Rethinking Loyalty

Everyone seems to be talking about customer loyalty, but does anyone stop to think about the market conditions that drive loyal behaviour? We've been spoilt by choice, and this abundance has driven an inflation of expectations. Sure, we're more critical than ever of buggy software or faulty products, but ideals are what really tip the scale. If you want to build a loyal base product focus is great, but you will be served better by refining your vision first.

“Old ways won't open new doors” - Unknown

Great products don’t build loyal communities - belief systems do

In the past, exhibiting loyal behaviour was a way of hedging your bets in a scarce environment to ensure that you could rely on a certain good, treatment or service. We were, to a much greater extent, pressured by our immediate surroundings and communities to make decisions that were not objectively the best, but that people could depend on. Today we live in a world of almost infinite choices. Our mobility combined with an abundance of goods has virtually eliminated the practical reasons for behaving loyally. So what is left of loyalty today?

In many ways loyal behaviour today, although