The Human Side Of Doing Business | Promotional Consultant

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The Human Side Of Doing Business
By: Joe Calloway
Issue: January/Expo 2010

The Acme Widget Company needed to increase revenue and profits, so it launched a new advertising campaign and offered special deals to first-time buyers. Initially there was a significant and immediate increase in new customers, but the joy was short lived. Revenue and profits actually declined.

The company made a classic business blunder—as new customers came in the front door, existing customers left in greater numbers through the back door. It had violated one of the most important rules of business: Never take customers for granted.

Even a small reduction in customer defections can significantly increase profits. Because fixed costs don’t change much regardless of how many customers you have, the retention of existing customers is vitally important in maximizing profit. Creating and strengthening customer loyalty must be a top priority of any business if it is to grow and prosper.

Satisfied customers won’t cut it in today’s marketplace. Countless studies have shown that satisfied customers will defect in a heartbeat if they think they can get a better deal somewhere else. You’ve got to create completely satisfied customers whose loyalty can’t be swayed no matter what your competition offers them.

Following are 10 essential tactics to keep customers loyal:

1. Take a big-picture approach. Demonstrate how your product or service can help your customers accomplish big-picture, long-term goals.
2. Speak their language. Don’t use your industry jargon, use theirs. Show them you have a depth of understanding about their business that your competition just doesn’t.
3. Be a source of intelligence. Dedicate yourself to finding new information and insights that can help your customers succeed.
4. Know who the customer is today, not yesterday. Your customers constantly change. You have to know how to serve your customers’ current needs, not their needs from a week or a month ago. Stay current on changes in your customers’ situation.
5. Point out what an incredible deal they’re getting. What value are you bringing to your customers that they may not know about? Let them know what you’re doing that goes above and beyond the expected.
6. Make it the first six weeks again. The first six weeks of any relationship are magical. Everyone loves everyone. Gestures of appreciation are made regularly. Then it starts to get old. We don’t try as hard anymore to make a great impression. Go back to that first six weeks. Make it magical again.
7. Make them tell you how to be better. Don’t ask your customers if they’re happy; ask them how you can be better. Make them tell you. They will appreciate that you are making the effort and you will gain some information that can lock in loyalty.
8. Find out who’s trying to break you up. Your competitors are always trying to steal your customers away. Find out what they’re whispering in your customers’ ears. Match or beat any value that your competition is offering. (This doesn’t mean you have to beat their price. You just have to beat their value.)
9. Continuously audit your “easy to do business with” factor. Look at every touchpoint you have with your customers, including website, telephone calls and invoices, and see how you can better do business. It’s the No. 1 rated factor in business-to-business buying decisions.
10. Have a face-to-face, heart-to-heart thank you session. Don’t discount the significance of expressing appreciation to your customers. Get in your car or on a plane, and tell them in person how very much you appreciate them. Send them a thank-you gift; give them an award for being the “best customer.” It could prove to be your best insurance against defection to a competitor.

In a business environment in which margins continually shrink, the competition gets better and customers become smarter and more demanding every day, the fight to retain customers becomes critically important to your success. While always working to grow through the acquisition of new business, never let your focus waver in terms of keeping the customers you’ve already got.

Remember that customers leave because they dislike the human side of doing business. Be sure you are competitive with price and quality, and always be vigilant about the human side of doing business. Maya Angelou spoke a great truth with these words: “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Joe Calloway is a partner in Engage Consulting Group, and author of several best-selling business books including the newly revised edition of “Becoming a Category of One.” He provides consulting to help companies accelerate their strategies and make their visions reality.