How To Build Customer Relationships

In today's competitive business landscape, building and nurturing strong customer relationships is more important than ever. While closing a sale may bring immediate gratification, establishing a long-term connection with customers requires a strategic approach and a genuine commitment to their success. To build lasting customer relationships, it is essential to focus on supporting customers, understanding their business, and aligning with their goals. In this blog post, we will explore these key principles and provide actionable insights for cultivating enduring customer relationships.

First we should state that building trust with customers is not a sprint, it is in fact a marathon.  We need to continually focus on supporting our customers in all aspects of our organization.  It encompasses creating a positive experience throughout the customer journey. Show genuine care and attention, promptly responding to queries and concerns. Be proactive in anticipating their needs and offer personalized assistance. By providing exceptional support, you build trust and foster loyalty, setting the foundation for a long-term relationship.

To truly connect with your customers, it is crucial to understand their business and their particular industry. We need to invest time in research, gather insights, and gain a deep understanding of the customer’s pain points, challenges, and opportunities. By acquiring this knowledge, you can position yourself as a strategic partner, offering tailored solutions that address their specific needs. Aligning your products or services with their goals demonstrates your commitment to their success.

Every customer has unique goals and objectives as well. Take the time to engage in meaningful conversations to understand their vision and aspirations. By actively listening and asking thoughtful questions, you can uncover valuable insights that will enable you to provide solutions aligned with their goals. Tailor your offerings to help them achieve their desired outcomes, and continuously reassess their evolving needs to stay ahead of the curve.

Clear and effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful relationship. Regularly update customers on relevant industry trends, product updates, and opportunities for growth. Be proactive in addressing any concerns or challenges they may encounter. Foster an open and transparent line of communication, encouraging feedback and actively seeking ways to improve your offerings. By being attentive and responsive, you demonstrate that their opinions matter, building trust and loyalty.

Building enduring customer relationships requires consistency in both actions and values. Be reliable in delivering on promises, meeting deadlines, and maintaining high-quality standards. Consistency creates a sense of dependability and reliability, fostering a strong foundation for trust which is something I have written about in the trust equation. By consistently providing exceptional experiences, you differentiate yourself from competitors and become the go-to partner for your customers' needs.

In the fast-paced business world, it is important to recognize that building customer relationships is a marathon, not a sprint. By focusing on supporting customers, understanding their business, and aligning with their goals, you can create long-lasting connections that go beyond individual transactions. Remember, nurturing customer relationships requires ongoing effort, active listening, and consistent communication. By becoming a trusted partner, you will foster loyalty, increase customer satisfaction, and position your business for long-term success.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with the best customers and top employees.    How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  How can we land and keep top talent in our organization with the salary wars.  Kevin teaches your sales and leadership teams how to build the key ingredient to be successful with their relationships and take your goals to the next level with high levels of engagement.

Kevin’s website: www.kevinsidebottom.com

Kevin’s email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com

The Sales Process Online Membership Site 

https://www.kevinsidebottom.com/pricing-page

The Sales Process Uncovered Book 

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8XUM4QL2RC6M&keywords=the+sales+process+uncovered&qid=1673274567&sprefix=the+sales+process+uncovered%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1

Not Customer Service, But Customer Experience

Have you ever had to wait an extremely long time for your food at a restaurant when you were starving?  Asking the wait staff for an update on the food seemed to bother them from their already busy agenda.  Meanwhile we believe that death is at our door. 

Upon asking the wait staff for an update, they seem not to care sometimes.  Sometimes we might get a part of the order taken off our bill.  Maybe the manager has to get involved to resolve the issue.  Tips are dwindled and the likelihood of returning to the establishment decreases by the second.

I was in Franklin Tennessee which is about 30 minutes south of Nashville this past summer.  It’s a great city where a lot of country singers live and other wealthy individuals.  It is a great little downtown filled with restaurants and shops.  There is one establishment that people rave about so the group of us decided to stop in.

We weren’t starving, but we decided to venture in and check it out.  I won’t give the name away, but they have these things called BONUTS that are delicious.  We ordered a set to go as well as some sweet tea.  You can’t go south without having sweet tea! 

After we ordered the person taking the order advised us to wait at a table in the middle of the room.  After about 15 minutes the waitress came by with a plate with BONUTS on them and we were confused because we asked for “to go”.  She dropped these off and then said she would get us some to go.

