(By Buzz Knight) Brand loyalty is a very delicate thing and should not be taken for granted. This relates to every business when you consider customer service, user experience, and the general quality of the work. Everything matters, and impressions can be changed or broken in a nanosecond.
Consider the tale of an acquaintance from my town named Chris, who was a regular patron at a local restaurant. I hadn’t seen him, despite his regular routine, in a year and a half and ran into him at the local market. When you don’t run into someone for that long you wonder “Is their health ok?” “Did they move from the area?” “Did some other family circumstance change their life?”
So I asked Chris where he had been. Why hadn’t he been at the restaurant? He told me the story of a dreadful experience he had with his food coming out after a long delay with poor quality. In his own words, “Maybe it is the Irish in me but I took the bad experience personally and have never been back.”
This experience should be a lesson to us all to be mindful of the small, medium, and large things that matter. We should always treat our brand loyalty seriously and fiercely protect our fans on a one-by-one basis.
Think of every interaction that you have with your listeners as an opportunity to surprise and delight them and keep them on your side.
If you use the story of Chris and his restaurant as a stark reminder, you won’t let your station make the same type of mistake. Make sure your team values the importance of:
— Great one-on-one interaction with listeners at appearances.
— Responsive interaction via social media channels.
— Friendly interaction via the phone or email.
We all work hard to build up our brand equity and the listener loyalty that comes with it. Don’t let it slip through your fingers, because you may not get a second chance.
Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Programming for Beasley Media Group. He can be reached at buzz@bbgi.com
This blog was previously featured in Radio Ink.
