What are the top things businesses (big or small) do that anger customers, that chase away potential clients? We as customers know them all too well:
keeping one on hold for centuries,
not calling back or responding to calls,
difficulty saying sorry for mistakes made and
hardly saying THANK YOU.
These 4 things are powerful emotional triggers and can easily make a potential customer transfer their loyalty to your competitor in a fit of reactionary vengeance. When we have surmounted the Herculean task of truly understanding our customers' pain points and have gone the extra mile of developing a powerful solution to their problems, it goes without saying that we need to maintain the resultant business relationship at all costs if we wish to have a company that defies time.
We maintain this relationship by watching how we respond to customer needs. We watch how we respond to their needs in much the same way we would someone we love: by addressing challenges promptly, returning missed calls, calling back when we said we will, saying sorry when we have wronged the customer, and finally thanking them for their business.
When you fail to respond in this fashion, you tempt your customer to dump you and move on to a better 'lover'.
I was a director at a company once and the managing director had an interesting way of showing her appreciation and gratitude towards her customers: every year she would list her top 20 customers and set out by giving EACH of them a 2kg white forest cake complete with a thank-you card. She delivered each of these cakes personally and each cake cost her about $35. That's $700 in thank-you cakes a year.
What was the result of this heartfelt customer appreciation?
quality business referrals from these very clients
prompt payments of overdue debts
a sense of satisfaction and purpose
continued business
You see, behind every brand, logo, building, or reception table is a human being like you and me. They want to be appreciated, respected, remembered, acknowledged, understood, and seen. A cake can do all of those things, presented well. And once you tap into the emotional place of your customers you can definitely access their wallets.
This managing director was able to access new business, brand-led clientele, and create amazing networks erstwhile unknown to her by using the principle of the thank-you business.
What thank-you strategies are you incorporating into how you run your business today?
The author, Jan Okonji is an entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and Founder of the Pan-African accelerator BGS – Business Growth Solutions.
Jan is passionate about helping employees transition safely into entrepreneurship whilst turning their great ideas into profitable businesses and has helped entrepreneurs collectively grow their revenue to over $ 10 Million in the course of running BGS.
Get in touch with him and book a personal session HERE
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