You Want Customer Loyalty? KNOW Your Customer!

Alita Harvey-Rodriguez is Managing Director of MI Academy, which offers customized team training programs for businesses interested in "transformative growth" and increasing leads, sales, and customer loyalty. Alita talked about how she started her company . . . and then, on evaluating what she was doing (consulting), determined she was not making the difference she wanted to make (changing the way companies worked). "Don't Fall in Love with an IDEA," she warns. "Fall in Love with the SOLUTION – and drive toward that solution. Ideas change all the time." Yes, the solution has to be "feedback-driven."

Alita believes innovation has to connect with a customer's heart. It's all about "the heart, the mind, the wallet," she says. Companies have to understand, in depth, who their customers are, before they can roll out an incredible, seamless digital marketing, customer experience – with no "disconnects."

MI Academy starts with a discovery process – asking its clients about 63 questions across different business units – in order to understand a company's business, skill sets, tech stacks, and customers; how it uses data to drive decisions; and how to iteratively improve processes and customer experience within that organization – and then provides customized transformational training focused on improving all of the customer touchpoints in the organization.

Alita spoke at Hubspot Inbound 2019 on "The Loyalty Agenda." She presented a 4-part loyalty program formula based on the philosophy of slowing down (to assess the company, its business, and its market) to speed up (by enabling the company to make better decisions, restructure operations, and change how it listens to and interfaces with its customers). In taking the time to understand their customers and create personalized, seamless experiences, brands pursue customer loyalty and can "carve out brand niches in tough markets."

Alita is contributing a chapter on sustainable digital marketing practices to an upcoming book. She believes companies need to innovate internally in order to stay on top of customers' needs.

Alita can be found on her company's website at: www.milkit.com.au. Her personal email address is: Alita@milkit.com.au