Going Beyond Customer Loyalty

Going BeyondCustomer Loyalty

www.PagePath.com

Vice President of MarketingPagePath Technologies, [email protected]

JOE KERN

These days it doesn’t take much for a customer to startlooking elsewhere.

Now is the time to reach out and start solidifying relationships with clients.

Build a level of comfort so strong

that customers will

NEVERconsider leaving you

Stop the exodus• The #1 reason buyers bail • Find out what your customers really think• Stop losing accounts to competition

When bad things happen• Why your customers leave• How to spot a toxic customer• Handling customer complaints

Shore up the walls• Build reputation and credibility• Create an exceptional customer experience• Unexpected Gestures

Stop the exodusThe #1 reason buyers bail

Do you know the main reason people stop doing business with print suppliers?


Studies show that 68% of customers leave simply because they feel they are being treated indifferently.


• Retention isn’t just about preventing bad experiences

• Retention is about creating positives


• Understand their business• Care about their bottom line• Pay attention• Believe the relationship is more important than

an order or two

How to create the positive:

Find out what your customers really think

Meet face to face with your clients quarterly


Send them a short questionnaire first. Give them time to prepare.


• Are your phone calls (or e-mails) returned quickly enough?

• Are questions answered to your satisfaction, the first time?

• Are there any expectations that we haven't met?

• Would you recommend us to a friend, colleague, or business associate?


• We want to provide you with the best service you've ever had. Are we currently providing that?

• Is there one thing you feel that we do especially well?

• What else could we be doing to solve your problems or meet your needs?

Stop losing accounts to competition

As the economy struggles along, many sellers are focused on hunting for new business -which often translates into taking advantage of competitors who have made mistakes or become complacent.


Protecting current accounts from competitors - and building stronger relationships with them - is critically important. Here are three strategic moves you can make to keep your best customers:


• Free up resources• Analyze current accounts• Know who are the best

customers• Objective is to decide

which accounts get most attention


• Free up resources• What's the revenue versus

cost? • Where are the best growth

opportunities? • Which "at-risk" customers

can result in more sales?


• Strengthen your relationships

• Provide high-quality support and extra-effort service.

• Stay "in the loop" on new initiatives

• Expand your network of contacts in the client organization


• Build a solid track record

• Hit these 4 targets consistently• (1) price• (2) specifications • (3) delivery• (4) availability

When bad things happen• Why your customers leave• How to spot a toxic customer• Handling customer complaints

Why your customers leaveThe most dangerous assumption a salesperson can make is to act as if a customer is satisfied

Why your customers leaveA survey entitled, "Why customers quit" revealed the following:

• 3% simply move • 6% develop other relationships• 9% leave for competitive reasons• 14% are dissatisfied with the product or service• 68% leave because of an attitude of indifference

toward the customer by the owner, salesperson or other employee.

Why your customers leaveThe survey also found:

• The average business spends six times as much to attract new customers as to keep old ones.

• Seven of 10 complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor. Resolve it on the spot and 95% will do business with you again.

• A satisfied complainer will tell five people about the problem and how well you resolved it.

Why your customers leaveThe survey also found:

• A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to 10 people about the problem.

• It takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident.

Why your customers leave

You'll keep more customers if you really understand where their heads are at, and why they might want to switch.

How to spot a toxic customer

There are ways to get the advance warning, when you ask the right kind of questions up front.

Wouldn’t life be simpler if we got key clues before taking on toxic customers?


Here are some questions you can ask a prospect or customer to find out whether you are dealing with an evil villain


1. Tell me about why you are considering a new printer?

2. How would your other suppliers/vendors describe your company as a customer?

3. What are the most frequent requests you make of your current printer that frustrate you?


Consider the answers carefully, and remember that toxic customers can drain away profit margins and steal time you could use to get better customers.

Handling customer complaints

Research shows customers who have never had a complaint are not as loyal as customers who have had a problem that was successfully resolved


The 3-Step Process

Establish rapport


The 3-Step Process

Discover the problem


The 3-Step Process

Cement the relationship

Shore up the walls• Build reputation and credibility• Create an exceptional customer experience• Unexpected Gestures

Build reputation and credibility

One of the keys to maintaining a thriving printing and marketing business is a steady customer base.


A successful company typically sees 80% of its business come from 20% of its customers

Build reputation and credibilityHere are

4 Stepsto building a credible reputation with your clients


Focus on serving• Unbreakable customer loyalty can

develop. • Satisfied buyers remain loyal• Satisfied buyers tell others about their

first class treatment. • Nothing builds a reputation faster and

more effectively than word of mouth.


Specialize • Concentrating your efforts in a single

niche allows you to maximize your expertise, credibility, and reputation.

• Customers today have big challenges, and they want proven solutions from experts, not generalists.


Become unique • A unique identity can be accomplished in

many ways. Everything from brand awareness, trademark clothing, follow-up techniques, and personal marketing methods can help you appear unique in your buyers' eyes.


Market your personal reputation• Corporate reputation matters, your personal

reputation matters more. • People buy from people. • There are countless ways to get yourself known,

including e-mail promotions, newsletters, association involvement, public speaking, and writing articles.

• These creative strategies help form your reputation as someone customers know and trust.

Create an exceptional customer experience

What makes some people willing to pay $5 for a cup of coffee when they can get one across the street for 85 cents?


Passionate customer loyalty isn't just about features, benefits and price. It's about the customer's experience.


Research has identified Five Key Principles that you can use to create exceptional experiences for your own customers.


Reduce uncertainty

Consistency soothes the soul. Inconsistency creates anxiety, even when service is otherwise pretty good.


Be real, be clear

Be upfront about your objectives. Loyalty is built on trust, and we trust one another when we see that motives are genuine.


Share the passionExceptional companies rightly focus on the buyer's personal experience. They want each customer to feel they're the most important person in the world.


Engage their curiosityThe compulsion to learn is hard-wired into our DNA. When you can create "teachable moments," you strike a deep chord.


Find a unique appealLook for something unique that calls attention to the customer's experience, identifies it as unusual and leaves a positive emotional afterglow.

Unexpected Gestures

Only your imagination limits the ways you can surprise your customers by giving them more than they expect.

But when was the last time you sat down and thought, "What unexpected gesture could I make today that would really cement the bond I have with my customers and prospects?"

Unexpected GesturesHere's a collection of real examples where companies took low-cost measures to make sure no customer would find them "indifferent.“ Perhaps they'll inspire you to find ways to show your customers you care

Unexpected GesturesLots of hospitals give new mothers flowers or a basket of goodies when they check out with the baby. But a hospital in Florida came up with twist on that idea. It sends flowers one month after the mother gets home. Just at the point where reality has set in, a bouquet of flowers really brightens up an otherwise trying day.

Unexpected GesturesA restaurant owner learned from his staff that over-40 patrons often had trouble reading the menu. Seems they forgot their glasses. Today, every waiter carries a cheap pair of magnified reading glasses. Patrons are delighted beyond words when, after squinting to read blurred type in dim light, they can read the menu perfectly with a set of borrowed glasses.

Unexpected GesturesA business supply and check imprinting company reached out to a community devastated by tornados and offered to replace, for free, any product that was destroyed in the storms that they supplied to their customers. They also extend the offer for up to 6 months since businesses impacted may not have their office supplies on their mind initially.

Unexpected Gestures

What unexpected gesture can you offer to clients that will surprise them as well as keep them thinking about you, their greatest vendor?

Thank You!

Questions? Comments?

Joe KernPagePath [email protected]

Research and statistics from Rapid Learning Institute

Going Beyond Customer Loyalty

Presentations & Public Speaking

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