Another 15 minutes went by and nothing.  Now we had already paid so we were getting ready to just stand up and leave.  Figuring we had gotten what we paid for so no really harm done just some time spent waiting. 

We had asked someone working there to see if the order was coming soon and they went to check.  When they came back, they gave us a refund, gave us the to go order, and then another order because we sat for so long.   They also refused repeatedly to take the money back.  I mean we got what we paid for, but they were insistent that we be refunded. 

The running total now is three orders of BONUTS and a full refund because they were sorry for the wait.  I mean that is over and above customer service.  Not just here is your order, but here is your money back as well and oh let’s give you another order.  That is exceptional service and that is what drives customer loyalty.

When we go back to the Nashville area again, where do you think we will be going.  When I hear friends and family are traveling there, what do you think I will tell them when I mention places to stop?

When we are serving customers, we need to think about the customer experience.  Not that others should perform the job that are supposed to, but if we come in contact with the customer and they express a need we need to serve them well also.  We need to make sure we do our best to give the customer a great experience. 

If we do serve the customer well and provide an exceptional experience then they will be like sales people for us.  Just like I am writing about my story to share with all of you.  Our customers will share with all of their friends and family about the exceptional experience. 

Keep that in mind when serving customers and how we approach them.  We need to give them an exceptional experience if we want to drive customer loyalty.  Not just a punch card, but experience is what generates customer loyalty.

Now the flip side to that is if we underserve and provide a poor customer experience, what do you think they will say about our organization. 

We reap what we sow.  Plant seeds of exceptional experience and we will reap a great harvest in the future.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Do You Know The Situation?

Ever wonder why some people just don’t follow our direction?  Ever hate having to interact with some people because you just know they are going to sabotage your plans?

In sales and in leadership, we have to deal with a lot of people.  Some might cringe at that and want to just order people to do something, but unfortunately when people are involved it is messy.  We can’t just simply demand things.

People have many things they are juggling on their day to day plates and we need to understand why they may be acting a certain way if we are going to be able to work with them.  I’m not talking about gossip stuff, but finding out what is going on.  Peel the onion to get to the less superficial level.  In cooking we learn that the deeper layers of an onion are the sweeter and most flavorful layers.  The same thing happens for learning more about people.  

If we simply put a label on someone because they are acting a certain way without know the facts behind the situation, how can we be justified in that?  We need to do better!

I have had a manager that has checked in with me periodically when they found out about a situation I was going through.  This meant the world to me as I was in the struggle of emotions, mental fatigue, and stress.  It affected my work, my attitude, and my success.  It actually kept me working for the organization instead of leaving because someone showed they cared.  This is how our employees and customers feel as well.

I have had many customers that were struggling through situations that I have been able to lend an ear to, a helping hand to, and simply showing that someone cared.  This helped them see that they were not alone in the situation and that others would lend a hand.  Even if it is just an ear to let someone vent.  People are meant to be around others.  We need others to know that they matter.

Ramsey Solutions in Tennessee mandates that managers know what is going on with their subordinates so that they can help, rally the team around the individual, and to mitigate pitfalls.  They know if a family member is going through a severe illness, if a baby is on the way, or some other major event.  This way they show that the team member is valued and cared for.  Showing people we care is vital for trust and influence.  It’s called empathy which unfortunately is in short supply lately.

Understanding the situation is crucial to helping solidify any issues that are popping up and so that we can move forward together.  If we don’t, we lose time on an already limited clock that is ticking down.  Gain more engagement and influence by understanding the situation that others are in and learn more about them so that they know they matter.  

Wouldn’t you rather associate with an organization that you feel values you?  Why not be that person that reaches out to customers and team members to let them know they matter as well.

Have a good week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Don’t Forget About Customer Service

I have walked into a local package delivery service and the customer service representative was obviously not having a great day.  I was talked to as if I had just spilled my sippy cup all over their carpet.  I was questioned as if I had put something inside that might explode with a raised eyebrow.  Finally, after the interrogation I was politely asked if I wanted to complete a customer service survey.  

I have been placed on hold and bounced between multiple departments of call centers and treated as if I was a burden on the representative from the other side of the phone.   I’ve been rudely supported and told to have a great day in a sarcastic tone as well.  

