Loyalty Labyrinth

Learning Objective

Leadership teams can distinguish the moves that genuinely retain customers from the dead-ends that only look like loyalty — and map a defensible path to durable retention under trade-offs.

How to Play

Setup

Build a maze on a board where paths represent retention strategies (rewards, community, switching costs, service quality, personalisation). Some paths dead-end (e.g. "lock-in without value"); others connect to the centre, "Durable Loyalty". Teams start at the entrance with a customer token.

Rules

• Per turn, a team chooses a path and justifies why it deepens loyalty for their customer.
• The facilitator reveals whether the path advances, stalls, or dead-ends, based on retention evidence.
• Dead-ends (e.g. punitive lock-in, points with no emotional value) force the team to backtrack.
• "Competitor" events test whether the team's path actually holds the customer.
• First team to reach Durable Loyalty with the customer still willingly engaged wins.

Debrief

Reserve ten minutes — retention strategy is full of false paths. Ask three questions in order:

• Which path looked like loyalty but turned out to be a dead-end of lock-in?
• Where does your real strategy rely on switching costs instead of earned preference?
• What is one path to durable, willing loyalty you're currently under-investing in?

CX Principle Reinforced

Retention by value beats retention by lock-in. Switching costs and contracts hold customers captive, but captivity isn't loyalty — the moment the cost drops, captive customers leave and warn others. Durable loyalty comes from earned preference: reciprocity, identity, and consistently low-effort experiences. Leaders often confuse the two because lock-in shows up in retention dashboards while resentment hides until churn. The labyrinth forces the distinction and maps the path to loyalty customers choose freely.

Format

• Format: In-person or virtual (maze board) — leadership-oriented
• Players: 2–16
• Duration: 45–60 minutes
• Level: Hard