ASK ALAN: The Best Customer You NEVER Had!
On a personal note, I am a small business owner myself. So, I can relate and empathize with how difficult these times are for your businesses as well. I believe that it’s more important than ever to think about our customers. Not regarding company sales, but regarding their health, safety, and individual needs. As a community, we need to look out for one another and go the extra mile. This is new territory for all of us. I’m confident that together we’ll get through it. Here is something to think about in your future planning.Creating customers who create customers
You may refer to them as clients, buyers, patients, fans, donors, users, or something else … they’re still YOUR customers.
In a recent Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising report, Business Startup Specialist, Business Startup Specialist, Alex Joll reports that “recommendations from people you ‘know’ are the most trusted form of brand advertising. “
Still not convinced?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure that can quantify the statement made above. More and more companies are using this measure to define their operating model. But this is only step one. The second step is to understand why customers are (or are not) promoting your business. There’s a causal link between NPS and the effort a customer must make in obtaining your product or service. When you change your operating model and staff mindset, to deliver ease of doing business, NPS goes up quickly.
“Word of Mouth” marketing – Steps to success
Here are four tactics to create a customer who creates customers:
Listen to the customer
In today’s social media environment, the customer experience rules. So don’t underrate “listening skills.” In fact, a listening skill tune-up for managers and employees can significantly improve both employee and customer engagement.
Another way is for your ‘prospects’ to hear from your customers. “Video Reviews on your website are the most powerful reviews available today,” says, Troy Howard, President of SoTellUs.com, www.sotellme.us. Troy also says that, “businesses that incorporate video reviews in their websites can expect an eighty-four per-cent conversion rate.”
Exceed customer expectations
For the world’s most successful brands, customer experience represents so much more than service — it begins the moment a customer hears about your brand and follows them through their decision-making process, purchase, and post-purchase. Let your customers know that you’re thinking and care about them. Use a contact database program to keep in touch with them frequently.
Alignment of purpose
Every employee should be familiar with and be in ‘alignment’ with expected values and behaviors. When employees are aligned, they make decisions consistent and in-sync with that purpose. A recent study from the annual Deloitte Core Beliefs and Culture Survey reported that,” businesses do not do enough to instill in their culture a sense of purpose aimed at making a meaningful impact.”
Have the right people “on the bus”
Best-selling author and business professor, Jim Collins is relentless in his advice regarding how important it is, to have the ‘right’ people on the bus to have a sustainably successful organization. All too often we hire for skill over attitude when it should be a combination of both. Look at your business. Are the people there because of attitude and passion? Or some other reason?
The “Best Customer You NEVER Had”
I love this phrase because all too often we’re focused on the “end results. So, even if a person doesn’t become your customer right then, by following these suggested tactics, they are sure to become an ambassador and recommend you in the future.
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