When I founded my fitness company (Hot Mama Health & Fitness), I don’t think I understood the importance of loyal clients. Loyalty was just an end result of hard work, wasn’t it? If I do a good job, people will be loyal. That’s a given, isn’t it? The answer? No, loyalty isn’t a given and a number of factors can pull a recently loyal client away from you. What I’m not certain of is whether our clients understand the impact of failing loyalty.
Competition is fierce in the fitness industry. Competition is fierce in most industries, but in the fitness industry…phew! But, one of the greatest things about Hot Mama is that we tend to have the most wonderfully loyal clients. It seems that once someone joins the community, they become loyal to Hot Mama and our programs quite quickly. It’s awesome. And, it speaks volumes about our franchise owners and the fact that people stick with them.
Recently, one of our franchise owners has been faced with (*gasp, cringe*) losing a client to another company. While it’s only a temporary loss (she’ll be back), it got me thinking that maybe people don’t understand the effect consumer decisions have on small business owners.
Let me enlighten you.
We all know that loyalty is a wonderful thing. But, when you’re a small business, it’s loyal clients that help you grow. It’s loyal clients that help you continue. It’s loyal clients that, truly, keep your doors open and allow you to continue pursuing your dream.
Loyalty of clients, when it comes to small business, is pretty dang critical to success.
It’s not often about the loss of revenue that bothers us when loyalty fails (although for businesses just starting out, that’s a large factor as well). It’s the loss of our client. When loyalty fails, we begin to wonder what’s wrong with our company, our services, our business. It can take up a lot of time and energy in our mind. And honestly, it becomes quite personal.
Why did she leave? Why did she choose to go to so-and-so instead? Did I do something wrong? What could I have done differently? Am I not good enough? OMG…AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH?
Even worse? When you tell us that our competitor is offering a discount, but you’ll be back next month when the discount is over: ouch. Seriously, ouch. You’re basically telling us that we’re not actually worth the money you’re saving for the month. That stings.
I understand the love of a good discount. I also understand financial constraints (I so understand financial constraints). While I do understand your desire to save money, please know your decision to take your business elsewhere effects us, right or wrong, emotionally. It makes us doubt our worth and to be honest, it can put a pretty sour taste in our mouth. Most small business owners give and give and give and our return is loyal clients. That’s pretty awesome. Except when loyalty fails. That’s the part that cuts.
As our business grows, we definitely get a thicker skin and these decisions don’t cause us to question ourselves as much. But, for new business owners…loyalty is everything. Losing a loyal client can rock our business boat and put doubt at the forefront of our mind. Don’t worry Newbie Business Owner…it gets easier. I’m not certain you’ll get to the place when the loss of a loyal client doesn’t sting at all (I’m certainly not there yet, but maybe someday), but the sting lessens and energy to heal it reduces.
I’ll leave you with two last messages…
A message to small business owners:
Losing a loyal client, if only for a month or so, can sting. I get it. I’ve felt it. Trust me, I know the feeling. But, it’s okay. Your loyal client wasn’t actually a loyal client. Lesson learned. And hey…don’t sweat it. You often lose a client who “will be back” because of financial reasons. We cannot fault them there. It can hurt a bit, but we cannot fault them. So, take a breath, feel what you need to feel and then get back to work. You still have oodles of loyal clients out there that deserve your undivided attention and energy. Focus there. Focus on your loyal clients and keep them that way. You got this.
A message to our loyal clients:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for sticking with us. We know you have other choices out there (I sound like WestJet). We know some places are less expensive. We know some places offer discounts or even get you there for free. And still, you choose us. My success is 100% due to loyal clients. I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today, business-wise, without you. I cannot emphasize enough how important you have been to my success. Loyalty has been absolutely EVERYTHING. Without it, there would be no Hot Mama. Without your loyalty I would have let the voice in my head telling me “You’re not good enough. You can’t do this” rule my decisions and I would have quit. This I know for certain.
To all of the loyal clients out there…thank you. Not only are you helping us grow, you’re giving us confidence to keep pushing, digging and driving our businesses forward. That, in and of itself, is what I am most grateful for. A million times thank you.
Stay loyal, party people, you know we’ll make it worth it.
Whether you own a small or large business, the general principle is the same…you sell/franchise your product/services and in return earn income off of those sales. For both small and large businesses, customer loyalty is becoming an ever increasing area to focus in as it has been shown that it is cheaper to maintain a customer than find a new one. New customers need advertising, discounts, incentives, etc…, to get them in the door. Current customers only need to feel that they are receiving value for what they spend their money on. Customers make decisions every day, and so should businesses if they intend to keep the customers coming back.
Any business would be crazy to simply think that by selling a good product you build loyalty. Customer loyalty is more than just returning to buy the same and/or new products on a regular basis. Return customers can be back because of contractural or long term commitments to the company, they currently feel it is still affordable and valued, it takes less effort to just keep with the same business as opposed to looking for new options, they have relationships/friendships with other customers at the business, or even simply due to habit. None of these things indicate you have a loyal customer per se, but rather that you are able to sell your products to the same people over-and-over again. The problem with mistaking this with loyalty is that you run the risk of losing that customer to another business if one so happens to show up and present a comparable product that your customers may be interested in purchasing.
