This was true whether it was an individual buying a product or a company conducting business with another and developing a lasting relationship. Loyalty could essentially be boiled down to an effective first impression, and, once achieved, it was awfully hard for a company to lose it.

That is obviously not the case anymore. Competition is massive, and the digital revolution has put everyone, small business and large, onto a playing field that is much more level and cutthroat than it has ever been before.

As a result, loyalty has become a coveted commodity in the business world, rare to achieve and perhaps even more difficult to sustain.

Business owners now need to make it their priority to cultivate, maintain, and grow the relationships they have already established with the customers and other businesses with whom they interact.

Companies will reward loyalty in often surprisingly lucrative ways; think of how travel credit cards, which can be compared and contrasted at Effectify, bring perks to their customers.

But first, that loyalty needs to be garnered, which is why business owners and marketing experts have to be always striving for it with the following methods.

Constant contact

This is the most obvious strategy, yet one that can often be neglected by busy business owners and their marketing teams.

If someone, whether it’s a customer or the head of another company with whom a business transacts, feels like they are being taken for granted, it can be the impetus they need to go elsewhere. And once that move has been made, the chance of them returning to the fold is slim, especially with all the choices they’ll have as an alternative in such a competitive business environment.

Always negotiating

Terms that were set at the beginning of a business relationship may not stay favorable to both parties for the entirety of that relationship, especially when other entities are trying to horn their way into the picture.

As a business owner, it’s important to think of business relationships almost as though they are plants which would die from neglect. If that means sitting down occasionally with business partners and seeing how they feel about the present terms, that’s what must be done.

Don’t mess up

In the past, being late with a shipment or forgetting to make a payment might have been a forgivable offense, especially if it happened once in a blue moon.

In this business climate, even a rare mistake can be cause for a business partner to start looking around to see if they can do better. Vigilance about keeping up with commitments is needed now more than ever.

Loyalty is a vanishing aspect of the business world. Yet it hasn’t disappeared completely, at least not for those who know how important it is and treat it as such.