Creating Loyalty Only Occurs When There’s Value, And Value Is In The Eye Of The Customer

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Giving customers what they really want isn’t as simple as selling them the products or services that they’re buying. Because quite often, customers don’t know what they want until it shows up!

The famous haircut story

Readers who have known me for years, and students from my Marketing Mentor program of the late 1990s, will recall my popular haircut story. It served as the perfect metaphor for explaining that the customer doesn’t know what he or she wants until he or she gets it!

And when he gets it, he’ll inconvenience himself and even pay more for it! So will she!

While getting my hair cut today — and noting that the franchised salon was empty, and the stylists were complaining about the scarcity of customers these days — it occurred to me that it’s time to bring back the haircut story.

Thin it out on top, will you?

I’m blessed with a great head of hair. How many men, age (almost) 60, do you think tell the stylist, “Thin it out on top, please.” I say that almost every time I get my hair cut, which is about once a month. Pick yourself up, guys. Hair is one of my many blessings — you’ve got yours, too.

Haircuts had no value to me

Back on topic now. Some years ago, while looking for a good stylist, I realized that it wasn’t the haircut that I most wanted to buy. But that wasn’t immediately obvious to me.

No matter which barbershop or salon I patronized, and regardless of the stylist — the one that’s up next is just fine — I almost always got a good haircut. Again, the blessed hair!

The problem was equating value to the haircuts. Whether I paid $9.99 or $29.99, the look was always about the same. Yea, every so often I’d go home and my wife would say: “Hey, they forgot to trim one of your eyebrows,” or “They trimmed the left side of your beard, but not the right,” and we’d have a good laugh about that (which actually made that haircut even more valuable, because laughing has a value). But the result was always about the same.

Finding the real value: speed

Ultimately, speed became the real value for me. If I had to wait for a haircut, even if it only cost $9.99, it wasn’t worth it. Nix the waiting. Wouldn’t do it. Still won’t do it.

Loyalty? No reason for it — not at the time anyway.

There’s always another shop, another stylist

Make an appointment in advance? Too much work on my part. Now maybe if someone had offered to call me every 4 or 5 weeks and set the appointment for me — ah, that would have been a value I would have been willing to pay for — but to this day no one has ever offered to do that. (Nor does anyone offer to call to remind me to change the filters in the HVAC units in my house, or the batteries in my alarms, or any one of many other things that might prompt loyalty and more sales. Apparently it’s too much work for everyone).

Meanwhile, if there’s a line to get a haircut, I’m not waiting. Cause around the corner there’s another shop or salon where a barber or stylist is just waiting for me to show up. For now, let’s just overlook the obvious: If just one of those barbers or stylists had snagged my loyalty they’d have seen me (and my money) about once a month. Let’s just assume it was too much work.

One day the value showed up on my face

So one day, much to my surprise, I found something more valuable even than time. I entered the shop, immediately got into a chair, explained how I wanted my hair cut (a #4 on the sides and a #1 on my beard — and, oh yea, thin it out on top!) and the stylist went to work.

About 20 minutes later, having said nothing to me all that time — which is perfectly fine with me, I’m not in to small talk with strangers — I saw the stylist holding a rolled up wash cloth in front of me.

I looked surprised. As if to say, “What do you want me to do with that?”

The best sensation of the day

“For your face,” is all she said. Hey, she wasn’t getting paid by the word or for her personality!

Ah!

I grabbed the wash cloth — delightedly surprised that it was warm; reminded me of flying first class! — unfolded it and wiped my face, then my neck, then my ears . . . wow! The sensation was greater than anything I had felt all day.

“Thank you!” I said enthusiastically, handing the wash cloth back to the unenthusiastic, but at least smiling, stylist.

Here comes the money-making point

Now pay attention because this is the important point, the point that can make you a lot more money!

It wasn’t until I used that warm wash cloth that value was created, and more importantly, that loyalty became a reality. Once there was value, there could be loyalty.

One warm wash cloth changed my motivation

Never more would I get a haircut just because I needed one, or for a neater look. Not at all. Now I would get a haircut — pay more for it, and in fact might even wait for it! — just for the warm wash cloth! It wasn’t the haircut that I wanted (even if I needed it), or the barber or stylist that won my loyalty; I wanted — needed — the sensation that came with the warm wash cloth!

Yes, I could pay less for a haircut, and I would if that’s all I was buying. But I’ll pay more for what I really want. I’ll even inconvenience myself, if I have to.

Won’t you?

Let me assure you, your customers will! And they’ll return loyally to your shop, your store, your Web site, your business.

But first you’ll have to figure out what they really want. Get busy!