Customer loyalty is more grounded in belief or an emotional bond where they feel that are receiving value for their purchase, and this value likely entails some sense of physical, emotional, and general experience into a single feeling of worth. Competition is fierce out there for businesses, and if you are not looking at what sort of customer you are creating (re: a repeat vs loyal customer), you are likely going to find it hard to retain customers when there are other options out there. It is all too easy to confuse a repeat customer for a loyal one, and you can never base that assessment on your perceived value of your product. There needs to be a connection that the customer feels, and that is the basis of the value of your product.
When a business, small or large, loses customers it is never the customers fault. Guilt or shaming over being ‘disloyal’ is not only petty and childish, it is actually stopping you from fixing this problem in the future. You think your product is great? You think your employees are great? You think that you provide the best product for the value in the regional market? All great…unless you have customers leave. Does this make them disloyal???? Or, could it be that you might be off in some of your assumptions? For smaller businesses, loyalty is more crucial and for sure it will sting more when a repeat customer leaves…and that distinction is important. If you have truly built a loyal customer base, they will continue to be customers even though they are not completely happy with the business. As loyalty involves an emotional connection, they are more likely to stick through minor (and sometimes major) bumps in the road. However, if you find that you are having trouble maintaining a client base in a given region, then maybe you should consider that you are not actually building loyal customers, only repeat customers. Shaming or calling out customers by a business not only closes the door on a leaving customer permanently, but it will erode at the foundation of what you are trying to do…which is build a loyal customer. Perhaps instead of the guilt trip, maybe try and do surveys of your customer’s experiences, do an exit interview to find out why a customer left, and even poll your ‘loyal’ customers to find out why the keep coming back. You might just find that you have build a business off of repeat customers, and more likely than not, your business will evolve and development from what you learn. Shame and guilt will simply drive others away.
Excellent! Thank you for your feedback. I agree with almost everything you say. The point of the post is not guilt or shaming, it was to let people know that, as owners, we do in fact have an emotional connection to our clients. And yes, that’s loyalty. And when that loyalty (not repeat customers) is challenged…we take it personally.
Sometimes I think it gets forgotten that behind a business is a person. I fully believe our clients are loyal. In your comments above I kept thinking “Yup. Yup. Yup. We have loyal customers. Not repeat customers”. So, that was great.
I do love your idea of surveys, so thanks for that. I love learning and receiving feedback, so thank you for taking the time to write your opinion. It helps.
At this point in time with so much competition out there in the fitness industry, a business owner’s feelings don’t have much bearing on client feelings on why they may have left. Maybe they received a good deal elsewhere, maybe you or your franchise owner gave them the tools to work out on their own, perhaps it was simply a financial or time constraint situation. As you’ve mentioned, there are so many reasons clients leave. Businesses need to understand that there is a person behind a payment as well.
I’m wondering when you wrote and posted this if you considered the feelings of the client you wrote about? You mentioned they had only left temporarily and they will be back. But will they? What if they read this and assumed it was about them? It appears with the way your franchises function, many current and former clients follow your posts/blog. Perhaps after reading this and seeing potential similarities in their situation, they may consider not returning after being referred to as disloyal. I don’t think that was the message you were trying to convey but that’s how it could be interpreted. Clients have feelings too and they are the ones supporting your business.
This is exactly the point I was making. The fact that there is so much competition and while decisions aren’t made on feelings by the client, their decisions do impact the feelings of the owner of the small business. Right or wrong, it happens. Knowing not to be offended when someone chooses to go somewhere else is easy in your mind, you just don’t let it bother you. But, in your heart, it’s a different matter. I wanted people to know that your decisions do impact the people behind the business…again…right or wrong.
And of course I considered the feelings of our clients. I always do. I also considered the feelings of my franchise owners and other small business owners who struggle with how they worry or feel when they lose a client. And because we do have such loyal customers, when someone chooses someone else, it impacts us further due to the fact that we were on a loyal customer basis not a repeat customer basis.
So, I decided to write for them. I will never make everyone happy, it’s impossible. So I chose to write something that I know I felt and could share my own experience to let others know they’re not alone.
While we have this conversation, which I do value, I have also received numerous messages, texts and posts thanking me for writing this. So again… I cannot make everyone happy, but others can relate and now know they’re not alone.
These are my thoughts and my feelings and while I try to honour other people at all times, I know that sometimes what I say may not be a shared opinion. Thank you for sharing your point of view. I respect it and appreciate the time you took to comment.
This article is amazing. I for one believe in loyalty. My industry also deals with “clients disappearing” and I understand clearly how that feels and what goes on in the mind of the service provider when “Mary” hasn’t been seen in a while, or you see her posting in another group/page.
Hot Mama is MORE than a service tho….it’s a community, a lifestyle a safety net for mamas. How anyone could turn their back on their main mama is confusing to me. I understand finances…. But to just hop around, no, that doesn’t feel right.
Loyalty VS repeat customer??? The main mamas I know….would be devastated to think of us just repeat customers. We build friendships and connections…..
Yeah. Loyal all the way over here.