A top tip to creating a successful business from a 42-year-old millionaire.
Whilst on holiday, I got chatting to a chap who having retired at the ripe old age of just 42 appeared to have the key to creating a successful business. From what I could gather he was a very wealthy individual and I had to dig deeper into what he did to become so successful at such a young age.
The very short story is that he took over a failing company, built it up, sold it for millions and retired.
When I asked how he built the business up so quickly, he told me he focused purely on customer service. Yes, the product had to be up to scratch but he concentrated on giving the best customer service he could, and then some. And the interesting thing is that after a year of him selling the business, it had started to fail and has since fallen bankrupt.
I can totally relate to this, as those of you who know me, will know I bang on about how the customer is the person who will make or break your business and if you are serious about creating a successful business, you need to give exceptional customer service at all times.
Aeons ago, I built up a failing estate agency practice to become one of the most successful in the chain of offices by focusing on customer service. As many of you may have discovered for yourself, customer service is severely lacking in the majority of estate agencies. I made sure every single vendor and buyer was contacted each week to let them know what was going on with the sale and purchase. I made sure every single person looking for a property was contacted at least once a month to update their details and discuss what was happening in the marketplace.
All our clients and contacts knew we were working behind the scenes to do the best for them and that our staff cared. This resulted in a HUGE turnaround for the agency and we won many awards.
Focus on customer complaints
When I started as Operations Director for another company, it had no less than six full-time workers dealing with customer complaints. I was asked to help sort out the sales staff so more customers could be brought on board. Rather than doing this, I focused on the complaints, what was causing them and ways to stop them from happening again. This resulted in eventually having just one person answering the phone to complaints on an ad hoc basis with a huge increase in turnover due to cancellations being reduced dramatically.
Too many businesses don’t focus on existing customers and are always looking to find new ones. Take care of your existing customers and clients who will appreciate your efforts, keep coming back to buy from you and bring new people with them.
Remember, it can take months to find a new customer but just seconds to lose one.
Create an exceptional customer experience
If you would like to find out how to create a customer experience that is the key to creating a successful business and gets you remembered for all the right reasons, check out the module in my member’s area which includes:
Customer service review sheet to score your business in different areas
A client touch point sheet with examples of how to ‘wow’ your customers
A sample follow-up plan to stay in contact with your customers
Last week Paddy McGuinness posted on Twitter. And as you can
see from the screenshot below. It says
Found out a shop nearby has
put the price of hand sanitizer up from 99p to £4.99! How do these people sleep
at night? That’s the price of milk, bread and eggs for families that are
already financially stretched. Sad to hear but even sadder that I’m not
surprised. #coronavirus
This, of course, is due to the coronavirus epidemic that’s
happening at the moment. And it reminded me of when there was a petrol crisis
many years ago,
My local garage doubled the price of fuel overnight, as it
was in such short supply.
Yes, he thought he was being clever. He knew that it was all a case of supply and demand. And as he had the only petrol left in the town, everyone was going to go to him and would have no choice but to pay the price he demanded.
All well and good, or so he thought. He made some extra money. Quite a lot actually. But what happened when the petrol shortage
came to an end? His regular customers
boycotted him and told everybody else to boycott him also.
Three months later and he was bankrupt. The garage closed.
Before you think about taking advantage of your loyal
customers, think of the long term impact, rather than immediate gains for
yourself. Why not try building even more
loyalty by doing something special to help those customers in their time of
dire need.
Come on, folks. Don’t be greedy. Look after others, and they’ll look after you.
As you may already realise by now, I am a stickler for
customer service.
And I believe it’s the little things that make the big
differences.
As Maya Angelou famously quoted:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Think about how you leave people feeling in your business. Are there any small changes that could make a big difference in how you make prospects and clients feel?
Customer
service isn’t rocket science. It
really is the little things such as a smile, a handwritten note, or a follow up
to see how they are.
