4 Secrets to Building Sustainable Businesses- Imagining your Customer is YOU!

Have you gotten to listen to what they want?

In today’s rapidly evolving economy, everything seems to be moving at such lightning speed that it seems hard to keep up. I mean, was I the only one that had to look up what centricity meant? It wasn't even in the Oxford dictionary some few years back.

With so much excitement and buzz about the latest initiatives and development, we continue to race breathlessly forward towards creating something that will be loved by people, the type of product/service that will be consistently purchased by the people we want to call life-time customers.

It is an inarguable fact that customer service or customer experience as it is now being referred to by different organizations is at the core of any thriving business, no matter the size or industry. Gone are those days when companies could call the total shot and could get away with telling their customers to take their tantrums somewhere else. They couldn't care less back then as there were no standard nor functioning platform for customers to vent and share their purchasing tales of woes from various company.

Flash-forward to the millennial and the web is now bursting at the rims with various platforms to air different grievances and experiences from manufacturers and organizations that are giving less than the desired customer experience. Just putting a call through to a call center and not getting any response within 30 seconds will find the aggrieved customer swiftly posting on Twitter or Facebook to share the embarrassing experience, while complaining of lost airtime even though it may be a toll free line. It doesn't and wouldn't matter. In the here and now, the customer rules the organisation and deserves the crown. As a result, companies now understand that they must continue to invest heavily in their customers happiness and satisfaction to generate more lead businesses. It is neither finance, strategy, nor technology that leads to consistent and repeat business but CUSTOMER SERVICE/CENTRICITY. Customer Centricity remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful yet so rare.

Adding the term, “customer-centricity” to a mission or vision statement isn't enough as many organisations seem to think. There are various steps to delivering good customer service as well as growing a company that is customer-centric and which focuses most, if not all of its objective goals around its customers.

It's really about your customers. Leave the stage please!

THINK LIKE YOUR CUSTOMER - For an organisation to achieve customer-centricity requires rethinking the way the business is done. Everyone knows how to think like a customer because everyone was a customer at some point. Now, think about your experience as a customer either recently or sometime in the past. What impressed you and made you want to go back to that business? The baritone voice of the Customer Service Rep at the end of the phone who you could swear was quite good looking and boy, did he just sound so good as he kept apologizing and assuring you this would be resolved within the hour? Or was it the gorgeous ebony skinned lady with the never ending legs at that company’s front desk? What irritated you and ensured you would never return? The gum snapping Customer Rep who kept interrupting every complaint with an excuse or kept asking you to hold on without as much as a please? 

Advice -Make your business do more of the first and less of the second. Start building a strong customer centric team that understands your business is still existing because of your customers.

Can you hear what is not being said?

TO YOUR CUSTOMER, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'CUSTOMERS'- When a customer purchases a product or service from you and experiences some glitch, when they place a call to you or visit your organisation, they are concerned with just one person- THEMSELVES. They see their own self as an individual with individual needs and they expect you to treat it as such. The last thing your customer wants to hear from you or your Customer Service rep is “our other customers are experiencing the same thing”, “this is a very generic issue and we assure you it is not an isolated one”. Frankly, that’s the wrong form of assurance to give to your customer. Because they don't care what other customers think or want or like or are going through, they expect you to ask what they think, want and are experiencing. The minute you begin to treat your customer as 'customers', they will come to the quick conclusion that you really don't care about them, and go looking for a business that does. And in our extremely dynamic world where your competitors are literally waiting at the door step of your organisation to poach your customers, it is very key that you consider your customers as the golden goose that lays the only golden egg in the world.

Advice- Get rid of your customer service policy or ensure your Customer Service Reps do not give out the policy in a scripted autonomous voice whenever the customer calls, except where necessary or when the customer seems to be taking advantage of the leverage. Customers hate policies because they realize that the policy is more important to you than they are. Train your staff on how to deliver customer service.

Every complaint from your customer is feedback and an opportunity to improve. Listen!

ASK FOR YOUR CUSTOMER’S OPINION & FEEDBACK – Every customer believes that the money he/she has used to purchase from your company was what was used to build that new office, buy those new set of trucks or used to purchase another manufacturing machine. It does not matter that they had purchased a few Naira/Dollar/Pounds worth just a key holder. Once a customer shops from you, they believe they have contributed to the continued success of your company and as such, they expect to be treated like a major stakeholder. This is what every customer wants from your business. They have a problem that needs a solution, and they will give their money to the person who helps them solve it. And they will expect you to ask them how they want that problem solved. They don’t want you to assume you know what they want. They want you to ask. They want you to help them identify what their problem is, explore options about how to solve it, respect their choice and then help them achieve it. Customers don't care about your business or your products, only about how you can help them. Sounds selfish but if I am spending my money somewhere, I want to be considered important enough for my problems to be prioritized for solution.

Advice- For repeat customers, ensure you have their personal and sales history with your company stored and have your Customer Service Rep contact them periodically to ask for their feedback and opinion on past service and how it could be better. Many customers may complain at this point and even offer unrealistic advice but deep down, there will be that satisfaction knowing they were called by their first name from a company such as yours and to top it all, you wanted their opinion. Nothing would trump that feeling. And guess who would be coming back to make more purchases and possibly refer people to your business?

Doesn't matter their social status. To you, your customer has got be treated like a king.

MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS IMPORTANT - A restaurant manager once told his staff, "The customers are not here to eat food or drink wine. They can do that at home. They are here to be treated as if they are important; as if they are royalty. Do that and they will reward you for it”. Most customers aren't unreasonable (Ok, maybe most are) but they know there are limitations on what you can do for them. But they expect you to do as much as you can. Don't just make them important because they are your customer. Just make them important and they’ll want to be your customer time and again.

Advice- Inform them on newer updates regarding a product. For instance, if a customer wants to purchase an electronic item by November 1st and the electronic item’s price is intended to be slashed in 4 days’ time, you can inform that customer letting them know they can hold on from purchasing immediately as there will be a price slash on that product and would they want you to reserve one for them while you call them back in 4 days to remind them to place that order? Be rest assured that by doing this, you have bought the said customer’s brand loyalty and guess who would be going on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram to gush about the customized Customer Service they just got?

So, as a business owner whether small, medium or large, are you treating your customers like real people, or just some voices over the telephone, or a statistic figure on your latest digital infographic or just some fresh new policies you recently showed your latest investors?

Understand this- For your business to succeed in our current dynamic economy, the stakes are very high. Failing to deliver a high-quality customer experience at this day and age WILL result in a staggering erosion of your organisation’s customer base. Your customer is your king. Learn to treat them as such.