14 Jul Online Dating and Customer Loyalty
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about online dating and what that business model teaches us about customer loyalty in the digital age. Stay with me.
Over the past decade, we have come to the point where over fifty percent of people in the USA and Canada met their partner online. Dig a little deeper and it turns out that thirty percent or so met through online dating apps while the other twenty plus percent met through other online means like forums, social media and/or connecting after meeting during an online meeting. That’s why I was fascinated when the CEO of Match (the largest dating platform that also owns Tinder), Spencer Rascoff, recently addressed Gen Z’s shifting attitudes toward online dating. He’s been vocal about how dating apps need to evolve, especially as Gen Z users seek more authentic, low-pressure ways to connect. Rascoff acknowledged that apps can feel like a “numbers game,” leaving users frustrated and disconnected.
Honestly, I think the online dating mentality has infected almost every business. We send emails and texts instead of calls, the in-person lunch replaced by a quick zoom catch-up.
We forget at our peril that people desire real human connection – perhaps more than ever. The neuroscience suggests that loyalty to a brand or a business is more often driven by feelings than by facts. I do a great deal of work in the banking sector and one of the real challenges in retail banking is that most of us do most of our banking electronically. We rarely have personal connection. What banks are discovering is that it’s hard to keep people loyal in a digital world where a small quarter point interest from a fintech means people take their money elsewhere. When loyalty gets disconnected from something personal, trouble follows.
I’ve been with the same bank for over thirty years mostly because I always had someone personal at the branch who knew me, cared about me and helped me when I needed it. I moved four times during those years and for three of those moves, one person at the branch made sure I was connected to someone at the new location. I call that the “Golden Thread.” Each time they kept the personal thread going. But the last time I moved, no one did that.
And guess what, over the last three years I have moved almost half the money to other places. They didn’t do anything wrong, but I lost that personal connection. Like internet dating, when the next offer from a fintech came along it was easy to swipe “right.”
So maybe Gen Z turning off internet dating is the canary in the coal mine for all of us. The power of remembering people’s names, of having a personal connection, of building valuable relationships, and of finding ways to make personal connections is more important than ever. Instead of sending that email, make a call. While it sure is efficient to meet by zoom, never forget the power of a “sit down” lunch face to face.
I’m doing a series of events this summer with branch leaders at one of the largest banks in the world. You can bet I am reminding those leaders that we long for real connections in an age of apps and impersonal algorithms. As you know, much of my work is about connecting with our team members and our customers.
Today, with almost half my assets now somewhere else, I am still waiting for a real human being to call me from the bank. I’ll let you know if the call ever comes.
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