Company Blog
Loyalty
by Adam Zack — February 21, 2024
“But loyalty only goes so far…”
loy·al
adjective
giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution.
“loyal service”
How loyal are you? I was thinking about how there are many levels of loyalty. A faithful spouse. A fan of your favorite sports team no matter how bad they are. A brand of automobile. The type of mobile phone you use. Even the type of barbecue you will buy. (I am a loyal Weber man.) The type of beer you drink. But how loyal are you to where you get your food? I think Amazon changed a lot of loyal shoppers because they brought something to the table that was easier, faster and cheaper than brick and mortar stores. We like to think we are loyal to our grocery store, especially if it’s independent and family owned. It’s us against the Krogers, Albertsons and Walmarts of the world, right? We gotta stick together! But loyalty only goes so far and so long unless you are giving your customers the intangibles like super friendly service, cleanliness, selection and quality. You may be a little more expensive, but the opportunity you have to make the connection that can influence generations to come. I saw a young mom and her two year old daughter in my store on Monday. The little girl was pushing one of our little kids carts and was having a great time. The mom stopped me and said “I just want you to know how much she loves these little shopping carts. If we have to go to another store like Sprouts for something she’ll say ‘I wanna go to Jensen’s! Jensen’s mom.’” Pretty funny that at 2 years old we have developed loyalty that sure isn’t going away anytime soon.
Read More – Emotional Connection
Filed Under: Company Blog
Hi Adam,
Love the articles you post. Always upbeat and relevant.
I have some additional observations on the subject of loyalty. Hope I don’t ramble too far and wide…
Many of my (our?) clients do not have a “loyalty” program per se. This has been either a conscious decision based on privacy concerns or the result of the effort being too difficult to manage with limited resources. Nonetheless, most understand the importance of having a process through which a customer can sign on to receive direct mail and/or email offers. Having done so, they then receive weekly or, in the case of direct mail, a multi-week campaign.
Pretty straight-forward stuff.
Generally speaking, these campaigns (email and direct mail alike) are static. (By this I mean the recipients all receive the same offer or offers.) Important to note, except for very rare instances the same messaging and offers are going out to the general population as this special group of brand “fans.”
I understand this approach is a reflection of the operational requirements of merchandising for a promotion. Nonetheless, I have always felt my clients are missing a golden opportunity to develop and nurture a population of fans who have given their store express permission to reach out.
Shouldn’t we engage this group with unique messaging and give them unique, curated offers? Is it always necessary to give them a redemption offer (BOGO or whatever) to get their response. Or, maybe they signed on looking for something more (culinary ideas, special events, “member-only” perks)?
I sense the answers will be less about the merchandising and more in the personalization of the experience. I believe we are on the cusp of an incredible opportunity to nuture these unique relationships. They’ve given us the permission (to communicate), we now need to figure out how best to do so.
Love to hear your thoughts. Thanks again for the great blog. I always enjoy it!
Keeping your customer coming back to your business is so important. Many grocers think well I will just settle for this amount of customers, wrong!!! Eventually you will get less and less people shopping on a regular basis if you don’t do your utmost best to keep them coming back to you. It’s not the price you can use to compete against other retailers anymore. You have to be out there talking to customers about what they need or want from you. It’s how involved in your community that will keep them coming back to you. We sold our store just over a year ago and it hurts me to see how the new owners just don’t get it.
Thanks for your blog Adam