5 Decisions That Will Increase Customer Passion For Your Brand

By Jeanne Bliss, Author and President, CustomerBLISS

When you make decisions that respect and honor customers, you will earn their admiration and eventually, maybe even their love.

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 them in business.

When customers love you, they’ll not only turn to you when a particular product or service is needed, they’ll turn to you first, regardless of the competition. They will tell your story, forming an army of cheerleaders and publicist, urging friends, neighbors, colleagues, even strangers. 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 need to earn the right to their story first.

So many companies want to know: “How do we achieve a state of being loved that way by customers?”

The decisions you make will take you there.

Following are five decisions organizations must make to discover how customers and employees define a company’s story:

Decision 1:  Beloved Companies Decide To Believe. 

Beloved companies decide to believe. By deciding to trust customers, they are don’t have to implement extra rules, policies or have layers of bureaucracy that create a barrier between them and their customers. Similarly, by believing that employees can and will do the right thing, second-guessing, reviewing every action, and the diminishing ability of employees to think on their feet is replaced with shared energy and a desire to stick around.

Decision 2:  Beloved Companies Decide With Clarity Of Purpose. 

Beloved companies take the time to be clear about what their unique promise is for their customers’ lives.  In decision making, they align to this purpose, to this promise.  Clarity of purpose guides choices and unites the organization.  It elevates people from executing tasks to delivering experiences customers will want to repeat and tell others about. Here are a few questions to help you evaluate how clarity of purpose guides your decisions.

Decision 3:  Beloved Companies Decide To Be Real. 

Beloved companies shed their fancy packaging and break down the barriers between “big company, little customer.”  The relationship is between people who share the same values and revel in each others’ foibles, quirks and spirit.  Only companies who really know who they are and what they stand for can be “real” consistently — no matter where customers interact inside the company.  They decide to create a safe place where the personality and creativity of people come through.

Decision 4:  Beloved Companies Decide To Be There. 

It’s an everyday charge up the hill to be there for customers in the ways that are important to them. And it takes its toll because deciding to be there requires more resources and more work.  Beloved companies gladly do the hard work.  They’re in the scrimmage everyday to constantly earn the right to their continued relationships with customers.  They work every day to defend their decisions because they know that with each experience they must earn the right for the customer to return. That starts with deciding to be there when customers need them, on customers’ terms.

Decision 5:  Beloved Companies Decide To Say Sorry. 

How a company reacts to adversity reflects the humanity of an organization, and shows its true colors more than almost any situation it might encounter. Grace and wisdom guide decisions to accept accountability when the chips are down – not accusations and skirting accountability.  Apologizing and repairing the emotional connection with customers is a hallmark of companies we love.  In fact, it makes us love them more.  How a company makes decisions to explain, react, remove the pain and take accountability for actions signals loud and clear what they think about customers and gives an indication to the collective “heart” of the organization.

Love is irrational.  Customer love is a reward for (what some consider) irrational business behavior.  Companies who grow because of their bonds with customers do so because they aren’t always looking over their shoulder at what each decision will get them.  In a world where products and services are available in hundreds of variations, these companies get a disproportionate piece of pie because of how they decide to treat their customers and employees.

With that, readers, I ask you: How will you decide to run your businesses?

Jeanne Bliss developed her passion for customer loyalty at Lands’ End, Inc., where she reported to the company’s founder and executive committee as leader for the Lands’ End customer experience. She was SVP of Franchise Services for Coldwell Banker Corporation. Bliss also served Allstate Corporation as its chief officer for customer loyalty & retention. She was Microsoft Corporation’s General Manager of Worldwide Customer & Partner Loyalty. At Mazda Motor of America she initiated the brand’s retention effort.

After 25 years as the Customer Experience Executive in five major US Corporations, Jeanne founded CustomerBliss in order to create clarity and an actionable path for driving the customer loyalty commitment into business operations.