Pondering Loyalty

Loyalty—it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. What drives loyalty these days? With such a huge amount of choices, opportunities and changing social mores in our society today does the concept still exist?

Our neighborhood is literally across the street from Jewel-Osco, a food/pharma chain owned by Albertson’s with a couple hundred stores across the I-states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa). I know I should be more cost and health-conscious and shop at different stores for different deals and products (i.e. organic produce, produce that doesn’t suck, k-cups for my beloved Keurig, mass quantities of cereal, toilet paper & syrup) but time has a way of getting away from me and I end up at Jewel often, good intentions be damned. 

Considering my husband or I are in the place a lot, I was taken aback recently when I was cheerfully told by my cashier they have permanently done away with their Loyalty Card program (Preferred Card) and I could go drop mine off in a basket at the customer service desk for a chance to win $100.

According to Phil Rosenthal’s article in the Tribune (which is the best one I’ve read on this topic), Jewel couldn’t figure out how to really use the data they were gleaning from us beyond offering a discount on a type of product we were already buying. They’re now offering the “same low price to everyone.” Sounds fishy to me… I’m quite sure there’s more to the story than that.

Jewel's card program may have started out with a goal of building loyalty, but it evolved into a price-reduction program after they started letting cashiers swipe a generic card if you’d forgotten yours or if you never signed-up in the first place.

It seems short-sighted to me that they caved that way a few years ago. Because even with the tough economy and the proliferation of choices when it comes to everything, I do actually believe the idea of loyalty still has appeal. Inherently people want to belong to a club, a group, a faction where they feel they are getting a better deal and are valued.

Loyalty is something that’s not talked a lot about anymore because I think it seems like an old-fashioned quality. Only boring people or suckers are loyal, right?  Savvy people are risk-takers…experimenters…situation-hoppers.

I don’t believe I’ve ever talked to my children about the concept. I also can’t remember a recent time when a boss or client has mentioned or insisted on it. But in thinking about it more lately, I believe loyalty is getting a raw deal. 

"Loyalty cannot be blueprinted. It cannot be produced on an assembly line. In fact, it cannot be manufactured at all, for its origin is the human heart-the center of self-respect and human dignity. It is a force which leaps into being only when conditions are exactly right for it-and it is a force very sensitive to betrayal."

— Maurice R. Franks

Loyalty needs to be earned, appreciated and nurtured but perhaps our world would be a little bit better if people went back to focusing on this concept a little more. It certainly isn’t everything but loyalty is one of the most important assets a company, club, marriage, team, friendship, or family can have. Does your organization focus in on loyalty as a priority? Do you as a person? What do you think?