Don’t Neglect Your Prized Asset… “Love” Them

Since February is the month of ‘LOVE’ I thought it would be appropriate to reinforce the importance of caring for your clients, customers or patients. There is nothing more important, especially right now during these challenging times! Acquiring them is often costly. Most people spend large amounts of time and effort to get them on board (even if you don’t ‘meet’ with them, you still need a great marketing and sales system to acquire them in the first place). If you don’t believe me, work out what the average cost of acquisition is (total cost divided by number of customers acquired). Whatever your ‘number’ is, I can guarantee it’s better keeping them on board as long as possible.

You’ll have heard that it costs anything from 5 to 15 times more to sell to a prospective customer than it does to sell to an existing customer, and depending on your business, it will almost certainly be a number between these two extremes. 

Dan Kennedy, the US marketing strategist, puts it perfectly... “the average businesses market to get a sale, the good and outstanding businesses market to get a customer”. There’s a big difference.

It’s worth spending time looking at what happens the moment you get a customer. What are you doing to WOW them? What are you doing to cement the relationship? What are you doing to get them buying from you again? If you take care of the first two, the third will automatically happen as long as you provide the opportunity (something many businesses fail to do). Remember, your part of the ‘deal’ in the relationship is to keep adding value. So why not over-deliver? Why not make your customers think they’ve never experienced anything like this before.

We call this ‘Moments Of Truth’, where every point of contact with a customer can be poor, average or great. Of course, we want as many Moments Of Truth as we can to be great ones.

One business that totally ‘gets’ this is ‘Elite Body Squad’. Jago Holmes is the managing director. Here’s what he has to say about the way they treat customers...

“Here at Elite Body Squad HQ we produce a range of fitness-based products such as gym gloves, weightlifting belts, towels, and wrist wraps and we are gradually increasing our range as we find quality products that we can add at the right price for our highly valued customers.

“I think that everyone who sets up in business should first and foremost consider who that business is going to serve – every business serves someone. This means if you have customers, it is your job to make them happy. Customers have a choice as to who they give their money to, they don't have to buy your products or services.

“Unfortunately, far too many business owners don't see it this way and almost treat customers as an inconvenience – but, remember, they are our lifeblood. Without them you have no business, so you had better treat your customers well and look after them the best way you can. This isn't only because a happy customer tells others and comes back to buy from you time and again but also because good businesses with great customer care always do well if their service or product is also of the highest quality.

“At Elite Body Squad we try to go above and beyond what is expected because we want to be proud of the products and service that we offer but, more importantly, we know that we will build a loyal following of satisfied customers who are happy to deal with us again as we launch new products further down the line. I hate businesses that treat me badly, take my money and run and provide poor- quality products and services. Elite Body Squad will never be like this. As we grow we are all determined that we will get better at what we do and add even more quality to the products and service that we offer to our wonderful and valued customers.”

Just from Jago’s words, you can tell how Elite Body Squad really treasures its customers. His philosophy is ingrained in their company psyche. You can check them out here – www.elitebodysquad.com

Let me tell you, this approach to serving customers ISN’T COMMON. It’s especially rare with online businesses. 

For example, how often do you get a thank you note in the mail, in addition to an email after purchasing from an online company?

Also if you apply Pareto’s Law to your customer list, whereby approximately 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes it will help you identify your most valuable customers. In other words, 20% of your customers will generate 80% of your profits. 

It therefore makes sense to ‘look after’ those top 20% of customers differently to the other 80%, to ensure you retain and keep them buying from you. And, of course, making these top 20% more immune to your competitors stealing them from you. That’s an easy exercise to go through and once you then put in place a programme to deliver outstanding customer service to these customers, you’ll be surprised with the results. Of course the other 80% also need looking after, but extra focus should be given to the 20% of top profit generators.

Make sure you put in place steps and processes that convince your customers you care for them. Let’s face it, it’s not hard to do. And it is after all, exactly how we all like to feel!