As a businessperson, you know that your company’s continued growth and success depend on giving your customers what they want most. But what, exactly, do they really want?
We are often caught up in trying to find the next great product, the newest and most sought after service, and the hullabaloo that goes with them, all in an effort to attract and retain our customers.
What is forgotten along the way, though, is that customers want much more than just the latest and greatest things. They want things that are far more basic, far less concrete, and much harder to provide consistently.
When I’m talking about customers I’m not talking about Martians, I’m taking about each and every one of us, you included.
Customers want the truth
No matter the industry, no matter the product or service, customers want you to tell them the truth. Not just part of the truth, not just the easy things to hear, but the complete, 100 per cent honest truth.
First thing that comes to mind when you think of truth is politicians, for the sheer lack of any! Coming a close joint second are real estate agents, car mechanics and an increasingly expensive dental industry. All these professions and many more have been tarred with a lack of transparency and truthfulness.
Here is a perfect example of what I mean. Open up the newspaper just about any day of the week and you’ll see ads from several competing providers of mobile phone services. Each one makes a claim to be the best, to provide the most minutes, to have the best network, or whatever. Then they go on to list prices, packages, and great deals galore.
What they don’t tell you in the advert or if you hot foot it into the store and get served by a spotty teen with a bad attitude is the upfront truth about the terms, conditions, and details of their services or pricing. You have to look through the fine print to find them, and even then, they are sometimes difficult to find.
One company will prorate your bill when you cancel your service, but another one will charge you for the entire month of service. One company will allow you to change your rate plan and have it take effect right away while another one makes you wait until the start of your next billing cycle.
And forget about trying to compare two or more companies side by side to see how their respective offerings measure up to each other. It is extremely hard to do. And it is one of the reasons why most people with mobile phones will tell you that they really like the convenience of having a mobile phone but they really hate with an over enthusiastic vengeance the companies who provide them because those companies are not forthcoming with the truth about their services.
Take a good hard look at your business. Are your customers getting the entire truth from you without having to go through Harry Houdini contortions to get it?
Customers want safety and privacy
In this modern world of the internet and identity theft, customers want to be assured that their personal information is 100 per cent safe and secure when they provide it to your company. Furthermore, they want to know that you will respect their privacy and not bombard them with unwanted email, junk mail, or other nuisance communication.
What your customers define as nuisance communication, though, is likely to be different from your definition of nuisance communication. For example, a direct mail piece cooked up by your ever enthusiastic marketing team might seem appropriate from your perspective, but to some customers that is unwanted junk mail and a right pain in the rear end.
Or you might consider telemarketing to promote a new product line to be perfectly acceptable, but your customers probably view this phone call midst feeding the acrobatic kids, juggling the Everest-sized laundry pile or doing the last minute grind of finishing off work as an intrusion into their home life and something they could do without.
So how do you balance a customer’s desire for safety and privacy against your needs to market your products and services?
There is no single perfect answer to this question, but you will go a long way toward giving customers what they want if you simply ask them what they want right from the start.
Use an opt-in system rather than an opt-out system for email offers, newsletters, phone calls, and other types of potential customer
communications. Your marketing department might not like having access to shorter mailing and telephone lists, but that is a small price to pay if it leads to happier, more satisfied customers.
Customers want to feel important
Do you remember the last time you went into a store where you had never purchased anything before? What was the experience like? If you were treated with warmth, courtesy and respect then you probably left there feeling pretty important and more inclined to go back in the future.
What about the last time you went into a business just to gather information or research a product before making a purchasing decision? Were you treated just as well as someone who was there to buy something that same day? Or did the employees pay less attention to your needs when they found out you were just browsing?
These are retail examples, but the concept is the same for a non-retail business. Each customer should feel valued and important during every interaction, every time. Think about your particular business, and ways that you can make your customers feel important.
Does your business provide what customers want?
The bottom line to improving the bottom line is to give your customers what they want. What customers want, though, is quite often not what you expect. Before you start planning that new, improved product or service, consider taking the time to consider what your customers really want. If you approach it from a fresh, objective perspective, you might just be surprised at what you discover – and the difference it can make to the success of your business.
It is unlikely that politicians will ever be part of ‘tell us how it really is’, but at least in your business you can offer what each and every one of us craves – the truth factor.
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