"We
would say to our associates, 'If
your brother or sister came into your store, how would you treat them?'
And then we would say, 'Your brother and sister have
to shop here. Other people don't. You have to treat other customers,
strangers, better than you do your brother or your sister."
—
Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot,
in his book, Built from Scratch
Business owners are often surprised their employees fail to understand
the significance of maintaining quality customer
relations.Since the cost of keeping customers is only about 20% of the
cost of acquiring them, keeping customers is the key to business growth
and profitability.
Employees need continual reinforcement of the behaviors to keep
customers.
The most important factor in keeping your best customers is consistency.
Your customer must know what to expect every time from your business.
Some companies appoint a specific salesperson or "customer relations
representative." By keeping the same "face" of the business, your
customer knows the history of the relationship is valued by
your company.
Next, your employees should be nice.
Cordiality goes a long way. For example, my 8 year-old son was enrolled
in a pre-season baseball "doctor" camp. When we arrived at the indoor
field, the "receptionist" was rude to me and said the camp was full and
my son would have to wait for another month. I tried to get her to be
nice, but her callousness got my son extremely upset. When we went to
dinner at Friendly's, he wrote on the menu "I hate______"
Another key factor is communicating
your company's policies to the
employees. If they internalize what makes the company successful, they
can communicate this positive attitude to your customers. If your
employees are positive about "their company" that can flow to the
customers.
Many of the largest retail businesses fail this test. For example, in a
recent report WalMart was rated
extremely low in customer service and satisfaction. Other businesses
with equally poor scores include Home Depot and Citicorp.
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