We tend to spend time focusing on wooing our prospects to
turn them into clients and a big failing is stopping this once they have purchased. These people can become our best marketers if
we continue to show we care about them.
Send a thank you card, email to see if they are happy with their purchase or send a client only special offer for a future purchase.
I’ve got a touchpoint checklist with some ideas to get you started thinking about how you can wow your prospects and clients. You can download it here for free.
And here are a few examples that I have come across just
recently.
Good customer service
Received a package on a low-cost item where they had included a small bag of sweets – nice touch.
Had an online chat to discuss a problem. After the chat, I received a lovely email with the direct contact details for the person I had been chatting to so I could go to them directly if any further problems (no having to repeat the problem again which is so frustrating).
An order was messed up and after trying to find out what happened, the customer services chap gave me false information to try and fob me off (very bad customer service). I emailed a complaint and with no further fuss I had the product delivered along with a full refund to apologise (they have now kept me as a customer)
After a long tiring drive to stay at a hotel, upon arrival the lady at the desk said she had heard there were long delays on the motorway. She said she thought we would be tired so had gone to our room to draw the curtains and turn on the lamps so we could have a lie-down and a rest. A small but hugely appreciated touch.
Bad customer service
I paid next day delivery for an item which didn’t arrive. I contacted the company to find out what had happened. There was no apology but just a barrage of excuses that drivers get tired and sometimes deliver to the wrong address, can’t find properties in rural locations etc. Yes, they said they would investigate where the item was but no refund on delivery cost and didn’t seem to care. They have lost a long-standing customer.
At the same hotel mentioned above, upon coming downstairs in the morning, my husband and I both said good morning to the new lady on the desk, but she couldn’t be bothered to lift her head and smile. She only just muttered ‘morning’ whilst continuing to look at her mobile! This made us feel rather unwelcome.
I emailed to book an appointment with a health and beauty therapist, gave her the dates I was available, and she simply said: “no, can’t do those” in her reply. No other dates suggested, no saying ‘unfortunately I’m booked up’ or ‘I’m so sorry I can’t fit you in’. The message was so short and snappy I won’t be going to her again.
I purchased a product on an ongoing subscription. It was something new and I was a little nervous about trying it as the retailer knew. After my first purchase, the only time I heard from the retailer was to let me know my next month’s payment was due. There was nothing wrong with the product, but I didn’t feel valued as a customer, or that they cared if I was getting on with the product of not, but that they were only interested in getting money out of me. Their direct competitor has been in contact more than them and so I am now in the process of switching.
Does any of this resonate with you either as a seller or a
buyer?
If you receive either good or bad customer service, take note of it. If you receive bad customer service, are you guilty of this also? Be honest with yourself. If you receive good customer service, do you do this with your business or could you incorporate it in some way?
I’d love to hear any stories of your own that you may have so let me know in the comments below.
The thing we all hate happens. We get a customer complaint. It is inevitable that we will all get an unhappy customer at times but it is how we deal with them that matters.
We have two choices. We can either go on the defensive and potentially make matters worse, or we can use the opportunity to learn and improve our business for the future.
Problems are pregnant with possibilities
Generally, unless there is a fundamental fault with the
product or service you are providing (and which you need to acknowledge and fix
immediately), complaints arise from a misunderstanding between parties.
It may something as simple as an order arriving on a date
that the customer believes is late but you believe is on time. This will
lead to you needing to set out your delivery policy in a more clear way.
It may be you supply a product such as a handbag and a customer complaint is the bag is not as large as shown in the picture. This leads to more details needed with your images. Put the bag against something for scale in pictures or quote measurements.
But whatever the complaint, most can be resolved if dealt
with in the right manner.
I met a client recently who had received a complaint and her reaction was to say ‘how dare he?’ and tell me how she was going to phone him and tell him in no uncertain terms how unhappy she was with him. I can just about guarantee 100% with this attitude that this customer will never do business with my client again and will more than likely tell friends and family never to deal with her again either.
