How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life, Revised Edition

1. The rewarded customer buys, multiplies, and comes back

The rewarded customer buys, multiplies, and comes back.

Customer rewards drive business success. This fundamental principle underpins all successful customer-driven organizations. When customers feel rewarded by their experience with a company, they not only make repeat purchases but also become brand advocates, multiplying the customer base through positive word-of-mouth. The key is to consistently exceed customer expectations, providing value beyond the basic transaction.

To implement this principle:

• Identify and understand your customers' needs and wants
• Deliver products and services that solve their problems or fulfill their desires
• Go above and beyond in customer interactions to create memorable experiences
• Follow up after purchases to ensure satisfaction and address any issues
• Implement loyalty programs or special perks for repeat customers

By focusing on rewarding customers at every touchpoint, businesses can create a virtuous cycle of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and growth.

2. Focus on what customers want and need, not on selling

People expect a certain reaction from a business and when you pleasantly exceed those expectations you've somehow passed an important psychological threshold.

Shift from selling to helping. The most successful businesses adopt a customer-centric approach, prioritizing customer needs over pushing products. This mindset transformation involves:

• Listening actively to understand customer pain points and desires
• Offering solutions tailored to individual customer needs
• Providing honest advice, even if it means not making an immediate sale
• Building long-term relationships based on trust and mutual benefit

By focusing on helping customers rather than selling to them, businesses naturally create more value and foster stronger customer loyalty. This approach leads to increased sales and customer retention in the long run, as customers appreciate and return to businesses that genuinely care about their well-being.

3. Customers only buy two things: good feelings and solutions to problems

Despite all of the untold millions of products and services for sale in today's market place, customers will exchange their hard-earned money for only two things: Good feelings and Solutions to problems.

Emotional and practical value drive purchases. Understanding this principle allows businesses to tailor their offerings and marketing strategies more effectively. To leverage this insight:

• Identify the emotional benefits of your products or services (e.g., confidence, peace of mind, excitement)
• Clearly articulate how your offerings solve specific customer problems
• Train staff to recognize and address both emotional and practical customer needs
• Design marketing messages that highlight both the feel-good aspects and problem-solving capabilities of your products

By focusing on these two core drivers of customer behavior, businesses can create more compelling value propositions and stronger connections with their target audience.

4. The customer's perception of service quality is everything

Perceived service quality is the difference between what they get and what they expect.

Shape positive customer perceptions. The reality of service quality is less important than how customers perceive it. To manage and improve perceived service quality:

• Set realistic expectations through honest marketing and communication
• Consistently deliver on promises to build trust
• Proactively address potential issues before they become problems
• Train employees to manage customer expectations effectively
• Regularly seek feedback to understand customer perceptions
• Use customer feedback to continuously improve service delivery

By actively managing customer perceptions and consistently exceeding expectations, businesses can create a reputation for excellent service that drives customer loyalty and business growth.

5. Ask and listen to keep customers for life

How are we doing? How can we get better?

Continuous improvement through customer feedback. Regularly asking customers for their opinions and genuinely listening to their responses is crucial for maintaining long-term relationships. To implement this strategy:

• Develop a systematic approach to gathering customer feedback (e.g., surveys, interviews, focus groups)
• Train employees to ask for and respond to customer feedback in real-time
• Create a culture that values and acts on customer input
• Use feedback to drive continuous improvement in products, services, and processes
• Close the feedback loop by informing customers how their input has led to changes

By consistently seeking and acting on customer feedback, businesses demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction and stay ahead of changing customer needs and expectations.

6. Manage moments of truth to create positive customer experiences

Whenever a customer comes into contact with a company, he comes away feeling better or worse about it.

Every interaction matters. Moments of truth are critical touchpoints where customers form lasting impressions about a company. To effectively manage these moments:

• Identify key customer touchpoints throughout the customer journey
• Train employees to recognize and handle moments of truth effectively
• Empower front-line staff to make decisions that benefit customers
• Develop standardized processes for common customer interactions
• Regularly review and improve the handling of critical moments of truth

By focusing on creating positive experiences during these crucial interactions, businesses can significantly improve overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

7. Reward employees for delivering exceptional customer service

What gets rewarded gets done.

Align incentives with customer-centric behavior. To create a customer-focused organization, it's essential to reward employees for delivering exceptional service. Implement a reward system that:

• Recognizes and celebrates outstanding customer service
• Ties performance evaluations and promotions to customer satisfaction metrics
• Provides financial incentives for meeting or exceeding customer service goals
• Offers non-monetary rewards such as additional time off or special privileges
• Encourages peer recognition for customer-centric actions

By directly linking rewards to customer service performance, businesses can motivate employees to consistently prioritize customer needs and deliver exceptional experiences.

8. Develop a customer-driven organizational culture

If the frontline people do count, you couldn't prove it by examining the reward systems in most organizations.

Culture drives behavior. Creating a truly customer-centric organization requires developing a culture that prioritizes customer needs at every level. To build this culture:

• Articulate clear customer-centric values and expectations
• Lead by example, with executives demonstrating customer-focused behavior
• Integrate customer-centric metrics into all aspects of business operations
• Hire for customer service aptitude and attitude
• Provide ongoing training and development in customer service skills
• Celebrate and share customer success stories throughout the organization

By embedding customer-centricity into the organizational DNA, businesses can create a sustainable competitive advantage that's difficult for competitors to replicate.

9. Handle complaints and objections as opportunities to build loyalty

A customer who complains is my best friend.

Turn negatives into positives. Complaints and objections provide valuable opportunities to demonstrate commitment to customer satisfaction and build stronger relationships. To effectively handle these situations:

• Train employees to remain calm and empathetic when facing complaints
• Develop a systematic approach to addressing and resolving customer issues
• Empower employees to make decisions that benefit the customer
• Follow up after resolving issues to ensure customer satisfaction
• Use complaints as valuable feedback for improving products and services

By viewing complaints as opportunities rather than problems, businesses can turn potentially negative situations into loyalty-building experiences that strengthen customer relationships and improve overall service quality.

Last updated: October 16, 2024