I have also experienced great service at organizations from IT people and have bought their product by the referral from that IT person.  They walked with me through the entire purchase and guided me away from extras that were not needed.  They did not leave my side until I was fully satisfied with the product and thanked me.  That is right they actually thanked me for spending time with them.

The interesting thing is though is that does not matter what the position in the organization is whether it be CEO, a sales person, an engineer, or a janitor.  We are a representative of the organization to the outside world.  We have the opportunity to build up or tear down the reputation of our organization by how we treat others.  We are ambassadors for the organizations we represent.  We need to keep that in mind when we are sporting our organization’s name, at events, and even what we post on social media.  We are all in customer service.

It also does not matter if we are not a paid employee of the organization either.  When people see us representing an organization, they are making the association no matter our affiliation.  People will make their perceptions based on the people they interact with.   

I have had people in organizations tell me they don’t care if a customer likes it or not because they don’t have to interact with the customer regularly.  It’s frankly, not their job.  Unfortunately, what these individuals don’t understand is that the customer is buying products / services that are in turn funding the individual’s paycheck.  Make enough customers stop buying from you and then you are looking for other employment. 

When the customer has a bad experience now, they are able to send all over the world in a matter of seconds.  The customer can influence their friend network faster than ever sharing their story.  Organizations do not have the ability to respond to every negative comment on all of the social media platforms.  There is just too much area to cover, but we can make sure we do our part and give the customer a great experience each and every time we interact with them.  

No one is above customer service.  We are all serving customers.  Whether we like it or not, our organizations are judged by how we interact with others.  Make the interaction a positive one.  Be courteous, helpful, gracious, and humble. 

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with higher profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Why You Need Customer Trust

Have you ever bought something from a salesperson you just didn’t like or trust?  If you did, how did it make you feel afterwards?  When is the last time you made a large purchase from someone you didn’t trust?  Likely never.

Today we are talking about why building trust with the customer is important.

There are three questions that everyone asks themselves about us when they meet with us.  Every time!  These questions are:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

See that second question?  Trust is a highly important question that has to be answered by us for the customer.  If we don’t answer that question with our actions and words lining up, then the customer will move on down the road to our competitors that offer similar products / services. 

Trust is extremely important with most of our major decisions.  I define major decisions as decisions that cost over $500, or life changing decisions.  Some use gut feelings, some use research, and some use advisors.  The fact remains that trust is a part of every major decision.  If we do not have trust, we do not act.  This is why most consumers ask friends and family who they should talk to about a product / service.  They are searching for a trusted advisor.

Today it is so easy to find options for a product / service that we need.  Just hop online and do a quick search.  When the customer is coming in to talk to us, they are trusting that we will help them.  We need to make sure that we have that in mind when we serve the customer.  We as sales professionals need to be showing up to serve the customer and being open and honest of where we can and can not help them.  Focusing on how we can better grow the relationship and trust with that individual / organization. 

Customers are not just looking for a transactional experience.  They want to be known and heard.  They want people that will advocate for them to find solutions that will benefit them the best.  Customers want a relationship.  We as humans are born to crave a sense of community and value.  Customers want that as well.  Why do you think there are so many Facebook groups out there today?  People want community.

When people trust us, they share more information with us.  Not their deepest darkest secrets, but they will share more and more as trust is built.  I have had customers tell me about future RFQ’s that I could look forward to and worked with my teams to be more prepared so I was able to achieve success.  That would not have happened had I not built great levels of trust with these customers. 

To build trust I use a simple equation that I call the Trust Equation.  It uses variable such as credibility, reliability, vulnerability, and selfishness and puts them into a simple equation to help us build trust effectively and quickly with customers.  This equation also focuses on a long-term approach to building a great amount of influence with the customers. 

Now, there is a great deal to discuss on trust such as how to build it, the different levels of trust needed depending on proximity to others, and how to keep growing trust.  That is why I created the “Trustworthy” training to help people like yourself understand and build trust quickly. 

If you’d like to check out it click here to be taken to the training.  It’s worth the investment. 

Today, lets make sure we are focused on building trust with our customers. 

Build trust with your customer and you will reap greater rewards! 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What is the Best Sales Strategy

Welcome back,

Today we are going to go through what a good sales strategy is because this comes up quite often with sales teams.  What is your strategy to win the sale?  Most of the time the sales person is thinking on the fly and often falters when pressed for details.  This is also when the sales person is confronted that thinking on the fly is not going to work.

