The Loyalty Routine
Like many of you, I buy a cup of coffee from the same convenience store each morning. One could say that I am loyal to that store. I am loyal because I know how much the coffee costs. I’m loyal because I know where the coffee machines are and how to use them. I am loyal because I know where to find the plastic covers and sugar packets. I’m loyal because I know the cashier’s name.
If I were to enter the convenience store to find the coffee machines out of order, I would need to find another place to buy my coffee. I now have no idea how much the coffee will cost, and I’ll have to figure out how to use a different coffee-making contraption. But after my first morning buying coffee in the new store, I’ll know how to use the machines and find the sugar. I’ll know the price, call the cashier by name and have my coffee.
Just like that, my new routine is born. The coffee machine may be fixed tomorrow at the old place, but I have a new routine…not to mention the coffee tastes better. I am loyal to this new store until they also have a coffee machine malfunction, or some other major java catastrophe that changes my routine and in effect, my loyalty.
The concept is simple; one’s loyalty is based on routine. Had my routine not been broken, I wouldn’t have found the new convenience store that was closer to work, five cents cheaper and tastes better.
Quite frankly, even if I had been told prior to my coffee conundrum that somewhere else is closer, cheaper, and better, I still wouldn’t have went unless forced because I already had an expectation of service at my first coffee shop. Only until that expectation wasn’t met did I entertain the option of another store. That’s loyalty.
How many clients have called but decided not to use your service because nobody was available? Do you think they simply just didn’t have their “coffee” that day or do you think they went elsewhere?
Where do you think their loyalty now lies?
When I help small businesses streamline their appointment setting process, I take an unknown situation for the client and make it known and repeatable. Even if you are providing the best possible service to your clients when you are available, you aren’t providing a repeatable level of service to those who call when you aren’t able to answer the phone.
How streamlined is your process for booking appointments? Can your potential clients book an appointment with you at 2:00 AM? Can you even be certain they’ll be able to reach you at 2:00 PM?
If you are having trouble gaining loyal clients, ask yourself, “Is the appointment-setting process easily melded into my clients’ daily routine, or must my clients break their routine (and loyalty) in order to book their appointment”?
The ability to provide a known, repeatable level of service at the time of booking an appointment is the key to growing your appointment-based business. By establishing a routine for your callers, you are consequently making your clients loyal. You also give yourself a competitive advantage, capturing other business’ ‘loyal’ clients by providing something they do not – an open phone line and somebody available to help. It doesn’t require working harder, just smarter.
