I was checking out a Jeffrey Gitomer presentation recently and stumbled on to what is perhaps my new favorite quote to describe the customer and company relationship.
“Would you want your spouse to be satisfied or loyal?”
The same applies to your customers. Sure it’s great to have satisfied customers but isn’t it better to have loyal customers? Of course a marriage is a one-to-one relationship whereas a company-customer relationship is not and probably never will be. It’s impossible to turn all satisfied customers into loyal customers but I think the quote is good at putting things into perspective for organizations looking to engage with customers in some sort of a mutually beneficial way. It also goes without saying that loyal customers should also be satisfied.
I don’t know about you but I’d much rather have a loyal spouse than a satisfied spouse!
If you have any other great quotes to share that you think describe the customer and company relationship I’d love to read them, who knows, they just might end up in one my presentations (the one above definitely will).
Great find Jacob!
A quick thought: Do the two have to be mutually exclusive?
As a man, I think a lot of times I choose to think I have to create satisfaction. We're polarizers. I think what makes great companies (and better husbands) is the ability to satisfy & create loyalty.
Thanks for your insight!
My wife is both loyal and satisfied. What else could i ask for !
P Gauthier
http://www.qualitative-research-canada.com
When I consulted to Cisco, I was impressed at how seriously they took this question. They had a customer category that was essentially “Captive.” That is, the customer bought from them because they had the only product available in a category, but that customer would leave if a competitor delivered an equivalent product. All companies who acquire new customer through innovation and then desire long-term revenue from those customers needs that attitude.
Ken Rosen
http://www.PerTalks.com
Can't I have both?
Dan’s right — you have to go for both. And in order to do that, you just have to do one thing: provide excellent service to your customers. You really don’t have to choose between the two because you need them both! They’re correlated, so it’s either you have both loyal and satisfied customers or you have none.
you have to have satisfied customer first for it to become a loyal customer