Recently I needed to fill my car with petrol, I stopped at a local petrol station only for the pump not to work. As I tried to sort it out a voice boomed “pump 5 is a prepay pump - you must pay in the station first”. I wanted to fill up so this was frustrating, as I started to walk again the voice boomed “pump 5 hang up the pump before you come in”. At this point I decided they really didn’t want my money, so I hung the pump up and drove off to the Shell station down the road.
Now this got me thinking about the importance of developing customer loyalty and the importance of following a clear strategy. This clearly was a business which had let a perfectly reasonable operational issue get in the way of delivering a great service. The other danger which gets in the way is the never ending quest to find new customers, time which would be time better spent creating customers that are absolute fanatics, customers that have a total loyalty to your brand.
The opportunity to create fanatically loyal customers is there for every business. It's not hard. A simple three step plan is all it takes;
- Create a clear compelling service vision
- Ask your customers what they want
- Deliver 1% more
Although this is simple, it’s surprising how many businesses don’t follow this process. Let’s start at the first point; creating a vision.
With any journey you need to know your destination. By thinking things through and really understanding what is possible, a clear picture of your ideal service vision will form. To do this consider all the parts of your business that could be improved, however most of the gains will probably be achieved through service improvements, these days it’s harder and harder to maintain a product advantage.
One important principle is that you have to create the vision first. It’s important to research all the possibilities, understand what is happening in different but related industries, look at what new technology can do. Put all of this together and then dream of what could be done. Only when a clear detailed vision is on paper should you then proceed. Everything doesn’t have to be worked out, but you do need to know how everything could be done. Once this is on paper there are two things to do. First compare your vision to how things are now. This will highlight the areas that need to be addressed. Secondly test your vision by asking your customers what they want.
Ask your customer what they want.Before testing your service vision it’s important to know which customer group or segment the service vision is designed for. This is critical as you can’t afford to be everything for everyone. With a clear target customer and a well executed vision, loyal fans can be created, but if the vision is stretched over too wide a customer segment then the outcome can only be ordinary.
When asking your target customers about the vision, listen for the problems they have, try to understand what their real needs are and check that the vision is going to deliver this. Also ensure the time spent with your customers is focused and give them 100% of your attention. Don’t accept a polite response, really try to engage them and get some rich feedback rather than a superficial reply. Of course, the last thing to remember about asking your customers what they want is that there’s the real opportunity to turn the relationship from good to great by finding that x factor that’s really important to them.
Deliver 1% more. Once the vision is clear and this has been tested against your target customers it’s time to develop the systems and processes to consistently deliver this. A key principle here is to deliver 1% more than your customers expect - consistently. To do this examine the systems, develop check lists and introduce training programmes to ensure you consistently deliver great service.
The objective to deliver 1% more forces the whole organisations to find small improvements to develop and improve the service. Setting the goal at a 1% improvement, keeps it real and achievable. Even small changes can result in a large result, if you target a 1% improvement every week this will result in in a gain of 50% in a year, 1% improvement every fortnight will be more than 25% improvement in a year.
Keep working at it.Develop the vision, ask your customers and deliver 1% more. That’s all there is to it. Obviously this is a commitment but with determination and persistence you can achieve a dramatic result. This should become something that is consistently being worked on, gathering ideas from the world around you, talking to your customers and listening to the suggestions and ideas from your team.
If your organisation could benefit from this approach feel free to call us to discuss how to get started. We can help you to develop your vision and guide you through the process.
InsideOut:
Business and Marketing Consultants