- Most customers don’t want a relationship with you. They want easy shopping, good value (different from cheap prices), and to be treated with respect. Make everything as simple and quick as possible so it is easy to be your customer.
- The few customers who do want a relationship with you, don’t want to be managed. They want a real connection with a real person. If you are afraid to empower your team to be personable and approachable, stay away from social media.
- Every time you change your website to make it fresh, your customers have to relearn how to use it. If you keep making changes because you’re bored with the look, they’ll stop visiting
- You can reach out to them more often if the information is timely and targeted. Bombarding them with the same old marketing may generate short-term revenue gains, but it doesn’t build loyalty.
- Customers don’t expect perfection in every transaction. They do expect quick resolution to all issues. This means only one contact is needed to get a satisfactory solution.
- Most people prefer self-service to direct contact (57% according to a survey by Customer Contact Council). Make sure that you have tools available for them to use.
- Customers don’t care how your systems work. They do care about how it affects them. If your system issues keep you from providing the right service, design manual work-arounds to fix it.
- The only difference between you and your competition is the service that goes along with the sale. If your focus is on price, someone will come along with a lower one.
If you like this post, please share it with your community. You may also like these:
- When Customers Behave Badly – 3 Reasons to Fire Your Customers
- Do You Make These 5 Fatal Errors When Trying to Convert Prospects to Customers?
- Always Remember That Your Customers & Prospects are People First, Your Target Market Second.
- The Top 7 Reasons Why Customers & Prospects Aren’t Responding to Your Email Marketing
- The Top Five Reasons Customers Stop Buying
Ask Debra!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Debra! I agree with everything you posted except Item #1. I think all customers want a relationship with you – they just want varying degrees of relationship. Some just want enough relationship to be seen as #1 in your priorities when they have a need or issue; some want just enough to know they can trust your ability to produce a quality product, quality service and keep their information secure; some want more. It’s our job to find out the relationship degree that is a fit for the customer and when to ramp that up or tone it down. At KarmaCRM, since we focus on customized and personalized system – that ramp up & down can happen for even individual features. And, I wholeheartedly agree that ‘no one’ wants to know your system. Customers don’t need to understand the “back end” or the “back story”. They want what they want. It’s interesting to see what everyone does to find out what those wants are. Thanks for the great post!
Hi Maria,
Excellent point. I agree. My point was about the relationships narrowly defined by some social media gurus. Thank you for making my post better.