Why Customer Loyalty Matters

Latest News

People discuss loyalty today as a character flaw or a corporation flaw. In years past, employees could hire into a company and plan to remain there a career lifetime. Companies would show their appreciation in return by retaining employees for thirty or more years.

Brand loyalty is different today as well. Car buyers used to buy the same brand car or even model every time they could afford a new car. Many people purchased the same brand television or refrigerator over and again.

These days it seems as though most consumers are driven by the best price. Employees are driven by the biggest pay check or benefit package. Does loyalty exist anywhere these days? What happened to loyalty? Why does loyalty or the lack of loyalty matter, especially to those in sales and marketing?

A new book by Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy with Luke Williams, Why Loyalty Matters (Benbella Books, Inc., 2009), “Is grounded in the most comprehensive study of loyalty ever conducted, and what it reveals can change your life.”

The authors use the first chapter to describe to readers why loyalty does matter including:

-Loyalty builds and sustains all types of relationships.
-Humans need each other to survive and thrive and loyalty helps bind people together.
-The world has shifted from long-term societies to transactional relationships and ephemeral contacts.
-Loyalty has gone out of fashion.