Loyalty Myths
Chapter One
Loyalty Myths That
Subvert Company Goals
Since we became a public company, we've had the highest retention
of customers in the industry ... we are not going to surrender
that leadership position.
-John Chapple, Chairman, CEO, and President,
Nextel Partners, Inc.
No industry provides a better example of the misconception of
customer loyalty as a pervasive corporate goal than the banking
industry.
The 1990s was a decade of great turmoil for the U.S. banking industry.
Competition was emerging from a host of new, nonbank businesses
that were cherry-picking some of the retail banks' most
profitable lines of business. Customers were beginning to be allowed
to write checks on money market accounts obtained through their
brokers, arrange auto financing through automobile manufacturers,
buy annuities through their insurance agents, and obtain credit cards
from credit card-only financial institutions operating nationally. At the
same time, interstate banking was coming into existence, guaranteeing
that larger national banks would begin to compete in what were previously
relatively local or regional markets.
No ... read full excerpt from Loyalty Myths: Hyped Strategies That Will Put You Out of Business and Proven Tactics That Really Work ebook
