There are a few things that are really job number one in any business. The ultimate one being that you need to grow and keep customers.
Which is a much longer way of saying that customer experience counts.
In the world of business, you are competing on any number of different factors: price, speed, efficiency, value, and more.
But the one and easiest one you always have control of is the customer experience.
Think of how easy it is improve or enhance the customer experience:
- Can your customer service be more pleasant?
- Can your customer service be faster?
- Do you offer ease of purchase?
- Do you offer extra value?
- How fast do you fix something when it breaks?
- Are your customers feeling like partners?
- Is the goal of each interaction to maximize the sale or to build a customer?
These are just a few of the options you have…but let me offer up a few ways of looking at customer experience that will deliver value to your clients.
1. Think about the customer as a lifelong friend:
The fact is that it is expensive to win new business, so some of the most cost effective business you can generate is through keeping the customers you have happy.
So instead of thinking about how to squeeze each nickel out of each transaction, act like you know you are going to be doing business with the person for the next 5 years.
It will change the interaction.
2. Business is a people thing:
Just like imaging your customer as a long term friend is helpful to not feeling like you have to squeeze the person for every last nickel, no matter what. Remembering that business is a people thing will help you take the focus off of what you need and should help you move the thinking to how can we be successful together.
When you think of the people involved in any situation, it changes how you interact.
3. What’s just a little bit more:
With so much of our analysis driven by data and “Big Data” at that. It is often too easy for us to think about the minimum of what we need to do or what we need to give.
But what if we flipped that around and started thinking about what if we did just a little bit more?
How would that change our interactions?
What would we do differently?