With the sales landscape ever evolving, sales people need to have a good sales strategy. 

Here is what I have use as my sales strategy: 

Have a plan to serve the customer with a process that walks with them through their five buying decisions

That’s my sales strategy.  I want to serve the customer and walk with them through their five buying decisions in a way that allows them to buy the best product that meets their needs.  In order to do this. I must do a few things.

I must build rapport and trust with the customer.  If I know who I am meeting with, I can do research on them to learn about them and their families.  If I don’t have that option, or want to learn more, I can ask questions.   A great deal of questions to understand them and their needs.

The easiest way to build trust and rapport is to learn about customers.  We need to make sure we are learning about the customer because if we are not doing so, the three major questions that the customer has will go unanswered.  Do I like you? Do I trust you? How can you help me?  These three questions if unanswered spell defeat for a sales person because the first buying decision for a customer is in fact the sales person.  If we do not know, like, and trust the sales person, we are not going to buy from them.  Especially when there are so many options out in the marketplace.

The sales person is essential in growing the product line.  People buy from people. 

To help sales people I have created “The Sales Process Uncovered,” to help the sales person use the roadmap on how to sell effectively to customers.  It starts by asking a great deal of questions and the different types of questions needed to uncover the customer’s needs.  This process has worked in different industries, in different markets, and B2B as well as B2C sales.

That is right I use a process to solidify my strategy.  All the successful people use a process whether it for championships, expeditions to uncharted territories, or business.  Even those amazing Navy Seals that are the elite of the elite use a process for preparing for a mission.  Those individuals use a process to plan, action, review, and do it over again. 

If you want to have a great sales strategy, you need to implement a sales processes that will help us walk with our customer.  By doing so influence actually increases with the customer and if we do a great job selling, the customer will start telling others why they need to do business with us.

Who wouldn’t want that? 

If we want to gain sales success, and achieve great goals, we need to have a plan and the easiest way to do that is have a process in place that is simple and repeatable for success. 

If you want to gain some more insight about the sales process uncovered and how it can help you, click here.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Short Term Profits, or Raving Fans, Which Do You Prefer

Good morning everyone. 

Last week we spoke about customer loyalty.  Today let’s talk about how to generate “Raving Fans” which is what we all want.  Have you ever been to a concert standing next to thousands of other people singing the same lyrics as you as the band performs on stage?  Have you ever been to a sporting event where you and the people around you are cheering for your team and sharing memories of how WE beat the rivals?  How about a restaurant experience that you couldn’t help but tell others that they need to go to?  Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had that kind of following for our businesses? 

In today’s world it is easier to get a company launched and with social media it is even faster to come to market with new products.  Business owners are trying to find the quick ways to generate profits and return customers.

Here’s the secret sauce for doing this.  It takes time!  Sad, but true it takes time to generate loyal customers and raving fans.  As a business owner we need to define what we want.  Do we want short-term profits or long-term success?

When customers buy a product / service from most organizations that is the end of the transaction.  Unfortunately, the 90 days after a purchase are the most crucial for the customer.  They need our help to be successful with this new investment.  If we simply take the payment and say, “Good Luck!”  we’ll be looking at lower sales in the future.  Without repeat customers and customers reaching out to others on our behalfs, we will have to keep pushing hard with effort to grow sales.  We need to serve our customers well, or suffer the consequences of burn out and becoming a commodity. 

The 90 days after a purchase are crucial to make sure the customer is using the product or service to its full potential.  Think about some of the products / services we have bought only for them to be collecting dust because we did not know how to use them properly.  We fell that infomercial we watched late at night lied to us. 

Today with social media being easily accessed a small business owner can reach all customers with emails, videos, and webinars at the click of a button and with low cost.  Why not make sure the customer has all the tools to help them be successful with our products?  What about group events when we travel to a city to invite those customers out to network and offer support?

No magic, just simply focusing on the customer to make sure they are successful.  They are investing their hard, earned money with us so we need to treat them like they are making an investment in us.  Customers are taking a risk on our products / service so let’s help them be successful.  Constantly reaching out with successful tips and trick and not just selling the customer something else is how we serve them well!  

I have read a great book called “Fanology” by the David and Reiko Scott.  They have great insight on how organizations have generated awesome fan bases that sustain long-term success.  One part of the book that really stopped me and made me think was this quote:

“The relationships we build with our customers are more important than the products and services we sell to them.”