I sat her down and asked her to put herself in the
customer’s shoes. Something had happened that caused him to be unhappy
and less than satisfied. Finding out what this was and how to avoid the
situation again in the future was imperative. She needed to look upon
this complaint as an opportunity to improve her business so that she did not
find herself in the same situation again in the future and to help her improve
customer satisfaction to retain other clients.
And again, very recently, I had someone who lost their key client. Why? Because he dared to complain about the standard of work and she took umbrage at this and had an argument with him over it. She is now left struggling to replace the income he took elsewhere.
How to deal with a customer complaint
Stay calm
The first thing to do is to stay calm and try not to take
the complaint personally. The complainant is usually dissatisfied with
the product or service and not you personally. Try to distance yourself
and your feelings and put things into perspective. Taking things
personally will only lead to an emotional response that is likely to make
matters worse.
Acknowledge the complaint
You then need to acknowledge the customer complaint and apologise for how the complainant is feeling. This is not accepting responsibility but is showing empathy for how the other person feels and letting them know you wish to help.
Get the complaint in writing
Wherever possible, ask for the complaint in writing. Or if the person is complaining to you verbally, let them know you are going to write everything down so you can ensure you have all the facts and do not forget anything. This can help as when someone starts to write, they can realise how unreasonable they may be or how they may have overreacted somewhat. Also, if they are in front of you and angry, they will see that you cannot write as fast as they speak and so will have to slow down, which in return will give them more time to breathe and calm down.
Take time to review
You do not need to give a solution immediately if you do not
want to. You can let them know that you are going to review the
complaint, look into what has happened and will get them back to them with a
response in a specified timescale.
This both gives the complainant the satisfaction that you
have listened and something is being done and also gives you the time to
consider what has happened and what you will do to resolve the situation.
Decide upon a solution or response
Now you need to get on and look into the situation and
decide what you are going to do. This will depend entirely upon your
business and what the complaint relates to. It could be a refund, a
product replacement or simply an apology and assurance it won’t happen again if
relevant.
If however, you find the complaint to be unfounded, be
careful with your response. Be clear that you have investigated the
matter, fully understand their frustration but then explain why you feel there
is not a complaint to answer.
Respond to the complainant
Do make sure you feedback to the customer within the timescale given or be prepared for the complaint to be escalated upon.
Always stay calm, speak slowly if talking to the customer,
and assure them you are taking the complaint seriously as you value their
custom.
Even if you cannot come to an amicable solution, they will
hopefully appreciate that you have taken the time and trouble to listen and try
to do something for them.
Document every customer complaint
Now document everything. Just in case this complaint
does not get resolved and is taken further, or resurrects its ugly head in the
future, make sure you have all conversations and facts documented with dates
and time.
The exception to the rule
There is always the exception to the rule of course and you may have the misfortune to come across someone who complains just for the fun of it. This person is just out to cause trouble and the best thing to do is to apologise for the way they are feeling and state that you are not a good fit for each other and therefore it will be best to not deal with each other again. Do not let these people bully you or get you to cave in to unreasonable demands.
Just remember, the customer will not so much remember what
you said, but more how you made them feel. Do your best to leave them
feeling you took the time to take them seriously and valued their custom.
You may not do business with them again, but it may a good case of damage
limitation as if they know you genuinely cared, they are less likely to bad
mouth you to future prospects.
Hopefully, by using this method, any customer complaint you have will be dealt with amicably and gain you a reputation for excellent customer care.
Do you ever have clients placing an order for your products or services only to cancel a while later? There may be a very good reason why.
Communication!
Yes, that simple act of keeping in touch and letting them know what is happening behind the scenes can make the difference between a happy customer and one who gets fed up thinking they have been forgotten and decides to take their business elsewhere.
There is no better example of this than when I ran my estate agents. Other agents were getting complaints and clients cancelling all the time to switch and coming to me. My clients stayed with me and the business was built on word-of-mouth recommendations.
