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The Secret to “Owning” Your Marketplace |
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Written by John Spence
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Tuesday, 23 February 2010 13:07 |
I have some very strong beliefs about what it takes to run a highly successful business. No. 1: I am convinced that whoever “owns” the voice of the customer and uses that information to build an organizational culture of Extreme Customer Focus will own the marketplace.
Here’s why: When you focus intensely on your customers and provide customer service beyond compare, you win their loyalty at a level that is impossible to shake—even when that competitor down the street is offering giveaways and steep discounts, or your market is crowded with dozens of me-too products or services.
Simply put, Extreme Customer Focus produces unparalleled customer service, and unparalleled customer service creates an unfair advantage for you. And what business owner wouldn’t want an unfair advantage?
What constitutes great customer service? Here are several examples I’ve observed in my travels:
- A family restaurant that has bathrooms cleaner than mine at home, and outfitted with fresh flowers, free diapers, Handi Wipes, lotion and mints.
- A doctor’s office that offers juice, coffee and fresh fruit while you wait.
- A lawn care company that leaves a nicely arranged bouquet of fresh flowers cut from your yard every time it trims your plants.
- A women’s clothing store that has large fitting rooms, with a comfortable chair, plenty of hooks for your garments, a shelf for glasses and purse and NO limit to the number of items you can bring in to try on. (And soft, cushy reclining chairs and a TV so husbands can rest and watch the game while their wives shop.)
- An upper-end restaurant that gives you a hand-written “thank you” card with your check.
- The drycleaner that simply sews on replacement buttons when it finds yours are missing.
- A downtown business that offers to “feed the meter” while you shop.
- The marketing firm that offers to do pro-bono work for its top client’s favorite charity.
- Stores that empower their frontline people to find a way to say “yes” no matter what customers require.
In each case, these businesses are delighting, surprising and entertaining customers in ways the competition would never consider because those competitors don’t put enough time (if any) into finding creative ways to meet customers’ needs.
So how can you improve your customer focus and uncover unique ways to satisfy your customers? I have two suggestions. The first is ASK your customers what they want. Ask them what bugs them, what excites them and what would make them come back again. Ask them often and in various ways—like the restaurant that offers a free desert to customers who take five minutes to fill out an in-depth survey, or the bank that hosts a dinner for its top 30 clients so bank officers can frankly discuss how they can serve customers better.
The second suggestion is to constantly search for customer service ideas you can steal. Jerry Seinfeld used this constant-observation approach in developing his routines. Someone once asked him how he came up with so much fantastic material and he replied, “It is simple. From the moment I get up in the morning until I fall asleep at night, I look at everything I do and situation I encounter and ask myself the same question: What is funny about this?”
From now on, throughout your day, keep your eyes open for examples of both very good customer service and very bad service. And when you see it, ask yourself these three questions: What can I do with this? How can I make this idea work for my business? What can I do to make it happen right away?
You’ll be amazed with the answers you find, and they just might make you king of your marketplace. |
