Have a strategic plan for your Business? Check. Have adequate financing in place? Check? Put together a top-notch management team? Check.
Have regular contact with your customers . . . Huh?
Customers are the life blood of our businesses. You know it and I know it. Without customers we don’t have a business. This is nothing new. However, do you know what customers think of your business? Of course, they it like it well enough that they bought from you. But was it a one-time purchase or do they buy from you on a regular basis? If they bought from you one time and that was it, it may because of the customer’s perception of your company?
“Customer’s perception is your reality”, says Kate Zabriske, author of Customer Service Excellence, How to Deliver Value to Today’s Busy Customer. A customer may be buying based on price, when you believe they are buying based on the value of your service. However the customer perceives your business is the reality for that customer. The customer is right and will make decisions on whether to buy from you based on that perception. If the customers’ perception is greatly different from yours, you are in trouble.
Differences in Perception
I recently had a painter paint our powder room, a small bathroom. He had been painting for years for a company and he had decided to go out on his own. I had known him for several years and I wanted to try him out. He gave me a very reasonable price. The price was lower than I expected. He spent 10 hours painting; completing the small bathroom. I was out of town at the time of the painting and when I saw the finished product, I was very disappointed. The paint lines between wall and the doorframe were not straight. The painting between the doorframe and the walls would need to be redone. In addition, the paint on each wall as it met the ceiling was not a straight line, but was wavy. That too would need to be redone. The painter emphasized he had spent all day painting, but to me, I just wanted to see straight lines on the wall and not wall paint on the doorframe and door trim paint on the wall.
He felt that working all day for the agreed to price was sufficient. However, I would have no problem paying considerably more money for a job well done. If the painter had done a very good job, I would have hired him to paint the whole inside of the house. He missed out on several thousands of dollars of business. In addition, 2 friends needed painting done and asked if I recommended the painter. No I didn’t. So instead, I found a different painter.
Your Customer is a Human with Feelings, Just like You
“It starts with respect. If you respect your customer as a human being and truly honor this right to be treated fairly and honestly, everything else is much easier”, Doug Smith, author and team-building expert.
How many times do we wait in line at the checkout, impatient that the person at the head of the line needs a price check on a product? Or maybe the price that was rung up is different than expected and the person is contemplating whether or not to buy the product. We look at our watch, as we impatiently tap our foot, while we wait. I’ve been guilty of doing this. But if we take a moment to step back, look at them through new eyes and even step into their shoes, our attitude can change. Maybe the person recently lost their job and is trying to determine if they afford the difference in price.
Just like the person in line, our customers are living, breathing individuals that have unique wants and needs. We need to determine what they really want.
Determine How You Can Serve your Customers
“Until you understand your customers—deeply and genuinely—you cannot truly serve them” Rasheed Ogunlaru, life coach, speaker and author.
For many of us, our only interaction with customers when there is a problem. Unfortunately for us business owners, only a small percentage of customers complain. The vast majority, when they are dissatisfied, simply go away. We are not aware they leave. And if the issue is systematic, meaning it is a problem for other customers, you will only know there is an issue when your sales drop. And of course, you only know the result (i.e. the drop in sales) and not what caused the drop.
So How do you know what your Customer Really wants?
You ask them.
- If you gather emails, send then a note and ask them is you can give them a call and discuss how they like the product/service. Assure them that the conversation is strictly fact finding and not a sales call. Today, most communication is through email and text and the phone is used so infrequently for communication that by calling customer it adds a personal aspect to the exchange.
- Make the call yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are $600k business or a $60 million business, the call needs to come from you. The bigger the company, the more important it is that you make the call. A customer will be surprised and impressed when the owner calls.
- Listen to the customer, really listen. They may complement your product or service or they may not say much at all. Quietness is a sign there is an issue, and the customer doesn’t want to bring it up. Ask them, “I notice some hesitancy, some quietness on your part. Is anything wrong with the product? Does it do what you expected?” And then wait for the answer. Ask follow-up questions to their answer. Do not under any circumstances try to justify an inadequate product or poor service. Just listen and take notes. Always remember, the customer is taking the time to help you improve your business. They are taking time out of their busy schedule to talk to you. This time is gold for your business.
- Determine how you are going to resolve the issue they brought up. Tell them what you plan to do for them and by when.
- Make sure you meet your commitment. Your word needs to be your bond. If you don’t, you have lost this customer forever and this customer will tell their friends about their experience. If you don’t follow through, it would have been better if you had never called the customer in the first place.
Regularly Engage your Customers
For this type of customer interaction to be effective, it needs to a part of your standard practices. Set a goal to reach out to ten customers every month and document their responses. Use a software tool to capture the comments, categorize them and schedule follow-up actions. Reaching out to existing customers should a part of your customer service plan. But most of us don’t do that. Why?
Why We Don’t Engage out Customers
- Fear – we are afraid they will complain about our product or service. We don’t want to hear it. Hearing the complaint is like getting rejected. This is why many entrepreneurs starting out would rather try to attract customers through advertising instead of reaching out to those they know for their initial sales.
- The customer may ask for changes to the product or service that we don’t want to do. We may feel obligated to make the change.
- The customer may ask for something free.
- Other work has a higher priority.
We need to understand that interaction with our customers is more important than virtually anything we do.
Question:
What do you do to interact with your customers on a regular basis?