Focusing on Consistency (Part 1)
When we aim for consistency in our communications, values,
messages, images, offerings, and the customer experiences
we create, we take another significant step toward
developing long-lasting and meaningful customer
relationships that will boost our bottom line.
We know that as consumers, we are able to exercise our
choices to achieve the most enjoyable and efficient experiences possible. But
whenever we are unhappy consumers, how likely are we to
complain about it?
Research shows that only a small fraction of customers will
inform a company of what they dislike. The majority of
silent, unhappy buyers “vote with their feet” and simply
don’t return. Sam Walton, the late Wal Mart founder, said:
“There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire
everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply
by spending his money somewhere else.”
So, since buyers are unlikely to complain (unless they’re
very unhappy), we must be extremely careful to ensure that
they don’t become unhappy about anything in their
experiences, or they’re likely to leave without telling us
why! This article (the first in a series) explains the role
of consistency in boosting customer retention and
satisfaction.
Inventing Your Customer “Secret Sauce”
What recipe makes any relationship with a product or
service stand out deliciously from all of the others?
Creating consistent customer experiences is the mantra
savvy businesses have been chanting to achieve great
prosperity. These companies pull out all the stops to
ensure that dealing with their products, staff, and
services is so consistently pleasant, buyers will want to
become loyal customers.
But that’s not all — pleasantness is fast becoming the
minimum experience buyers expect. The fierce competition
today requires creating raving fans of customers so they
cannot stop telling their colleagues, friends, and family
about your products or services. This requires raising the
bar even further!
What does it take to go from being a silently shunned
company to one that creates raving fans?
Assembling the Filling
The success of this recipe comes from paying close
attention to key ingredients. These ingredients pertain to
quality, business systems, marketing/sales, customer
service, and good common sense. They shape the “touch
points” that influence our customers’ experiences. For
example:
* It’s far more cost effective to keep existing customers
than to find new ones. Why? Customer retention research
shows that once companies have loyal customers, the cost of
keeping them is just one-fifth the cost of attracting new
ones. The research also shows that companies can boost
results up to 100% just from increasing customer loyalty by
only five percent! This means that marketing to existing
customers consistently is far more cost-effective.
* It’s critical not to over-promise and under-deliver.
Either we can under-promise and over-deliver or
over-promise and over-deliver, but, at all costs, we should
strive not to under-deliver. One of the situations that
will drive everyone crazy is believing that a product is
supposed to be released on a certain date, and then it’s
not. Or hearing that a service will be rendered per an
advertised guaranty, and then it’s not. Credibility and
trustworthiness evaporate whenever people make promises
they can’t keep.
Baking the Pie
Common sense tells us to find every possible way to keep
our existing customers, and instead of ignoring them, we
should market to them regularly. Common sense also suggests
that if we consistently deliver on time or earlier, or with
greater quality than promised, we will delight our
customers!
It may mean telling our customers truthfully that we won’t
have a product ready to offer until next year (instead of
next month). But any momentary disappointment our customers
may feel will be relatively minor compared to the
confidence they will have in us when we do release on time
or earlier.
And it’s nothing like the distrust and skepticism we will
earn if we under-deliver by coming back repeatedly to say,
“I’m sorry, we were wrong; it’s really going to be next
month!” in an endless stream of broken promises.
With just the preceding two principles in mind, we have a
better idea of what we can do to become leaders in our
industries:
* Retaining existing customers could entail asking
customers, in surveys or during customer support calls,
“What do you love about our products? What do you hate?
What would it take to make you a raving fan of our
company?” The answers will reveal what buyers value most,
and any pet peeves they’ve been dying to unload.
* Over-delivering on promises could entail ensuring that
products and services work even better than advertised, and
that interactions with customer support exceed all
expectations for problem resolution. Since one unhappy
experience can sour all other pleasant ones, strive to
ensure that the most memorable interactions — such as the
first and last in any series — are especially positive. On
a vacation, if lost luggage, forgotten belongings, or final
departure activities are not handled with the utmost care,
everything positive that preceded those disappointments may
be erased from the vacationer’s memory!
In conclusion, the recipe for positive and rewarding
customer relationships includes, but is not limited to,
recognizing the value of consistency in customer retention
and in over-delivering on promises, both explicit and
implied. These two ingredients are a few of the ways to
plug the gaps that would cause buyers to “vote with their
feet.” Alone, they might not be quite enough to create
raving fans, but without them, we won’t create any loyal
customers, either.
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Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is the author of the award-winning
“Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance” success
program. She helps people “discover and recover” the
profits their businesses may be losing daily through
overlooked performance potential. To learn more about her
tools and resources, visit her site at
http://LearnShareProsper.com
