Essential attitudes for D-A-T-I-N-G your customer

by James Feldman

Think your customers are satisfied? Maybe. Unfortunately, customer satisfaction doesn’t always lead to customer loyalty.

These days, even if your customers are completely satisfied with your product or service, 40 percent of them will leave you and start doing business with your competition.

On the surface, 40 percent may not seem like that much. After all, more than half of your satisfied customers are coming back. But in dollars and cents, 40 percent is costing you more than you may think, because attracting new customers can cost more than double the amount it takes to attract repeat business from your existing customer base.

What’s the solution? Quite simply, in order to retain all your customers and increase your sales, you need to go beyond customer satisfaction and develop the rapport that will make your customers adore you. Only then will you achieve true customer loyalty.

It is not a simple process that offers a one-size-fits-all approach. In fact, we believe that you need to customize your service to fit your customer. Treat each customer as an individual.

Making customers happy is not new. Most of the concepts I offer here are not unusual. You know what good customer service looks like when you see it. Our goal is to bring the customer back. We want to put smiles on each customer's face.

However, before we exceed expectations, we must understand that unhappy employees cannot make the customer happy. Customer service should focus on two types of customers: the external (person buying the product or service) and the internal customer (those providing the product or service).

The external customer
The good news is that developing exceptional customer rapport is easy. Since only 60 percent of your satisfied customers do business with you again, you need to continually improve your customer relation skills and build rapport with each and every person who walks through your door.

You need to give every satisfied customer a reason to come back, while enticing new prospects to do business with you in the first place.

It is just like dating. In the past, the challenge of dating was very different. Men and women wanted a partner, someone to share their life, offer security and a family. Today, that may have changed.

We all seem to want someone who supports us on all levels, including physical needs as well as emotional, spiritual, social, mental, financial and not necessarily family development. It is no longer enough to find someone to marry us. We want partners in every sense, in every area of life.

This has required us to update our dating skills. To refine whom we are and how we communicate to others. It has become more of a skill and our potential partner has become more interested in the entire package instead of one major area of focus, such as physical attraction. We want it all. And so it is the same in attempting to obtain customers and exceed expectations.

When you go beyond customer satisfaction and create true customer loyalty, you develop long-term relationships, which lead to increased profits. The end result is clients who love you and a business that grows and thrives.

The internal customer
Internal customers are as important as external customers.

Teams are normally made up of a gathering of far-flung and unlikely associates with a goal. Bringing them together is not enough to be the best.

Along the way, your company must remember that the costs associated with building a team equal more than salaries and bonuses. In fact, creating great internal customer service is one of the few appreciating assets in any company.

The investment is sometimes long-term, without repayment and often frustrating. You must be prepared to make the long-term investment rather than looking for short-term returns.

In order to guarantee your investment, you must continue to deposit funds in anticipation of the return. Most businesses cannot be reduced to a handful of procedures. Your associates need to learn to think on their feet, improvise and exercise judgment. To accomplish this goal you need a team approach to create great internal customer service.

Teams cannot be built until the basics are understood and in place. When you think of great teams do you think of the individuals or the team? 

Great individuals may not make a winning team. For instance, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa competed for the title of home run king. Yet neither team won the World Series that year.

On the other hand, the Chicago Bulls not only set individual records, but as a team became NBA champions six times. They functioned as a team, with one goal, to be the best. Along the way, some individuals also became recognized but that was never the goal. The goal was for the team to win, not the individual.

People are the cornerstones for your success. A dissatisfied employee costs your company money, gives poor customer service and recruits others (externally and internally). They must be turned into a satisfied employee who desires to give exceptional service.

Focus on internal customer satisfaction prior to external customer satisfaction. Invest in retention. Look at what you are dealing with everyday, a kaleidoscope of change. It is a frenzied upheaval of traditional organization models. It should be no surprise that people are mentally scattered, stressed. Your major challenge is attention management.

Customers are looking for corporate commitment to customer satisfaction that exceeds their expectations. I believe that customer care is similar to dating.

You get prepared, you plan the meeting and you try to impress your date so that you get a second one. If you take the relationship for granted, it soon disappears.

This means that D-A-T-I-N-G your customer translates into:
D - Dazzle your customer.
A - Anticipate their needs.
T - Treat them the way you want to be treated.
I - Innovate in every area of your business including your policies.
N - Nurture the relationship with your internal customers (employees) and suppliers so that everyone can satisfy your external customer.
G - Guarantee that you stay in business by following these simple steps. Do it right the first time.

If we are not customer driven…our cars won’t be either. –Henry Ford

back to top                                          back to online exclusives