Customer appreciation can lead to more than loyalty
When it comes to your customers, how does loyalty turn into passion? Corporate America spends millions of dollars on loyalty programs to keep people coming back, from airline miles to free hotel nights to free movie rentals. But are customers passionate about that airline, hotel or rental company? How do you create passion?
If a customer has a bad experience that is handled quickly and fairly, the company will probably hang on to that customer. But if they fail again, odds are that customer is gone. And if the experience was really bad, the company might just create a passionate customer – passionate about never doing business with them again, and sharing the horror of the experience with everyone they know, which these days could be hundreds of people. Remember the phenomenon “United Breaks Guitars” on YouTube? All the loyalty perks in the world have no effect once the relationship has eroded to this point.
When a customer has great experiences using your product or service, they can become passionate in a positive way about you and your company. But in order to create that emotion, the customer needs to feel connected and appreciated — not just one of millions. They need to feel like you enjoy seeing them just as much as they like visiting your establishment. They must feel cared about and special. Then they can feel passionate about you.
Yes, loyalty programs are a stop on the road to passion. They bring people back in for a specific reason. It could be a special offer on the person’s birthday, a specific product at a reduced price that the company knows they use, or even just a bit of news about the company that does not try to sell you a thing. These small touches keep your clients thinking about you. Face it, customers have hundreds of choices as to where they spend their money, so what can you do to make yourself stand out among all the other dentists, restaurants or clothing stores?
• Make it easy to do business with you.
• Keep in touch with your customers.
• Make them feel special when they arrive.
• See your clients as relationships and not a dollar amount.
One of the best examples of passionate customers I have seen recently involves Wild Sage American Bistro at Second Avenue and Lincoln Street in downtown Spokane. Yes, that Second Avenue – the one that looks like Beirut. Tom Sciortino and David Wells have built a great loyalty program in the last two years by using e-mail coupons, birthday special offers and a dining club concept that brings new features to their customers each month. Pretty standard stuff, but somewhere along the line they took a big jump to passionate.
Under reconstruction this summer, Second is missing in many places, with 6-foot holes dug and filled in ever-changing patterns, and sidewalks that appear and disappear. Heavy equipment stands where cars used to be. It is an amazing project and has added to the challenge of doing business. What is this doing to Wild Sage? They count on diners coming and going several times each evening.
One evening last week, friends joined us from the other side of the state for dinner at the restaurant. My husband and I thought they would really need our business considering the challenge of the road work. We are loyal customers, but when we visit a business because we care about them, well, that is passion.
We were not alone. At 8 on a Wednesday night, the place was full. Spokane is famous for early eating, so we thought at 8 it would be empty. Tom greeted us at the door with a hug and a handshake, like always. But he went on to tell us they had a great August – a notoriously bad restaurant month in Spokane – because their regular customers were worried about them amid the construction and wanted to support them through the project.
And they have sent a wonderful thank you for caring to all those loyal and passionate customers. Those who have come in since construction started feeling appreciated, and those who have not will be sure to visit.
Relationship-building trumps marketing every time.