Born and raised in Pittsburgh, I am a diehard Steelers fan. There are lots of rituals and traditions around game day — our house bleeds black and gold. We cheer, we wave our Terrible Towels and there are at times (especially this season) screaming with the occasional curse.
But we are loyal fans through the best of times — six Super Bowl wins — and the worst of times, be it foul weather, bad calls or simply poor playing. (I’ll throw in a rookie quarterback, an offensive line that can’t get its game together and an injured linebacker.) But we wear our colors proudly win or lose. It makes the good seasons all the sweeter.
Loyalty matters — in sports, in friendship and in business. While I can’t yet share details, we got to spend some time with the Mohawk team late last month to drill down into what its Edge Summit will be all about.
Introduced in 2018, Edge is a loyalty strategy designed around creating elevated benefits for the Mohawk customer. The more you partner with the company, the more you will get in return. See what Edge has to offer around digital assets, new products and innovations and reap the benefits of a good partnership.
In today’s turbulent environment (really the last few years) there are more components to running a business. I’ve heard from retailers across the country about the building and everchanging challenges. It’s a bit like the carnival game Whac-a-Mole where moles pop up randomly and the faster you react to them, the higher you score. There have been price increases, supply chain issues, and now hiring and retaining labor is high on the list. There are also the fundamentals of a business from software to showroom management to warehouse operations that need expert attention.
All the while, we are ushering in a new generation of consumers that were born with digital at their fingertips. They demand a simple and easy-to-obtain shopping journey. We all know that starts online so the experience must include an engaging website, social components and an in-store presence that matches all the other touchpoints.
Loyal partnerships, whether with a trusted vendor, distributor or retail group alliance, have never been more important. Doing it alone is a risky — and costly — proposition in almost any environment but certainly in our current times. And frankly, why would you want to?
I think about my family and circle of friends and how we operate. We lean on and into each other in the big moments and small. When I’ve experienced great loss, they were there to hold me up and help me out. And when the joyful moments came, and they always do, we shared those too.
Now is the time to identify who those people are in your business and for your business. Who can you lean on? Who shares what they have back with you? Who is in it with you through thick and thin? Meaningful relationships built on trust and loyalty can be powerful.
Loyalty is a key characteristic of any relationship. Trust me, as a Steelers fan, it gets tested and my guess is, my loyalty to the Steel Town team will continue to be tested in the next couple of years. But come gameday, the Terrible Towels will be out, jersey on and for those who partake, Iron City Beer chilling.
Stay safe. Stay inspired.