Do you spray your customers down with Pesticides when they show up? Or do you treat them like Juliet Roses?
Treat your customers like you would a good friend that you hadn’t seen in 85 years (or someone you hadn’t seen since you bumped into them at the Mall in your previous life). Also, address them by their names (their first name and not their full names). And if you don’t remember their name, just make up something and call them that instead. By the way, this is not recommended for those who value their lives.
1. Be generous with your offers. And always over-deliver on your promises. Most Businesses start out with high standards, great levels of integrity and an insatiable appetite for generosity. But that normally lasts about as long as a typical Celebrity Marriage.
2. Offer only the finest of products and services – If you wouldn’t use it yourself or even share it with your friends and felines, then it’s probably something you should consider distributing among your favorite enemies instead (for free).
3. Never keep them waiting – Something that’s almost as annoying to customers as discourtesy and baby stealing dingoes is having to wait in line. Customers want what they’re after before they even think about it. And, that’s the kind of efficiency you should be aiming for, but without making them feel like they’re just a bunch of walking barcodes waiting to be scanned at the checkout.
4. Hire the best people in town – How much value and emphasis your customers receive throughout their shopping experience is mainly dependent on the quality of the people you hire. If you hire employees that are absolutely “Golden”, your customers will walk away with some Gold dust on their coats, hair and even their shoes (which is not a bad thing unless they’re allergic to Gold or something).
5. Make your employees feel like they’re shareholders of your company – Don’t hire a Golden Goose and pay them in breadcrumbs. Instead, pay them the biggest commissions you can afford. Make them feel like Royalty. And make them feel like they make a real difference.
6. Have a smart guarantee – A mediocre guarantee gives customers the assurance that a product or service does what it says, for about 10 minutes. A decent Guarantee would cover them for a whole month. But a smart Guarantee would have their back day or night, rain or shine for a year or even possibly for life.With higher value items, the stronger the guarantee, the more likely you’re to make the sale.
7. Always be there for them – Ever walked into a Store to return an item only to be ignored or have them run in the other direction?
Good customer service always has their customer’s best interest at heart. In fact, the aftersales care for a product or service should outweigh the efforts that you put into the sales generation process (in terms of care, not costs).
That’s because the key to your treasure is not in the number of sales you generate but in the number of loyal customers you create every day. And that genuine loyalty is only made possible when customers get a real taste of the entire sales and aftersales lifecycle (much like an article of clothing going through the both the washer/dryer stages, but without all the spinning).
8. Keep-in-touch (in a non-salesy way) – Ultimately, you’re dealing with real people. And “people” like to receive Birthday cards, New Year’s Greetings and the occasional “something” that they may find useful. In a World where most Businesses chase their customers with flyswatters following their first purchase, this “human approach” makes a refreshing difference.
9. Ask for Testimonials – If you know that a Customer was absolutely thrilled with their purchase, don’t let them leave the Building without a favorable (and “voluntary”) testimonial.
But if you aren’t able to lock down a testimonial the first time around, give them a few gentle (or subtly threatening) reminders to nudge them into taking action. A reminder is best sent a week after their shopping experience (when it’s still fresh in their memory and nothing’s broken as yet). You can follow that up with a second reminder 3 months after that.
And if you still don’t get a response after that, it’s safe to assume that they were either not happy with their purchase or that they’ve just died (hopefully not as a result of what you sold them).
10. Ask for referrals – Customers who fall head over heels in love with your products and services will praise you to no end for being such a great Company.
Despite all the praise, not everyone will be compelled enough to give you a referral, unless there was some kind of incentive or bride (err…I meant to say “bribe”) involved.
Incentives where both parties of the referral benefit usually work best here, because this near enough guarantees that the referrers aren’t missing out on their slice of the Cheesecake.
You can also generate bucket loads of sales through affiliate and reseller programs when it’s done right. But be sure to screen your affiliates in advance before approving their applications, as they can be a real tingling pain in the tushie otherwise.
So don’t take your Business for Granted. Fight for your customers every single second of every day (in a polite and cute way). The easiest time to lose the game is when you “believe” that you’ve already won.
