Posts Tagged ‘loyalty’

People love it when they can work with a business that actually listens to them. Listening to customers encompasses everything from being available for customer support, dealing with issues and complaints quickly, and understanding customer needs and adapting the business accordingly.

If you want to become an awesome business you will become one that actively listens to its customers. When you have this focus, customers will fall in love with your business. Love breeds loyalty and word of mouth promotion.

Here is how to show customers that you care enough to listen.

Accessible Customer Support

Is it easy for customers to find the answer to the question quickly? Customer support, also known as customer service, is an essential ingredient to business. The best kind of support is when a customer can call and talk to someone who can help them right away.

I understand why big businesses have automated phone directories. Its to give the little guys a chance to outshine them with better customer service. Whenever possible, don’t automate any portion of your customer service. You need to assign a certain portion of your workforce to customer service. This is true if you are a sole proprietor as well. A certain amount of your time is simply going to have to be taken up with customer service.

Online companies have a habit of not making their phone number all that accessible. If you are going to go that route, you need to have a pretty amazing system in place. I get a little peeved at companies who rely primarily on forums to answer questions. Its not that forums are bad, sometimes you can get some pretty amazing advice there. But often, they are not all that searchable, and there is no time-table for response and you never know for sure if you are going to get a good answer.

Support ticket programs are better, but there is still a wait time in between asking the question and getting the answer. You should devote at least some time each day to live customer support. Online, live chat help is great. Offline, its the phone all the way.

Resolve Issues Quickly and Completely

One of the best things you can do to show that you are a company that listens is to actively resolve issues. When a customer has a problem with your product, you had better make it your first priority to resolve that problem.

When resolving issues, its never a good idea to resort to cookie cutter answers. Take time to talk to the customer and discover the intricacies of his or her issue. Then work to resolve the problem in a manner that will be satisfactory to the customer. Finally, follow up to make sure the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

There are going to be customers you can’t please, for sure. But never let that be an excuse for not trying. If there is an issue, its not the customer’s fault. It is your responsibility. Resolve the issue, plain and simple.

Dig for Input and Then Apply Suggestions

Lastly, be sure to look for advice from customers on how to improve. This is easier said than done. A very small percentage of customers will readily respond to surveys. Fewer still will give honest, well thought, feedback on what you could be doing better.

In order to get the kind of quality input you want from your customers, you need to dig. There are several things you can do. For instance, when you are resolving an issue, you are in a prime place to go digging. Find out exactly what went wrong from the customer’s perspective. Never assume you know. You may be surprised at what the customer sees that you don’t.

With happy customers, consider pulling together a group of them for some sort of advisory committee. Tell them that you need their help to make your business even better. Have them out to lunch and discuss ideas and areas for improvement. It is important to be vulnerable here, but at the same time, you do not need to lay out all of your issues in front of customers. Have a positive focus and dig for ideas that will make you a better business.

If customers see that you are taking their suggestions seriously and applying them to your business, they will know that you are a company that really listens. You’ll benefit two-fold. First, by having a reputation of caring and listening. Customers will highly recommend you for that. Second, and most important, by listening you can really improve your business. Its amazing what you can miss by not slowing down long enough to listen to your customers. Don’t be that business.

So, how can you listen better?

No business owner likes to hear a complaint about her business. This is her baby, after all. But, for better or worse, complaints happen. Things go wrong. People screw up.

When you get a complaint, what you do with it is important. A customer complaint is an opportunity to learn and make your business better, and to develop loyalty with customers. Or, if you like, its an opportunity to be selfish, to blame others, and to hide under a rock.

Too often complaints are viewed as anomalies and ignored. This shouldn’t be the case. Every complaint should be deconstructed and analysed, not to see if there is a flaw in the complaint, but to see if there is a flaw in your business. Even complaints from bad customers are important. They can highlight cracks in your organization. They may just highlight the fact that you are not doing a good enough job finding the right customer. But that is a real problem that needs a real solution.

You need to have a process for dealing with complaints. It could look something like this:

1. Receive the complaint with humility. You’re not perfect, so no need to pretend that you are.
2. Personally apologize to the customer. As an active small business owner, you should deal with complaints personally. Larger businesses should have as high up a person as possible dealing with complaints.
3. Make it better. Talk to the customer and see how you can make it better. Let the customer lead you here. Each person will be a little different. For instance, some will want their money back, while others will want a replacement. Find out the customer’s specific need and take responsibility for filling it.
4. Analyse the issue. Problems don’t happen in a vacuum. It doesn’t matter if you never received that particular complaint before, it is still a valid complaint for that person. Think through what happened and figure out what went wrong. Don’t overreact, but don’t under-react either. Here’s an example. Maybe the customer’s complaint was that your price was too high for the quality of the product. If you have never heard this complaint before, don’t rush out and change the price of the product. Instead, you may need to look at how that customer got sold, what he was promised, etc. Maybe the problem isn’t in your price, but in your selling promises.
5. Fix the problem. You need to be proactive in fixing complaint causing issues. Yes, make the customer feel better. But that alone doesn’t cause the problem not to happen again. Establish a culture in your company where mistakes are not accepted, but where everyone takes responsibility for them and works together to make sure they don’t happen again. Don’t be afraid to dig in to the root causes of the complaint. It will probably turn out that the problem lies in something different than the surface issue. If you don’t dig, you may just dismiss the complaint as something out of your control. But nothing is out of your control in the business. Dig, and you may find issues in training, in vendor selection, in quality control, in attitudes and culture, or in any number of areas. In fact, the complaint may be a godsend because it will help you discover a hairline crack that will cause you nothing but trouble when you put the weight of growth on it.

