Fidelity in the Engagement Era

As we look at the market, much is being said about digital transformation that brings its own vocabulary. In it, one of the key words is “engagement.” Makes sense!

But what happened to that other vernacular we have been fighting so hard for the last 20 years? The “loyalty”?

Loyalty is no longer a meaningful word (from the dictionary: “Making a customer loyal to a product or service.”) And has become a “must have” method. Who of us does not have in his wallet a sign of coffee, the restaurant or the kiln with the name of “fidelity card”.

But let us think for a moment. Who among us changes their lunch pattern just by having that little sign in the wallet? Who among us, going out for lunch, thinks: I’m going to eat on the plate today because I want to score a point on the board?

Often, at least, I am reminded of the sign by the clerk himself, after I have eaten. But it was not she who took me there, it was all the other things.

So if that does not get me there, but still give me a “free lunch” the conclusion is straightforward: they are just losing money. I would have paid for the free lunch, no problem. And worse, being a bit picky here, many of them give the burden of point control to me, the one they want to please.

You might want to be controversial here and say that the age of loyalty is over, we are in the age of engagement. What would lead us to think about the engagement (of the dictionary: “Embrace a philosophical, social, political, etc. and to fight for it …”).

Only in the definition, we see if it is different things. In this view, it seems to us, for a moment, that engagement is more plausible when we look at employees rather than clients. But it’s worth thinking about it too.

Let us not confuse, however, engagement with participation. Common mistake to happen due to social network nomenclatures. Of course it is much more than that.

So what do we look for with our customers? Engagement or loyalty?
Let’s be managers here. Considering that many of us work in the corporate market, selling products and services and not in advocacy NGOs, we can list some possibilities of what we are looking for: to increase the number of new clients and to increase revenue for current clients. Always taking the principle of “keeping current customers”.

Thus, it seems clear to understand that we need both: loyalty and engagement, for two different reasons:

We need customer loyalty to keep current customers and make them feel motivated to buy more or other services from us. We need the engagement, because motivated clients in defending our brand are a powerful lever to get new customers.

But there is no engaged customer who is not satisfied, or who is not loyal. What makes us go back to the beginning of everything and conclude:

Without fidelity there is no engagement, and without satisfaction, there is no fidelity!
This is how we need to think our customers …

That way, it’s no use giving me “loyalty cards” and “free lunches”, before offering me what you promised me, in the best possible quality. Make me a satisfied customer and you can leave, I paid the “free lunch”.