Customer loyalty is a hard won commodity and, once lost, extremely difficult and costly to regain. It’s worth bearing in mind the old maxim of the car salesman: a good result is not a single sale, a good result is selling a person a car every five years. Naturally it’s impossible to realize this principle if a business loses trust in its suppliers. Self-regulation provides the cornerstone for fair competition and sound business practice, qualities that gain ever greater importance when markets are depleted or under pressure. And customer loyalty is any business’s most valuable asset and advocate.
On the other side of the coin, marketers need to ensure that their competitors are not able to achieve unfair advantage by surreptitious and illicit practices. Self-regulation is not designed to stifle business processes and growth, the deterrent of self-regulatory sanctions actually ensures a level playing field for enterprises.
And, of course, without effective self-regulation there will always be the gradual encroachment of inflexible and overbearing legislation. Self-regulation is inherently more efficient than legislation by the simple fact that its codes are sanctioned by the industry being regulated rather than a blanket imposition. Consequently, compliance levels are higher and the industry, and consumers, better served.
True self-regulation may sound unalluring, especially when the economic climate is no more reliable than the sun in summer – but it’s a well-established tool that is adaptable to any climate.
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