Obama or Not, Our Economy is Bleeding Customers
December 23, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
NOTE from Phil: This is a timely guest post from Brandon Caudle, one of the most insightful writers on customer service I know. If you manage anyone who talks to customers or if you talk to customers, read these tips and act upon them RIGHT NOW. Then repeat them each month for best results. Simple tips. Great results. Thanks for your attention.
Whether our new President-elect Obama will turn around our struggling economy is unknown, however, as we head into our Holiday season, each of us can see and feel the impact that these tough times are having on our Customers. People are spending less, credit is tight and the home equity wave that we all rode for several years has crashed. This means that our Customers are spending less, and a lot of them are not spending at all!
If there ever was a time to hold on to our Customers, this is it. Which begs the question, what can we do to hold on to our Customers, when they simply cannot afford our products and services? Here are a few suggestions that may help us retain our Customer base through this economic crisis:
Reach out with a personal call or note – It’s so easy today to blast out an email…and equally as easy to delete it. The personal call or hand written card will not be forgotten as easily. Take a few minutes each morning before you start your day to call or write personal notes to a few Customers. You will be remembered more than your competition. Which means that when they spend money, it is more likely that they will spend it with you.
Bolster your product or service – We may not be able to slash prices like Wal-Mart, however, we can boost our image by enhancing our return policies during this Holiday season or adding in the little “extras” that do not impact our bottom line, but make our business more attractive to our Customers.
Treat each Customer as a VIP – This should be our daily mantra, however, it is so easy to slip into a passive mode when interacting with our Customers. Figure out a way to make their experience with you one that they tell their friends about the next day. Very quickly, your service becomes legendary and a Viral Customer Explosion will occur.
These times are rough, but we can do more than just make it through them. With the right Customer Service, we can thrive in them.
Thanks for reading,
Brandon
Brandon Caudle blogs at www.customerservicevoodoo.com, where you can find out why he capitalizes the word Customer.
It takes more than just good (or great) customer service. It is more than treating customers well. It is also treating employess well too! It is the employees that are the front line to your customer base. If you have unhappy employees it will rub off on the customers as well.
It is that eternal triangle of employee-customer-company. If you have happy employees you will get happy customers who in turn buy more from your company (making the bosses happy). The opposite is true as well.
Intead, it appears that employers are turning the screws on the employees. This makes for unhappy employees and thus unhappy customers (who withdraw their wallets). Seldom is heard how well employees are doing under todays environment. Instead, employees are looking to jump to greener pastures when the economy turns.
@ CK – great point. You must invest in your business – first and foremost in employee morale. That investment could be at no cost, like a simple smile or positive attitude. You should also consider investments in adequate technology and equipment, which goes back to employee satisfaction AND a great customer experience.
Interestingly, a lot of stores are tightening up their return policies this year. The general advice is to check the return policy up front.
… So, to echo your point, having a great return policy now is a beautiful differentiator and a chance for more customer loyalty.
Hey CK
If you worked for me, I would fire you on the spot. It is that addicted that makes my blood boil. You are the type to smile in good times and write crap like this in tough times. I employ 70 people. this year I cut all of my bounds, and extras as did my partners. We did none of that for our employees. our goal was not to lay anyone off as they are like family to us. To make it through these times, all of them would have to work harder, make major sacrifices and go the extra mile. You sound just like the guy I pulled back in off of vacation because many of his accounts are at risk. I was blown away as he described a very similar definition of how to run a business. Man Up. winners win, and the others bitch about why the couldn’t. That guy I described, needs a job if you know any soft employers who want to make their employees happy at the expense of the business.
CK – You’re right. It’s about treating EVERYONE well. Good point.
As I’ve shared in many previous comments, I am sorry you keep getting treated badly, and that there are few options for you to change. I’d encourage you to find a way to focus on the good stuff and let the bad stuff go. If you can’t change it, it’s just going to frustrate you and those around you if you keep pointing out that employers are treating you badly.
Hayli – Technology and tools are great additions. Thanks for sharing them!
J.D. – I think we need to focus more on these differentiators than on what makes us the same. That’s why I liked this article so much.
Joe – I agree it can be frustrating to see a bad attitude in action, especially as some of us are trying hard to make it better. Just as one bad apple can spoil the whole bushel, please remember that all opinions are welcomed here, even if they aren’t offered in a way in which you agree.
Thanks for your comments everyone.
Thanks for sharing your insights. Both Customer and Employee satisfaction is crucial to any businesses success and online surveys are a great tool in getting the feedback you need to hear. With that in mind, Zoomerang created the Customer Satisfaction Resource Center http://www.customersatisfactionresource.com/ and the Employee Survey Resource Center
http://employeesurveyresource.com/
with templates you can customize as well as tips and suggestions for both survey creation and deployment. There are also some informative posts on the topics published on the Zoomerang blog
http://zoomerang.wordpress.com/