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The A to Z of Small Business Sales - Loyalty Part 2 - Loyalty Starts With People

Written by: Norm Tucker

Article Overview: You cannot buy loyalty. Loyalty is something that is earned every day and through relationships. The small business owner should ask "What can I Do to be loyal to customers and employees?". President Kennedy asked a similar type question forty years ago - "Ask not what your country can do for you ... ask what you can do for your country."

The A to Z of Small Business Sales - Loyalty Part 2 - Loyalty Starts With People

Part 1 of Loyalty recognized why loyalty was important to small business. But it also asked if loyalty might be an illusion. And finally it suggested that loyalty for small business owners depended on how YOU treat people, people such as your employees, customers, suppliers, accountant, indeed your friends, acquaintances and just people you meet on the street.

Loyalty programs for corporations inevitably mean giving the customer something of perceived value. So loyalty becomes a transaction not a relationship. Air Miles is a good example.

The Economist Magazine recently reported that over two trillion air miles remain unused. Interesting eh? Why is that? You give something away, and people don’t use it! Just imagine if all of a sudden and all at once, customers decided to cash in. Of course, they won’t be able to. Most Air Miles programs make it difficult and inconvenient to use the program by controlling destinations, flight times, capacity and other customer service problems. The Air Miles Loyalty customer is treated like a second class citizen. Some loyalty program!

Another loyalty program - this one for employees - used to be the Christmas Turkey. It’s not in of style these days. Why? Because it was a turkey! The employee expected the turkey. It became part of the compensation package. Employees got a turkey regardless of how well they performed. If they didn’t they were upset. Not getting a turkey became a de-motivator. There was no value and no relationship to or for anybody.

On a smaller scale coffee shops often have a bonus card that offers a free coffee for every ten purchased. This card is meant as a loyalty builder for customer retention. But does it help? Or is it also a bit of a turkey.

Most coffee shops have them. Starbucks is an exception. Is there any advantage for the business to having a card except to mimic the opposition? No. And besides have you noticed that there are often restrictions on what size your free coffee is? I usually buy an XL - extra large - coffee Xl coffee guy. Consequently I expect my freebie to be XL. But, some shops only offer a free small one. So the card annoys me. Not going to get my loyalty!

I should mention Starbucks again. Have you noticed the quality of service? Do you know how they train people? Have you experienced their service when they make a mistake? Starbucks service is exceptional - it’s big business and small business rolled into a unique and successful package. I’ll write an article about my experiences with them - all positive - later.

I recently helped a charitable organization raise funds by selling lottery tickets for them. The grand prize was a million dollar home. There were also many other wonderful prizes. Of course many charities today use lotteries to raise funds. The lottery has become something of a commodity. Charity lotteries actually compete with each other.

What was my experience with the charity lottery? Was it that everybody supported a good cause or appreciated the value of what the charity was doing for the community? No! One individual who had not benefitted from using the charities services at no cost to themselves, and who had also won a house four years ago, no longer supported our lottery. She went somewhere else and bought tickets for a different lottery. No loyalty there? Other previous supporters compared the odds in four competing lotteries and bought tickets on the one they deemed had the best odds. Others declined to buy because they’ve never won a prize. Not much loyalty eh?

Why is that? It’s because you cannot buy loyalty. Loyalty is something that is earned every day and through relationships.

The question I would ask is how can a business owner and a business show loyalty TO customers or employees - not the other way around. If you the owner are not loyal, why should the customer or the employee?

Is it a question of customer loyalty or of owner loyalty? It’s interesting when you flip the question isn’t it? President John F. Kennedy did this many years ago - (I’ve paraphrased.) - “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

How could a business owner demonstrate loyalty? My suggestion is to ask. Find out what your customers and employees want, need, enjoy and so on. from their answers, you will figure out what you can do. The Sales Processes that I have suggested in earlier articles (Guest, Conceptual, Counsellor) all require ‘relational’ communications and a ‘discovery’ of the customer’s needs.

Find out what a customer needs. Develop a relationship with a customer. Listen. Ask questions. Be interested. All these statements are prerequisites to an effective, efficient and productive Sales Processes. In a small business, the owner must lead the way and be the change he or she wants to see in their business.

What is that change? let’s start by ‘Being Interested’ and as I said in Part 1 “Loyalty and the Value of Loyalty”, treat people well - in fact, I should say ”Put People First”.

‘Being Interested’ and ‘Putting People First’ is easy and it’s natural. Humans ultimately are social animals. We love to relate. We enjoy sharing our stories. We like to learn. We care. All our religions tell us how important it is that we develop these characteristics.

So, what’s the problem? The problem is we are so used to telling others what to do, that we don’t do it ourselves. Leaders MUST DO. Leaders lead by example. Business owners should be leaders in their own business.

I want to you to ask yourself - “How do I treat ME?” YES, ME! “Do I put me first?” “Do I take an interest in me?” “Do I help me?” “Do I ask myself how am I doing and what do I need?” And if I do - “Do I FOLLOW THROUGH and look after myself?”

It might sound a bit crazy but if you don’t treat yourself right - why would you treat others right? Indeed you won’t be able to because you have no personal experience - you’ve received no personal feedback from yourself? If you are not in touch with yourself, how do you expect to be in touch with others - your family, friends, employees, customers?

Loyalty - starts with yourself.

As for your customer - when did you get in contact with a customer and it was not for the purpose to sell him or her something or to answer a complaint? Why not get in touch with customers for no reason? Ask them a few questions about their business, their needs, how they use your product, their experience with your product.

As for your employee - when did you last talk to them and not ask them to do something for you or a customer, or to tell them they did something wrong? Why not take them to coffee and just ask “How are things going? What is the one thing ‘I CAN DO’ for you that will help you do your job better or make you successful?

More on treating yourself, your customer and employers as people in a later article.

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