Most customers are aware of how much your business charges compared to your competitors. Are your customers an incentive away from going elsewhere? If they are, you have nothing and you have no customer loyalty. There is always someone who can provide something a little crappier and sell it a little cheaper. However, I am sure that we all have a few businesses we are loyal to because of the relationship we have built, the people who work there, consistency, the assurance and trust they give us, or how they make us feel. With these businesses, we usually don’t even care what other businesses charge.
How does that happen? Well it is due to the experience your business consistently provides at every touch point, by every employee so that your customers have no idea what your competition charges.
Why is that? The key to building long-term customer loyalty is not through chasing your competitors on price or luring new customers with discounts, but by providing a positive and magical experience that is so engaging, so memorable, that your existing clients return again and again and can’t stop talking about you to others.
Are your customers an incentive away from going elsewhere? If they are, you have nothing. You have no customer equity. There is always someone
Customer loyalty begins with your people and how they believe in your products or services. Do your employees and team members truly believe that what you offer is the best, regardless of the competition? When I managed hotels for Disney, my employees had this mindset.
“We are the happiest place on earth and providing the best guest Disney Resort experiences that are magical and will not be beaten by any other resort in the world.”
That was truly the mind-set of everyone who worked at my resort. Do your employees have that same mindset? If so, I promise you it would change their approach to the experience you provide. It would force everyone on your team or business us to deliver the ultimate magical experience.
Personally, some of my employees would get upset if I found out that even another Disney Resort or a resort off the Disney property was providing a better customer experience. And let me tell you that there were numerous high end and well known hotel resorts close to Disney World. If we found out that another resort hotel was providing an experience we weren’t my team would figure out what they are providing that we aren’t. Was it quality, consistency, or an experience? Then we would need to improve our experience and make it even better than anyone else’s.
Does everyone on your team know the value of what you sell or provide?
Ask your employees this question: If your customers told you that they could get what you sell from someplace else for significantly less, what would you do to keep them? Would your team act apologetic and start offering the customer more stuff. Or even worse, would they offer discounts to justify the price difference? The problem is your team may not understand the true value of the services and products they are selling to the customer.
Ask yourself or your team this question. How good of a job are we doing to create the perception of value for the expertise and experience of our services? How well does everyone believe in this? Remember that the value your team perceives is going to be projected to your customers. Do you sell something similar to your competitor or are you the best expert and experience provider?
If you believe your products and services are the best, then your prices should reflect that. Everyone expects to pay more when they are dealing with the best. But when the best is similar in price to the rest of the pack, customers get suspicious, the perception of excellence disappears, and you are left with merely a commodity.
Do you compete on price or experience?
Every business has to decide where they want to compete in the price wars or the experience wars. I prefer to coach my clients to compete on the basis of a magical and outstanding customer experience. Why?
Here are the facts:
- Repeat customers spend more than new customers.
- Repeat customers give higher satisfaction scores.
- Repeat customers give referrals more often than new customers.
- You need five new customers to produce as much as one repeat customer.
- A 5 percent increase in customer satisfaction can increase a company’s profitability by 75 percent.
.In fact, 85 percent of US consumers say they would pay 5 to 25 percent more if they assured a better customer experience. Price is something you offer when you have nothing else. I love this message-
“Discounting is the price you pay for being average.”
Do You Have a Customer Experience Strategy? The best businesses have a customer experience strategy that produces an experience that is unique and memorable. Many of my clients once struggled with their customer experience. What was once considered impossible is now the standard experience that their competition is trying to duplicate. Now that is magical!
Need help with your Customer Experience Strategy? Contact John today for a FREE Strategy Session Call or let’s schedule a training workshop for your team. It might help you achieve the profits and goals you always dreamed of. Contact John at info@johnformica.com or (704) 965-4090.