According to research studies over 70% of customers will stop doing business with you because of how they were treated! This does not mean they had an issue related to quality or price (only about 20% total leave for those reasons). They leave because they feel they were not treated up to their expectations. Further only 4%-6% of all customers will express their dissatisfaction to someone in the business; most simply take their business elsewhere.
So what can you as a business owner do to prevent this? Well there are a number of steps that you should be taking already...
First getting a better understanding of what your customers think about your business. This will help you identify the areas that need improvement within your business. This should be the cornerstone to any business who is customer centric.
This feedback can be gathered in many ways. For example your staff, as they interact with customers, is probably already getting some of this. Another common method is having someone on the management team speak with customers as they come in or reach out to call them. Both of these have some flaws specifically in measuring employees and your service. Finally you can institute a formal feedback program. This would include a process of systematically asking your customers to provide feedback that measures the core areas of your business and why (or why not) customers are doing business with you.
Second you need to hire, train and manage your employees in ways that build upon the image your business is putting forward to the public. Employees who are customer focused and believe in and represent your brand will inevitably be an asset to both you and your customers and contribute to building loyal customers for life.
Using the data you have gathered you can classify customers into 1 of 3 categories -
Detractors - These customers have done business with you and have generally decided not to continue to do business for some reason. These folks often will tell friends and family why they should also not do business with you.
Passives - These are customers how have done business and will continue to be repeat customers but are not particularly loyal to you. These are the customers that are ones that are often lured away by your competition or who will not tolerate any mistakes.
Advocates - These are your loyal customers. They will generally be there with you through good times and bad and will tell others about how great you are. These are the people that give true meaning to word of mouth marketing.
We can also classify employees into a similar set of 3 categories -
Detractors - Those who are negative and will not only be willing to leave your employment, they are also not properly representing your business and may actually be working against you with both current and potential customers.
Passives - These employees are happy coming in and performing their job. Their performance is often average to above average and they deliver the proper brand image and message most of the time.
Advocates - These are the real superstars. They are eager to help others; they serve the customer and represent the brand and company in a way that far exceeds other employees. They often tell their friends and relatives how great the business is and are also providing word of mouth advertising.
What we know is when hiring employees they are not automatically one of the 3 types. They become Detractors, Passives or Advocates based on the interaction they have with the management team. How they are managed and trained will shape them into one of these 3 categories.
The way in which you hire, train and manage staff will be reflected back to you in the form of customer loyalty. The next time you are thinking about how to grow your business and increase repeat business look to your employees. Customer loyalty is a lot like a skyscraper. It is made up of many floors and needs to be maintained to remain in peak shape. The foundation of the most successful businesses begins with its employees.
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