Example: a Virginia business owner recently described to me several of her suppliers’ annoying “relationship” pitches. She knows they mean well, but she does not want to waste her own time making them feel good about themselves. “What should they do instead?” I asked. “Approach me honestly, make a compelling case, do what they promise, and shut up about relationships.” This from a nice, smart person with a good marketing mind.

And yet for other business people, a series of satisfactory but undistinguished transactions is not enough. They want attention! In fact, so many business relationships go unattended, that “We were ignored” is a reason given frequently by businesses changing vendors.

Generally, the higher the level of contact, the greater the likelihood the customer demands and appreciates a viable relationship ... in his or her own terms, not necessarily ours. So we counsel clients to presume nothing and to ask all customers how they prefer to engage. Then reconfirm, amend, or perhaps overhaul the communication strategy, account by account

Kathy Herrmann

Consultant - Business Strategy & Design

Posted on Sept. 28, 2011

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Rachel Sandmann

Hi Mitch,

The answer is it depends -- and a company needs to gain enough social awareness to determine the right answer for them.

Sometimes a customer does want a relationship with a brand. Just as often, though, a customer doesn't want “a relationship” with a company at all beyond the sales transaction. However, these same folks may want to connect socially in order to gather information to make buying decisions.

Here's a couple of rules of thumb --

1. How important is the brand to the customer's identity?

In the B2C environment, you'll tend to find more folks who brand-identify and these are folks who will be more attracted to have a relationship.

2. How mission critical is the brand to the customer's personal or professional operations?

Eg., consider a software application like a shipping management solution. If you're a retailer that ships 10s of thousands of packages a day, then your shipping management solution is definitely mission-critical. If that system goes down, you lose money. So having a relationship with the software provider will be pretty doggone important.

Nick poulos

Problem Solver, chrysalis marketing

Posted on Oct. 5, 2011

@Mitch; let me add a couple of thoughts to Kathy's lucid response.
Having been "in the game" for 4 decades now, the nature of "loyalty" seems to change and to morph. Sometime it is ephemeral; at other times it is the be-all and end-all for customers. Best consultant answer already offered, viz., "it depends". That could be a great opportunity for customer insight to play its needed role across multiple listening points that roll that anecdotal information up to where any decision that might be can be made actionable in a timely way.
Now, as to where, an area not under observation and scrutiny as often as it might: agribusiness. Those equipment colors and the roadside seed signs say a whole lot more, they serve as private semaphores, they indicate support for ways of life in certain cases.