re:membergroup
Build Customer Loyalty by Hiring the Right People
Building customer loyalty comes down to one thing: Delighting customers. As I discussed in my last blog, we begin to delight customers by The Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.
At the re:member group, we know that a systematic approach to building customer loyalty works. Our Dealership programs yield an increase of service revenue by as much as 39 percent among Members and have increased sales by 7.5 percent. But I’ll be the first to admit that our Loyalty Marketing Solutions are simply a tool, and successful only in companies that are dedicated to building customer loyalty by treating customers the way they want to be treated.
This starts with hiring the right people. This is so important, it bears repeating: If you want to build customer loyalty, hire the right people. Your staff has the power to earn the enthusiastic loyalty of your customers by creating economically rational ways to delight them. Delighting customers means putting kindness and intelligence into action. Quite often, a customer is delighted by something small that doesn’t cost a great deal of money—for example Bonus Points, or a spontaneous offer to wash the customer’s car or print discount coupons to the restaurant down the street.
You can’t script or incentivize employees to delight customers, however. Doing so makes the gesture mechanical, and defeats its purpose. At the same time, scripting or incentivizing shouldn’t be necessary if you have the right people. If you have hired the right people, they come to work motivated to delight customers. In short, you don’t need to pay them extra to delight a customer, because they already see it as part of their job.
One sales person we know is stuck in the sixties, still using expressions like “right on” and “groovy.” But he makes such an impression on his customers, they write him notes telling him they love their “groovy new car.”
Let’s face it. Companies aren’t equipped to train core values. Our parents either did, or didn’t, do that a long time ago. Companies are equipped to hire the right people, though—those that have an inner desire to delight customers. Companies are also equipped to give these people the opportunity to do it.
What are you doing to delight customers? If you’re an employer, are you hiring the right people? If you’re an employee, are you enriching the lives of your customers, and those you work for?
re:membergroup
Build Customer Loyalty by Hiring the Right People
Building customer loyalty comes down to one thing: Delighting customers. As I discussed in my last blog, we begin to delight customers by The Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.
At the re:member group, we know that a systematic approach to building customer loyalty works. Our Dealership programs yield an increase of service revenue by as much as 39 percent among Members and have increased sales by 7.5 percent. But I’ll be the first to admit that our Loyalty Marketing Solutions are simply a tool, and successful only in companies that are dedicated to building customer loyalty by treating customers the way they want to be treated.
This starts with hiring the right people. This is so important, it bears repeating: If you want to build customer loyalty, hire the right people. Your staff has the power to earn the enthusiastic loyalty of your customers by creating economically rational ways to delight them. Delighting customers means putting kindness and intelligence into action. Quite often, a customer is delighted by something small that doesn’t cost a great deal of money—for example Bonus Points, or a spontaneous offer to wash the customer’s car or print discount coupons to the restaurant down the street.
You can’t script or incentivize employees to delight customers, however. Doing so makes the gesture mechanical, and defeats its purpose. At the same time, scripting or incentivizing shouldn’t be necessary if you have the right people. If you have hired the right people, they come to work motivated to delight customers. In short, you don’t need to pay them extra to delight a customer, because they already see it as part of their job.
One sales person we know is stuck in the sixties, still using expressions like “right on” and “groovy.” But he makes such an impression on his customers, they write him notes telling him they love their “groovy new car.”
Let’s face it. Companies aren’t equipped to train core values. Our parents either did, or didn’t, do that a long time ago. Companies are equipped to hire the right people, though—those that have an inner desire to delight customers. Companies are also equipped to give these people the opportunity to do it.
What are you doing to delight customers? If you’re an employer, are you hiring the right people? If you’re an employee, are you enriching the lives of your customers, and those you work for?
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re:membergroup
Net Promoter and the Golden Rule
Net Promoter has been effectively used in all sorts of businesses, including small start-up companies. In fact, we’re so convinced that the Net Promoter system works, we use it ourselves (we welcome you to take our survey to let us know how likely you are to recommend re:member group). The main premise of Net Promoter stems from the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.
Yesterday’s Blog Post focused on asking customers one question: “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” This is one of the main premises of understanding Net Promoters, in that you must develop a systematic way to categorize customers into promoters, passives and detractors.
However, to get the true picture of how your customers want to be treated, we insist you ask an additional question: “Why?”
In addition to asking the "Likely to Recommend" question, a good Net Promoter survey will always ask "Why?" The free-form responses to this question often provide the most useful insights for companies. Asking the “Why?” question allows customers to give authentic answers, and unites organization leaders to close the loop with customers. This is essential to begin treating customers the way they want to be treated.
Leaders must listen to what customers have to say and fix the problems that lead to unhappiness or anger. That’s “closing the loop.” Only then can we begin to create experiences that lead to delighted customers. By knowing the reason why a customer would (or would not) recommend your organization begins a conversation, and opens the door to earning the “enthusiastic loyalty of your customers by creating economically rational ways to delight them.”1
Are you treating your customers the way they want to be treated? Lanham Napier, the CEO of Rackspace (and named one of the top 100 most influential executives in 2010) says, "I believe that there are very few core truths that remain constant through time—but one of these is the notion that we must strive to turn customers into enthusiastic advocates who say great things about us to friends and colleagues. This is the path to greatness."(1) The only way to do this is to treat our customers the way they want to be treated. And the only way to know this is to ask them.
(1)Reichheld, Fred, and Rob Markey. The Ultimate Question 2.0. Boston, MA: Bain & Company, 2011.
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re:membergroup
Net Promoter and the Golden Rule
Net Promoter has been effectively used in all sorts of businesses, including small start-up companies. In fact, we’re so convinced that the Net Promoter system works, we use it ourselves (we welcome you to take our survey to let us know how likely you are to recommend re:member group). The main premise of Net Promoter stems from the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.
Yesterday’s Blog Post focused on asking customers one question: “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” This is one of the main premises of understanding Net Promoters, in that you must develop a systematic way to categorize customers into promoters, passives and detractors.
However, to get the true picture of how your customers want to be treated, we insist you ask an additional question: “Why?”
In addition to asking the "Likely to Recommend" question, a good Net Promoter survey will always ask "Why?" The free-form responses to this question often provide the most useful insights for companies. Asking the “Why?” question allows customers to give authentic answers, and unites organization leaders to close the loop with customers. This is essential to begin treating customers the way they want to be treated.
Leaders must listen to what customers have to say and fix the problems that lead to unhappiness or anger. That’s “closing the loop.” Only then can we begin to create experiences that lead to delighted customers. By knowing the reason why a customer would (or would not) recommend your organization begins a conversation, and opens the door to earning the “enthusiastic loyalty of your customers by creating economically rational ways to delight them.”1
Are you treating your customers the way they want to be treated? Lanham Napier, the CEO of Rackspace (and named one of the top 100 most influential executives in 2010) says, "I believe that there are very few core truths that remain constant through time—but one of these is the notion that we must strive to turn customers into enthusiastic advocates who say great things about us to friends and colleagues. This is the path to greatness."(1) The only way to do this is to treat our customers the way they want to be treated. And the only way to know this is to ask them.
(1)Reichheld, Fred, and Rob Markey. The Ultimate Question 2.0. Boston, MA: Bain & Company, 2011.
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