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Key Takeaways Explores a framework for understanding how customers experience and engage with your business.
Highlights the critical moments that shape whether customers become advocates, remain indifferent, or walk away.
Author Jeffrey Gitomer describes a customer loyalty ladder — a framework for understanding how customers progress from indifference to advocacy — that should unsettle most entrepreneurs. At the top are loyal advocates who refuse to leave and eagerly tell others about you. At the bottom are those who barely know you exist. But the most dangerous group sits in the middle: customers who say you did your job. Nothing more. Nothing less. They feel no attachment, and they may or may not come back.
The first time I read Customer Satisfaction Is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless, it stopped me cold. Gitomer breaks it down simply: disappoint a customer, and they’ll tell ten people. Satisfy them, and they’ll tell no one. Wow them and they’ll tell everyone. That framework changed how I think about business because it exposed an uncomfortable truth — doing the job is the bare minimum. It earns nothing. It creates no memory. It builds no relationship. It is simply the cost of entry.
I saw that truth play out recently when a client finished a shoot and said, “Wow, that was the easiest filming day ever — and we even got lunch with your team.” That’s a top-of-the-ladder moment. You can’t script it or automate it. You earn it by delivering an experience that feels meaningfully different from everything else a customer deals with.
Most entrepreneurs focus on the before and the after — the sale and the final delivery. But the ladder is climbed in the middle. The during stage is where customers decide whether they’ll stay, leave or tell others about you. It’s the least discussed part of the process, yet it’s the one that defines your reputation.
Related: 5 Key Tips for Building a Successful Customer Loyalty Program
In my company, the during stage is where we invest the most effort. People think we’re just a filming team — cameras, shoots, edits. But the real work happens long before we arrive on site. We spend 30 to 40 hours preparing so the actual shoot feels smooth and stress-free. Clients never see that work, but they feel it. And they remember how it made them feel.
That feeling is the product.
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