Top 10 Ways to have Loyal Customers

TOP 10 WAYS TO HAVE LOYAL CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE

In today's business world it's no longer enough to have satisfied customers - you must constantly delight them in order for them to become loyal Lifelong Customers. Customers who will return to do business with you again and again, year after year, despite your competitors' best efforts to lure them away from you.

Since it costs 10 times as much to attract a new customer as it does to retain an existing one, it makes good sense to do everything in your power to hold on to the customers that you already have.

Too many businesses have lost sight of the fact that customers, not products or services, must be their number one priority. You have to think customer first, last and always.

But how many people in ‘customer service’ know who their customers are, what they expect, and what is important to them? And how many even know how to find out? The sad answer is, "Not enough". The true secret to long-term profitability is building strong and enduring relationships with your customers. Lifelong Customers.

When you have strong relationships with your customers they will buy more from you, bring other customers to you, tell you what you should be providing to satisfy their needs, and be more forgiving if you make a mistake. And that goes for everyone in your business equally.

How do you build strong, enduring relationships with customers? Here are my Top 10 things to do – or not to do:

1 Find out what your customers expect from you. Sound obvious? But how many people can honestly say exactly what their customers expect in terms of service? If we knew what they expected – and gave it to them – they would have no need to deal with anyone else. How do you find out? Ask them. By asking them directly, in surveys, questionnaires, or however you can find out. But you need to know, otherwise how can you give them what they expect if you don’t?
2 Find out how they rate you. Yes, we all have an opinion about the people we deal with, and your customers form an opinion of you. Is it good or bad? How would you know?
3 Figure out how much a customer is worth to you – not just today, or this week – but over a lifetime of buying from you. If a customer buys your $5 widget once he is worth $5 to your business. But if he buys one every day for 20 years, he will spend $36,500 in that time. How differently would you treat a $5 customer to a $36,500 one?
4 How hard do you work at losing customers? Not deliberately of course, but in the ‘unconscious’ things your business does that annoy your customers so much that they will take their business elsewhere.
5 Keep your customers coming back. It’s called Customer Loyalty, and it’s very different from Customer Satisfaction. Customer Satisfaction on its own doesn’t bring your customers back – it takes much more to ear
Customer Loyalty these days.
6 Is anyone costing your business a sale? Your sales department is not your entire organisation – but your entire organisation is your sales department. Anyone in your business could lose a valuable customer at any time – do you know how?
7 Material Service and Personal Service. What’s the difference? Material Service is the ‘technical’ side of your business – having enough stock, and the stock that customers want to buy, the right deliveries, correct paperwork, the image of the business, and all those other bits of the business that you spend so much time getting right. Personal Service is how the customers feel about the way your business treats them. That’s the most important part – how they internalise their dealings with you.
8 Responsibility for your product after the sale is made. What happens to your product once a customer has bought it? Is that the end of the transaction? Far from it – that is just the beginning. How you treat your customer afterwards is what will stick in his mind. As they say, ‘The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten’.
9 Be grateful when customers complain. What? Grateful? Are you crazy? No - certainly be grateful. Statistics show that over 90% of your customers will not complain about poor service – they just go elsewhere. Is that ideal? No, it is far better to find out what the problems are so you have a chance to fix them. If you don’t know what they are you have no chance at all. So welcome your customers’ comments – especially the critical ones!
10 Service Recovery. Inevitably, something will go wrong once in a while, and when it does, you’d better have a plan in place that everybody in the organisation knows about and knows how to operate. And have it in place BEFORE anything goes wrong – it’s too late to try and make one up on the spot.

No matter if you work in wholesale, retail, manufacturing, accounting, delivery, sales or customer service - if your business has customers you need these skills. If you deal with people you need these skills. And it doesn't matter if you own the business or work in it - you need these skills.

What you'll find most important are skills to help you build rapport with others - whether they are customers, work mates, social contacts, or family members. Rapport is simply described as ‘being in harmony with the other person’. Easy to say, sometimes hard to do. Rapport is knowing we have each others’ interests at heart, treating each other with respect, and having enjoyable experiences together. That happens naturally with friends and family - people we like - but not always with those we have to deal with.

To gai
Lifelong Customers sometimes takes hard work, and sometimes we don't succeed. Customers nowadays want you to exceed their expectations. Ordinary service they can get anywhere. That doesn't earn their loyalty. Your service needs to be extraordinary, and without passion and commitment, customer service can never be extraordinary.

Lee Fowler is author of the eBook, ‘Lifelong Customers: How To Attract – And Keep – Loyal Customers For Life’ It’s all about the ‘how-to’ of building outstandingly successful long-term relationships with your customers, and is available for immediate download at: www.businessskillsonline.com, as is the FREE subscription to his Business Skills weekly e-zine.