A Simple
Idea
It
seems that managers and business owners just love a new business theory.
Each fresh flavour of the month is seen as a cure for all the problems
the business
faces. Of course they never are. TQM, ISO, CRM, and EVA, to name only
a few, each had their day in the sun. These and other ABCs of business
success came
with a bang and went with a whimper because they weren’t the magic
bullet everyone thought they would be. Personally, I don’t think
these concepts were bad ideas, they were just too complicated for people
to implement and
even a brilliant idea that is not implemented is not likely to make much
difference.
I have long believed that business is tough but it ain’t complicated.
In my experience, a few very basic principles are all that is needed to run
a business successfully. And because customers are the very basis of your business
- after all, without them you have nothing - the most important of these basic
principles is CARE. No, this is not a four-letter acronym. It is the plain
ordinary English word meaning to be concerned about and to look after.
The best way to create customer loyalty is to convince your customers that
you care about them. This is not hard to do. It has a very powerful affect
on your customers when you do it. And it would give you a competitive advantage
because most companies don’t really care about their customers. Petrol
stations that require you to pay in advance and airlines which charge to make
last minute changes clearly care primarily about themselves. Stores that don’t
remind customers at the time of purchase they have loyalty programmes really
don’t want to reward their customers, they just want to use the loyalty
programme as a marketing ploy. Suppliers who don’t do what they say they
will do are effectively telling their customers they don’t matter. You
know from your own experience as a customer that when a business really looks
after you, you are impressed, and you go back, and you probably even tell others.
It is not hard for you and your staff to show your customers you care about
them. Just follow these four steps. First, put yourself in your customer’s
shoes. Before you set any policy, make any decisions, spend any money, take
any action, or even open your mouth to speak, ask yourself, “If I was
the customer, what would I want to see happen or what would I want to hear?” It’s
pretty straightforward really. If you were to treat your customers the way
you would like to be treated, chances are they would feel cared for.
Secondly, don’t try to deliver great customer service, try to make your
customers successful. Remember, your customers don’t want your products
and services. They want what your products and services will do for them. They
are the means not the end. It is your job to find out what your customers are
trying to achieve and then think through whether what you are selling will
get them where they want to be.
Thirdly, understand your business. I am absolutely staggered by the number
of suppliers (and retailers are really bad at this) who don’t know very
much about the products and services they sell. The message this sends to the
customer is, “We really don’t care enough about you to figure out
how this stuff works. We just want to flog our products and make some money.”
Fourthly, go the extra mile. Customers are such demanding critters aren’t
they? So many of them want things that are outside the normal offering. Do
you groan when a customer has a special requirement or is particularly demanding?
Well don’t. Rejoice! This customer is giving you an opportunity to show
that you are different from all the rest. You don’t just care about making
the sale, you care about them.
After all, that’s really what they want to see.
|
