5 Ways to Keep Your Customer’s Passionate About You: Creating “Customer Devotion”
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009Customer Devotion is NOT Customer Satisfaction. It’s not even close.
Think about the last time you went for pizza or a burger. Were you satisfied? Did it meet your expectations? The chances are it did. You got what you ordered and there wasn’t anything wrong or missing, and so you were satisfied. Does this mean you could not imagine a world without this pizza or burger joint? Does this mean that you would go out of your way to make sure that you let everyone know what they would be missing if they did not get eat there? Probably not.
What happened here is that your expectations were met. Quite simply, you got what you thought you were going to get. That, my friends, is customer satisfaction. Who, in this competitive market, would ever think this is enough? I hope you don’t, because you better believe your customers don’t. And, just what if your competition doesn’t either?
What we are talking about here is true passion - a Devotion to your Customers. When you align customer devotion with your business strategy, you will be able to differentiate yourself, energize your workplace and WOW your customers.
Here are just five things to keep in mind as you contemplate your journey into Customer Devotion:
1. Discover and positively impact your customers emotional trigger points:
Take, for example, buying a car. What are the emotional trigger points? Browsing the showroom/lot. Taking the car for a test drive. Negotiating the deal. Waiting…does buyers remorse set in? Did you make the right decision? Picking up your new vehicle. Now it’s yours. Are you thrilled?
Now do this for your customer. Each transition represents an emotional trigger point. Each is an opportunity to WOW your customer. What will you do to make every step of the experience exquisite for your customer? How devoted are you willing to be? Maximize your opportunity to differentiate yourself from day one.
2. Create 10 positive customer Touchpoints:
Get out a pencil and paper right now and jot down 10 points of contact you have, or can create, with your customers - 10 opportunities to interact. Your goal is to make sure you have a positive communication for each of these 10 touch points.
Never let the only time they hear from you be when they get their monthly bill and when there is a problem. It takes, at the very least, 7 positives to negate one negative in the human mind. So to really WOW your customers, provide 10 positive touchpoints.
3. Employee Devotion: The other most important relationship you should build.
Verified by numerous research entities, the single most predictive indicator of customer loyalty is employee engagement. The better you are able to manage your team and provide what is necessary to create truly loyal and engaged employees, the easier they will make your job in creating customers that are passionate about you. Read: Internal Marketing!
Make it your goal to create an engaged team. Take the guesswork out of it. Measure your results regularly and make course corrections as necessary to ensure your success. Develop an Action Plan, hold managers accountable for results and never compromise on excellence. Consider Employee Engagement an important strategic initiative in your Customer Devotion success.
4. What messages are you giving your customers through their experience? Evaluate all communications to your customers:
Be an actor for a day. Walk in the shoes of your customer. Start at the beginning and follow through to the end - seeing and experiencing it from your customers’ point of view: through their eyes, ears, nose, and emotions. This might sound silly or easy, but it is hard to be objective, observant, and non-defensive. Don’t overlook a single thing…upturn every stone! What does your billing statement say? How about your website? How the phones are answered, doors opened, guests greeted? What does your newsletter say about who you are? Is your message congruent?
Get specific: do You, your staff, your blog, marketing “slick”, business card, email signature, sales letter, flyer, Ezine, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, voicemail greeting - all of it - does it all give the same congruent message? Do you, and your organization, ooze integrity?
If you find it difficult to be objective, consider enlisting someone to “secret-shop” your operations for you. Provide a checklist and a rating system. Be willing and open to making some changes in order to be sure every communication you make sends a consistent and appealing message to your customers.
5. Create Loyal, um let’s take it a step further…DEVOTED Customers:
The basis of loyalty is TRUST: Consistency. Reliability. Promises KEPT. Integrity. Customers readjust their evaluation of us, of their level of trust, with each service experience they have. True loyalty grows within people based on a series of notable interactions they have, over time, with a company’s products and services.
Our goal must be to exceed our customers’ expectations. Keep in mind that customers’ expectations are not static, they change rapidly. Customer Devotion means that it is our mission to stay ahead of the changes - and never let your customer down.
Customer Devotion is ‘wowing’ your customers - and creating the Exquisite Customer Experience. It requires creating an ongoing, lasting, emotional connection and relationship. It means developing a deep engagement and creating the ‘wow’ experience repeatedly. It’s beyond being consistent. Way beyond. Customer Obsession is about having a mindset that serves to create a continuing set of ‘wow’ moments for your customers over time.
If you would like devoted customers and an engaged workforce, I invite you to take advantage of our expertise in developing Customer Devotion and Employee Engagement.
You will reap the rewards that are inherent in a highly engaged team, and your increased profit margin will put your mind at ease.
About the author, Sonya Sullins:
Harness the power of your organizations biggest resource, and unleash lost profits through attracting and retaining the best. Sonya Sullins is the founder of Human Capital Management Institute, LLC. HCMI programs and principles enable organizations to make the most of the superstars they have, gain the attention of the superstars they don’t employ (but would like to), and effectively manage poor performers. The key is Employee Engagement - without that, you will struggle to sustain maximum profitability, especially in this challenging economic environment.
Our focus is on leveraging and maximizing human capital (the talent, education, strengths, skills, etc. of your workforce). We specialize in increasing Employee Engagement. Engaged employees result in increased Retention, Productivity and Customer Devotion. Organizations with highly engaged employees increase their profits, on average, by 27% (based on Gallup University research and as evidenced by outcomes),
HCMI is adept at identifying and implementing the crucial elements of Cultural Transformation and aligning human capital initiatives with organizational strategy. As a speaker, consultant and writer, Sonya inspires senior executives and their teams to shatter the illusion that success, measured by aligning people with profit, is not possible. Let Sonya be your trusted advisor, using visionary leadership and her corporate experience to help you exceed your goals, and transform your organizational culture.
Contact us now at 877-HUMAN10 (877-486-2610) or 608.279.0691
Email: SonyaSullins@hcmi.info