Your customers like you? Too bad! You need them to love you!
There’s a whole new meaning to customer-centricity. No longer is it to be given just lip service in the corporate mission statement. If you want first-rate customer advocates and killer marketing returns then you need to become truly customer centric.
There’s a tyre shop in Christchurch, let’s call it Tyre Max, that has my partner’s, mine and many other customers’ complete loyalty. "Yawn, tyres" I hear you saying, "How does this relate to marketing?" Well, here’s the thing, yes Tyre Max has good prices, snappy advertising and great staff uniforms. But do you want to know what the real reason is that hundreds of customers love them?
The real reason why so many people love this shop is because Tyre Max are customer-centric. No I’m not talking about the type of customer-centricity that’s mentioned in almost every corporate mission statement. I’m talking about real nitty-gritty, research-driven customer-centricity. The kind that makes your eyes water because of its honesty and its ability to turn detractors into advocates that use "love" to describe your company, the kind that makes your marketing ROI fly and your sales soar.
Let me explain with an illustration of true customer-centricity in all its glory. A few months ago my partner and I went to do our grocery shopping only to find, to our dismay, that we had a flat tyre. So after racking our brains we decided on Tyre Max.
Now as you can imagine, we weren’t in the best mood. But because of Tyre Max’s impressive true customer-centricity, we left in a great mood and as complete advocates. What did they do that was so amazing? Here’s the secret; Tyre Max do at least 12 things differently than do companies who only pay lip service to customer service. To keep it simple I’ll illustrate just 6 of these differentiators; all of which Tyre Max seem to do with ease.
Put your customers’ needs ahead of your own.
After deciding on Tyre Max we gave them a call. We were greeted by a voice message promising to call us back within 15 minutes (which they did.) Score number 1. It would have been easier for the owner to leave a generic voice message; you know the one, "Hi, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible." The Tyre Max management had so completely stepped into our, the customers’, shoes and understood that with the anxiety a blown tyre causes, a vague, "as soon as possible" reference won’t do. And although it puts more pressure on the Tyre Max staff, their customers are happier because they do not feel left in limbo.
The owner takes the lead and sets with example.
What hit us the moment we arrived at Tyre Max was, once again, the way the owner had completely stepped into the customers’ shoes and understood how we would be feeling when we first arrived at their shop. Score number 2. In an area of the city where there is no parking Tyre Max management had scaled back their workshop (to non customer-centric thought, less cars to work on and therefore less money) just to create customer parking space. The owner took the lead and set the example of putting the customer first. They knew that generally when coming to a tyre store you’re edgy, be it from a blown tyre to a failed warrant and parking hassles are the last thing customers need. So management did something about it.
Hire staff with attitude, not just aptitude
From the moment we stepped in the door all the staff we dealt with were friendly, courteous, and made us feel important. Not only that, they explained things to us in a language we could understand and without making us feel dumb. Score number 3, the staff knew what they were doing but they also had the right attitude and personality to explain to us what was wrong in a way that we would understand.
Exceed customer’s expectations – don’t just meet them.
So now you may be thinking wow, this is great! Maybe there really is some substance to true customer-centricity. Well wait; there’s more! Score number 4, after all this amazing truly customer-centric service they then asked us what our morning plans were. Upon our explanation of grocery shopping they offered us a courtesy car in which to do it. Wow! Tyre Max didn’t just meet our expectations, they exceeded them while showing us they cared - and in doing so they made us think they were total stars.
Get customers to tell you what they really think and feel.
Score number 5, upon our return they gave us a survey and asked us to be brutally honest. You see the trick is this; Tyre Max showed us that they valued us, and because of this and the trust we’d built up over that short time frame we were honest with our feedback. Although we gave them a glowing report, if we’d had any concerns we would have told them because of the trust they’d created. This honest feedback, both good and bad, can then be used to better their service. It’s win-win for all.
Satisfy customer’s emotional needs, not just rational needs.
Score number 6. A day after our Tyre Max visit they gave us a call to say thanks for choosing them and to check that it was all ok. Wow. Not only did they fix our rational need, a blown tyre, they also satisfied our emotional needs by showing us they cared and remembered us and that we’d made the right decision to use them.
This kind of extreme marketing takes a lot of effort, but if you can commit to being truly customer-centric then you will reap the rewards; with total advocate customers and so much word-of-mouth marketing that you won’t be able to keep up with demand.
