What if somebody told you one critical key to business success was to practice the principle of the Golden Rule in your business? The idea seems to somehow run counter to so much of what weve been taught about business, doesnt it? Yet, what if that same source convinced you through case-study after case-study that application of the Golden Rule in business actually leads to success?

Let us introduce Frederick Reichheld and his book The Loyalty Effect. While not a small business marketer, but rather an expert business consultant, what Reichheld teaches us about loyalty is worthwhile reading for any small business owner or manager.

Did we say worthwhile? Scratch that; pencil in the phrase urgently essential, instead. This book is that vital to a small company.

The Loyalty Effect focuses on three groups of people critical to business success: Customers, Employees, and Investors. For most small business, the investor is the owner, so for our brief review in this article we will focus on Customers and Employees.

Reichheld is a definite advocate of customer retention. He convincingly demonstrates time and again that small percentage increases in customer retention have huge impacts on profits. This read will be a just-right fit for those of you having problems focusing on the right customers. If you will take the time to trudge through this book, and really understand most of its principles (we found Chapter 8 to be the toughest) then not only will the marketing of your business improve, but so will your profits.

Isnt that the reason for all this focus on marketing, anyway?

And Reichheld really opened our eyes to how important employees are in retaining customers. If a company treats their employees right, those employees become more efficient and productive in their daily tasks. Profits go up, retention increases.

Reichheld stresses again and again that a companys prime mission needs to be creating customer value. Most of you in small business realize this, but its reaffirming to see hard-and-fast facts to back up what many of us intuitively know. Customers dont come to a small business looking to boost our profits; they arrive seeking value. If we consistently create value, profit will come.

Another key point for small business owners is the importance of leadership. If you need to go down to the bookstore and browse through The Loyalty Effect before you buy it, flip over to page 246. Reichheld has studied several large and successful businesses, and concludes here that most of them had leaders with an intuitive grasp of how important loyalty is. This is critical for business success, regardless of business size. While not written to be a rah-rah inspirational book, Reichhelds arguments and his examination of the role strong leaders play in forming great companies reinforces just how important to the bottom line it is for a small business owner to be a good leader.

So much of Reichhelds book seemed familiar; akin to common senseafter we read it. Treat employees well and theyll perform well for you; well thats pretty basic, now isnt it? But we tend to forget, we tend to think we need to cut corners or just improve efficiency and thatll lead to greater profits. In the short term it very well may, but Reichheld argues effectively that in the long run its only by creating value for our customer that we build profitable businesses.

Remember, People is the third element--along with Brand and Package--of any small business marketing success story. Taking a week or so and reading Frederick Reichheld over lunch or before lights out at night is a great way to hone your people productivity.

2006 Marketing Hawks