We hear a lot about sales being a part of a “Wow” experience. That if we create great customer service and be memorable our clients will be loyal, buy more from us, and our sales will improve. I wonder if that’s true?
What delivers customer satisfaction and how does that impact new business development?
The other day the office manager of a vender drove over to my office to see me. Apparently I hadn’t filled out a form correctly and it was preventing an order from being processed. I guess as part of her trying to give great service (and impress me) she decided that a couple hours of her day should be devoted to getting in her car, driving over to my office and meeting with me over a paperwork correction.
I thought, wow, she’s not busy enough.
Worse, she assumed I wasn’t busy enough.
A fax or email would have fixed the problem and made me much happier.
Customer Satisfaction is About Them
Please don’t get me wrong. Great service and being memorable is important – even critical. Starbucks doesn’t get five bucks for a cup of coffee for the java alone. However what is important to you as the seller probably isn’t the same thing as what is important to the buyer.
It’s not about being memorable – it’s about being memorable in a positive way.
Do You Know What is Important to Your Prospects and Customers?
Seriously, do you? How do you know? Gardner & Associates did a study of several thousand B2B firms and found that
- Less than 27% of companies had a formal method for discovering what was important to their customers
- That when comparing what the company thought was important to what the customer said, there was almost a 97% misalignment between the two
- When asked why a piece of business was won or lost, in almost no case were the answers the same between the buyers and the sellers
- Less than 5% of salespeople answered what was important to their prospects the same as the other salespeople on the same team
- Contrast that to the 87% of salespeople who did give answers consistent with their peers on their solutions and product’s features
- 93% of companies and salespeople had some methodology or ‘rules’ for ensuring customer satisfaction and follow-up, however none had confirmed if those actions were important to the clients themselves.
WIIFM – The Key to New Business and Satisfied Customers
We all know the only radio station that people listen to 24×7 – What’s In It For Me Radio, WIIFM.
Stop assuming you know what is playing on that station – in the thoughts and feelings of your customers – and go to them and find out. Then act on those things. Most likely it will be different for each. Find out. Then deliver the kind of WOW experience that will make you memorable and known for delivering great customer satisfaction.
What you’ll find is that your life will be easier and your share of wallet much larger – without the waste of driving around agrevating people doing things they didn’t want or need done in the first place – like my previous vender’s office manager.