Good news. Your business (indeed all businesses) only has three types of customers.
Last week's article talked about how important it is to survey your on boarding process for new clients. Only by measuring your results can you make improvements in your process, which in turn increases sales.
One of the reasons this measurement is so important is that you only have two avenues to increase sales. Get your current customers to spend more or sell to new customers.
This is why it is important to understand that you only have three types of customers in your business. Customers that are Very Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied and Never Satisfied.
Customers that are Very Satisfied are our favorite. Face it they love you! The only way they would stop doing business with you would be if you ran them off with a stick! This group represents your very best customers
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On the other end of the spectrum are clients that are Never Satisfied. Also know as transactional business, this segment only does business based on price or "the offer". There is very little business loyalty in this segment (unless you are Walmart). Companies like Groupon has done a great job of rounding these types of consumers and bundling them up for businesses under the guise that "just let them sample your product/service and you will be able to convert them into loyal, full price customers". If you are fishing in this segment of the pond, good luck making money. Bottom Feeders all the way.
In the middle are customers who are Somewhat Satisfied. Realistically, this is probably your biggest segment of customers. They are not Very Satisfied but they continue to do business with you because it is easier than going through the painful process of finding a new service provider. Somewhat Satisfied, but not hard core loyal. This is exactly the segment of the pond that you should be fishing in.
The good news is that with a well crafted special offer, you can convince many of these consumers to give your company a chance. The bad news is that just like when you fish with large nets, you are going to draw in some of the undesirable fish - the Never Satisfied Bottom Feeders.
Your business will grow when you are able to convince the Somewhat Satisfied clients of your competition to give you their business.
But all you can expect from the competitors Somewhat Satisfied clients today is an interview. So you had better take it.
"It is better to dance with the devil you know, than the devil you don't know." This is exactly how these consumers feel. "Life throws enough decisiosn at me. I am not looking to have to make another one."
But if the offer is sincere enough and it hits the consumer at the right time, they will grant you an interview. And believe me it is an interview. You have one chance to show them that you are different than their current provider. That you are better.
Note the emphasis on Better. If the experience (not price) is the same, they will stay where they know they will be Somewhat Satisfied. You have to provide a better experience. Not the same experience, better.
While I was at the ABC station in San Antonio, I was in charge of The Deal of the Day. A local program similar to Groupon. Certificates for Half Priced food.
No matter how much you counseled the restaurants on the importance of the experience in the diner's decision making process, they would repeatedly fall short in the eyes of the potential new customers. Ask the restaurant owner what thier compeitive advantage was and the answer was always "Better food. Better staff."
But in would come the new prospective diners and the first two elements that fell short were the food and the staff. They failed to deliver better food or better staff. So the new diner's went back to the their own haunts. And I knew this because...
Before we would sign up a restaurant, I would "mystery shop" them to see if thay really had better food and a better staff than the other restaurants in the area.
Most often I found that they had the same food and the same staff as the compeition. Not a better experience. Not a worse experience. The same experience.
I can show you how to target the Somewhat Satisfied customers of your competition in order to grow your business. Only you can determine if your team is ready to deliver the "better experience" it takes to make them your client. Measure what you want to manage.
Want to talk more? Click below and some one from Thrive will give you a call and see what we can do to help.
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