We can all agree that no business or organization is perfect. In fact, your product or service is probably flawed. Your support team, delivery team, billing department, help desk, techs, installers and your employees will make mistakes, show up late and perhaps might say stupid things to customers.
Your customers will always want more than you, your people or business can deliver. Sometimes their demands can be unreasonable. Your customers will almost always notice imperfections and deficiencies and inform you that your competitor is offering the same product or service at a cheaper price.
There is nothing easy about serving customers. You and your employee’s job is hard, demanding and at times chaotic because your business is to get through all of that and influence the customer experience through human relationships.
The most successful businesses are those that focus on building relationships with their customers. Particularly with customer interactions. Each interaction, no matter how small, with a customer creates an experience that they feel and remember. These experiences are built up over time and are the foundation to create customer loyalty over product, service or price.
You already have customers who buy because of you, your people and the relationships you have built over time during customer experience. People don’t love companies; they love the people who serve them. Serving customers and delivering a magical experience is an emotional endeavor.
Customers are people. They are emotional, sometimes irrational and human. They have a need to feel important, appreciated and special. Each interaction with a customer creates an experience that they remember. You may believe that your product, food, recipes, services or price has a greater impact on your customer experience than people do but that is not the case. Customers don’t do business with companies; they do business with people—you!
The fact is that customers like you and your people. Not your company and not slogans or cool branding. It is your ability to get your customers to like you, trust you and feel good about you that plays the most important strategy in delivering a magical customer experience. Here are five strategies to create an emotional customer experience.
- Put Customers First – Putting your customers first is an attitude and belief that the customer is more important than anything else in your business. Without customers, you are out of business. Stop focusing on sales, your product, marketing, policies, procedures and prices and instead step into your customers’ shoes to see things from their perspective. Give them what they want and need and do it in a pleasurable way.
- Connect– When customers feel more connected with you and your people, they feel more comfortable and important. They want to give you feedback because they care about your success in a business and know that you listened and appreciate it.
- Solve Problems – A solved problem is at the heart of the customer experience. It is what customers pay for. The fact is, people are loyal and become emotionally attached to people who solve their problems and deliver what they really want.
- Build Trust – Your customers rely on you and your team to deliver what you say you are going to do. Trust is the foundation on which relationships you build last. No matter how good your product or service is, your brand, how hard you work, how many problems you solve or how many nice things you do, you cannot deliver a magical customer experience without your customer trusting you.
- Create Positive Emotional Experiences – When you consistently create joy in the lives of your customer you make deposits in their emotional bank account and it anchors their loyalty. The more positive emotional experiences you can deliver the bigger and longer the loyalty. Even when things go wrong, which they will, your customers will still love you.
Focus on improving and implementing these five strategies with your staff. They all work together to help you keep your human relationships grounded on track and move your customers to love you over your competition for a long time. Now that is Magical!
If you want happier customers who love you for life, then scheduling a FREE One on One Strategy call with John or ask about his affordable, fun workshops is the right decision. John will give you, your leaders and team, all the tools you’ll need to transform your customer experience and business.
Just click the link to schedule your FREE Strategy Call: https://go.oncehub.com/DiscoverySessionCall Do it today so that you will be able to create the experience, business, leaders and team that EVERYONE loves.
John Formica is America’s Customer Experience Coach, team culture expert, keynote speaker, and Top 10 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience. For information on customer experience evaluations and programs, leadership training, how to find and hire great people, affordable tailored training programs or to book John to speak at your next event, contact 704-965-4090 or visit our website at JohnFormica.com.