FLICK through any business journal and you are likely to find a combination of these words: loyalty, focus, customer and profits. Yep, give people what they want and they will come back and pay for more.

But as European Business Forum (Autumn) reports, few businesses have any idea what customers want. Research by consultants at Bain & Co suggests that only half of firms tailor their products to customer needs and just a third have “strong customer feedback loops”. Likewise, an article in the Harvard Business Review (Oct) ponders whether better customer relationships or better products are the answer.

Definitely better — and prettier — products, according to Rotman magazine (Autumn). Given the choice between loyalty points and nice things we prefer the nice things, even if we have to pay more for them. Forget frequent-flyer programmes and design the next BlackBerry or iPod.

Unfortunately, because the bosses have no idea, you may have to be loyal to yourself and trust your instinct. BusinessWeek (Oct 16) reports that the BMW Z4 exists because “a young designer’s doodle inspired a team to push his concept even though management had already killed the programme”.

Some more clever consultants, this time at McKinsey & Co, say that what’s missing in customer service is “the spark between customer and frontline staff members”, particularly during emotional moments — lost credit cards, cancelled flights, damaged goods. The answer, they write in McKinsey Quarterly (Oct 10), is for bosses to give workers emotional intelligence training and to make frontline jobs more meaningful. Happy workers mean happy customers.

Lots of money and long holidays might work too. A survey reported in Edge (Oct) shows that career breaks boost loyalty. Two thirds of workers say that they would be more loyal and less likely to leave if sabbaticals were offered. But if you can’t win their love, try to force it. In Bangalore, where turnover is high, one office has the sign “trespassers will be recruited” on the door. The Economist (Oct 7) also reports that some tech firms are trying to get staff to stay by suing them if they suddenly leave.

But they need us more than we need them. Simply remind the boss that the key to customer loyalty, and profits, is a happy workforce. Then demand a pay rise.

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED

So change is in the air, but organisations are far from happy with it. A report by Executives Online, an interim management firm, shows that the climate for change has altered dramatically since 2002, and that only one company in five believes that more than 70 per cent of its change programmes will deliver the planned benefits.

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