How to Attract and Keep Those Hard Earned Customers

Do you want to make money? In order to make money, you need to have customers to buy your product right? Did you ever notice that most companies always spend so much of their budget on advertising? They are always trying to attract new customers. Funny thing about that is; what do they do to keep the ones they have? I thought it was rather silly to see gigantic companies spend so much on advertising, considering they’re already popular enough to have tons of customers. Why don’t they spend more to please the customers they have? After all, if they make their customers happy, they would be more likely to spread the good word by word of mouth advertising right?

Word of mouth advertising is the best kind of advertising you could get, not to mention that it costs far less than traditional advertising. What I don’t understand is why companies spend so much to attract customers but do nothing to keep them. Have you ever bought a computer, found out it doesn’t work, and tried to call tech support to find out the problem? You’re probably not in a good mood after finding out your computer doesn’t work, and yet you’re forced to wait for nearly ten to fifteen minutes, waiting for someone to help you. And when someone finally does help you, it’s normally a rude person or someone that doesn’t speak proper English. It’s extremely rare to find prompt service and a happy company representative that makes you feel welcome. Most of the time, the representative will just waste your time, give you excuses, and claim that the broken computer is your fault. Basically, you’re told “Tough Luck.” What kind of way is that to treat your customers?

If you want to be successful in business, you need to have the right mindset; a winning mindset. Is it so hard to train your employees to treat your customers nicer? What normally happens when a company has screwed you? You get angry and tell other people about the bad service right? When bad service happens, you’re probably going to tell about twenty or so other people about how badly you were treated. Now imagine the backlash when you make ten thousand customers angry. That’s definitely not good for the company image. Especially with the popularity of the internet nowadays, just about anybody can get on the computer and rant on their blogs. With enough negative publicity, sales start to die down. Why is this? It’s because employees are not trained soft skills or people skills. They are not given proper training for their job and then actually turn away paying customers with their bad attitude.

If you want your business to stay in business, then you have to work at keeping your customers as well as attracting new ones. If you want to keep your customers, show them that they’re appreciated. Don’t treat them as a statistic. Go above and beyond the normal measures of service, treat them like kings! People are not buying your product; they are buying a solution to their problem. If you not only solve their problem, but you go out of your way to show that you appreciate them and stand out in the crowd, they will be more likely to remember you and spread the word. When a customer is happy, he will tell others about your good service. When he is angry, he will tell others of your bad service. Which kind of testimony do you want?

So if you’re going to create a business, find out ways to please the customer. “Under promise and over-deliver,” as the saying goes. Provide great service, stand out from the crowd of other competitors, and be the best at what you do, and the customers will keep coming. This is due to the “competitive advantage.” A competitive advantage is something that you have that your competition does not. Take Wal-Mart for instance. They have a greeter whose only job is to welcome people to the store. Since many other stores don’t do this, Wal-Mart is seen as a friendlier place. (The low prices help too of course)

There are many small yet significant ways to please the customers that don’t cost you a dime. Say hello to the customers as they come into your store, welcome them with open arms, show them a smile, thank them for their business, and ask them to please come again. Depending on what kind of service or products you provide, you may also decide to do things out of the ordinary, like sending them a thank you card for their business or asking them about their kids. If you make mistakes, find ways to correct them. Whatever you do that your competition does not do, will only help you in the long-run.

Posted in Business