We all have beliefs about why our customers walk away. Some of the most popular?
- The competition beat us on price. They gave it away to get the business.
- We didn’t have that nifty cool feature the competition has. If only we had that feature, we could have kept that customer.
- Our product had a problem and our support team couldn’t (or didn’t) respond in time to fix the issues. The customer got angry and went to our competitor.
Uh huh…
Customers don’t leave because of any of the above excuses.
Customers Walk Away Because
You don’t have the relationship to stop them. All too often, they are treated like a number in a database vs. a relationship that matters. Because you care more about your business than you do about your customers.
Keeping Customers in the Digital Age
If you think customers stay with you because you have a cheaper price or some cool feature, think again. Nor do they walk over one bad support call.
The key to keeping customers today is simple. It’s called relationships. Trusted relationships.
Whether it’s an iPhone or a multi-million dollar contract, your buyers are buying because of you. They’ll also leave because of you. How you converse with them, relate to them, treat them in your marketing, sales and support.
You won’t find customers leaving Apple because of some feature, the price or support issues. Maybe a few isolated cases, but nothing close to a significant percentage.
Why? Because Apple relates to its buyers. From mom and her first smart phone to kids with every gadget imaginable to corporations with hoards of MacBooks. Apple creates powerful relationships with all. Their Apple stores are staffed with friendly, personable and generally knowledgeable people. You walk in and they immediately begin to ask about you. You feel like you matter. Their support is timely and responsive, with reps that again, make you feel like you matter. Which is why Apple can charge a premium, support proprietary “stuff” that’s different from other competitors and still retain their customer base.
Great product and support? Yes. But even when there are issues – they retain their base. Thanks to the personal relationships they build with each and every one they touch.
How Can You Keep Your Customers?
I would think it would be obvious by now. Yet I see so many companies that haven’t solved the puzzle. Here’s the secret….
Treat your customers like they matter. Because they do.
Whether they do $5, 5M or 500M worth of business with you. Build a relationship that proves to them they matter to you and they won’t walk away.
How? The same way you build any relationship.
- Listen to them. Stop selling or telling and listen. Forget all the social media and digital chest thumping and start asking them what they want to know. Nothing turns off a relationship like one party constantly focusing on themselves. Listen and the relationship will benefit.
- Give them what they want. Your buyers don’t care what you want to say. They know what they want and that’s what they expect to get. Forget about thinking you know more than they do. You don’t. Give your buyers what they want and watch the relationships grow.
- Care about them and their success. How many times have all of us been rushed through a support call, or been cut short by some telesales person who was obviously focused on meeting a daily call quota. Reading from that lovely script. Which has little to do with our problem. We can do better. We can actually care about our customers. Goal our teams based on customer results and satisfaction vs. volumes and quantity. Quality beats quantity in any relationship.
The Bottom Line
Three simple steps can stop customers before they walk away. Powerful relationship results.
When you listen, give them what they want and show you care about their success your customers won’t leave you over a price change or a feature war.
Instead, they’ll stay. And buy again and again and again.
