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The
Proper Care And Feeding Of Your Customers
With
the warmer season behind us, I really look forward
to this time of year more than ever. As the days
start cooling off, the nights turn brisk, and we
start preparing for a deluge of upcoming holidays,
Autumn is a great time of year. This is also a
good time to plant new seasonal flora and foliage
in your yard. It also brings to mind the lessons
we learned a few Springs ago when my wife and I
got inspired to go shopping for shrubbery and
flowers to accent our landscaping. So, we ventured
out to our local nursery and trudged through the
mud to gratify our botanical desires.
Being
new residents to Nevada at the time, my wife and I
had a lot to learn about desert flora. There are
many choices and decisions to make. However, the
biggest choice, which has little to do with
geography, is whether we wanted Perennials or
Annuals. How were we supposed to know? We knew
there were flowers that die each season and others
that return each year, but we didn't know what
they were called or how to control this miracle of
nature. Since we never did this before, we pleaded
ignorance and asked for help. What we learned was
that Perennials come back every year and Annuals
last only for one season and never come back. So
why not just buy plants that come back every year
and forget about it? Sounds pretty simple,
doesn't it? Well, not quite. There's a price
to pay for the yearly return of these flowering
marvels.
While
Annuals don't need much tending to, aside from
routine watering, it seems that Perennials require
a bit more caring.
Perennials need to be fed, they need to be weeded,
they need insecticides, they need pruning, and
they need continuous attention to ensure their
healthy growth, and therefore return, each and
every year.
At
this point I began to think about work and my
customers and saw a striking resemblance. Being
somewhat of a workaholic, and since sales training
and customer retention strategies are some of the
main reasons for my existence, or at least for my
business (www.PeakSalesConsulting.com),
this analogy isn't as far fetched as it may
seem. It occurred to me that customers are like
flowers and you can treat them either like
Perennials or Annuals. Sure, you can acquire a new
customer, sell them what they need, and then move
on to the next prospective buyer. These customers
will blossom nicely for a while with their new
product or service. You can even use them as a
showcase, or reference account, to show other
prospects what a good job you do for your
customers. However, without continuous care and
attention, they will eventually die off, not as a
business entity or individual of course, but as a
customer of yours. You will lose them as a client.
Like an Annual, their flowers will fall off and
they will wither away and never return.
With
the costs of acquiring new customers being as much
as 7 to 10 times higher than selling to your
existing customers, according to studies, why
would any business not want to do everything they
can to retain their existing customers? This, of
course, requires businesses to treat their
customers like Perennials, not Annuals. With
constant care and attention, your customers will
remain loyal and dedicated to your business.
They'll keep coming back year after year
flowering you with more business.
It's
not sufficient, either, to simply care for your
customers "just enough" to keep them from
complaining. If you barely water and feed your
Perennials just enough for them to flower and
return each year, you will more than likely only
get marginal results. The flowers will be sparse
and lackluster. Likewise, if you simply keep your
customers satisfied, you may also get marginal
results. Today, customers are so used to poor
service and performance that they have learned to
accept mediocrity as the norm. It's a sad state
of affairs, but an unfortunate reality in
today's business world. As a result, when
customers receive minimum service and attention,
they may only appear "satisfied" for the
simple reason that they were not treated poorly or
negatively. This sort of treatment will never
yield a fully blossoming relationship, nor any
loyalty to your company.
Marginal
service will yield marginal results. Consequently,
loyalty and commitment to your business will
suffer. Your so-called "satisfied"
clients will migrate to another competitor as soon
as they see a better offer. What many businesses
don't realize is that the relationship begins,
not ends, after the sale is made. Once the sale is
made, this is your time to shine and show the
customer what you are really all about.
What
is needed is exceptional service – above and
beyond what is expected. Your customers should be
so happy with your service, support and attention
that they actually tell other people about their
experience with your business. This is what Dr.
Ken Blanchard calls "Raving Fans" (see Dr.
Blanchard's book entitled "Raving Fans",
William Morrow and Company, Inc.). If you take
really good care of your Perennials, they will
come back year after year in full bloom and
continue to grow and prosper. Your customers will
do the same.
So
now that we have a beautiful floral garden in our
yard,  we expect to see it grow and flourish every
year with proper care and feeding. Your customer
base is the same way. They are your garden and you
have to take proper care
of them so you can enjoy them
year after year. This is called "Customer
Lifecycle Management" You market to suspects,
sell to prospects, and support customers. As you
ensure your customers are happy Raving Fans, you
continue to market and sell to them. This
continuous cycle is more
cost-effective and efficient for you, and better
for your clients since they continue to benefit
from what you have to offer and from your lifetime
relationship.
Now,
it's off to the garden to do some weeding. My
only challenge now is how to get all this mud off
my shoes.
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