If we want to generate more “FANS” for our products / services we need to focus on how we can make them successful with our products / services that we offer.  If we are not focused on serving the customer and building relationships with them, then our products / services become a commodity.  The only differentiating factor in a commodity is price.  It’s also not sustainable for long term growth for your organization because each day there are similar products coming to market for a cheaper price.

Focus on making the customer successful and building a relationship with them.  Wouldn’t it be awesome serving and connecting with customers so well that they become fans and sell our products / services for us?  Who wouldn’t want that a sales force that we don’t have to pay because they are so passionate about our product / service?

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Customer Loyalty, We Want It Right?

Good morning everyone,

Everywhere you look you see articles on how to build customer loyalty.  Just about every major retailer has a loyalty program.  Offers are given with point systems in hopes of retaining customers.  These are all great things, but there is one area that businesses are falling short.

What about the new customer that does not know our brand and has no idea how awesome we are?  What are we doing today to keep them for a lifetime?  These individuals want to believe that if they join our “club” we are going to take care of them, but they have been taken advantage of so many times they may be a little skeptical.

All of us can be Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A in the future with lines for the drive through wrapping around parking lots and disrupting street traffic flow.  What we need to do is think about ways to serve customers so well that they want to keep coming back.

Both Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A do one thing really, really well.  It’s customer service.  That’s right they are always going above and beyond the call to serve the customer. This is resulting in customer loyalty, a Fanocrocy, and great business success even during pandemics.  People will literally wait in 20 min lines for a cup of coffee, and chicken sandwiches. 

Chick-Fil-A also has one thing they do every time they serve us when we say thank you.  They respond immediately with “it’s my pleasure.”  They literally ingrain each employee to be customer service focused.  It does not matter which location we to go, we still get great consistent service.

When an organization focuses only on profits and not on serving the customers it never ends well.  Doing the right thing consistently over time creates loyalty.  Making sure we have set up a solid customer service focus no matter how long the customers have been doing with us is key to achieving customer loyalty.

Focusing only on maintaining the customers we currently have loyalty with will erode as they expire.  Yes, I have checked the data everyone expires!  If we only focus on those that have bought several products from us to generate loyalty at the risk of making things right for a new customer, we will LOSE!!!

Too many organizations focus on short term profits.  One main driver for this is publicly traded companies focusing on making their stock holders more money as their main goals.  All organizational goals serve this one main goal.  How do we make shareholders more money? 

Organizations should also not focus on helping only those that have pledged loyalty to their brand, but consistently doing the right thing to generate future loyal “Fans.”  When “Fans” pledge their loyalty to us, they tell others how awesome our organization are.  They share stories of how we have helped them and rave about our service.  We have sales people selling for us that are not on our payroll.  Wouldn’t you like that?

Do not take the customer’s payment and walk away from the transaction waiting to see if the customer will buy from us again before we give extra effort.   Give the extra effort up front and every time we engage people and we will be rewarded!

Check back in next week and I’ll help you with a few ideas on how to grow more loyal customers and some ideas of how to gain more fans that will sell your brand.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Customer Loyalty, What Not To Do...

Good morning everyone,

Everywhere you look you see articles on how to build customer loyalty.  Just about every major retailer has a loyalty program.  Offers are given with point systems in hopes of retaining customers.  These are all great things, but there is one area that businesses are falling short.

What about the new customer that does not know your brand and has no idea how awesome you are?  What are you doing for them to attract them?

They have no loyalty to you, or anyone.  These customers are lost in the space of who to pledge their loyalty to.  These individuals want to believe that if they join your “club” you are going to take care of them, but they have been taken advantage of so many times they are skeptical.

One story I share as of recent is from a personal experience with a large manufacturer of automobiles.  I have owned a vehicle from a company that I will not name, but their initials are “G and M.”  I take care of my vehicles with great maintenance to make sure they last a long time.  This current vehicle has roughly 62,000 miles on it.  In relative terms nothing major should happen to this vehicle for quite a while.  I also have a 100,000 mile warranty that had the five years recently expire.

On my way home the truck showed me a message of no oil pressure and to turn off the engine.  After the truck was towed to the dealer it was understood that the oil pump had failed and that a new one was needed for the cost of $2500 for parts and labor.  After some research I have found that this organization has a bulletin out for these oil pumps failing.  This means that this is not a rare occurrence. 

