I was reading a blog post over the weekend on Chris Brogan.com titled "The Myth of Brand Loyalty" and his post struck a nerve. Chris talks about his long relationship with Apple as a satisfied customer. His recent purchase of the 15" MacBook Pro, a good choice I might add, was another example of his loyalty to Apple. So you can imagine his slight annoyance when he received an email from the Apple Store, trying to sell him the very same laptop that he purchased a month ago...as if he were a newbie to the brand. Where was the brand loyalty to the consumer and are we just fooling ourselves into thinking that our loyalty matters?
I remember my days in retail, when learning about your customer through the act of conversation was the way we built trust in our customer relationships which evolved into brand loyalty…yes, the old fashioned way. We didn’t have computers back then, we had handwritten customer profile cards. The comments we added to those cards provided analytics in the most archaic form, but it worked. We knew their fashion preferences by design, style and color, that worked with their lifestyle. We knew about those special occasions to assist their partners with gift ideas. By keeping a list of previous purchases we were able to coordinate new arrivals with their existing wardrobe. Every customer was sent a personalized thank you note.
Those days have somewhat evaporated, and with the type of technology today and massive amount of information available, it makes me wonder if we are dismissing the human element in our strategic marketing? Is face time less valuable than a database full of information? Or are we just using this information to strategically analyze for mass marketing tactics that frankly leave us feeling under appreciated?
I can’t begin to tell you how often I get a call from a vendor soliciting my business only to inform them that we are current customers. Oops!!! I’m not sure why they don’t know that I have been a customer for 10 years, but it always ends in a repetitive excuse like “I am so sorry, they must not have updated this record. I will take care of that now”. Hmmm...
So my question is this, “Is technology the culprit and does it interfere with developing brand loyalty or is it how we manage the information we get?”
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1 comment:
Great post,
I think technology can be the cause of--and answer to--many of the problems you talk about in your post. In the end, any 'business relationship' should also be a personal one. And sometimes it is the tiniest personal sentiment that goes a long way.
For example, every year on my birthday I get a phone call from my insurance agent. Now, do I really think he has my birthday hand-written on a desk calendar somewhere because I'm so special to him? Of course not...he's got some kind of program that tells him the four or five customers who have a birthday on any give day and he takes ten minutes to call them. It's a tiny gesture. Miniscule. But it is the first thing that pops into my mind when I think about insurance.
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