CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS – EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

People can be fickle customers; they may go where the deal is, if their primary mode of differentiating a product or service is price. For example, when you shop for everyday items at a grocery store that does not “wow” you, you may gladly go somewhere else if you can get the same goods at a better price. However, when there is a grocery store that you are in love with, you might find yourself justifying paying a higher price and continuing to shop there because there is something that makes it a wonderful experience. It might be because the staff knows you by name. It might be the way the staff treats you. As a customer, you feel good about doing business with that store. And like all customers, you remember being treated well and having your expectations exceeded.

This is an integral aspect of business: building relationships with your customers. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are directly tied to your ability to convey value in those relationships. The magic is in the touch point. While you do not need to be there to personally perform each task, you do need to ensure each contact made with your customers consistently exceeds their expectations. This means you need to have systems in place in your business to ensure every experience with your company and staff is a fantastic one.

If you are basing your relationship with your customers only on transactions, you have no relationship. What you have are fickle customers with little or no loyalty to you. What can you do to create lasting customer relationships? Make your company indispensable to your customers by:

Create a relationship with them by adding value to their livesr
Make doing business with you a wonderful experiencer
Reaching out through regular communicationr
Understanding their Dangers, Opportunities, and Strengths
Going the extra distance and consistently exceeding their expectationsr
Establishing systems, and then training your staff to excel at them

Creating customer relationships is a true wealth-generation vehicle because it creates customer loyalty. Like most effective strategies, it takes some thought and effort. Consider what you can do to create more dynamic and sustained customer interactions within your world. How can you add true value to the lives of your customers?