We’re living in an age when it seems that everything, at least to some degree, is disposable. Use it once and throw it away. That idea appears to have become an ingrained part of the social psychology, at least in the USA.
Unfortunately for them, more and more business owners seem to be taking a disposable approach to their customer base as well.
The Internet has brought literally to your front door a seemingly limitless supply of new prospective customers. Why should you take the time and expend the effort to satisfy and retain established customers when we can just as easily get new ones each week?
To put that question in perspective, we need to pose a couple of other questions. The answers to these will tell.
Is fast money your goal, or is it long-term business stability and ongoing profits?
Do you have the right attitude, and are you willing to invest time and energy toward your own future, one customer at a time?
An old salesman’s axiom says, “without repeat business, there soon will be no business.” Over any period of time, a single satisfied customer can provide you with an ongoing stream of income that can amount to hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars. Most likely, you are regularly providing that very asset to several business owners in your own home town. Why do you continue to do business at the same stores and shops, time after time?
What does it cost to keep you as a customer for life?
Perhaps it’s a high quality of service. Do the owners or the sales people readily go out of their way to help you find the products and services that will meet with your needs? Do they take the time to explain features and benefits, or possibly offer a money-saving alternative at the cost of their own immediate profit?
This level of caring customer service is too often found absent in an otherwise sterile and impersonal Internet business arena. We grant that it isn’t convenient to humanize a business that operates by means of machines and codes and electronic interchanges. But then, serving the customer is not about the merchant’s convenience, it’s about the the customer’s.
Maybe personal recognition keeps you coming back for more. Everyone likes to be known and called by name. It demonstrates respect in most societies, and fosters a feeling of social acceptance, an inborn need in practically every human. Even an email message can be made to reflect a personal aspect of communication by using the recipient’s name.
How important to you is fair treatment and an honest transaction? It goes without saying that most customers will not return to a store, or to a website, where they feel they have been hyped, the product or service has been misrepresented, or they have been cheated outright.
Have you ever received more than expected in a business transaction? Chances are it surprised you in a quite positive light, and developed in you a sense of trust toward the merchant. You might also feel that person is actually deserving of your repeated business.
How about problem resolution? When your refund request is met with resentment or outright hostility, it’s highly probable that merchant will never see you again. On the other hand, when met with courtesy and a positive, caring attitude, your trust is even further reinforced. However outdated the concept may seem, the customer really is always right.
The bottom line in winning and keeping customers for life begins with an unselfish attitude and your own willingness to invest of yourself, one customer at a time. You will often be asked to place your own priorities and needs on hold, while attending to the priorities and needs of others. You may sometimes be required to sacrifice immediate profit for the sake of potential long term gain.
But after all, would you rather earn fast dimes, or slow dollars? We think the answer is self-evident.
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Dan B. Cauthron runs several websites and publishes his 100%
original and highly opinionated *Revenew QuikTips* online
whenever he has something significant to say. To subscribe
please visit: http://DanBCauthron.com Dan also operates:
http://Earn-Revenew.com and http://SlideInADSGenerator.com
