“most company surveys wrongly define what constitutes a business’s most loyal, and thus desirable, customers”

First, with the preponderance of survey data available, how can the writer of the article attempt to qualify this statement as “most” without initially, defining an amount, and then, ascribing determinable information through qualified example… second, should a metric exist for such qualified example, the terms “loyalty” and “desirability” are exclusive from one another, so would be segregated in a prescribed metric… so,

Some customers are loyal, some customers are desirable, some customers are both, and then a determination would need be made with respect to timing; all customers fit all of these attributes, some of the time, if not all.

&, also,

“Why a Loyal Customer Isn’t Always a Profitable One”

The title of the article, & I’m assuming, the writer’s attempted thesis, adds another, and separate, dimension to the equation through the suggestion of “profitability” …

It seems the writer needs to brush up on some basic math before attempting to decide an industry’s fate.

While I am not a loyalty marketer, I am a consumer of some of the services delivered through these programs, and, by definition, benefit through mutual relationship with such business providers. Since my introduction to the industry of loyalty program marketers, I have a new-found appreciation and desire to protect these programs via awareness.

And, beyond that, all I gotta say is, you offer SO MUCH information in one article (blog post), as to make it absolutely impossible for one to respond, in a reasonably-responsible and concise way.