Natural Entrepreneur: Customers Know the Difference

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Customers Know the Difference

Build customer loyalty by exceeding expectations

-- Ask SCORE c/o Dick Kuhl, Bedford, NH

So much lip service has been paid to customer service that it’s sounding like a tired cliché these days. Today’s business world it is not enough to simply say that the customer comes first.

Customers know the difference between mediocre service, good service and exceptional service. Without question, they will make their decisions about where to buy accordingly. Your response to the call for exceptional service must be more than good intentions and excuses pinned on being a small business. Here are some perspectives on building customer loyalty.

Hire the best possible staff that your budget allows. Your sales and service staff members are on the front line, whether physically or on the phone. Are they trained and do they receive ongoing training? Are they knowledgeable about the products they represent? Are they empowered to judiciously waive policies without consulting you, when it can be done ethically and without taking an unwarranted toll on your revenue picture? Maintaining a competent, trained staff costs money. If that gives you heartburn, consider the revenue forgone when indifferent and incompetent employees cause you to lose customers.
Reward your best customers. If you can offer your best customers better prices on frequent purchases, an up-front price break on their next project with you, or a discount for their prompt cash payment, you will communicate your awareness that they are important to the success of your business. Customer reward programs are easy and cost-effective to implement once you know what your customers value.
Offer referrals. Who do you know who might want to do business with your customers? When it’s appropriate, help your loyal customers by passing along leads you come across that can improve either their business or personal lives.

Exceptional service entails treating a customer’s problems as if they were your own—even if it costs you more money. Occasionally you may even have the opportunity to fix a problem caused by a customer’s use of one of your competitors’ products or services. And it is an opportunity: to switch their allegiance.

Exceeding expectations is the icing on the cake of customer satisfaction—knowing what your customers expect you to provide and then adding another layer of value. What can you do today to create the satisfied customers of tomorrow?

Through surveys, comment cards, and simply talking with your customers, you can learn what considerations make the biggest impression on your best customers. To learn more about ways to meet and exceed customer expectations, contact SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business.” SCORE is a nonprofit association of more than 10,500 volunteers who provide free and confidential business counseling to small business owners.

Dick Kuhl is a NH SCORE counselor for Chapter 199, Manchester / Nashua area. Local SCORE offices are available for walk-in or telephone questions but the more common methods of securing help from SCORE are E-mail counseling (via www.score.org) and traditional counseling. Six SCORE chapters provide the state of New Hampshire with traditional counseling: Manchester/Nashua, Concord, Lebanon, Keene, Portsmouth/ Seacoast and Lakes Area. Dick can be reached at (603) 666-7561.

Upcoming Events

Feb 21 (8-9:30a): NH Forum on the Future, NHHTC, CR Sparks, Bedford, NH

March 1 (6:30-8:30p): Women's Business Center and MicroCredit-NH Networking Event, Bank of America, Portsmouth, NH

March 6 (10a-noon): Growth Capital Resources in New Hampshire, City of Nashua, Office of Economic Development, Daniel Webster College, Nashua, NH

March 8: (12pm -1pm) Break the Rules and Close More Sales, Amoskeag Business Incubator, Manchester, NH

March 16: Peak Pitch (pitch your plan to invstors on the chairlift), Mt. Sunapee, NH ($)

March 22: Breaking Trends in Web Develoment, UVCIA, Hanover, NH ($)

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