Oct 15, 2003 12:00 PM,

It's loyalty vs. emotion... and quality wins!

By Jason Meyers

It's Wednesday in Chicago. Nothing to do but fret. (That last word was going to be "dance," but we're in Chicago, and in Chicago there will be no dancing until the Cubs clinch the pennant tonight.)

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Speaking of fretting, and of baseball (and in Chicago, if people are speaking at all--and many aren't, because they're too busy fretting--they're speaking of baseball), while I was watching Game 4 last Saturday night my wireless phone rang. The caller was a recorded voice from T-Mobile, my wireless service provider, informing me that as a good customer I was being rewarded with 100 free "loyalty" minutes per month. I don't have to do anything to make this happen, the voice said, except use 100 free minutes per month. So wireless carriers are fretting over the looming number portability deadline, and they're responding by rewarding their customers' loyalty. A good first step, if you ask me.

Later in the game, I saw a couple of commercials that make up the new ad campaign of AT&T Wireless, which is harking back to its heritage and using the "Reach Out" part of its old parent's "Reach Out and Touch Someone" slogan. A tug at the old heartstrings is also not a bad idea for sealing a relationship with your customer--although I found the ad, in which the weary traveler imagines his daughter sitting next to him in an airport while he's talking to her on his wireless phone, to be more creepy than sentimental.

Rewarding loyalty and connecting emotionally are both valid methods for building a stronger bond with wireless customers. But I still believe that in the end, quality comes first. If a carrier's coverage isn't ubiquitous, or if its service doesn't travel well, or if the right kinds of applications aren't available, customers will churn to a service provider that can meet their needs. Loyalty and emotional bonds will follow quality.

And speaking of loyalty, emotions and quality: Root, root, root for the Cubbies. If they don't win it's a shame.

e-mail me at jmeyers@primediabusiness.com.