Back in January I wrote an article about this concept I created called Loyalty Currency. As more customer snafu's occur to well-known companies and even local companies that I interact with, this concept becomes Real. If you are not doing things right most of the time and building Loyalty Currency within your customer base, customers will not hang around when things go wrong.
I have two unique examples of how Loyalty Currency is Real and what happens when a company has it, and when they don't.
Unique example #1: Shutterfly
Recent Shutterfly had a digital marketing snafu -- sending customers an email congratulating them on their recent delivery. Sounds lovely, except the recipients of the email were not new parents, nor did they have a new addition to their family.
Kind of offensive, right? A blatant misuse of the big data we always hear so much about.
But Shutterfly recovered. They tweeted a response, and spent several hours responding individually to customers who had contacted them. Bravo!
I suspect that Shutterfly has the Loyalty Currency to survive this issue.
Unique Example #2: A local restaurant in Nashville
I am being vague about the name of this particular restaurant, because to be fair, I never told them when they were falling short. So, I can't call them out if I didn't give them the opportunity to get better.
But ...this is a real life example of what happens when you don't have Loyalty Currency.
I dined at the restaurant several times, for both lunch and dinner, and I always found the service to be so-so. Not very attentive, waiting long for refills, it was never the best experience. But the food was great, and the location was convenient.
The last time I was there, the same thing. Except this time, there was something in my food. It looked like a very thin piece of metal, about two inches long. Yikes!
When I brought it to the servers' attention, they handled the situation as they should have - comping the food and apologizing a lot. But this restaurant just did not have the Loyalty Currency that they needed to keep me coming back. So, while I miss their food, I have found another convenient location and I get better service.
As business owners, please, never underestimate the value of a good customer interaction. They add up, and they really count when you need them.
You can read my original article on Loyalty Currency here: bit.ly/1pvFwe3
I have two unique examples of how Loyalty Currency is Real and what happens when a company has it, and when they don't.
Unique example #1: Shutterfly
Recent Shutterfly had a digital marketing snafu -- sending customers an email congratulating them on their recent delivery. Sounds lovely, except the recipients of the email were not new parents, nor did they have a new addition to their family.
Kind of offensive, right? A blatant misuse of the big data we always hear so much about.
But Shutterfly recovered. They tweeted a response, and spent several hours responding individually to customers who had contacted them. Bravo!
I suspect that Shutterfly has the Loyalty Currency to survive this issue.
Unique Example #2: A local restaurant in Nashville
I am being vague about the name of this particular restaurant, because to be fair, I never told them when they were falling short. So, I can't call them out if I didn't give them the opportunity to get better.
But ...this is a real life example of what happens when you don't have Loyalty Currency.
I dined at the restaurant several times, for both lunch and dinner, and I always found the service to be so-so. Not very attentive, waiting long for refills, it was never the best experience. But the food was great, and the location was convenient.
The last time I was there, the same thing. Except this time, there was something in my food. It looked like a very thin piece of metal, about two inches long. Yikes!
When I brought it to the servers' attention, they handled the situation as they should have - comping the food and apologizing a lot. But this restaurant just did not have the Loyalty Currency that they needed to keep me coming back. So, while I miss their food, I have found another convenient location and I get better service.
As business owners, please, never underestimate the value of a good customer interaction. They add up, and they really count when you need them.
You can read my original article on Loyalty Currency here: bit.ly/1pvFwe3
