[Transcript starts at 1:29]
Hello, hello, hello my podcast people, and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. So like the intro said, my voice is coming and going. This episode will probably be a little bit shorter because I'm not trying to be coughing and have to do all the editing afterwards. So we're gonna probably keep it a little shorter, but today we're talking about the fact that these hoes ain't loyal, which hoes?
Well, in this case, Apple and The Shade Hotel. Now, this is not a rant episode about them, but the episode is 100% inspired by recent rendezvous that I had with them. And I wanna flip the script here. Hopefully elucidate the importance of you being loyal to your customers. So, uh, last week or two weeks ago was Thanksgiving.
I bought a phone from my grandmother. Her phone, she had an Apple seven or an iPhone seven, and I was like, it's time to upgrade. And it so just so happened it was like the Black Friday, Cyber Monday thing. And so I got an apple, uh, SE phone cuz she doesn't need all the bells and whistles. And I asked her and she was like, no, I just need like it to be able to like go on Facebook and play solitaire.
So got her an Apple SE and, and as per the little discount thing they were having, it was like, oh cool, you can get a $50 gift card, which we know doesn't really buy much at Apple, but still it feels a little bit of a reward. So I was like, “Hey, why not?” I'm getting the phone anyway. And cool, fast forward, the gift card never shows up in my account and I'm like, what is the deal?
And I went and Googled it. I did like the Apple, uh, you know, customer service thing. And it was like, okay, once the phone ships, then it'll show up. And I was like, all cool. The phone ship, my grandmother got it. Nothing. No card for me. So I go and, and I'm speaking to the help center again, or the customer service, customer support, whatever, again, and come to find out their super, super fine print that I thought I had read, but apparently not,
but, yes I did, I read up, I read a bunch, uh, but with this super fine print, it said that the only way you'd get the, uh, the, what is it called? The, not the discount, the card was if you purchased a phone that was not in conjunction with an actual provider plan. So like Verizon or Apple, or excuse me, Verizon, or AT&T.
And I was like, what in the world what, who would purchase this? Like what? Of course I'm gonna purchase it with an associated plan. This is so stupid. And you know, I'm on the customer service line with this person, and the person was very helpful and it wasn't their fault. And I told them, and I was like, is there a place where I can lodge a complaint because this just feels wrong.
I have bought Apple exclusively since, I don't know, 2010. Since I could like, I like afford, like the old school white Mac, uh, you know, the Apple, uh, laptop. And this just feels wrong. I'm, I'm out here, you know, telling people with droids, throw 'em in the trash. Meanwhile, Apple's throwing me in the trash. And I was like, it's just, it doesn't feel right.
I didn't write into anybody cuz the thing they gave me, the form they gave me didn't take me to a place I could form a comp, you know, lodge a complaint. And for $50, it's not worth it. But I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do something better and I'm gonna use this anger to record a podcast episode. So here we are talking about that.
Second thing that happened is, uh, when I run my live events with Jill, we do them in the South Bay at this hotel chain called the Shade Hotel. Should have known right with that name Shade, Shady. And it's kind of like, you know, little bit, it's expensive and it's supposed to be like nicer. It's not even that nice of a hotel, let's be honest.
Like a lot of these places kind of just rest in the fact that their location and it's not that nice. Uh, but we were booking, Sara, so Sara is Jill's, uh, you know, right hand woman and she was booking our events for next year and Shade Hotel has raised their prices $400 a day and I was like, WHAT?! Like, it's not about the money, it's to me about the loyalty.
We have done events with them in the past. Jill does other events and does all of her events there. And I was like, where is the loyalty? This makes me not want to work with this company. And so I went and did some research and we're probably gonna move our event the first one we're having there because Jill was just like, does, let's book it.
And I was like, but these hoes ain't loyal. So I, I'm gonna take care of that with Sara cuz I, I will go through more hoops and such for loyalty. Uh, but both of those events inspired me to make this episode. So, I, I get it. We see it all the time with big companies especially where they put profits over people.
