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Small Business Success - The Magic Formula
The truth is that there is such a formula; and it is one that successful business people have held onto for years - and they have created multi-million dollar businesses because of it. What is interesting is that it is not really a secret. The only reason it is a secret is because we get so distracted with trying to make money in our business that we miss out on it. As a matter of fact it is in line with what our grandmothers taught us in how we treat people. Do you remember the Golden Rule - "Do onto others as you would have them do to you?" In other words the secret to your small business success is the commitment to delivering outstanding and consistent customer satisfaction. Think about it, if you were to deliver outstanding customer satisfaction, how many hundreds of people would be coming to your door to get their needs and wants met? Not only that, but you would also dominate your competition. Think about it - how many businesses have this level of commitment to their customers? The question you need to ask yourself is, how can you as a small business owner, create the kind of enterprise where customers feel that they are your number one priority? How can you transform your business into a church that worships your customer? In the book, Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit by Inghilleri and Solomon, the authors talk about the one key to exceeding customer expectations and delivering world-class customer satisfaction - namely, the ability to anticipate your customers' needs before they even ask. For example, imagine if your customer contacts you, and as they are talking you have already started meeting their needs and wants even before they finish their first sentence. Or if even before they approach the front door, many of their needs and wants are already available to them. How do you think they are going to feel? I am not saying that we have to be a modern day psychic (though satisfied customers' most common phrase is "you read my mind."). What I am saying is that we need to be devoted to knowing our customers so well that we can anticipate their needs and wants before they even ask. Here are some tips to creating this type of business: 1. Profile your customer - We need to act like a teenager in love and find out everything there is to know about our customer's wants, needs, likes, dislikes etc. You can research them on the internet, through surveys, magazines and social media. 2. Build an organization around your customers needs - Too many of us are so focused on selling products or service that we miss out on our customers needs. To deliver outstanding customer satisfaction, we must re-design our entire organization with the customer at the center. This means our marketing, sales, operations, even our team need to be the best fit for our customers. Ask yourself the question, "Is the business operationally meeting every need of my customer?" 3. Create systems to anticipate and meet customer needs - If we know our customers want to be greeted, we assign a greeter at the front door. If we know are customers want to be able to ask us questions, we assign a concierge or 24 hour hotline for our customers. If we know our customers want quick delivery - we provide free overnight shipping. The idea is to create systems around every need and desire our customer has. If you build an organization that is designed to anticipate every need of your customer, it will not be long before you create an enterprise in the likeness of Disney, Nordstrom's, even the Ritz Carlton. But best of all, you will make more money, the more you deliver on your promise to provide outstanding customer satisfaction. Just remember, if you build it...they will come. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Will Pena, MBA is the founder of a small business consulting company, Sapient Business Solutions Inc - specializing in helping small businesses to get more customers, close more sales and make more money in as little as 30 days. |
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