How to migrate customers from Situationship into High Fidelity Relationships

Are You in a “Situationship” with Your Customers?

Loyalty programs, personalized offers, and rewards should build deeper customer relationships—but what if they’re only keeping customers engaged at a surface level? Many brands believe they have loyal customers, only to realize they’re just one of many in a customer’s rotation. This is what we call a “brand situationship”: a transactional relationship where customers engage when it’s convenient but never fully commit.

In today’s competitive landscape, customer fidelity, the kind of loyalty that makes customers actively choose your brand over others, requires more than perks and promotions. It demands relevance, trust, and a deeper understanding of what customers actually need.

Five Signs Your Brand Is in a Customer Situationship

1. Your customers are ‘loyal’… but to everyone.

Your loyalty program is growing, but so are your competitors.’ Customers collect points and discounts across multiple brands, choosing based on convenience rather than preference. They engage, but there’s no real commitment.

2. They disappear when the incentives stop.

Your customers respond to promotional emails, click on ads, and add items to their carts. But when a better deal comes along, they disengage without hesitation. The connection is fleeting.

3. Your rewards are the only reason they come back.

Loyalty incentives keep them returning, but once they’ve redeemed their points or discounts, they move on. Instead of emotional loyalty, you’re cultivating a cycle of transactional engagement.

4. You’re always second-guessing what they want.

Your personalization strategy relies on past transactions or browsing behavior, but you’re still not sure what truly influences their decisions. Instead of anticipating their needs, you’re reacting to behaviors that may not reflect what they actually want.

5. They control the relationship, on their terms.

Customers dictate when, how, and why they engage. Retargeting efforts and segmented campaigns can’t shift the balance, and no amount of marketing automation changes the fact that you’re following them, not partnering with them.

Leaping from Situationship to Customer Fidelity

A brand situationship, like any undefined relationship, lacks clarity, exclusivity, and trust. To move beyond this phase and build customer fidelity, brands must shift their focus from transactional retention to need-based engagement. Here’s how:

1. Help customers make better decisions, not just more purchases.

Loyalty isn’t built on discounts alone—it’s built on value. Customers don’t just want rewards; they want brands that help them make informed.

choices. A recent study found that personalization integrated into a customer’s path to purchase is up to 44X more effective than generic product-based marketing. Brands that serve unmet customer needs—rather than just pushing promotions—see stronger, more lasting relationships.

2. Offer personalization that is private and meaningful.

One of the biggest barriers to deeper customer engagement is a lack of trust. Consumers want personalized experiences but are increasingly wary of how brands collect and use their data.

A strong Zero-Party Data strategy (ideally utilizing Zero-Shared Data technology) solves this by enabling personalization without tracking (stalking?) or exploiting sensitive data. By leveraging on-device intelligence, brands can provide hyper-relevant recommendations while giving customers control over what they share.

3. Build a relationship that prioritizes their needs, not yours.

True customer fidelity happens when brands move from brand-driven marketing to customer-driven engagement. The most successful brands are those that:

• Understand evolving customer needs and provide relevant value at the right time.
• Engage in the right moments rather than interrupting with untimely promotions.
• Earn trust by respecting privacy and offering personalization without surveillance.

Breaking the Cycle: Moving Beyond Transactional Loyalty

A strong customer relationship isn’t about keeping customers in a program; it’s about making them want to choose you every time. The brands that move beyond promiscuous loyalty and start focusing on meeting customers’ real needs will be the ones that customers return to, without hesitation.

Is your brand still in a situationship with its customers? Or are you ready to build real customer fidelity? Now is the time to evolve.