In the pre-industrial days, people were loyal to whichever brands were of the best quality. Quality things that were built to last were probably a little harder to come by, so when people found something that worked as advertised and lasted as long as you needed it to, that becomes their brand for life.

Then, around the second world war, quality improved across the board. The creativity of assembly lines and marketing departments played a huge role in that development. This is when we started to see things like jingles, contests, and soap operas. Whatever brands could do to safeguard their market share and create loyal customers, they did.

But then, something shifted. People started getting whatever they wanted at the tip of their fingers. Since everything was basically decent quality, people paid much less attention to brands and much more attention to the way those brands conducted business. These days, brand loyalty is evolving into customer loyalty.

Here’s why.

You Can Buy Anything You Want Online At The Lowest Possible Price

The incentive for buying the same thing every week at the grocery store is gone. Well, you don’t even have to go to the store anymore. Most Americans can get anything they want delivered right to their homes.

This has opened many markets to newcomers. One can easily get his product in front of tons of customers, thanks to the internet.

Business Practices Matter More Than Ever

Customers want to do business with a company that treats its employees well, cares about the environment, and has excellent customer service practices. Many customers say they retract their loyalty much more quickly these days.

With 29 loyalty program memberships per household in the United States, it is clear many are getting burned out on loyalty programs as well. More than half have switched brands in the last year and 23% say they have a negative reaction to being enrolled in another loyalty program.

Customer service and good business practices matter much more than loyalty programs in the present times.

Customer Service Is Your Company’s Secret Sauce

Millennials are the largest and most diverse generation in American history and they are changing things up. They say that they are still brand loyal and they report using many of the same products as their parents. However, they are more likely to switch brands for reasons of poor customer service and bad business practices. What’s more, their parents are more likely to follow them out the door.

Here are the numbers:

78% of Millennials say brands will need to work harder to earn and keep their loyalty
64% of Millennials say they are more brand loyal than their parents
63% of Millennials report using the same brands as their parents
59% of Millennials are loyal to mobile phone providers
56% of Millennials are loyal to clothing brands
39% of Millennials are loyal to health and beauty products
32% of Millennials will switch brands if the company is revealed to have poor business practices
37% of Millennials will try a new brand when it comes out
38% of Millennials will switch brands because of a personal recommendation

Having good business practices and empowering customer service representatives to make customers happy and staying on the cutting edge of product development are going to be the best ways to keep your customers coming back.

See Also: 6 Things That Can Help You In Understanding Millennials Better

The New Brand Loyalty Is Customer Loyalty

Customers hold all the cards in this new era of brand loyalty. Because of buying power and access, customers can easily take their business elsewhere. This means that companies have no choice but to give the customers what they want.

See Also: 10 Proven Ways To Build Your Personal Branding in 2018

The best companies are the ones that listen to what customers want instead of telling them what they will get. These companies interact with customers online when customers want to interact, instead of constantly pushing out unwanted and uninteresting social media posts. The best brands are constantly improving their products instead of constantly putting out the same old thing. This is very good for consumers who basically have their pick of which companies to do business with based on their own criteria.

Learn more about the new brand loyalty from this infographic.

Source: RaveReviews.org

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Rejection is normal. Whether you’re an ordinary man, a student, a small business owner or a big-time CEO, you’ve surely experienced some sort of rejection in the past.

Did a girl reject your confession? Did your teacher reject your presentation? Or did a client reject your proposal? All of these scenarios spell one thing.

A big fat NO.

And it hurts.

For some people, learning to deal with rejection is very difficult. They wallow in the pit of misery and these failures cause them to fail all the way through life. Some people bounce back over a period of time while others don’t recover at all.

That’s how destructive rejection is. If not properly handled, it could lead to more failures.

But, as business owners, there’s no other way for us but to suck it all in and move on. There’s no room for wallowing in self-pity because a lot of people depend on your business. Strong minded individuals don’t get discouraged by rejection; they use it to their advantage instead.

Here are some tips on how to handle rejection in business.

Give yourself some time

Don’t deny yourself the opportunity to mourn over your failure. Give yourself enough time to process your rejection, but don’t take too long. Pick yourself up after, gather your thoughts and plan your next step of action.

One step closer

Instead of treating rejections as failures, think of them as being one step closer to your goals. For example, if it takes 10 rejections before you get a positive answer for your proposition, then every No would serve as a step towards your much-desired Yes.

This way, you don’t get defeated by rejection. Instead, you use each rejection to your advantage and as a way to determine how near you are to your goals.

Rejection is inevitable, so get over it

There will always be people who will say Yes and there will be people who will say No. Rejection is a common thing in business. Don’t let a single “No” put you down and hinder your plans.

Although rejection may cause a temporary setback, remember that all these challenges will come to pass and you have so much future ahead of you.

See Also: How Not To Give Up When Your Head Tells You to Quit

Know why

When your boss rejects your draft, ask why. When your business partner rejects your business plan, ask why. When the university rejects your application, ask why.

Only by asking and listening to the answers would you be able to know what you’re doing wrong. If you know where you went wrong, then you can have an idea on how to fix it. And don’t forget to thank them for the insights.

Analyze the problem

Why do you keep being rejected? Which part are you doing wrong? Did you listen to other’s opinion? Does the problem lie with your business, with your people or with you?

If you analyze your mistakes, you’ll be able to have a deeper understanding of how things work. You’ll know where the error lies and you’ll have the opportunity to correct them.

Learn from it

They say that smart people learn from their mistakes while geniuses learn from others. I believe that it doesn’t matter who made the mistake, as long as you learn something from it. Know where you went wrong or what you did wrong, why it is wrong and what you can do when you’re faced with a similar dilemma in the future.

Be open to making changes

The most important thing to remember is to be flexible. Sometimes, a rejection is a blessing in disguise because it allows you to improve an idea or fine-tune your business pitch. Don’t attach yourself to the answer because it will only invite negative feelings. Focus your attention instead on how to get a positive answer.

See Also: 5 Women Entrepreneurs Who Failed Before Becoming Millionaires

Rejection hurts and it affects not only our emotional status but also our overall business atmosphere. Allow yourself (and your business) some time to let go. Process the pain but don’t wallow in it for too long. Dust yourself off, figure out what to do next and move on. This highlights one of the best ways on how to handle rejection in business.

 

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