There’s nothing wrong with treating customers well and meeting their needs, but this isn’t actually why they stick around. The first thing you need to understand is that recurring interactions must exist for a relationship to be built. Without a vehicle for recurring interactions, a relationship cannot form. This is why one-off events and activities don’t build relationships, regardless of how spectacular they are. They don’t generate enough exposure between brand and customer for a long-lasting connection to take root, meaning they can initiate a relationship, but they cannot build it.
The same is true of beliefs. It takes time and repeated exposure for a new belief to take root – to carve that new mental pathway. Whether or not people stay with a brand depends on their beliefs about it, and so it follows that customers must experience recurring positive interactions in order to: (1) shape positive beliefs and (2) build a relationship with a brand that was previously unfamiliar.
Shaping beliefs about your brand
Interactions with your brand must provide the customer with evidence that reinforces the new belief you want to instil, and this is achieved through the experience you create. People need to feel there is a logic that warrants their beliefs, even if that logic is irrational. For example, seeing a prestigious individual endorse a luxury hotel might confirm its “luxuriousness”, yet that same hotel could taint its image if endorsed by a troublesome celebrity. If people can’t find a sense of logic, the new belief will not take root unless they are blinded by a strong emotion – desire (I really want that) or desperation (I really need that). In this instance, evidence is secondary.
If, through recurring interactions, a brand plays to both the customer’s need for evidence and their tendency to act on strong emotions, they can cultivate deeply embedded beliefs that result in a long-lasting relationship. Ask yourself: What evidence are people looking for in order to trust our brand? What must exist or be true for people to invest in our brand out of desire or desperation?
How susceptible people are to a new belief depends on 3 things:
- Whether it has an affinity with their existing beliefs e.g. a positive experience with a similar brand.
- The quality of similar past experiences e.g. were they disappointed the last time they invested in something like this?
- Any preconceived ideas about what an experience will be like despite not engaging with something like it before e.g. an innate disinterest in a certain type of product or service.
The more familiar something is and the more positively a person already feels about it, the less repetitions are needed for a new belief to form. It’s the difference between a subtle shift and a big leap, however, being familiar has its downsides.
Balancing familiarity and uniqueness
It’s important to bear in mind that the more familiar you are, the more competition you have, meaning there’s less opportunity to create deep impact. People have seen brands like yours before, and could just as well choose them over you. You’re interchangeable, and that’s a problem.
The less familiar you are, the less chance there is that customers will have comparable negative experiences or preconceived ideas, but it will be more difficult to get them on board with your brand. Innovation takes time to digest, and you risk being dismissed before people understand you.
Ideally your brand will strike a strategic balance, being familiar enough to engage people initially, but uniquely impactful enough to keep them with you long-term.