Customer Focus
in a Slow Economy
By Ray Miller –
I wanted to call
this article “Sharpen Your Customer Focus or You Will Lose
Customers!” but a few of my colleagues thought this was a bit
too blunt. Absolutely true mind you, but blunt.
Then I thought why
not make the headline a question; “How Many Customers Are You
Willing To Lose Today Because of a Lack of Customer Focus?”
Again, true but too direct. So in the end I went with what you see
above.
So here we are
again. The economy is getting tough and for many, life is stressful
and difficult. For business, this is not new. We’ve all been here
before. Hopefully we’ve learned from the last time the economy
slowed … But then again, have we?
Nobody wants to lose
customers but you know as well as I that when the economy gets
tough, many organizations go into reactive mode. Their focus shifts
to cost control and the acquisition of new customers. History has
taught us that every time this happens, relationships with existing
customers can be put at risk. Financial responsibility is important,
as is getting new business, but not if it is at the expense of your
existing customers.
Allow me to explain.
During an economic downturn most
customers will be looking to increase value for their money. They
will try to make their hard earned cash go further and you can be
sure that they will be more critical when making buying decisions.
With less disposable income, customers
will be less forgiving of a mediocre or poor service experience. And
don’t forget that when it comes to service, the vast majority, 90 to
96%, will not complain and most will simply go elsewhere. You can
bet that they will want to deal with organizations that demonstrate
that they want and appreciate their business.
You can also be guaranteed that your
customers will be strongly influenced by the commentary of their
friends, acquaintances, family and colleagues when it comes to
recommendations for products or services and providers.
As I mentioned earlier, when economic
conditions become more demanding, far too many organizations focus
on cost cutting and acquiring new customers which invariably puts
the relationships with their existing customers at risk.
Quite often training budgets are the
first to get cut. This includes all important training on things
like Customer Service and Leadership.
Process improvement plans get put on hold
often including process improvements that were intended to enhance
the customer experience.
Even though it is five times more
expensive to get new customers than it is to keep existing already
profitable customers, many organizations bolster their marketing
efforts trying to pull more customers in the front door, at the same
time virtually ignoring their existing customers who simply walk out
the backdoor looking for someone who wants and appreciates their
business and proves it through their actions.
The retention of existing customers is
all the more important during difficult economic conditions.
Research proves that existing customers are more profitable and
improvements in your operating expenses and resulting bottom line
can be achieved through maintaining a high level of customer focus.
Just to remind you, don’t forget a five percent increase in customer
loyalty can contribute from 25% to 125% directly to your bottom
line.
Remember that your customers always have
the choice of buying from you or your competition. When times are
tough, that choice becomes even more important.
Implementing a customer focus strategy
will create valuable and long-lasting relationships with your
customers that will provide a secure and growing revenue stream.
Focusing on
getting the customer experience right is critical. Making sure that
your customers choose you over your competition is essential. If you
get it right when times are tough you will certainly reap the
benefits and rewards of unleashing the power of customer focus as
conditions improve.
So this time, why not dare to be different. Why not
unleash the potential of customer focus, while everyone else has
their eye off the ball.
Ray Miller is
the author of That's Customer Focus and Managing Partner of The Training Bank, a Training and
Consulting firm specializing in Customer Focus, Service Improvement,
Leadership and fully customized training solutions. He is also
co-author of the book That’s Customer Focus.
You can get more
information about That’s Customer Focus by visiting
www.thatscustomerfocus.com or
www.thetrainingbank.com
If you would like a
pdf version of this article, please
click here and we will send you one.
Return to Articles Page
