Customer Loyalty Are You Taking It for Granted?
Small business owners continually strive to increase customer loyalty.
Most understand that the cost to acquire a new customer far exceeds the value of building a loyal customer, however others probably take that same customer loyalty for granted.
As an executive business coach, I am always observing customer service so that I can share exceptional customer service skills with my clients.
Recently, I have had the opportunity to see first hand both ends of the customer service spectrum where one small business owner took customer loyalty for granted and another never takes customer loyalty for granted.
Scenario One Being empty nesters, my husband and I visit several restaurants managed by local small business owners.
Last night at one of our favorite establishments, my husband went to the men's restroom to wash his hands before eating.
He noticed a male employee dressed in a white uniform finishing his personal business and then quickly passing his hands through water without soap and actually washing his hands.
When my husband returned to the table so that I also go to the restroom to wash my hands, I observed his state of distress.
Upon asking why he was agitated, he told me of what happened.
I immediately replied, "We need to leave.
" As we exited, my husband shared with the manager what he had observed and why we were leaving.
No matter how great the food, the specialties from oven baked bread to early bird specials, good customer service and great value from pricing to food quality, it is not worth becoming ill due to e-coli and salmonella contamination.
This local small business restaurant just lost over $1,200 annually from our customer loyalty.
The manager did apologize several times and said he would address this lack of customer service.
However, his apologies did not make up for what we experienced.
Our loyal patronage was challenged by the actions of a employee.
The end result was over $1,200 annual hit to the bottom line for this small business.
And more importantly being an executive business coach who works to improve performance using the KASH Box for Sustainable Change model, I knew that this employee was not going to change his bad hygiene attitudes and habits.
Scenario Two Recently, I had to have oral surgery to extract a broken upper molar.
My dentist of 30 years made a recommendation to a local oral surgeon.
I made an appointment.
The customer service from scheduling the appointment to the actual extraction was good.
However, what built customer loyalty was the oral surgeon calling me that evening and asking how I was?He knew that his people did their jobs, but he wanted to make sure that his customer service skills were on target.
This surgeon's personal phone call not only surprised me, but created almost instantaneous customer loyalty.
I have personally recommended his service to over 10 people in the last 2 weeks.
And I know of at least one person making a call to schedule an appointment resulting in at least $1,000 increase to his bottom line.
Customer loyalty can never, ever be taken for granted.
Continually training employees, monitoring their behaviors even in the restroom and developing a high performance culture will increase the achievement of your strategic goals.
Most understand that the cost to acquire a new customer far exceeds the value of building a loyal customer, however others probably take that same customer loyalty for granted.
As an executive business coach, I am always observing customer service so that I can share exceptional customer service skills with my clients.
Recently, I have had the opportunity to see first hand both ends of the customer service spectrum where one small business owner took customer loyalty for granted and another never takes customer loyalty for granted.
Scenario One Being empty nesters, my husband and I visit several restaurants managed by local small business owners.
Last night at one of our favorite establishments, my husband went to the men's restroom to wash his hands before eating.
He noticed a male employee dressed in a white uniform finishing his personal business and then quickly passing his hands through water without soap and actually washing his hands.
When my husband returned to the table so that I also go to the restroom to wash my hands, I observed his state of distress.
Upon asking why he was agitated, he told me of what happened.
I immediately replied, "We need to leave.
" As we exited, my husband shared with the manager what he had observed and why we were leaving.
No matter how great the food, the specialties from oven baked bread to early bird specials, good customer service and great value from pricing to food quality, it is not worth becoming ill due to e-coli and salmonella contamination.
This local small business restaurant just lost over $1,200 annually from our customer loyalty.
The manager did apologize several times and said he would address this lack of customer service.
However, his apologies did not make up for what we experienced.
Our loyal patronage was challenged by the actions of a employee.
The end result was over $1,200 annual hit to the bottom line for this small business.
And more importantly being an executive business coach who works to improve performance using the KASH Box for Sustainable Change model, I knew that this employee was not going to change his bad hygiene attitudes and habits.
Scenario Two Recently, I had to have oral surgery to extract a broken upper molar.
My dentist of 30 years made a recommendation to a local oral surgeon.
I made an appointment.
The customer service from scheduling the appointment to the actual extraction was good.
However, what built customer loyalty was the oral surgeon calling me that evening and asking how I was?He knew that his people did their jobs, but he wanted to make sure that his customer service skills were on target.
This surgeon's personal phone call not only surprised me, but created almost instantaneous customer loyalty.
I have personally recommended his service to over 10 people in the last 2 weeks.
And I know of at least one person making a call to schedule an appointment resulting in at least $1,000 increase to his bottom line.
Customer loyalty can never, ever be taken for granted.
Continually training employees, monitoring their behaviors even in the restroom and developing a high performance culture will increase the achievement of your strategic goals.
Source...