“Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers is not enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you must create Raving Fans.” Ken Blanchard
The purpose of every business is to create and keep a customer. Customers are the foundation of a business, keeping it in existence and providing the revenue necessary for employment, assets, operating expenses and profit.
Without sales you have no customers and without customers you have no business!
It is not enough to just focus on finding new customers, a dual focus of service excellence needs to be in place.
Acquiring new customers can cost up to seven times more than retaining or growing existing customers, yet many businesses see sales as acquisition alone and do not combine their sales strategy with a robust customer service excellence approach.
This results in high levels of churn, reputational damage, unnecessary expenses, margin pressure and stress on everyone involved where you just feel like you’re chasing your tail because the runoff is happening faster than you can onboard new business.
The only way to truly create a sustainable, efficient and enjoyable sales environment is to focus on creating RAVING FANS from the onset.
Raving fans aren’t just customers, they are highly engaged with your business and can’t help but tell others about your products or services with genuine enthusiasm and excitement. Their referrals carry a high level of implied trust due to their personal experience and will set you up as the preferred provider from the outset.
It makes good business sense to master this process as it will:
- Increase the lifetime value of your customer
- Provide a true differentiator from competitors
- Increase the number of qualified referrals
- Reduce the acquisition cost for new customers
- Reduce churn or runoff – increasing retention
- Reduce price sensitivity
- Increase the ease of doing business
- Reduce costs of doing business and increase profitability
- Provide testimonials and case studies
- Give you feedback that helps you improve
- Create new raving fans who will exponentially grow your business for you …
Simply put, Raving Fans are the easiest, fastest and most profitable and enjoyable path to success.
From a business perspective, it is important to place the customer at the centre of everything you do. Our ability to create and deliver a high-quality experience is at the core of the business and we should have measures in place to understand what’s working well and what needs to be better.
Some of the drivers of Customer Satisfaction that will quickly contribute to creating raving fans are:
- Speed of service
- Knowledgeable help
- Convenience and ease of doing business
- Reliability
- Providing valued solutions that are matched to individual needs
- Personal connection and friendly service
- Genuine care and willingness to help
This can be summed up in 3 primary areas: Relationship, Reliability and Responsiveness.
When we understand our process, have strong metrics in place to measure success and deliberately focus on customer service strategies that enhance Relationship, Reliability and Responsivenessour customers will feel valued, that we are easy to do business with and trust will be built.
The next step is to remember to ask for that referral or the next sale – because you’ve earned the right and people want to help people who help them!
At Shine Executive, we love working with high performing teams and supporting leaders to create a high performance culture.
One of our favourite programs is our Building Better Sales Habits program. In this highly interactive and fast paced workshop, participants leave with a strong foundation of what it takes to deliver Sales & Service Excellence consistently through embedding high value habits.
If you’d like to discuss how Building Better Sales Habits could work in your business, why not Book your free 30 minute call now.