I contacted the factory rep and met with him at the dealership.  We will call him Richard to protect his identity.  When reviewing the case about possible assistance Richard stated that they take in account if the customer has had multiple vehicles from this brand in to account if they would help...  I asked him if I was hearing correctly.  If I had bought more vehicles from your organization in the past then your organization would be willing to help?  He confirmed.  Keep in mind there have been some major recalls on the vehicle including the braking system failing that the government had to step in and force this organization to mandate a recall.

When an organization focuses only on profits and not on serving the customers whether they have been life long, or are new customers, it never ends well.  Doing the right thing consistently is what creates loyalty.

Focusing only on maintaining the customers you currently have loyalty with will erode as they expire.  Yes, I have checked the data everyone expires!  If you only focus on those that have bought several products from you to generate loyalty at the risk of making things right for a new customer, you will LOSE!!!

Profits and losses should be tempered and not focused on for the short term which most organizations think.  Organizations should also not focus on helping only those that have pledged loyalty to their brand, but consistently doing the right thing to generate future loyal “Fans”  When “Fans” pledge their loyalty to you, they tell others how awesome you and your organization are.  They share stories of how you have helped them and rave about your service.  You have sales people selling for you that are not on your payroll.  Would you like that?

The results in 2019 did not fare so well for “G and M” and another OEM outsold them for the first time in the truck market.  I wonder what that means to the stock price?

Do not take the customer’s payment and walk away from the transaction waiting to see if the customer will  buy from you again before you give extra effort.   Give the extra effort up front and every time you engage people!

Next week I will help you with a few ideas on how to grow more loyal customers and some ideas of how to gain more fans that will sell your brand.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What is your Talk Trigger?

Where do you go when you are looking for a product / service that is new to you? 

Where do you get your knowledge from in order to make a decision?

Have you ever used a service / product that one of your friends or family members recommended?

Most of us spend hours searching for what products / services we need on Google, Bing, maybe Yahoo, etc.  We then pull together data on what features and benefits that meet our needs.  The challenging thing to know is where to get the product / service from.  Most will next move directly to price as being the main differentiator when figuring out who to buy from.  This typically ends up with an unsatisfied customer experience.  Remember the old saying, “the cheapest price is not always the best option.” – some very wise and very old person 

There is however a way to mitigate a bad customer experience when buying a product / service.  That is to obtain a recommendation from those we trust.  A recommendation of where to buy the product / service is a very essential part of the buying process and is actually the second of five buying decisions that customers have to make.  I’m not talking about small purchases like socks here.  I’m talking about purchases of $50 or more. 

Think back to the last time you received recommendations.  Did you first start with friends and family members for recommendations, or did you just use the first supplier that showed up on the internet?  Recommendations from friends and family members are valued at 27% more than advertising and online ads when making a larger purchase.

People would rather buy from someone they know, like, and trust rather than a big box store.  This is also why when looking for recommendations people will consult with their friends and family members first before picking a place to buy from.  It’s because the customer trusts their friends and family members more than any other advertising.  Even the top-rated celebrity that people use for product recommendations is only 4% effective.  Sorry Oprah…

If you are a business owner, sales professional, or marketing professional, understand that a customer experience that creates a “talk trigger” is worth more than all the marketing combined.  Focus on providing exceptional service and an experience to your customers and watch your customer base grow.  Repeat customers are where profits are made, not on the one-time sale.  Repeat purchases from the same people lowers cost and helps you with stability.  These repeat customers will also act as your free sales force and they will generage a larger impact when they refer their friends and family to you!  Advertising that you cannot pay for!

Customers want a great experience and it is up to us to provide such an experience that people want to talk about to their friends and family.  It’s not about making that extra percent, its about helping our customers have a better experience so they win when they buy from us. 

Some examples of companies killing it in this arena are Five Guys (so many fries dumped into your bag), WindorONE lumber (call kirk for a shirt), Holiday World (free pop for all guests), Skip’s Kitchen (free lunch if you pick the joker), and New Zealand Airlines (seats that fold up to a couch for long flights).  These examples are what people share when the do business with these organizations.

What are you currently doing to achieve that goal of exceptional customer experience driving repeat sales?  

For more information on talk triggers pick up the book called “Talk Triggers” and start generating yours with your customers!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com