Boston sports fans stay Loyal during economic hardtimes

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2008/12/23/answer_here_may_be_an_enthusiastic_yes/?page=1

We've talked about the loyalty of Boston sport's fans before and this article underscores that strong relationships can survive most situations, even an economic downturn. Granted, Boston teams have held up their end of the bargain by winning big in the past several years. But fans are now showing their support by continuing to purchase tickets to games.

On a personal note, as a former Celtics season ticket holder, I have to say, an economic crisis seems less hard to stomach than the Patino years. Yes folks, it's true, I'm still working through the bitterness left by those painful years. Am I loyal to the Celtics? Yes. Did those years take a toll on my relationship with the team? Absolutely. But winning #17 has done an amazing job of reminding me why the Celtics were always my favorite team...

But I digress...this article is a cool take on Boston sports fans and customer loyalty.

Loyalty of Charitable Giving

Tis the season of giving. This week alone, I’ve received at least six different letters or emails from different nonprofits seeking donations. All worthy causes, mind you- who can say no to cancer research or helping the homeless? I’d love to be able to say yes to all and give substantially. (Sidebar: I am one of those people that has trouble saying no- I just have a vision of a little kid going hungry because I didn’t do something about it.) But it’s simply not feasible to give to every cause.

So this got me thinking. What compels people to donate to one organization and not another? Why are they more loyal to one organization than another? For me, it comes down to my emotional connection with the cause or organization. I give to cancer related organizations because my father had lymphoma. I give to autism related organizations because someone close to me has autistic children. But what about my alma maters? And other organizations I have an actual relationship with? As an alumna, I have expectations. And if they don’t hold up their end of the deal, do I feel obligated to continue contributing to them? I’m not sure. I did this year, but I’m not sure about next year. Other than my picking up the phone and telling them they’re losing me, do they have a way of knowing I’m unhappy? Is it even possible to measure the loyalty of charitable giving? I imagine that that would be powerful information for schools and other nonprofits to have.

Brookeside: good for business, and good for your health!

Tea is on the rise in the US: http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22145/61740-it-s-high-tea

We created our LoyalTea blends not just because we thought our clients, partners, friends, and family would enjoy the humor, but to continue extending our philosophy. We carefully selected specific types of teas and flavors along our six Dimensions of great relationships: The Integrity blend contains strong, bold herbs to promote the importance of honesty and transparency; the Competency black tea is a steady favorite you can depend on to always satisfy; LoyalTea's Recognition green tea with lemon is soothing and comforting, making you feel warm and valued; among the many flavors in our Proactivity blend, a powerful mint and eucalyptus medley awaken the senses helping you focus on the task at hand; the Savvy blend is a spiced black tea with an edge that pushes you to understand the bigger picture and gain insight into what is most important to those around you; finally, our Chemistry blend is full of familiar fruit and floral aromas sure to delight anyone who tries it.

The fact that our LoyalTea is healthy is a bonus! We're glad to hear tea is finally catching on in America and are happy to send some your way if you let us know you'd like some!

An Interview with Gladwell on success

THE LEONARD LOPATE SHOW: SECRETS OF SUCCESS
Why do some people succeed, while others never seem to reach their full potential? Malcolm Gladwell talks about how luck, skill, and hard work affect your chances at success

Is 10,000 hours the tipping point of excellence?

Malcolm Gladwell has authored another book: Outliers: The Story of Success From an extract published over the weekend in The Guardian it looks like it should be a good read. I myself have pre-ordered a copy from Amazon.

The satisfaction inequality

Far too often in blogs and posts regarding customer and employee retention strategies, satisfaction is equated with Loyalty. The two concepts, however, are in fact quite distinct, and conflating them can cause significant confusion.

To help understand the difference, one can think of being satisfied with a product or vendor as simply not wanting to return it--it says nothing about whether or not you want to repurchase. Being loyal to a product or vendor, on the other hand, implies not only that the product or service provides a requisite level of satisfaction (e.g. that the customer doesn't want to return it or reneg on the deal) but also that the customer wants to continue to do business with the vendor in question in the future.

So, whereas satisfaction relates to present feelings about the product or service, Loyalty has more to do with feelings about continuing a relationship. What we see then, is that there is a sort of satisfaction inequality, whereby Loyalty implies satisfaction, but not vice versa: someone can be completely satisfied yet utterly Disloyal. Keeping this distinction in mind is a helpful way to identify whether a particular article is in fact talking about Loyalty or instead relates more to satisfaction.

New England Style Loyalty

As someone from the South, it has been very interesting to see how Loyal (with a capital L) New Englanders and specifically Bostonians are to two major franchises, the Boston Red Sox and Dunkin Donuts.

The reason I find this so interesting is because both of these franchises were able to do so while overcoming what would appear to be major obstacles to maintaining that Loyalty. For the Red Sox, this obstacle took the form of "the Curse," or the 86 years of failing to win a World Series. For Dunkin Donuts, their major obstacle has been the introduction of Starbucks, which appeared to have a more developed product.

The question that arises is, have the Red Sox/Dunkin Donuts done anything specific to achieve this unique level of Loyalty or is Boston/New England with its long history, culturally more prone to brand loyalty?

There was a time when life was much simpler

When your business didn't need to compete with the entire world, when change was measured in decades, not days, and when the Loyalty of your customers, your clients, your business partners and your employees could be taken for granted.

Not anymore.

Today, we live in a global economy where growth is slow and great clients, great customers, great partners and great employees come at a premium. Getting them is important. Keeping them, necessary. But if you want to find real, long-term success in this complicated world, making them Loyal is essential. It's as simple as that.