Last week, I shared some of my recent pondering about whether or not client loyalty (loyalty to us/our firms) was dead. I have concluded that clients are not really loyal to a company/firm, but to a particular person. So in that respect, no, loyalty exists. And it is a powerful one-to-one bond.
I've seen that manifested when a popular client manager leaves a company... and the clients follow him or her to their new firm. So what is that client manager doing to gain that respect and, well, loyalty?
Interestingly, Tom Fishburne, The Marketoonist, has touched on this topic a couple of times. The reality is that clients are thinking about a lot of things, and we are probably not any of them. It is VERY much like this cartoon, "Inside the mind of the consumer" by Tom Fishburne.
This is just human nature. Clients, like all of us, have far more stuff going on in their brains than the name and services of a consultant.
Even clients who are loyal to us, who like us and come to us a lot, suffer from this "too much stuff on the brain" syndrome. For more on how the consumer/client thinks, read the companion article "Inside the mind of the consumer." It is vital to know what is on the client's mind before we can change our position within it.
Next week... how to get to the "top of mind" position with a client.
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