From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow.

It's such a fabulous quote.

Jeffrey Gitomer, in his brash American way, bluntly rolled out a discussion about loyalty versus satisfaction for a seminar (which was audio-recorded, hence how I heard it).

He was blathering on about how businesses are all about satisfying their customers.

They have mission statements about it, company values that talk about satisfaction.

And Mister Gitomer shut them all down by asking:

Would you prefer your spouse satisfied or loyal?

Whenever I've had some fun by asking this question in person, it's always created an open-mouthed look. You know, the type that suggests someone's just been slapped in the face. Like, wow man you can't ask a person that!

But it gets results.

Truthfully, if you prefer your spouse satisfied then that person will find a way to be satisfied whether you are involved in the situation or not.

Customers are exactly the same.

Don't come at me with all kinds of polamory arguments for why satisfaction and loyalty can co-exist, because most of the polyamorists I know are so happy with their lives that they're blotted out on drugs or alcohol, or are in counselling.

The point, darling Pixieling, is that if customers are satisfied but not loyal, they'll just look for whoever can satisfy them the best. But if they're loyal then they'll be in your tribe for longer, will be happier, will be more satisfied more often, and will have a sense of comfort that dashing around the marketplace can't give them.

Loyalty, however, isn't sexeh enough for the digital marketers of today.

They'd rather build loads of complex outbound-facing funnels, spend loads on ads, and swan about with their peers talking about how their SEO busted the SERPS; that their CPC is destroying their Programmatic; and generally belonging to a cult with a queer language that they use to sell to schmucks like you and me.

Loyalty is easy enough to create.

All you have to do is be human.

What are the things that for you would make you feel happy, comfortable, at ease, and totally trusting, if you were the client?

Is it a series of notifications about what's going on, just before you start wondering what's going on?

Is it an SMS at the end of the month with the project timings and budget spend, asking whether they're comfortable to keep going?

Is it lunch with your account manager every couple of months, where you get to shoot the shyt, learn about each other, and come to a mutually heightened understanding of what's what and why?

Is it a card in the mail thirty days after your project finishes, with a gift voucher for your spouse and some well-wishes, totally by surprise?

See, the things that we do for our closest, oldest, bestest friends aren't typically what you do for clients. But they're exactly what you ought to do for your clients!

By way of example, I have a wonderful VA. Her talent is excellent, her skills are bang-on, and she's lovely. But I tend to spend loads of time wondering where she's at.

Here's why this could be damaging her business:

When you allow someone to wonder, they make up their own stories. With clients, those stories tend (not always, but often) to be did I spend money with the right person?

And that's a fast-track to buyer's regret.

All of this is a long way around saying that there are millions of ways to forge loyalty over satisfaction. Trillions of ways to forge loyalty with satisfaction.

To find them, simply pay attention: To yourself and to others.

Once you do this, there's a really simple method you can use to make that attention-payment work for you.

And you'll find it in the free seminar attached to this workbook.

Buy me just two takeaway coffees and I'll show you the way. Go to https://brutalpixie.com/downloads/workbook-create-sticky-clients/

Leticia "it's all a psy-op" Mooney

PS. On Wednesday next week, the price of the workbook goes back to up $20. So to get this complete workshop cheaply enough that you can buy lunch with the rest of your rock-lobster, don't dally.