When you make decisions that respect and honor customers, you will earn their admiration; eventually even love. Then customers will begin to grow your business for you. The title of my book, “I Love You More Than My Dog,” is a reminder that people are bound by emotion to the things they love. They are bound by emotion to behaviors they love.
What binds dog lovers to their pets is the constant devotion they receive from them: a warm welcome, caring nature and selfless actions. All character traits we value in people, especially when we come across the them in business.
When customers love you, they will
- Turn to you when a particular product or service is needed.
- Turn to you first, regardless of the competition.
- Tell your story, forming an army of cheerleaders and publicists urging friends, neighbors, colleagues, even strangers to experience your company.
The accolade “I love you more than my dog” is a high aspiration.
What customers say about the companies they love gets pretty close to that sentiment. Here are some comments made by customers proclaiming their love for companies and the people in them:
At Yelp, Facebook, Epinions, Twitter, chat rooms, and hundreds of other Web sites every day, people are not bashful to tell stories about how they feel when they are treated well. Customers who love you won’t be able to stop raving about you. But you have to earn the right to their story first.
So many companies want to know, “How can we get there?” or “How do we achieve a state of being loved that way by customers?”
The answer is this: The decisions you make will take you there. Making the five decisions will help you to earn the right to have your story told. The decisions will drive the behaviors customers love.
Jeanne –
I really liked your post; and, as you know, I particularly appreciate the thinking behind your comments. Every enterprise should want to be loved, and by all stakeholders. Helping companies achieve this kind of stakeholder behavior has been a shared passion of ours for years. What you describe as “love”, I term customer advocacy and brand-bonding behavior, and employee ambassadorship; but this is really a rose by any other name….
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/building_trust_its_a_matter_of_fairness_confidence_authenticity_openness_sincerity_and_exceedin
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/the_new_real_world_dynamics_of_brand_and_customer_decision_making_behavior
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/after_thousands_of_years_are_we_there_yet_the_effect_of_trust_and_offlineonline_social_media_in
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/employee_ambassadorship_and_advocacy_living_the_promise_of_wow_customer_value_delivery_part_i
Michael