Why?
Because I kept in touch. I put myself in their shoes and kept in mind how they might be feeling. Whilst my team were busy behind the scenes calling people about their property to book viewings and chasing surveyors and solicitors when a sale was agreed, the homeowner had no idea this was going on. All they had from other agents was silence. I made sure that every one of my clients had a call to update them every single week, even if there was nothing new to say. It made them feel important. They knew exactly what was going on and appreciated the call.
Yes, it took time and effort but the fact that my estate agency soared whilst others were struggling spoke volumes.
The key to stopping clients from cancelling
Take a moment to think about how often you keep in contact with your clients. Are you busy working behind the scenes on their behalf putting together their order or working on a project for them? Do they know this? Are you updating them? If not, then perhaps it’s time to think again about your communication policy. Set up a simple database such as CapsuleCRM to keep in contact with everyone and see how much they appreciate it. This simple step really could be the key to stopping your clients from cancelling and going elsewhere.
Just to finish, here are two current examples. Just this morning I cancelled an order with a local company for having a sign made as they simply have not kept in contact with me and not sent information to me as promised. I have chased them no less than three times and yet they have still failed to keep in contact, and I am now fed up. I have now contacted another company and transferred my order to them.
The other example is my husband’s laptop which stopped working whilst under guarantee. We took it back to the shop where it was purchased and they promised to fix it asap. That was six weeks ago!!! My husband has called on a number of occasions to get updates and then called again this morning. They said it was fixed and had been posted back. If this company had kept us updated and even let us know it was fixed and on the way back, we may have bought from them again. As they couldn’t be bothered to keep in touch, we have both said we will never buy from them again (and will tell others not to!)
Communication is key
Remember, whatever you do, don’t forget communication is key. If you don’t keep in contact with your prospects and clients, don’t be surprised when they go and buy elsewhere.
Do you know that one of the best ways to delight and surprise your clients and build raving fans for your business is to do something unexpected to thank them for their business and make them feel appreciated?
However, very few businesses think about thanking their customers for their business. Even fewer actually find original ways to do so.
One of the simplest and best ways to do this is to send them a surprise in the post. In this world of online technology, receiving something as simple as a handwritten note will make you stand out from the crowd and get you noticed.
Your clients will appreciate that you have taken a few minutes out of your busy day to think just about them.
And you don’t just have to restrict this sentiment to clients. Why not send something to a prospect that you would like to work with?
How to delight and surprise your clients
It doesn’t have to be expensive to send something personal in the post. After all, remember the adage that ‘it’s the thought that counts’.
Take a look through the following list to get some ideas flowing:
You could simply buy a pack of plain note cards and write a personal message to them.
Or buy packs of postcards with motivational quotes on the front and pop a handwritten note on the back.
If you see an article in a magazine that is relevant, how about cutting it out and sending it to them – so much more effective than sending a link to an online article via email?
Consider getting some personalised bookmarks printed up with your branding and sending those out as gifts.
Think about sending a voucher to spend with your business. If you are a masseur, hairdresser or provide products, a voucher is easy. If you are a coach or consultant, create a voucher to redeem for a free 30-minute session with you.
Do you have a client that you suspect is feeling tired or overwhelmed? Why not pin a tea bag to a short note telling them to take 5 mins out on you and sit down with a cuppa? Guaranteed to make them laugh, feel loved and remember you!
Or how about sending a small (or large) chocolate bar to give them a treat?
For long-standing and valued clients, send a beautiful notebook
Or an inspirational book of your choosing
Or a gift card ……
These things are inexpensive yet will help build relationships that will generate you much more money in the future through clients who feel nurtured and valued and who will stay loyal to you. Your gift doesn’t have to be expensive to be memorable. It has to be special and feel personal.
What ideas do you have to delight and surprise your clients in unexpected ways? Let me know in the comments below.
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