They're looking for new eyes and they're like, screw you, OGs. For those of you who don't know, OG means original gangsta. And they're just like, we don't care about you. We see with all the big platforms and they're just like young people. We want young people. You've been on here for a million years, older people, we don't care.
Get outta here. And it's not right. And when I record these episodes, I very much feel like I'm preaching to the choir. I know that you folks listening to this, we're in the same boat and you are all about the loyalty as well. But I'm gonna make an episode either way because it's, I feel it in my bones, I feel it on my soul, and I gotta get it off my chest and yeah, I wanna talk about it.
So when, as it relates to business, I understand that there's the both/and of acquisition and retention. It, it shouldn't be either or, right? It's, it's both and. But I firmly believe that great or phenomenal retention leads to easier and better acquisition. So, to quote, uh, Brian Halligan and David Meerman Scott, they wrote this book, I, I've spoken about it before.
Um, it's called Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. And in that book they say, optimize for your current voracious customers instead of your future potential customers. One more time. Optimize for your current voracious customers instead of your future potential customers. And that's what this is all about, being loyal to your current people.
It makes a huge difference. I will do that episode about, uh, memberships, but when it comes to a membership, you gotta be focused on retention. People really like to focus on acquisition, which is important, but if people come in and they stay for a day and then they leave, no bueno. Whereas if you focus on, or if you have to choose one, if you focus on that retention, those people will go and bring you more people.
They will spread your message farther and faster than you ever could. So y'all know I'm always with the, with the definitions. So I did a little Googling and looked up the definition of loyalty. There were a bunch, and I kind of have some qualms with that word. It feels kind of weird, but I found one that I liked and that really spoke to what I was feeling when, you know, I had the encounter with Apple and with Shade.
And so the definition that we're gonna go with is: Loyalty is the quality of staying firm in your friendship or support for someone or something. One more time. Loyalty is the quality of staying firm in your friendship or support, that's the big one, for someone or something. I get it when it's a big company they're not my friend,
I'm not their friend. But it still feels like it's profit over people. It still feels like they just care about my money and I hate that. Right? The whole thing here is I want it to feel more mutual. I will give you my money, especially as a big company, but treat me like I matter. Do certain things that show me that you care.
And we're gonna get into a list of things that I think smaller businesses can do. And that's probably you listening to this or you watching this, smaller business, smaller business owner. And I think there's some things that we can absolutely do from a tactical and technical perspective. When we're thinking about these bigger companies, discounts are great and they're typically the easiest thing for them to do because one, well from the, you know, recipient from the customer side, we feel like the bigger company can absorb it.
Like they're making a zillion dollars, they have all these profits. We're like, what the heck? Like, I'm just a little guy here, can you cut me a, cut me a deal. But I think that it is just given and we're, we'll talk about like the love language and such. I think that it's probably the easiest thing for them to do.
And so when they don't do that, it's just like, what the hell? Like you using my name as a bigger company doesn't really matter as much to me because I know I just gave it to you so you sign into my account. Certain places, you stay at the hotel, things like that, those are nice touches. Uh, and the whole thing here is making you feel special.
I think that, yeah, maybe it can be more difficult for a bigger company cuz they're serving more people, which is why something like a discount or honoring a discount or not being so shady about a discount feels so good and feels so helpful. So as a smaller biz, right, what can we actually do? I think it's easy to kind of default to discounts cuz we see bigger companies doing it.
But again, it's easy for them to absorb it, and us as smaller businesses, maybe that's not something that we can do as much. And honestly, I don't think that our customers are expecting that. They understand we're a small business. Yes, they may like a discount, but I think that our true customers, our our best customers, they're not necessarily looking for that.
So what I think, uh, we can do as it relates to being loyal, right? Being a loyal ho, cause those hoes ain't loyal, we're gonna be loyal, is ultimately showing people that we care. Now, everyone's love language is going to be different. For those of you that don't know, I think there's, I dunno, five love languages: acts of service, words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, and physical touch.
We probably shouldn't be leaning on physical touch as business owners. We probably shouldn't do that. Uh, you know, maybe in the, like, maybe in some cases, like we kind of see like overlap with that because of, you know, we're in a physical practice and kind of massage therapy, things like that. But in general, we probably shouldn't be leaning on that.
