The 3 Customer Relationship Truths For Your Business
February 18th, 2015 // 12:30 pm @ Scott Manning
Fresh off of Valentine’s Day let’s talk about “relationships”.
You have no business if you have no relationship with your customers, clients, patients, and everyone who supports your business growth and development.
Most businesses do not have actual relationship…they have transactions.
Relationships are
Loyal
Mutual
Trusting
Predictable
Connected
There are of course many other words based on the type of relationship that we are talking about. Since today I’m focusing on the relationships you have with your customers I would like to focus on these 5 things.
When you have strong relationships with your customers they do not care about price, they do not care about convenience, they do not care about trivial mistakes. They are with you because of more reasons than just what or how you do whatever your business is about and represents.
This is why ‘investing’ (and I mean that literally) in your customers is the only real asset you have in your business that can be grown.
There is no other investment on earth that can provide the rate of return, satisfaction and significance as the one you make in your customer relationships.
Now, there are things that determine the value of the relationship and potential long-term success of your business. In fact I have boiled it down to three very important things for you to consider and agree with, actually they are inarguable principles of ‘customers’.
1. Not all customers are created equal…this is fact, depending on what you want to do, your long term plans, not all customers have the ability to grow with your business or are always an ideal match. Your goal is to determine who makes the best customer for you and what type of customers you make the best provider for and then connect the two together and get as many as you deem necessary based on your goals and objectives.
2. You can’t wait for them to give you money and “become” your customer before you start cultivating a relationship and creating value. In fact that is the surest sign of starvation. This is like saying you are going to commit to a relationship after they decide to be intimate, well, maybe these days in society that’s a tough one, but for most ‘normal’ people I think my point is quite obvious, you have to invest BEFORE the customer becomes a customer.
Earn their trust, respect, and then money.
3. It is your responsibility to guide, condition, nurture, cultivate, and literally grow your customer into a long-term relationship. Everything inside of your business from your customer experience to your “way of doing things” should be focused on this point right here.
Teach them how to be a better customer, more valuable to you and you more valuable to them, and how to go out and bring back their friends.
If you tie all 3 of these things together you have created a business worth something to other people, your customers, and therefore worth something to you.
Always, always, always lead with the sincere, genuine, best-interest of your customers and see it as a relationship, long-term, and you will find a pot of gold that is always overflowing.
If you think short-sided or get fixated on the money, you are going to miss the mark and forever be in a one-night stand situation waking up feeling desperate and alone and you will sell yourself short and your business will be on shaky ground.
I really don’t think you can separate the idea of relationships as foundation for all things in life – and those that try to with business always end up starting over again and again – if you just go to work on these 3 things you will learn that THIS is your business…not what you actually do for the customer to make and earn the money, rather the process of finding and attracting and multiplying the right types of customers for you, cultivating relationship before they give you money and then growing and educating and nurturing them into the best customer for you and helping them get as much value as possible from their relationship with your business.
People don’t really want to “shop around” they want to “buy” and be loyal and committed and certain that their needs will be met, they want consistency and relationship, all things in life are this way.
Give yourself a check up on your relationship with your customers and go to work on marketing, selling, and delivering value in this way. You will see what you do (and the whole concept of business) much differently…it will be more fun and feel more rewarding and actually worth a whole lot more to you financially along the way.
Exactly how do you do this and mastering the whole relationship thing with your customers, patients, and clients…I’ll tell you – next week.
Category : Blog
