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A few months ago I was delivering a workshop at my favourite training venue, Cranage Hall in Holmes Chapel. Also there, was a group of people attending a training programme called 'Cracking the Sales Management Code'. That got me thinking - is there a Customer Loyalty Code, and if there is, what is it? I soon decided that there had to be, so that started me working out what it might be.

 I think I now have it cracked. I believe it is this:

When you consider this, I hope it strikes you as being common sense. It’s based on my experience of working with numerous organisations, over the past 20 years, helping them make their approach to service delivery make a worthwhile difference to business performance and results. However, I have observed over the years, that common sense is not all that common in businesses, particularly large and long established ones, so this approach is not widely practiced.

The various factors are listed in what I think is the right order. In other words, Leadership and Strategy need to be in place before People and Culture can work at its best, and so on. I have put multiplication symbols between each of the factors because I think if any are missing, and therefore score a zero, that will nullify the whole equation. You’ll also notice that I’ve also put Selfishness and Greed on the underside of the equation. That’s because I am convinced that if they get out of hand and grow too large, the effect of all the other positive factors will be reduced or may even be wiped out.

What I’ve witnessed and learned, is that if you get the right balance between all these various factors, the outcomes can be spectacular. It can produce much improved differentiation and competitive advantage, enhanced employee morale and engagement, intense customer loyalty and a boost to both top line sales and bottom line profits. So I am convinced it is well worth the focus, effort and resources to make it happen.

I’ve also learned that different people can have very different interpretations of what is meant by the same words. So what I mean by Science, Spontaneity or Pace, may well be very different to what you think I mean. I will therefore follow this up over the next few weeks with more blogs, to explain what I do mean by the many words in this Customer Loyalty Code.

Finally, I know that reading about something is nowhere near as good as hearing it first hand, with the opportunity to question the speaker, and learn what is the thinking, evidence and experience behind the theory and practice. I shall therefore be using this as the basis of content for my future Master Practitioner Programmes. 

© Copyright Chris Daffy