OK, so I about to violate one of the cardinal rules in public discussion – talking about politics or religion. The religion side is easy for me as I am a committed Christian. The political side is much more difficult and I won’t express my views about this yet – the jury is still out in that regard.
However, I heard a commentary on our local news radio station, KOMO 1000, yesterday that I felt compelled to share with you as it has direct linkage to what we are all about – building LOYALTY with your CUSTOMERS and helping you build your own COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE and DIFFERENTIATION in the marketplace.
As you might suspect, it had to do with Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin from Alaska. The commentator started to talk about the selection of such a different candidate and how the liberal Democrats were blasting McCain for his choice of running mates – which is what in the news every day. His point was that if the Democrats thought Sarah Palin was such a poor choice as a running mate for McCain, why are they so focused on talking about it and rubbing it in to the American public? Usually, if someone picks something or someone feels they have made a bad choice, they usually just leave it alone and are glad that they didn’t pick that option or make that choice. For example, kids on a playground that are picking players for their individual teams would never think of getting into a big discussion about the other team picking the weakest player on the playground. Instead, they might have a little snicker or chuckle but quickly move on so as not to let the other team know they picked someone they thought was a weak player. Can you imagine the scene if the other team went into a huge debate to criticize and discredit the other teams choice of players – of course not. We can take a lesson from our early days in elementary school.
Back to the message. The commentators point was simple and impactful. He was exactly correct – why, if you truly believe this is a poor choice, would you not let it be and let the public figure this out over time and you end up winning the contest? Simple, because it ISN’T a bad choice and they know it. They are only trying debate and criticize this because it IS A GOOD CHOICE and they KNOW IT! They are reeling from the impact of “why didn’t you pick Hillary” issue. So rather than move forward and capitalize on what they believe to be their strengths, they are trying to cover it up and discredit what many believe to be the best choice by the Republicans.
What does this have to do with customers? I know most of you have probably already figured this out by now based on my example but allow me to explain anyway. If you truly felt the majority of your customers were loyal, why would you say anything about what your competitors are doing or how they are operating in the market or treating their customers? You wouldn’t. You would only say something if you felt you didn’t have that degree of loyalty and needed to try and “win” these customers over to your camp. Everyone talks about having loyal customers but when you really test their loyalty, you realize they aren’t really loyal, they are merely satisfied. And most of you know my definition of “satisfied customers” by now, “customers that are simply satisfied and looking for the next best deal” to come along and then they “defect” to your competition.
The real message here is that if you truly have loyal customers, you don’t spend a minute of time worrying about how to discredit your competition – you continue to build upon the great foundation you have and dominate the market. That is what the best companies do – they drive looking through the windshield, not the rear view mirror. Take a lesson from the poiticians. If you find you and your people spending more time talking about your competitors and their customers instead of leading and driving forward with building deeper and more loyalty with your own customers – you have missed the point and need to rethink just how loyal your customers are and what you are doing to build upon that. Otherwise, you are just kidding yourself that you have lots of loyal customers – you don’t. Hope this helps…
Blaine
