Did you know that it has been ...

Did you know that is has been estimated that businesses spend 5-10 times more money attracting new customers than they do looking after existing clients?

Before you settle down to read this piece, grab you P&L or your Budget; they should be in easy reach because as a responsible business owner you will be scrutinising them on a regular basis (at the very least monthly). Have you got it? Great…

Now scroll down to the line where you have budgeted a sum of money for looking after the customers you already have. A word of warning, you may have a little trouble finding it because in the vast majority of cases it is an area that is pretty overlooked in business.

Vast sums are spent enticing new customers into businesses, yet little or no money is invested looking after the people who already know, like and trust you.  In actual fact, statistics show that 68% of people take their custom elsewhere because of perceived indifference; they think you don’t care!

These businesses are making life very hard for themselves because of their “get new customers in faster than we are losing them” mentality. They are not taking into account the lifetime value of a customer!

Consider this question; where would your business be if you still had every customer you have ever attracted?

The strange thing is that if businesses were to invest more time looking after their customers building lasting relationships and creating great experiences for them, the outlay on marketing would be greatly reduced.

This goldmine is neglected goldmine in a vast majority of businesses, so therefore provides a massive opportunity for any business that makes the customer experience their number one priority.

Ever had a conversation with a business owners that goes something like this? “What makes you different from your competition?”

Or

“Why would someone purchasing your service/product choose you over anybody else?”

“We give good service.”

“Really, how do you know?"

"I just do..."

“Interesting.”

The challenge is that we often view the customer experience from our point of view, yet rarely -if ever- step into our customer’s shoes and see it from theirs and we never realise the real cost of overlooking their perspective.

So a quick question, “When was the last time you asked your customers for meaningful feedback?” The key word being meaningful. I am sure you have all at some time completed a customer survey that at some level you knew was just a compliance exercise it may never get read and almost certainly not acted upon.

Here are some steps you might like to invest some time mulling over when you think about your business and the lifetime value of your customers. If you already have these steps in place, how could you improve them? If you haven’t, what steps do you need to take to implement them?

1.    Follow up, follow up, follow up - Make sure your customers are happy after they have transacted with you. Are they happy with the product/service? How was the experience for them?

2.   Seek feedback – “Feedback is the breakfast of champions” says Ken Blanchard. Ask your customers, “How could we make your experience even better?” and then act of the feedback. Change your thinking to complaints are great because they give us the opportunity to become even better.

3.   Develop the culture – Culture trumps everything in business, so look at yours, does it encourage an environment in which you and your people exceed the customer expectations each and every time do you provide a WOW factor?

4.   Think long term relationships – In our private lives, if we want a long term relationship with anybody, we would invest time learning to understand them, what makes them tick? What are their likes and dislikes? What hobbies to they have? Etc. Do the same with your customers and use this information for opportunities to keep in touch with them instead of the usual trying to sell them something at every point of contact.

5.   Provide great value – People only buy on price when you let them. Become the expert, most reliable, most personalised service in your industry.

6.   Be proactive and not reactive – Always be anticipating and solving problems before they arise. Be honest with yourself and never overpromise and under-deliver.

7.   Focus on the customer experience and not your profits – Sometimes we tie our businesses up in so much red tape to protect our bottom line that it detracts from the customer experience. Change your focus to the customer experience and the bottom line will take care of itself. Profit is the applause you get for providing a memorable experience.

I would be really interested to hear you, ideas, tactics and strategies that you employ to build long lasting customer loyalty.

If you feel your business would benefit from developing long lasting customer loyalty and would like to look at this subject in much greater depth this will definitely be of interest to you…. 'How to Build Your Business with Confidence'

Thoughts:

“Customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless” Jeffrey Gitomer

“Once you create a loyal customer base, its tough for a competitor to take them away” Joe Mansueto

“So I think instead of focusing on the competition, focus on the customer” Scott Cook

“The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations” Roy H. Williams