Customer as king: Getting it right

There is no doubt that satisfying customer needs is very critical and complex in today’s context and more often than not that ‘customer service’ is used as a strategy to keep customers ‘happy’.

Henry Ford used to sell cars with the notion: “any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants as long as it is black”. Today the whole idea of selling a car in just one colour is absurd. Regardless of there being a plethora of models of cars coming in an array of colours, customers are still difficult to please. 

A few decades ago customers were unable tobring to light their opinion about your product &services, marketing methods, and brands. Today the situation is somewhat reversed where the customer has full charge and to some extent the power to even rule you! With their recently found power of sharing opinions on public platforms, the customer is king.

When did the customer become king?

So what led to this change? Essentially with regard to customers’ preference, there is no such thing as right and wrong. Today, markets have transformed from ‘sellers’ market to ‘buyers’ market, where a customer’s choice is influenced by the level of consumer awareness achieved by a business. 

Meeting a customer’s expectation is an expensive affair as it is they who have the buying power. Today, companies are keenon maintaining their services at a premium level to capture a significant market share. Differentiating their own products and ensuring service excellence are often key strategies employed bycompanies thataim at delivering the promised value.

So that brings us to what makes customers so important to business.

Why is the king important?

A number of studies have shown that customers are naturally inclined to lose interest with every new product launch. Thus markets are guided by the desires of customers. To any business, customers’ eccentricity is as important as the business itself. Today many companies are customer oriented and they think of their business as a customer service company.

The continuing acquisition of customers comes at a cost, a high one. It is imperativeto create a friendly atmosphere for customers. Bringing in a mood and feel to the sale platform goes a long way.

That brings us to the next question: what must businesses do to make the king ‘happy’?

How to please the king?

In a win-win situation, everyone must be satisfied with no compromise whatsoever. Research studies have shown that keeping customers happy always gives positive and best results not only for a company’s revenue, but to its brand as well. 

In service based businesses, it is common to deal with tempered and grouchy customers. Changing this grouchy customer to a happy and loyal one is no big deal if you really work towards it withapproaches such as:

Power of 5 Ws 

It is imperative for businesses to understand that customers don’t expect you to be perfect; they only expect you to fix things when something goes wrong. Show that you are really concerned and understand their dilemma to calm a furious customer. To ensure clarity, you need to ask questions which explain the power of 5Ws whichare:Who? What? Where? When? Why? This will help address problems more efficiently, systematically, and most importantly, fast.

Ask,listen and communicate: A good listener is always a good seller. By listening you can authoritatively conclude exactly what they are looking for and help them to settle or decide their best product for their needs. Always have proper communications to calm a customer.

Stick to promises made: Stick to your promises and sales game without misleading the customer about the product, pricing, delivery and others. Broken trust hurts business in the long run. Reliability is an important part of any good relationship and this rule applies to all aspect of business transactions including appointments, deadlines etc. Customers should buy you before they buy your products.

Be kind: Always give the customer more than what they expect. They love feeling valued; after all, who doesn’t?

Be Innovative: Customers are on the lookout for new things in the market. Successful businesses not only respond to their current customer or organisational needs, but often anticipate future trends and develop an idea, product or service that allows them to meet this future demand rapidly and effectively. Innovation will help you stay ahead of your competition as markets, technologies or trends shift.

Get your CRM in place, build personal relationships

If you don’t have any kind of relationship with a customer, they will not remain. A well planned public relations campaign is often far more effective than advertising. 

If you can build a relationship where the customer knows who you are, is impressed with what you can do, and give an example of how you can help them, then you can give them the trust and that helps solidify relationships. It alleviates the brand and creates positive perceptions regarding your company. 

There are many other ways also to build relationshipsthrough, loyalty programs, rewards points, privilege client services and others, which also enhance the trust of the consumers.

With the boom in technology, the art of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is getting more popular by the day. It is typically a business strategy aimed at reducing cost, increasing profitability by using customer loyalty. In a nutshell it helps in the relationship building process. 

If employed in the right manner, CRM brings all information data sources, both from within and outside an organisation, and provides an all-inclusive view of each and every customer in real time. This in turn allows sales managers and customer care assistants to make quick yet informed decisions on diverse areas –fromcross-selling and up selling opportunities.

Conclusion

Smart sales manager or business owners are able to successfully identify the right customer for their business and make them feel like a king. Nevertheless, the ultimate aim is to build customers, not sales.

[The author is theChief Operating Officer at Premium International andhas experience spanning over 18 years in Business Management which includes three different industries, banking and financial services, energy sectors (gas and electricity) and retailing. He has gained his experience in diverse markets such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Sri Lanka. He holds a MBA in Business Management from the University of Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom and a BBA in Business Management (UK). He is a member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and also a Member of American Marketing Association.]