As we look at the basics of business and how important they are to the overall performance and longevity of your enterprise, it is important to reflect on one key attribute of your business that can often get lost in the shuffle of all of the other responsibilities that you and your team may find yourself taking on in any given day.
And that is that simply put: everything you and your team does is a reflection of your brand.
When I speak on the topic of customer experience, the first thing I like to reflect on is that the customer experience journey doesn’t begin when they enter the store or they visit your website, it begins long before that when the customer or prospect finds out about you for the very first time.
Which means that you need to stop thinking about your business and your brand and your customer in transactional terms and begin thinking about the holistic journey that a person or client will take from unaware to buyer to loyal customer to wherever your relationship ends.
That’s why it is important that you think about each opportunity and each touch point as a way to wow your clients.
And, just as importantly, you think about each touch point as a chance that can destroy your relationship if you aren’t careful.
Let’s break those two down really quickly…because think about it, how will this change your approach to your business and your customers?
1. If every touch is a chance to make a customer for life, what would that do for you?
If you take the customer for life approach, you are likely to do things like:
- Look to create more value
- Not try to squeeze every last cent out of a transaction
- Finding ways to enhance your relationship
- Ways that you can show your client to new opportunities
2. If you realize that each chance encounter with your client can cost you that client if you aren’t careful, certain things are going to go quickly out the door, like:
- Good enough being good enough
- I just work here, I don’t make the rules…won’t be acceptable
- It won’t be as easy to cut corners
- Ownership of a problem won’t be someone else’s job
You see everything counts when you are thinking about your business and your brand. You have two choices, you can embrace that or you can say “that’s not my job” and lose customers.
Which do you prefer?