Let them help you

Many business owners like to follow in the footsteps of Steve Jobs when it comes to their product or service saying “people don’t know what they want until you give it to them.” On the contrary, people do know exactly what they want and many times a business can capitalize on what a customer tells them they think would be a great idea.

This is one of the reasons so many companies provide surveys for their customers to fill out. It goes against your customer and may be counter-productive to assume you know exactly what the customer will want before they do. One example of this is how Apple inc allows anyone to create apps and put them on their app store. There are over 500 million apps created by users to this day. That is an impressive number!

In one survey concerning large corporate business’s, it was found that user lead innovation was responsible for up to $146 million dollars in revenue while internally lead innovation was responsible for only $18 million dollars. What this showed the surveyors is that the public does in fact know what it wants and if you can find a way to help them feel listened to and provide you with fresh ideas, then you may very well be tapping into a market that can increase your companies innovation and revenue.

How is your company utilizing the creative minds of the general public? One thing people absolutely love is personalization and they are willing to pay for it. It was found that some waiters and business were able to increase their revenue by up to twenty three percent because a customer/customers were able to customize what they wanted and how it was delivered. How are you working with your customers to give them the personalized experience that they are craving?

One way to personalize your customer experience is to “follow-up” with whatever service you are providing them. It was amazing and surprised me to find out that a waiter was able to increase his tips by 21% by simply adding mints to the meal to show his customers that he was thinking of them. In Big business it can be the same way. What customers do you have that it would be appropriate to follow up with or ask what they thought of your service? It doesn’t have to be a mint, but letting them know you value their input and that you’re thinking of them can go a long way.

 

Focus your interests

In working with several companies, it has been easy to notice that many times the interest of the customer is not always the first thing in mind. In a several recent studies done it was obvious that customer care was the one of the most important reasons for leaving a company’s service and going over to a competitor. As a matter of fact, 66% of people surveyed said it was the number one reason they stopped working with a company.

Do you feel like your focus is on taking care of your customers instead of taking care of your paycheck? If you stumble or have to take time to think about it then the chances are that you don’t focus on the customer and may need to critique how you approach those that are bringing the money into your business.

So what is a customer looking for when it comes to service? A recent Gallup study, it was found that customers care more about how in depth and friendly the communication/ interactions are instead of the speed. Customers want to feel that their questions are being answered in such a way that they won’t have to ask again and that you as a businessman really did go all the way to put their concerns to bed.

Many times we focus on speed in an effort to help our customers feel like we haven’t wasted their time and therefore they will be more likely to come back. This is not the case according to the studies cited. What customers consider a waste of time is not how long it took to find an answer or determine how to invest their money etc. It’s considered a waste of time if the questions and concerns weren’t answered in a such a way so that the customer doesn’t have to ask them again.

So in the future, slow down and relax. Your customers don’t want you to rush them out the door. It’s the exact opposite of that. They want to feel that you took the time needed to answer them fully.

What else am I doing wrong? Many companies have a customer service policy that requires you take care of a customer within a certain time frame. These numbers are based off of the average time it takes to handle similar questions. The problem with this is that it takes away from the “quality time” that customers crave so much. Consider changing your customer service return time and allowing for communication to be less restriced.