This week businesses will tell their customers how much they love them. But do they really love their customers? Or are they just grateful for the revenue their customers represent? Most of us believe the latter, if we give these innocuous “love” messages a second thought. This shallow “love” exchange is an enormous missed opportunity for both the business and the customer.
All Customers Need Love
Real love in business is just like real love in any relationship. The same parameters apply. The most direct description of love still remains 1 Corinthians 13:1: Love is patient, kind, generous, humble, gracious, empathetic, even-tempered, forgiving. open-minded and honest. It is how we all want to be treated wherever we are engaging with another human being.
Of course, customers don’t always behave that way themselves. Nor do employees, leadership, businesses – or any of us – whatever role we play. Still, we all crave love – even in a business setting. Love, by the definition above, creates a sense of being valued for exactly who we are. It is unconditional. It is also collaborative, building a sense of connection and belonging that transcends other differentiators.
According to Steve Farber in Love Is Just Damn Good Business, “When love is part of your organization’s framework and operationalized in its culture, employees and customers feel genuinely valued. Employees who are passionate about the work that they do are more loyal, innovative, creative, and inspired, and that translates to great customer experience.”
Love Is The Only True Differentiator
There are nine common differentiators most organizations use to set themselves apart from the competition:
Customer service
Innovation
Value
Expertise
People
Size
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Patented product/solution/process
Ironically, when most businesses use the same differentiators, they lose any power to differentiate. This is where love comes in. Love assures the customer that they matter. It promises to be generous, entirely honest, and even forgive the customer when they make a mistake.
What’s more, a love-centric approach sets eliminates the value we have placed on manipulation and transactions, and puts the customer’s perspective in the highest regard. This is counter to the most common approach in business and marketing, where we push our message out and try to reel customers in. Love has a real power to attract the customers who are looking for precisely what your business has to offer. Love creates online authority and word of mouth marketing spreads like wildfire. You can afford to be generous and forgiving in that context.
Love creates brand affinity with your customers that is a stronger connecting force than awareness, purchase or loyalty.
How to Love Your Customer
Each organization will have its own unique spin on delivering love to its customers. However, there is a small list of commonalities they all share:
They believe ardently that they are providing something useful that makes their customers’ lives better
They love their employees as ardently as their customers, knowing love is contagious
They reach out regularly and listen actively to their customers, and then demonstrate insights through their actions
They value a long-term customer relationship over a short-term financial gain
They provide a sense of community with customers for a shared experience
Their process is clear, accessible and allows for flexibility
They are constantly learning, growing and improving
Love is a bond that is incredibly difficult to break. Building it requires real intentionality and willingness to occasionally operate counter to the cultural grain. The benefits, however, are powerful and lasting. Real love of one’s customers creates tangible results worth celebrating.