A complaint can be a wonderful thing, if it is leveraged properly. Too often, you never hear the grumblings of a customer. It takes a special kind of person to confront you with your mistake. Don’t dismiss this person as a trouble maker. For every loud complainer, there are a number of quite grumblers. So embrace the complaint and fix it on the level of the customer and also within your business, no matter how deep you have to dig. Your business will benefit.

Hint: Use Toyota’s Five Whys. Keep asking why did this happen until you reach the root of the problem. When you think you have found the answer, be sure to ask one more why. For instance, you may think you have found that an employee is the problem. But why did the employee make the mistake? Was there inadequate training? Or if the employee is truly a bad apple, then why is she working for you. If you don’t dig deep enough, the problems will just reoccur. And please remember, as a business owner, every problem will eventually be traced back to you. Be humble and willing to grow.

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses navigate the web and bring in more leads at BroadRiverCreative.com

Here is one simple gesture you can do to show your customers that you are grateful. Send them a thank you card.

Any time anyone gives you money for your product or service, you should be thankful. In the early days of your business, you probably experienced euphoria. Unfortunately, as you grow successful, receiving money can become old hat. It becomes an impersonal transaction for you, even though each and every payment helps you pay the bills and stay in business.

Recalibrate your mind to thankfulness by committing to send a thank you card out to every single customer. Yes, each and every one. I don’t care if you have 10, 100, or 1000 customers. Showing thanks is good for business and good for you.

The best path to take is to hand write each thank you note. At the very least you can sign them before they go out.Reconnect with the emotion of gratitude.

When a customer receives a personal thank you note from you, she feels important and appreciated. Its one more step along the path to loyalty for her.

When you send a thank you note, you are calibrating your mind to always think of the customer first. A simple thing like this can pull you out of the details for a few moments and help you put some focus on what is important, how your business relates to your customers.

So go pick up some cards and start being thankful again. Here are some thank you cards on Amazon. Or go to you nearest drug store. Leave the cards out in plain sight on your desk and write some every day.

photo credit: Iain Farrell

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As we move back toward a more personal approach to business, thanks to trends in social networking, I believe that the customer relationship is growing more and more important. The goal of your business should not be just to get the sale, but to develop a relationship with each customer that will lead to more sales, testimonials, referrals, and mutual gratification.

Its time to treat customers as friends, and perhaps even discover a few amazing new relationships in the process.

Friends Communicate

In order to start and maintain friendships, you need to communicate. You can’t build a friendship by calling someone once or twice a year to ask them to do something for you. Yet, that is all the communication many small businesses offer, the sales call. Likewise, a card every year on Christmas will not a friendship make.

To make friends with your customers, you need to communicate personally with them. Now, since you will not be building deep relationships with most of these customers, it is okay to use a tool of mass communication such as an email newsletter or blog. Even then, commit to breaking out with a few personal notes or phones calls each year.

I believe you should offer some kind of communication at least once a week. This is ideal because it will keep the conversation alive with the customer and also force you to talk about deeper things than your latest sales push. Customers will appreciate the constant stream of communication if it is valuable to them in some way. Make your customers feel like insiders, teach them about something, offer them something, etc.

Friends Stick By Each Other

The nice thing about friends is that they are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Really good friends will slap you around a little when you screw up, but they will never leave your side. By developing friendships with your customers, you will be increasing their loyalty factor greatly and you will benefit from more honest communication from them.

A customer will be far less likely to leave you if he or she feels a deeper connection with your company. It is your job to make this connection happen. There are lots of ways to do it. It starts with the communication. From there, it moves into being personable and caring for your customers. Be a giver, and you will be appreciated.

Here are a few things I suggest that will help you make that deeper connection with customers. Consider organizing customers into focus or advisory groups. Ask them for their opinions on things related to your business. You can do this on the small scale and formally meet, or on the large scale and sign up customers to receive emails surveys throughout the year.

Another thing you can do is to throw a party for all of your customers. A good, cheap, way to do this is by having a family picnic. Invite your customers and their families. Depending on your budget, you can even ask them to pitch in on the food.

You could also use social networks to connect more with your customers. Engage with them on Facebook and Twitter. Consider setting up a Tweetchat just for your customers. Build community with the people who buy from you. From community comes loyalty.

