I absolutely adore that classification for Loyalty as a Metric. Some may label me harsh and abrasive, but I think that allowing a client to use metrics that cannot be corroborated or verified is just plain wrong.

Loyalty is fickle indeed, and cannot be measured appropriately, and all that. and it should not be used or pursued. we must understand that, and that is what i am trying to do here.

thanks for reading and for the comment.
esteban

I completely agree and I think I even made the case that loyalty and habits should not be mixed. interesting that you are saying that it is better to stick with the bad known that with the good you don’t know (paraphrasing). I never thought of it that way, as in loyalty is a convenience more than a decision.

food for thought, thanks for that

Thanks for reading

You…. you…. you got me thinking. a lot. and still not sure i get what you are saying completely – but you are making the argument that loyalty comes down to trust that the customer won’t leave. which turns the concept around from what i think, that loyalty resides with the customer and the company has not way to cotrol.

did i get that right?

if what you are saying is true, and i need to think more about as my first reaction is to say no way, then most of what i wrote is wrong.

very interesting, please let me know if i got the jest of what you were saying right.

Thanks
Esteban

I wondered how all this would turn out. Certainly drew a crowd to this light bulb. I would certainly classify the metrics of loyalty as “unknown and unknowable” some may argue this and that’s OK (some like “pink sound theory”). I believe there are plenty of metrics that are “unknown and knowable” worth pursuing for customers.

I suspect that loyalty is fickle. A major event may lose loyalty with no fault to the company (remember the Tylenol scare). Or some products and services we are only loyal as your last experience. If variation in service or product delivered is so great from experience to experience, shouldn’t we be working on that. I still believe customers are waiting for companies to understand their demands and design our systems against those rather than doing crystal ball gazing.

Regards, Tripp

To me the most important part of a journey into enterprise applications is to make sure we are all talking apples (or oranges, or bananas – or whatever it is we are talking about) as opposed to all discussing different ideas. If we can accomplish some of that, then the intent of the post has been carried out.

Thanks for reading!
Esteban

“… It is influenced by previous experiences, current needs, expected rewards, and price sensitivity.”

I am not going to switch brands just because I can on a whim – I’d be taking a risk of not being satisfied – there needs to be a sufficient rewards prospect to do so. What do you prefer – one bird in your hand or ten in the bush? Furthermore, there are 45,000 brands in my supermarket, I can get information on each and every item but don’t have the time or the energy to try them all out!

It’s kind of like what the Tobacco industry is doing on the African Continent (disclaimer: in my opinion) where the legislation is not as strict. They sell to people as young as possible, get them into the habit of buying their brand and end up with lifelong customers…