Forgiveness comes at a price. That price is based on the promise to change.
No change = Empty promises
Empty promises = Distrust
Distrust = Divorce
When the customer divorces the brand she takes only two things she owns in the relationship, her wallet and her influence.
And the business suffers from the divorce until it converts a new dating prospect into its next wife continuing the vicious cycle until real change is achieved.
With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com
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