-Louise Hunter
There’s a whole new meaning to customer-centricity. No longer is it to be given just lip service in the corporate mission statement. If you want first-rate customer advocates and killer marketing returns then you need to become truly customer centric.
There’s a tyre shop in Christchurch, let’s call it Tyre Max, that has my partner’s, mine and many other customers’ complete loyalty. "Yawn, tyres" I hear you saying, "How does this relate to marketing?" Well, here’s the thing, yes Tyre Max has good prices, snappy advertising and great staff uniforms. But do you want to know what the real reason is that hundreds of customers love them?
The real reason why so many people love this shop is because Tyre Max are customer-centric. No I’m not talking about the type of customer-centricity that’s mentioned in almost every corporate mission statement. I’m talking about real nitty-gritty, research-driven customer-centricity. The kind that makes your eyes water because of its honesty and its ability to turn detractors into advocates that use "love" to describe your company, the kind that makes your marketing ROI fly and your sales soar.
Let me explain with an illustration of true customer-centricity in all its glory. A few months ago my partner and I went to do our grocery shopping only to find, to our dismay, that we had a flat tyre. So after racking our brains we decided on Tyre Max.
Now as you can imagine, we weren’t in the best mood. But because of Tyre Max’s impressive true customer-centricity, we left in a great mood and as complete advocates. What did they do that was so amazing? Here’s the secret; Tyre Max do at least 12 things differently than do companies who only pay lip service to customer service. To keep it simple I’ll illustrate just 6 of these differentiators; all of which Tyre Max seem to do with ease.
Put your customers’ needs ahead of your own.
After deciding on Tyre Max we gave them a call. We were greeted by a voice message promising to call us back within 15 minutes (which they did.) Score number 1. It would have been easier for the owner to leave a generic voice message; you know the one, "Hi, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible." The Tyre Max management had so completely stepped into our, the customers’, shoes and understood that with the anxiety a blown tyre causes, a vague, "as soon as possible" reference won’t do. And although it puts more pressure on the Tyre Max staff, their customers are happier because they do not feel left in limbo.
The owner takes the lead and sets with example.
What hit us the moment we arrived at Tyre Max was, once again, the way the owner had completely stepped into the customers’ shoes and understood how we would be feeling when we first arrived at their shop. Score number 2. In an area of the city where there is no parking Tyre Max management had scaled back their workshop (to non customer-centric thought, less cars to work on and therefore less money) just to create customer parking space. The owner took the lead and set the example of putting the customer first. They knew that generally when coming to a tyre store you’re edgy, be it from a blown tyre to a failed warrant and parking hassles are the last thing customers need. So management did something about it.
Hire staff with attitude, not just aptitude
From the moment we stepped in the door all the staff we dealt with were friendly, courteous, and made us feel important. Not only that, they explained things to us in a language we could understand and without making us feel dumb. Score number 3, the staff knew what they were doing but they also had the right attitude and personality to explain to us what was wrong in a way that we would understand.
Exceed customer’s expectations – don’t just meet them.
So now you may be thinking wow, this is great! Maybe there really is some substance to true customer-centricity. Well wait; there’s more! Score number 4, after all this amazing truly customer-centric service they then asked us what our morning plans were. Upon our explanation of grocery shopping they offered us a courtesy car in which to do it. Wow! Tyre Max didn’t just meet our expectations, they exceeded them while showing us they cared - and in doing so they made us think they were total stars.
Get customers to tell you what they really think and feel.
Score number 5, upon our return they gave us a survey and asked us to be brutally honest. You see the trick is this; Tyre Max showed us that they valued us, and because of this and the trust we’d built up over that short time frame we were honest with our feedback. Although we gave them a glowing report, if we’d had any concerns we would have told them because of the trust they’d created. This honest feedback, both good and bad, can then be used to better their service. It’s win-win for all.
Satisfy customer’s emotional needs, not just rational needs.
Score number 6. A day after our Tyre Max visit they gave us a call to say thanks for choosing them and to check that it was all ok. Wow. Not only did they fix our rational need, a blown tyre, they also satisfied our emotional needs by showing us they cared and remembered us and that we’d made the right decision to use them.
This kind of extreme marketing takes a lot of effort, but if you can commit to being truly customer-centric then you will reap the rewards; with total advocate customers and so much word-of-mouth marketing that you won’t be able to keep up with demand.
-Louise Hunter
