Think about growing your business. What are you going to do to grow your business this year? Take a minute right now and think.
If you’re like most people, when you think about growing your business you think about getting new customers. The mega retailers spend millions of dollars each year trying to get new customers to come into their stores… and it continually amazes me that once they get me into their store the customer service is often so bad I won’t ever go back.
I’m suggesting that when it comes to growing your business Think Up-Side-Down. In order to grow your business, rather than thinking about getting new customers first, think first about keeping your existing customers.
Let’s look at the numbers. Assume that “Their Store” wants to grow by 10% next year. Let’s further assume that their customer service is typical of most major retailers and 2 out of 10 customers decide they are going to take their business elsewhere because of the lousy service. Let’s assume another 5% go somewhere else for a multitude of reasons. So they lose 25% of their business each year. So now, rather than growing by 10%, “Their Store” needs to grow by 35% to hit their target growth rate of 10%.
Now let’s look at “Your Store”. You also want to grow by 10%. But because you and everyone on your staff understands that customers give each and every one of you your paycheck, and your vacations, and your raises, and everything else you get; you simply do not lose customers due to poor customer service. You do lose about 5% of your customers each year for a variety of reason – they move, they die, misunderstandings, whatever. So after you take into account losing customers, you need to grow 15% to reach your 10% growth rate.
So the morale of the story is… It’s a lot easier to grow your business if you take care of your existing customers.
When you think about growing your business Think Up-Side-Down. Think in this order:
1. What can I do to keep my existing customers?
2. What can I do to increase business with my existing customers?
and finally…
3. How can I get new customers?
Concentrate on keeping your existing customers and doing more business with your existing customers and you’ll get the Happy Customer Bonus… dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people selling for you. You’ll have Happy Customers telling others about you. And then you’ll have the absolutely best kind of advertising – advertising that money can’t buy – “WORD-OF-MOUTH ADVERTISING”… and you’ll have those new customers walking into your store.
- Here are ideas in Out-Nordstrom Nordstrom, Creating the World’s Best Customer Service that will help you keep existing customers, increase business with existing customers, and get new customers.
Be sure everyone in your company understands Who’s The Boss. See secret #40 in Out-Nordstrom Nordstrom. - Be sure everyone in your company understands How To Take Care Of Upset Customers – Secret #43.
- Can your business pass the acid test of Exceptional Customer Service? Are the huge majority of customer complaints resolved by the first person who talks to the customer? Secret #23.
- Does everyone in your company know what exceptional customer service is? Secret #4.
You can get my hard copy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com. Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.