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Thought for the day...
Free daily management tips from our team of trainers - courtesy of the In-House Training Company
Thought for the day
The full archive of free daily management tips from our team of trainers.
Download ‘Give your customers more than they pay for’
It is often thought that customer expectations are relative to the price paid for a product or service. In essence, you get what you pay for. However, customers often have higher expectations. If you really want to be an outstanding business, you must organize your business so that your customers believe that you always give them more than they pay for. These are known as ‘moments of truth’, when expectations are exceeded and customer delight is achieved. Because customers measure everything (unconsciously) and little things often matter the most, achieving these ‘moments of truth’ is both easy and elusive at the same time.Here are some suggestions for creating ‘moments of truth’:
- Pay attention to small details – they are the most important ones
- Pay attention to the peripheral functions – reception areas, phones, staff manners, parking, customer areas, stock, presentation, letterheads, invoices, packing etc
- Everything counts – each time you meet or contact (or don’t contact!) the customer, your status in the mind of that customer is either improving or diminishing
- Customers want two things: being made to feel special and solutions to problems; so treat every customer as your most important
- When you are talking to a customer – they are your most important customer
- You only have one customer – the one you are dealing with now
- Think of the value of a ten year customer
- You might have hundreds of customers – but they might have only one supplier or a one-off purchase
- The world is full of mediocrity – any simpleton can make something a little cheaper but it takes vision and commitment to make or do something better
- Don’t do anything if you can’t do it excellently
- Set or establish clear expectations – and then exceed them
- Explain terms, prices and conditions clearly, early and honestly
- Suggestion: build a 10 per cent cushion into all your promises, quotes and statements of performance
- Deliver faster, sooner, better, cheaper – 10 per cent more than you promised. Don’t be tempted to relax or pocket the 10 per cent difference. There is an old farming saying: ‘You can shear a sheep many times, but skin it only once’
- Do something extra as standard.
This thought has been taken from Graham’s book ‘Companies don’t succeed, people do!’ Graham delivers outstanding sales training – click here for details of some of his programmes.
Previous Thoughts for the day
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‘Encourage your customers to be unreasonable’ - read more
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‘Give your customers the benefit of the doubt’
- read more
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‘Encourage your customers to complain’
- read more
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‘Being good enough, isn’t good enough – give customers a reason to be faithful’
- read more
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‘How to keep a customer for life – give them lots of reasons to stay’
- read more
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‘Close the customer service department’
- read more
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‘Customer satisfaction is everybody’s job’
- read more
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‘Customer satisfaction is not satisfactory’
- read more
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‘The answer is – yes!’
- read more
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‘What are others doing?’
- read more
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‘How can I take better care of my customers?’
- read more
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‘Every sales call is a free market research opportunity’
- read more
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‘The customer isn’t always right’
- read more
- ‘Give your customers more than they pay for’
- read more
- ‘Wash your dirty laundry in private’
- read more
- ‘It’s OK to spend money’
- read more
- ‘Expect the unexpected’
- read more
- ‘Have a NIZ!’
- read more
- ‘Dump trivia’
- read more
- ‘Less is more’
- read more
- ‘Speed up routine tasks’
- read more
- ‘Stop doing other people’s work’
- read more
- ‘Ask questions’
- read more
- ‘Take control!’
- read more
- ‘Listen!’
- read more
- ‘You don’t have to answer the question’
- read more
- ‘Shut up!’
- read more
- ‘Be receptive’
- read more
- ‘Go to the balcony’
- read more
- ‘Think before you speak’
- read more
- ‘You can’t stare – but you must watch!’
- read more
- ‘Don’t be predictable’
- read more
- ‘KISS’
- read more
- ‘Aim high’
- read more
- ‘Say “No.” ’
- read more
© The In-House Training Company.