Would you like to have customers that stay with you and
don’t buy from your competitors?
Customers that say nice things about your business to other
people; pay you on time and
accept the fact that you might be a bit more expensive then
other suppliers?
Of course you do but how do we perform this miracle? It’s
dead easy really; you only have
to consider two factors: be Reliable and be Likeable.
It almost goes without saying that it’s vital to have a
reliable product or service. Most
businesses spend a great deal of time and money ensuring
that their product does what they
say it’ll do and striving for exceptional customer service.
However, if you do this consistently,
don’t expect any “brownie points” and it won’t ensure stay,
say and pay. Providing reliable products and service is
vitally important however after a while customers start to
take it for granted.
I can remember the days when a motor car was difficult to
start on a winters morning. When a
telephone engineer took a week to fix your phone and a
retail store wouldn’t take back an item you’d purchased.
Nowadays, cars start first time, engineers come the same day
and retail stores give you your money back immediately.
We now take this kind of reliability and service for
granted.
To give your business the competitive edge and ensure stay,
say and pay you, your business and your people need to be
likeable. Too many organisations forget that their customers
are humans and the thing about humans is – they don’t always
make decisions logically. Customers are driven by their
emotions and they make decisions about organisations based
on their interaction with the people in the business.
They’ll even forgive your mistakes if they like your
business.
So what do we need to do to ensure the likeability factor?
Run your eye down the following list and see how many you
can tick off:
* We always have a genuine smile for every customer.
* We are warm and friendly to all customers.
* We listen carefully and make it obvious that we’re
listening.
* We use the customer’s name and our name appropriately.
* We give the impression that we care and are interested in
the customer.
* We empathise with problems and complaints and respond
quickly.
* We occasionally do something to pleasantly surprise the
customer.
* We always keep our promises.
* We give the impression that we’re fun to deal with.
* We treat the customer the way they want to be treated, not
the way we want to be treated.
(The * We means everyone in the business be they sales
people, delivery drivers, accountants, engineers, managers
or directors.)
How well did you do? If you’ve got lots of ticks then you
probably have lots of customers
who like you. Just a word to the managers and employers
amongst you; run your eyes down the list again and replace
the word customer with the words employee or staff
colleague.
How many ticks did you get this time? Lots of ticks mean
your staff like you and it probably follows that your
customers do as well.
Have you noticed how being likeable cost so little? A lot
less than advertising or other
promotional activity required to replace lost customers.
Working a little bit harder on the emotional connection with
your customers will increase your likeability factor and
ensure they – stay, say and pay.
Discover how you can generate more business without having
to cold call!
Alan Fairweather is the author of “How to get More Sales
without Selling” This book is packed with practical things
that you can do to get customers to come to you.
Click here now:
