customer – Korsell Corporate Consult

THE NEED FOR HAVING GOOD CUSTOMER RELATIONS

September 25, 2020 (updated September 25, 2020) Published by Korsell

Keeping loyal customers is less expensive than getting new ones. Research shows that it costs about five times more to attract new customers than to retain existing business. Satisfied customers become devoted buyers when a business is trustworthy and provides good customer service. By developing a relationship with your customer and earning their trust, they will move past customer service more easily, knowing that you will address their concern and resolve their problems to the best of your ability.
Customer relations aims to create a mutually beneficial relationship with the customer that extend beyond the initial purchase. Customer relations are present in all aspects of a business, but it’s most prevalent in the customer relations department. When you practice good customer relation you tend to repeat customers, gain more sales and better cash flow. Whether you own a restaurant, a hair salon or any other type of business, creating consistently stellar customer experiences plays a major role in your success.
Effective customer relations involve listening to your customers’ needs and addressing them. Customer satisfaction is important because it provides marketers and business owners with a metric that they can use to manage and improve their businesses.

Convincing Customers To Buy From You

July 30, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Customers never buy because of product features. They buy because they perceive some “benefit” to those features.

Unfortunately, most sales and marketing messages talk about features and let the customers try to figure out the benefits. That’s asking your customer to do your heavy lifting for you.

You’ll get more customers, more quickly, if you communicate the benefits of using your product rather than the features it possesses.

Know the difference between a benefit and a feature.

A feature is something that a product or service “is” or “does.” A benefit is something that the product or service “means” to the customer. For example:

Wrong: “This car has a reinforced safety roof.” (feature)

Right: “This car keeps your family safe.” (benefit)

Use vivid but plain language.

Customers will remember a benefit longer and more easily if it’s expressed using simple, strong words that evoke emotion.

Wrong: “This roof provides protection in the event of a rollover accident.”

Right: “If this car rolls, there’s a good chance you’ll walk away unharmed.”

Avoid biz-blab and jargon.

Nothing leaches a benefit of emotion more than the use of tired business cliches or overly technical terminology.

Wrong: “Robust implementation of 80210 protocols!!!”

Right: “You can connect virtually anywhere.”

Keep the list of benefits short.

Most people can only hold two or three thoughts at one time in their short-term memory. Long lists of benefits just cause confusion.

Wrong: “Here are the top 10 benefits of using our product:”

Right: “The two most important things to remember are…”

Emphasize what’s unique to you or your firm.

Benefits that are generic to your product category can convince a customer to buy… but not necessarily from you! Use benefits that differentiate you from the competition:

Wrong: “Our software makes you more productive.”

Right: “Our customers report an average 30% decrease in costs, about twice the industry average.”

Make your benefits concrete.

Customers ignore benefits that are abstract and expressed using vague adverbs and adjectives. Benefits that are concrete and specific are more convincing and “stick in the mind.”

Wrong: “We can radically reduce your inventory costs.”

Right: “We decrease inventory costs by an average of 25%.”

Source: https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/6-ways-to-convince-customers-to-buy.html

Dealing With Difficult Customers

July 10, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Businesses and business needs have significantly evolved overtime. There are very important variations that have arisen with respect to how customers should be treated, giving rise to the most essential debate of whether the customer really is king. Retail in today’s world does not only involve selling products. it has come to more than before, mean giving consciousness to the need to sustain customers. Quality customer service does a lot in separating a company from many its rivals. You could lose huge returns and investments from bad customer service management. It is why some firms create a customer and clientele relations unit to deal with the needs of customers directly and ensure there is customer sovereignty at all times.

It is handy to understand that you would be dealing with difficult customers. The different kinds of customers you may have to deal with could be impatient, intimidating, talkative, angered, demanding or even indecisive.

In any case you would have to develop a strategy for dealing with them professionally

Above all else, note that you can’t control anyone else’s behavior. You have control only over your own actions. Nevertheless, you do have some ability to manage what responses people give to the decisions you take. That should be your focus in dealing with customers. If you lose that ability, you have absolutely lost your hold over the situation and your customer may even bully you.

When a customer is vengeful and determined to make meat of you, stay calm and ask of his opinion on what solutions are best applicable. This puts you in a position where you can relax and allow the customer to think about what was possibly wrong with the solutions you once offered.

Do not be quick to offer solutions. Ask the customer how he would like the problem to be resolved. Offer choices whenever possible. Get control of yourself. Never argue with customers when they are angry, displeased or complaining. If you allow a customer to push your buttons and lose control of yourself, you’ve lost control of the situation. Master the art of coercion and lead even the most difficult customer down a path of reasoning that you develop. You can lose a good customer if you show boredom, irritation, disdain or displeasure.

It is healthy to allow your customer room to vent. Show genuine regret and appreciation of the concerns raised but do not be quick to blame it on your company as it could land you in serious legal waters. The customer wants to be listened to, acknowledged and understood. Use body language to communicate that you’re listening. Maintain eye contact. Show your attentiveness by standing or sitting up straight; lolling or slouching makes you seem inattentive and disinterested. Uncross your arms. This indicates you are listening with an open mind. Let the person talk, and pay close attention. Repeat or paraphrase some of what you hear.

It would only be after a while that even the most difficult customer would understand the price you pay on his importance. He would come around with time.

SHOULD LOCATION MATTER

July 5, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Your business would at some point in time or the other have to decide on where it is to be located. This decision is exciting and could equally be frustrating, given the implications it can wield on your business, in terms of convenience and costs. Definitely, an entrepreneur would have to consider a plethora of factors and map out the right factors that would facilitate growth of the firm.