We're looking more acts of service, words of affirmation, quality time, and gifts. Now all the time, oftentimes we just default right to gifts. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think there are other things that we can do, and so what I'm getting at with this is that everyone's love language is different and we can't, you know, look to cater to every single person, but I think we can vary what we're doing and that gives us a greater opportunity or greater likelihood of
hitting those, uh, love languages and showing people that we actually care. Cause that's the whole goal here, is show people that you care. When these bigger companies do this stuff, I'm just like, realistically, I think the only way that they can kind of show that they care is gonna be with like kind of that gift, which would be a discount in that case, maybe special treatment, kind of priority.
Uh, but with a smaller business, it's harder to absorb that part, especially from the financial side. So I think there's other things that we can do. We don't have to always just default to the gifts or the, uh, the financial side, though I will include that on the list that I'm gonna give you now. So a few things that I think we can do, and some of these come from, uh, I did a poll on Instagram and I asked, what makes them feel like a company cares about them?
And I got like 150 responses from this, and I made a word cloud out of it. I love word clouds. And so some of this comes from that, right? So number one, is gonna be customer service? Again, this whole umbrella is how can we show people that we care, right? This is loyalty. This leads to retention. Number one is having good customer service.
So this is actually handling issues, doing it in a timely fashion, whatever that means for you. I get it, you're busy and maybe you have to hire, I don't know, but either, actually solving problems for people. Number two, remembering them. Like, do you actually remember this person? Even if you forget their name, like with physical therapy, I was kind of, something I'm thinking about here:
I, I oftentimes forgot someone's name or couldn't remember, but I remembered their injury. I remember when they came in. I remember those, I remembered things about them. Or when you have a client coming in and you're actually like, during a specific plan of care, write in your notes, this is a little hack, write in your notes, just like their kids' names, or about their kids, or what you actually talked about at that session
so you could talk about it at the next one. And people are like, holy shit, they remembered me. This isn't like a sleazy thing to do cuz you're like, but I wrote it down. Yeah. Cuz that means you took the time to do that. And that's the whole, the whole thing we're getting at. Right? Give people your time. Next point:
Thank them. Right. This is gonna be, uh, words of affirmation. Thank them. That's literally it. Send out thank yous. You can send out thank you notes. People love a handwritten card. I'm not trying to send out a handwritten card and I actually don't value them that much. Um, but I, I am grateful when I receive them.
But it, you know, for some people they like rocks their world and knocks their socks off. For me, I'm like, this is awesome. Uh, and I love receiving Christmas cards, but I also don't need like a long message on the Christmas card. Like, you could just send me the Christmas card. And I'm like, that's cool. I like seeing this about your family.
Yes, another thing we can do to show people with care is give them discounts, but we can give, give them discounts on other things. I do that in my Mafia. People that sign up for the full year, I give them discounts on anything else that they purchase from me moving forward. So it doesn't have to be a discount on that specific item.
And again, I don't think that if you have a smaller business, people are expecting these discounts. It's just something that is nice, something that we can do. Priority access to things. This is something I think the bigger companies do. I'm thinking right now of like Delta and things like that, or you know American Airlines, but it seems like it's nicer with Delta. But giving them kinda special treatment and whatever that looks like in your business, you get to decide.
But this is something that we can do, right? This would be an acts of service here that can make people feel special. Using people's names. Very, very simple. Right. Something that we can do when we're having DM conversations and then look to remember them. It just, people understand that you took the time to do that.
Delivering a quality service. This is acts of service obviously, and, but the value there and making people feel special is like, get them the outcome that they actually want, do the thing that they actually care about. I spoke about handwritten letters. I'm not trying to do that, but that is a thing for a lot of people.
And if you have smaller client base, that's something you can very much do. When I was a physical therapist, I actually did that. With my clients I like, I remember sitting there at, in the office at night, my handwriting is so terrible. So I was like, is this a good idea? I don't know, but I'm gonna try. And I wrote thank you cards to my
people.
