I’ve consulted with CEOs and Directors of companies of all shapes and sizes, some experience tremendous success while others seem to fall between the cracks of their competition. I’ve found the successful ones seem to focus almost entirely on making their customers happy – a simple concept but not an easy task.
Your customers could be your most effective salesmen. They could bring in more potential customers than you can imagine. There’s only one thing you have to do – you have to make them love you. Here are 5 ways to make your customers love you and result in more customer referrals.
1. Leverage The Details To Wow Your Customers
We are currently building an enterprise software solution for an amazing client that specializes in steel construction in Arizona. They had a very unique company name and brand. With a little digging, we discovered the founder and CEO was a big Star Trek fan, and the company’s name was actually inspired by his inner Trekkie.
After this discovery, our design team came up with the idea of branding the new custom software solution with a Star Trek inspired name as well. We called it The Hive inspired after the Borg, a Star Trek species, who operated as one collective mind known as the “the hive mind”… I know pretty nerdy…
The customer absolutely loved it! We were able to connect with our customer in a way they had never anticipated, and in effect, became intertwined not only into their technology but into their culture as well.
If you can, find things about your customer without being too intrusive. Notice the details that speak to who the customer is and what they stand for. The smallest detail could help you stand out.
2. Simplify Choices By Limiting The Options
A professor at Columbia University conducted an experiment with a jam tasting booth in an upscale supermarket chain. One booth consisted of a selection of 6 jams and the other had more of a variety with 24 jams.
I bet you can guess where I’m going with this.
The 6 jam stand sold a whopping 6 times more than the 24 jam stand. A 600% increase in sales! Customers like choosing the right options that fit them, but do not like having to choose from an overwhelming selection. Narrow the choices for your client. If there are 10 options, go through them and imagine you are your target customer. Do the job for your customer and pick out the top options. This will make the customer’s decision easier, quicker and smoother.
3. Communicate Like They Are Your Only Customer
Nobody likes being treated as number 2. People want to feel like they are valued especially when they are paying for a product or service. The problem is the higher the volume of customers, the harder it gets to maintain this illusion.
Luckily, there are various tools you can use to help you reach out to your only customer. One such tool is IFTTT or “If This Then That”, a web service that connects your web apps and can then perform specific actions you set. It’s super simple to set up. For example, once you activate this IFTTT recipe, it will recognize when your Google Contact’s birthday is and automatically send an email to your contact wishing them a happy birthday. This creates a personal interaction with your clients without cutting into your time.
4. Make Every Touch Point Awesome
You have multiple touch points with your customers. You should know each one of them whether that’s phone calls, email, text messages, marketing materials, website, etc. These all make an impression on your customer.
Make each one of these touch points convenient but also unique so the customer will remember you.
A couple months ago, I decided to buy a new water carafe and filter from a Start-up called Soma. Their product seemed extremely elegant, and if the product worked as well as it was designed, it was worth the investment.
Not only do I love the product. The experience of purchasing the water filter was fantastic. I couldn’t help but smile when I received this short email:
So simple, yet so effective in enhancing the customer experience.
5. Be There In A Time Of Need
Every once in awhile, you will stumble upon a customer in a bind. In some situations, the customer might reach out to you in hopes you can help them.
We have been working with an Electrical Contractor business for nearly 2 years maintaining and optimizing the software solution we had implemented for them. One day we received a call from a Purchasing Manager – their company’s website (which we didn’t build or maintain) had been hacked and their hosting company had sent them a invoice for thousands of dollars more than their typical monthly bill!
Our engineering team immediately investigated and determined a hacker had been pinging generic server settings and gained root access and installed a script on every single page. In other words, someone was using their website to download viruses on visitor’s computers.
Within 4 hours, our team secured their website and consulted with their hosting provider reducing their monthly bill down to the typical amount.
Your customer’s time of need is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for you to prove that they can depend on your company. That kind of trust is priceless and cannot be bought with any amount of advertising or marketing budget.
TO FINISH UP…
All of these tips can take some time and patience to execute, but they can yield big results in your business.
I hope you implement at least one of these strategies. If you’d like to add anything, or suggest a tip of your own, I’m sure the community would be very thankful! Just submit into the comment section below.
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