Significantly, an entrepreneur has to develop an understanding of the various needs of all stakeholders in the business. These stakeholders primarily include staff and employees, customers and support services. The purpose of understanding these is to ensure that you operate in line with prevailing conditions. Your employees want to be sure they can have access to you at all times and your staff must not be stretched beyond limits to report to work. Essentially, you must understand that operating where support services for training and specialist consult services exist is fundamental to the development of your staff as it translates into overall success for your firm.

Another element you may erroneously dismiss is what impacts the location of your competitors, relative yours would have on the strides your business would make. Competition drives excellence. While you may want to maintain some proximity to your competitors in order to fancy your chances of knowing what strategies they are adopting and what new solutions are emerging, it is still important to draw into perspective, all other conditions that may place you at a disadvantage in this regard.

Location thus matters. Talk to us at KCC and we would guide you through what solutions are most relevant for your business. Talk to us today. Click here

Image Credit: Google Images

BETWEEN PRICE AND VALUE

July 4, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Hold up! I am not about to tell you that the value of your product would influence your price and so make your products high on value. You don’t deserve to have this repeated to you again. There is a renewed focus on what interactions exist between price and value and that has huge potentials of enforcing customer satisfaction. It is an ancient rule nevertheless, tried, tested and proven to be the sole rule for showing you respect your customer’s trust in your enterprise.

Value, if it means anything at all, should definitely revolve around what worth your customers attach toyour products and services. You should have a projection of what expectations your customers have of your services in order to meet their expectations and it is that knowledge that should among others, influence your pricing of the service. You definitely would not expect your customers to pay so much for crap and nonsense. A fundamental principle here is to make yourself a customer and question the will with which you would buy the very service you have offered for sale. If you cannot expend resources to buy what you are yourself offering for sale, then call off that whack product and save your image and your brand.

Essentially, it is established – there really is no new relationship or theory that can reveal the relationship between price and value. What you know already really is what you should still commit to. This cannot be overemphasized any further. Your customers would always equate value to price and vice versa. There are no shortcuts, compromises, negotiations or turning around this basic truth. If you cannot meet the expectations of your customers with your product, you may as well not even offer it for free.

Put all efforts to ensuring your products and services are high on value. Know a better rule? (silence) I didn’t think so either. Give your customers value for money. You would definitely be pleased you did. Talk to us today for more solutions. Click here

Photo Credit: Google Images

IN THE EYES OF A CUSTOMER

June 7, 2018 Published by kccadmin

This is a hypothetical interview conducted with a customer. It is intended to provide first-hand insight into the needs and basic expectations of a customer in order to guide the provision of services. This interview is structured in a generic sense and would prove useful for any startup.

P.S. It is assumed that the basic courtesies have already been exchanged. The interview commences with the main issues brought into perspective.

Interviewer: Why would you buy from a company?

Customer: I usually would buy the things I need from any company, depending on whether it is located close to me or not. In other words, I am more determined to prevent extra costs that may arise from having to transport the commodity or service across a long distance. Nevertheless, I am bound to remain loyal to a company if it affords me the best service, compared to many others who are selling the same thing.

Interviewer: What is the one thing that drives your loyalty?

Customer: I am bound to be loyal to a company that does not only sell to me, but meets my welfare needs. I don’t only need a place to buy from, I need a place that thinks about me as well.

Interviewer: For you, where does your interaction with a company begin and end?

Customer: I should expect a company to reach me through advertisements, by any means possible. If it is a company that does not offer me extra value other than what is sold across board, my interaction with them is as good as dead after I make the exit. If the opposite happens, my interaction with that company has no ends.

Interviewer: What would you call value addition?

Customer: I believe every company exists to solve a particular problem. For me, value addition arises in the Unique Sales Proposition the company adopts. This USP must have me as the focus and should make it impossible for me to not return

Interviewer: Would you consider it necessary for a company to know why you are buying their service or product?

Customer: Absolutely! It is the only condition upon which I would be sure the product or service is cut out to meet my specific need. Otherwise, I may just be fixing square pegs in round holes.

Interviewer: How do you suppose a company would know why you are buying the things you are purchasing at a particular time?

Customer: By communicating with me. The company should talk to me about my needs and communicate the value addition I am getting from their service. By this, they would be in the position to understand why I am making a particular purchase and would be better placed to tailor it to my demand.

Interviewer: Given that you are already buying from someone, what would you want the relationship between the two differing companies to be like?

Customer: Ordinarily, I would expect there should be some competition. It is the only way I would know they are striving to be the best at meeting my needs. In a more definite sense however, I expect they would know where I get my deepest satisfaction from.

Interviewer: is it necessary for a company to know how much money you have to spend?

Customer: In a strict view, yes. But in a stricter view, absolutely yes! The company must be able to predict my purchasing power and spending ability so that there is no embarrassment of the demand and supply chain. What better way to ensure utility of production and purchase than wield some knowledge of how much I can really spend on an item.

Interviewer: What drives your opinion of a company?

Customer: I don’t form an opinion of a company in isolation. It would always arise from a summary of whatever experiences I suffer at their hand.

Interviewer: What is the best gift you would give a company that treats you well?

Customer: My absolute loyalty. My loyalty means I not only buy from you but give people reason to buy from you as well. My recommendations and referrals to family would never cease when a company treats me right.

Interviewer: I thank you for your time.

Customer: It is a pleasure.

Photo Credit: Sustainable Farming Conference’ 17.

Tag: customer