Friends Share a Common Story

The hallmark of friendships are shared experiences. By building communication and connection into your customer relationships, you are allowing for the creation of a shared story line. Customers want to be part of a bigger story. They don’t care about being a number on your financial report. They don’t care nearly as much as you do about the ins and outs of your business. Your job is to find something that they do care about, and work to make them a part of that story with you by their side.

Sweetriot is a candy maker with a story. They have built their whole business around fixing the world with chocolate. A customer doesn’t just buy from them, they join the story of saving the world. The same is true of Tom’s Shoes, where one pair of shoes is given to the poor for every pair that is bought.

You don’t have to make your story about charity. Companies like Apple and Google have a narrative that customers feel they are a part of. You just need a singular focus. You need to make your customers feel like they are part of something when they buy from you. Whether they are helping save the world, joining an elite club, or bettering their lives, the story needs to impact them.

When your customers buy in to a story, and not just a product, they are much more likely to share that story with others. This leads to more customers and more friends, and soon, your business is growing in ways you never thought possible.

Before you get overwhelmed about how to create a unique story, I want tell you about MemberHub and Matt Harrell. Matt and his dad created MemberHub with a team of people. They have designed what I think is a pretty sharp group collaboration and communication tool, which is perfect for large organizations like churches. I know a lot about Matt and MemberHub and feel like I am part of their story. Why? Because they share their story openly. They have a blog, use Twitter, and are happy to talk to customers on the phone. They haven’t invented an elaborate story. They have just been open and committed to communication.

You can do this. You don’t need to have the best hook in the world. Just be yourself and let it show. The right kind of people will be attracted to that. Before you know it, your business will have a narrative that others can plug in to.

So, what action should you take now? First of all, create a regular communication outlet. I suggest a blog and email newsletter combination. The blog can feed the email. Don’t like to write? Then record video or voice. Just make it happen. Until you start opening up this stream of communication, you will not understand how much it can impact your business and life for the better.

photo credit: constantly_Jair

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

Do Your Customers Love You?

We all know that we need to put the customer first.  Everything we do in a business should be about the customer.  This is all true and important.  But what about the other side of the coin?  Wouldn’t be great to have customers care about you, as well?  The value of this is profound.  Customer’s who care about you are more likely to talk you up to other potential customers.  They are more loyal and will give you the benefit of the doubt if you mess up.  Customer’s who care will also be able to feed you valuable information about how to make your company better.  

So, how do you get customers to care?  

Here are ten ideas:

1. Care about them first.  Yeah, this is the obvious one.  But if you focus too much on getting customers to care about you, you may forget the golden rule.  Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
2. Let them in.  In other words, be more open.  Explain your process to them.  If you have an issue, talk to them about it.  Make it a conversation.
3. Talk with them.  Do you only talk to your customer when you are making a sale or doing the job?  Find ways to communicate when there is no money changing hands. 
4. Be a person.  Customers are people, and so are you.  But too often the customer is dealing with an organization.  Your company can get impersonable if you let it.  Do things to combat this.  Get someone to answer your phones with a friendly hello.  Start a blog.  Record videos so customers can see your face and get to know you better.  Reach out to customers, calling them to thank them for their business.  
5. Be personal.  This goes a little farther than being a person.  No, don’t air your dirty laundry with every customer.  But don’t be afraid to share a little from your life either.  Do this when you are already in conversation with a customer, especially if they open up about their life.  Salespeople do this to build rapport and win sales.  You should do it to build relationship.
6. Make communication easy.  A customer should have many ways to communicate with you.  He or she should also be encouraged to do so.  Seek out feedback from a customer after the sale.  Respond quickly to inquiries.  Consider getting involved with social networks like Facebook and Twitter if you find that your customers are using them.  Don’t be afraid to engage.
7. Be truthful.  Everyone appreciates an honest person.  The same goes for a company.  Don’t hide things from customers.  Bring them in on something if there is a problem.  Work it out with them.
8. Be fair.  Treat your customers fairly and don’t give preference.  If you have a deal or a special that you know a customer can take advantage of, why make them ask?  Tell them about it!  I once had Key Bank call me to see if I there was anything they could do for me.  It turned out there was.  Through that phone call I found out I could reduce the interest rate on my home equity.  I didn’t have to call them about this.  My loyalty shot way up, and I try to steer other people to Key Bank.  It is one of several companies I now care about.
9. Go the extra mile.  Find ways to really make your customers happy.  If you are a grocery store, be sure to have someone on hand to take the groceries to the car.  Take it further and be willing to home deliver if a regular customer is ill.  Meeting a customer’s expectations isn’t enough.  They expected you to do it.  But when you exceed their expectations, they will love you for it.
10. Be worthy.  Don’t expect your customers to care about you if you are not worth caring about.  Find and implement ways to be that company that is worth caring about.  Consider your current list of customers.  Is there something you can do right now that will effect them positively?  Go do it.  Earn your customer’s love.

With a little work, you can shape your company to be more lovable.  The biggest danger you face is becoming impersonal.  Do not let your company loose its personality.  Remember, its all about building lasting relationships.