Case Study: Charles Schwab Storms Back By Focusing On Customer Loyalty

After stumbling badly in the early 2000s, Charles Schwab bounced back, thanks to a strategy built around customer advocacy and loyalty. The strategy of driving organic growth by doing what's right for customers led senior management to sharpen pricing, improve service, and offer more investing help. The result: More customers are willing to consider Schwab for a future purchase. The firm set new records for income and earnings per share in 2007. To mimic Schwab's success, marketing leaders at other firms need to get buy-in from the top and then push the principles of customer advocacy into the rest of the organization. Schwab did it by changing compensation, measuring client interactions, and providing clear guidelines to all employees for making customer-friendly decisions.