This well-known song title poses an important question for company owners and managers. When it comes to your customers or clients, what does their love for your company, product or service have to do with your business?

Most people do not think of their customers as someone who loves them. That can be a serious problem. With the economic challenges that businesses face today and the competitive arena of most businesses, the lack of an emotional connection between customers and the business can mean that those customers are here today and gone tomorrow.

My personal experiences include a bank that charged me fees for my business checking, even though I was a 30-year customer and qualified for free personal checking, and a financial advisor who could not help me one day because she was “just too busy” are cases where I “fell out of love” with them. In both cases I found a new “love.”

Research has shown that 90 to 95% of buying decisions are made at the subconscious level. In other words, emotion plays a major role in decisions to buy. The buying decision may undergo some analysis or rationalization but that typically comes after the subconscious decision is already made.

In my experience even B2B buying decisions undergo emotional influence. The people who are involved will tend to favor the business with whose main representatives they have a strong connection. B2B buying decisions involve a longer buying/selling cycle. This allows for relationships to play a major role as the buying decision is debated, analyzed and negotiated to the close.

No matter what kind of promotional means are used to attract new customers the fact is that decisions are made by people. When a business loses the relationship with their clients it will soon lose the clients. Every point of contact with a customer or client forms, or destroys, a relationship with a client. From the person who answers the telephone to the person who makes the delivery, each of them has the responsibility to do their best to build a relationship and create “love” for the business.