I was recently working with one of my coaching clients who was struggling to get repeat business from her existing customers. We started to brainstorm why she was not getting her customers to return and buy more of her products. In fact, she had noticed many of her customers weren’t returning at all and were lost.
Sometimes business owners have a difficult time looking at their own business from the eyes of their customers. I am sure you have heard the phrase…”Can’t see the forest through the trees.” That’s what I love to do to help my clients see things from a different customer perspective. In other words, see through the trees.
You see a satisfied customer doesn’t stop doing business. They just stop doing business with you. We have all lost customers in our business. Why? I’m sure for lots of reasons and you should know them. However, if we don’t look at our business from a customer’s point of view, we may never know why they are leaving or not returning. You need to look at it as an opportunity. An opportunity to figure out why and fix the problems now.
Customer satisfaction does not always result in repeat business.
Oh, I know, many businesses conduct surveys trying to determine customer satisfaction. But again, just because they are satisfied does not mean they will return.
Try This Exercise:
Here is an list of reasons why customers are leaving. I suggest you review these reasons. Especially with your team, who may have a better insight of what is really going on in your business. Then evaluate how well or not how well you are presently delivering to your customers, members, patients or clients. You may be surprised of what you find.
- Showing or not demonstrating any personal interest in your customer. – Being treated just like a number or transaction. Not remembering who I am. Not appreciating an existing customer.
- Poor response. – Take too long to get back to a customer or service a customer. How long does it take to email or call a customer back?
- Unavailability (people or product). – Can’t get the product in time or reach the right person. Are people available and reachable?
- Is it hard to do business with you? Long waits on hold, too many phone call prompt options. Have to complete contact forms online before I can speak to someone.
- Unfriendly front-line person. – Are the people on your front lines in the right role? Is smiling and friendly greeting your customers a priority? Are people enthusiastic and appear happy to work there.
- Over-promising.- Do you over promise and under deliver?
- Inability to handle customer complaints.- Poor product knowledge, too many service or product issues. Not showing empathy.
- Poor excuses about why you can’t do something for a customer. – Customers call, email or contact you because they need help, not hear excuses.
- Add on fees. – Charging for every little thing.
- Poor value for the product or service. – Not living up to the expectations of quality or lack of results that your customer expected.
- Poor service delivery. – Everyone expects fast service. Lack of sense of urgency on the part of your process or people.
- Poor or lack of training. – Don’t just blame your employees. Blame the boss or business who fails to give their employee the opportunity to succeed. By the way, ‘on the job training’ or shadowing employees is not effective training.
So there you have it. How did you do? Did you find some holes or opportunities to improve and get better? What did your employees think about those questions? Did they provide you with some insight you were not aware of.
Next is to develop an action plan to eliminate the problems, address and tackle those challenges and use these opportunities to get better. Need help? Imagine having more repeat business. Picture your business spending less money on marketing to get new customers and have an abundance of existing customers returning over and over again and spending more money. Now that would be “magical”! Contact John today for a free strategy call or affordable training options just for your team.
John Formica is America’s and Australia’s Customer Experience Coach, team culture experience expert, keynote speaker, and Top 10 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Customer Loyalty. For information on customer experience programs, leadership training, team culture, business growth, how to find and hire great people and tailored training programs just for you or to book John to speak at your next event, contact 704-965-4090 or visit our website at JohnFormica.com.