Relationships key to customer retention.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Northern Ontario Business Awards - Brief Article

Most company marketing and customer service representatives talk a good game about creating customer satisfaction, but many do not have a clue as to how to keep customers.

If anything, businesses constantly generate negative emotions instead of creating good vibes to keep customers for a lifetime, says James Barnes, an internationally acclaimed expert in marketing strategy.

Though most CEOs believe customer loyalty is the single most important management issue they face, a vast majority of business leaders have no idea of what drives this loyalty or where it comes from, Barnes says.

The marketing professor of 30 years at Memorial University and author of six books was in Timmins Oct. 18 at the Northern Ontario Business Awards as a keynote speaker during the NOBA Back to the Basics in the Digital Age conference. He provided some decidedly low-tech advice to delegates in speaking about customer retention in the digital age.

IKEA, the Swedish furniture maker and retailer, has the right idea, he says. IKEA is a company with an intuitive understanding of what the consumer wants and feels. Their best customer is not the one who buys the most, but those who like them the most, he says.

The idea is to develop "emotional loyalty" ties versus simply "functional loyalty". Offering free parking, flexible hours and customer points programs only goes so far with consumers until something, better comes along, Barnes says.

Genuine relationships "come from the heart" and strike an emotional chord with customers instead of just providing "great products at great prices."

Demonstrate you will go the extra mile or give them something totally unexpected.

Barnes relayed the story of his stay at a Delta Hotel in Halifax. As a long-distance runner, he went for a 45-minute run and came back sopping wet, dripping through the lobby. A hotel employee immediately called him by name, offered to take his running gear, then washed, dried, ironed and left them folded at the foot of his bed.

"You ought to...