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Tag: Employee loyalty

  • Why Customer Service is the Easiest Path to Business Success | Entrepreneur

    Why Customer Service is the Easiest Path to Business Success | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I spend all my working days as a customer service consultant and transformation expert, helping companies large and small improve and transform the level of customer service they provide.

    But a fair question is: In cold hard business terms, why is delivering exceptional customer service so valuable? And is it worth the investment (in time and attention) when you have other business challenges and opportunities calling out for attention?

    Related: This Overlooked Leadership Trait Makes All the Difference in Your Ability to Captivate an Audience

    Beware of the deadly commoditization zone

    Well, not to go all Eeyore on you, but your company or brand offering is highly unlikely to be entirely unique. Most companies hover much closer to the deadly commodity zone than anyone at those companies realizes. Odds are, and sorry to say, this probably includes you.

    What is the commoditization zone? It’s one of the scariest places for a company to find itself. It’s when your business is viewed as more or less interchangeable with the competition. It’s when your current customers are happy to jump ship to one of your competitors for a myriad of minor reasons:

    • A slightly lower price
    • A marginally faster website
    • A shinier app
    • A slightly more convenient location

    Or, sometimes, for no discernible reason at all!

    Related: 10 Ways Competition Can Improve Your Business

    Escape the deadly commoditization zone!

    Happily, there is a way you can keep your brand from becoming a commodity — replaceable, interchangeable — in the eyes of the marketplace. That solution is exceptional customer service.

    Build such a reputation for customer service excellence and such a strong connection with every customer you touch that your service becomes a point of distinction, a survival lifeline and, ultimately, a powerful engine for growth.

    And you’ll never have to worry about being viewed as a commodity again.

    The long-term, lasting payoffs from exceptional customer service

    An excellent customer experience will create multiple positive results for your business and, most centrally, the creation of passionately loyal customers. Passionately loyal customers are less price sensitive, more likely to be interested in any new products, services or brand extensions you may roll out in the future and more understanding when things go sideways. This is true. I promise! Once you’ve done so much, so well for your customers, you achieve a state where the little mistakes — and even the occasional massive blunder — are looked upon in a better, more forgiving light.

    A loyal customer is your best form of marketing

    There is nothing more powerful in growing a business than the ambassadorship of customers who are so engaged, so activated, that they take on the mission of spreading the good word about your company: crusaders for your brand, who share their passion for your company with their online connections and real-life contacts as well.

    Related: 3 Essentials for Building a Loyal Customer Base

    The customer service excellence advantage is nearly knockoff-proof

    Unlike other business attributes — low cost, faster speed, location — exceptional customer service is almost entirely knockoff-proof. Why? It takes time and focus to become legendary in customer service and the customer experience. And if you get there, trust me: the odds of your competition emulating this are very low.

    There’s one more benefit you’ll experience immediately as you dig into the work we’ll do together. Even before you achieve the state of customer activation, loyalty, and ambassadorship that I’ve just promised, the benefits of your new approach will make themselves known to you personally. You’ll find yourself shoring up relationships within your company and discover that your work becomes more pleasant and rewarding.

    How to get on the road to delivering an iconic level of customer service

    Getting on the road to delivering exceptional, iconic, loyalty-building customer service starts with a single step: Make the decision. Decide to put the customer in the center.

    Once you decide to put the customer at the center of how you look at every:

    • business decision
    • customer interaction (including what you may consider “trivial” things, like your choice of words and phrasing to use with them)
    • every hiring decision (are you hiring employees leaning toward empathy? Or are you only hiring based on existing skills and experience?)
    • every staffing/coverage decision, and so forth, you’re well on your way.

    Add to that:

    • proper customer service training, whether delivered in person or via eLearning (this needs to start from onboarding and continue through the entire life of an employee at your company)
    • creation and dissemination of customer service standards (best practices), and
    • a program and plan to sustain your new momentum — and you’re going to move mountains.

    Micah Solomon

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  • Do You Know Why Your Customers Really Buy From You? | Entrepreneur

    Do You Know Why Your Customers Really Buy From You? | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The following is a simple question for business owners. Why do your customers buy from you?

    I told you the question was simple, but an accurate answer, on the other hand, can be far more complex and perhaps even elusive. To achieve long-term, sustainable success, your understanding of why your customers choose to do business with your company needs to be both correct and substantial.