Play favorites. That's the next point. And that's, that is I'm, I'm thinking again about Delta and when you have status with them, you, they act and treat you like you're their favorite. I'm thinking about Jill. She has priority with Delta, I have priority with American, but at LAX, sometimes you have to go to different terminals.
And for American, they have this other terminal, it's called the Bird's Nest. You have to take a shuttle there. I'm not sure what the Delta situation is, but I definitely saw Jill in her Stories one time and she was in like a Porsche, like Maccan or however you pronounce it, and they were taking her to a different terminal and that is really nice.
People like things like that. They like to feel special and like, feel like they are, you know, you're, their, their favorite. So with that, it doesn't have to be that you give someone a ride and a Porsche, obviously think about what works for your business and then do that. Second to last thing, surprise and delight.
I love doing this. And this is a concept that I first heard from Pat Flynn. I used to listen to his podcast a few years ago. Uh, this is gifts, right? So, and this could be a gift of time as well, you actually show up at, with somebody. Uh, when I first started I had a, a Facebook group that I ran, I dunno, quite a few years ago.
It was called, uh, P45-2-0, P4520, and it was talking about a number of female president, male presidents to female presidents. And it was, it was a group for basically for women. And I think maybe a good number of you listening to this, were part of that Facebook group. It's still alive. I just don't, I don't, it's still there I should say.
I dunno if it's actually alive, but it's still there. Uh, but I actually showed up at the office of one of the people in that group cuz she was having a tough time with actually like, getting things done. And I was like, I'm gonna hold you accountable. And then I surprised her and showed up. Uh, this is something again, giving people time,
or it could be actual just like a gift card. I do this on Instagram and I've done it in my Mafia. I actually love doing it. Well, I'll, I will create a gift card for Starbucks and then I screenshot it and people can use that gift card. All they do is they have to the scan it. It's on their phone. They scan it at the place and they can get a coffee.
So just from a logistical side here, if you're using it for a group that you run, you could put a large amount on it, but I would rather put a smaller amount on it and then just have it autofill. So you can just have it autofill until a certain date and you just turn it, you know, just stop auto refilling it.
Um, whereas if it's for the general population, general public, you're putting on Instagram, something like that, then I just put a 50 $50 gift card up on there and I was like, when it's out, it's out. And actually you folks are amazing. I got this idea, um, I think I saw it in an email, but I know that, uh, this, this woman I follow, this person I follow Evan, Evan Childs does it, and her audience, they be using up that card in like 30 seconds.
Meanwhile, you folks, I put it up and like two days later I was like, there's still money on the card. And folks were just DMing me being like, this is so thoughtful. It's so kind. And I was like, awesome. Also, go use it. I want you to use it. Uh, so if you did take me up on that offer, you are the best. And if you didn't, you're still the best.
Uh, just cause my people are the best. Lastly, and I'm gonna wrap this up soon, my voice is holding out, I'm really happy, uh, is simply give people your time. Right. The whole thing here, looking at loyalty, and I wanted to move away from this idea of just giving people stuff and, and giving people discounts.
Cause that is nice. But again, circling back to love languages, I think the, the overarching theme when someone is looking to feel cared about or someone is looking to feel that you care, the easiest thing to do is give them your time in some way, shape, or form. Because we all inherently know that time is our most valuable resource.
It's finite, it's limited. And so when you give that to somebody, people know deep down inside like, wow, this person cares in some way, shape, or form. Now, this doesn't mean you have to like spend time with them. Because quality time is one of the love languages, but taking the time to write a handwritten card, taking the time to figure out someone's name, taking the time to actually commit someone's experience to your memories, and you remember it, and you bring it up the next time.
The whole concept here: Give people your time, show them that you care. Be loyal to your people. Yes, acquisition and retention both matter, but in my opinion, if you lean on retention, it makes acquisition that much easier. One more time to quote, uh, Brian and David, I'm gonna use their first names like I know them,
“Optimize for your current voracious customers instead of your future potential customers.” Loyal. All right. Officially gonna wrap it up here. As always, endlessly grateful for every single one of you. You've been watching on YouTube. If you're here right now, hello and thank you. You listen to the podcast, just I am so incredibly grateful for each and every one of you.
Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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