    Many business owners develop a customer value proposition (CVP) alongside their company mission and vision statements. The brief declaration is supposed to document why a customer would opt to buy your product or service over the competition.

    While developing a CVP is commendable in its customer-centric approach, it often falls short of its intended purpose due to ambiguity, a lack of self-reflection and sometimes even outright insincerity. Dollars to doughnuts, there is not a single CVP out there that reads, “Our customers turn to us because we deliver lackluster service and a marginally good product.”

    Related: Who Is More Important — Your Customers or Your Employees?

    I would also assume that there are many businesses whose CVPs portray an exaggerated sense of the company’s true customer value. CVPs should never be created based on hype or manufactured mantras; instead built from sincere, astute insight.

    Bravado and disingenuousness are not the only ways business owners are misguided in their understanding of customer engagement and loyalty. The following are common misconceptions related to the question of why customers buy from you.

    “We are the cheapest”

    Sure, this value statement might be dressed up as “We deliver the best value,” “We are the low-price leaders,” or some other cost-based differentiator. But when I hear any form of “My customers buy from us because we are the cheapest,” I cringe. Competing on price alone is simply not a good model and is often unsustainable. There is always some other business owner who is willing to run out of cash faster than you are.

    Most customers – both B2B and B2C – understand the balance between cost and value. They walk that tightrope in every purchase they make. Contending that cheapest is the key attribute that keeps them coming back shortchanges both your business and your customers.

    “We have the best employees”

    Forgive me for being a bit skeptical about this assertion as well. Sure, your business may have good employees; but are they really the best? You may provide excellent service, but your competitors probably do as well. Is it truly your employees that keep your customers coming back? With the rare exception of that ultra-charismatic salesperson who charms the socks of buyers, the answer in all likeliness is a resounding no.

    That is not to say that hiring for personality and alignment with company values is unimportant. It most definitely is. But to put the onus of success and customer loyalty squarely on the shoulders of your employees is shortsighted.

    Related: 3 Reasons Why I Gladly Welcome Competition

    “We’ve got the best product on the market”

    While possessing a corner on the market is a great position to be in, it does not account for innovations in the marketplace and often fickle changes in consumer preferences. Evolving customer motivations and expectations, coupled with aging business models, have been the downfall of even some of the most successful industry titans.

    Consider Blockbuster, that for more than 20 years, was the largest and most successful video rental company in the U.S. Then industry innovators like Netflix and Redbox entered the arena with new and improved ways to provide the same service and completely changed the playing field. While the business’s products and services may have been “the best” in their heyday, innovators with more modern and sustainable business models came along and essentially put the video rental titan out of business.

    Suffice it to say even the best products and services on the market have competitors nipping at their heels.

    So why do your customers really keep coming back?

    What you are selling vs. what they are buying

    In considering why your customers continue to purchase from you, it is important to understand the difference between what you are selling and what they are buying. This is such a crucial distinction. As Harvard Business School professor and economist Theodore Levitt famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”

    An accounting firm may see itself as selling tax preparation services, but its customers are seeking peace of mind. Apple offers not just its technology but a modern retail experience. A mechanic sells an engine tune-up, but the customer is purchasing a quieter and safer ride.

    As a customer-conscious business, it is essential to sell the hole, not the drill.

    Related: Do You Actually Understand Why Your Customers Are Buying?

    Understanding customer loyalty

    How do you identify the true reasons why customers buy from you? Get ready for a shocker. You ask them.

    While this may sound flippant, you might be amazed by how many business owners never ask the right questions or truly listen to what their customers have to say. HubSpot recently reported that 42% of businesses do not survey their customers or collect any sort of customer feedback. Those that do elicit feedback often do not ask the right questions. And even fewer business owners take any action based on the responses they receive.

    Performing a customer survey can be a real competitive advantage for you. You can communicate by phone, on your website, in an email campaign or in person. The platform matters less than posing smart questions that evoke insightful answers. How important do they consider price? How would they rate your customer service? Why do they prefer you over the competition? Create a system for recording the answers you receive, which might be as basic as a spreadsheet or as comprehensive as entering responses into your CRM or other sales and marketing tools. Feedback should not be a one-and-done; make it a habit to speak to your customers regularly.

    Then the next time somebody like me enquires about why your customers buy from you, your answer will accurately reflect the true value your business brings to the marketplace.

    Jason Zickerman

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