©2011 JoAnna Brandi & Company, Inc. 7491 N. Federal Highway • C-5 #304 Boca Raton, FL 33487-1658 (561) 279-0027 JoAnna Brandi facilitates workshops on Positive Leadership and Creating Positive Customer Experiences. She is Publisher of the Customer Care Coach© a weekly leadership training program on mastering “The Art and Science of Exquisite Customer Care.” www.ReturnOnHappiness.com…
We are all beginning to realize the value of developing long term, loyal relationships with our customers. They buy more and refer more, help us develop the next generation of products and services, and they even help us keep our advertising costs in reason. But are our customers (people external to our company that buy things from us) the only people we should be building long term relationships with? No. The relationship strategy applies externally and internally as well.
Human nature is funny, and the need to complain is a big part of it. Put a person in a room with a “specialist” and they tend to want a little bit of free advice. My friend Robin, a lawyer, says whenever she goes to a party someone usually asks for a little legal advice. My friend…
No doubt today’s leaner organizations can benefit from the power and synergy of teamwork but all too often it’s become fashionable to call every group a team. Organizations rush to anoint departments and committees alike, “teams”, and then sit back to wait for the results, which, without the right kind of training, are disappointing. Fact is, few people really know the difference between a group and a team, or, for that matter the difference between a team, and an effective, high performance team, which takes full advantage of the combined intelligence, energy and enthusiasm of its members to reach their agreed upon goals.
While talking with a friend recently the subject turned to management skills and motivating people. I had just returned from a conference that covered that topic so I began talking about some of the successful motivation programs that had been discussed.
One summer, I went fishing with a friend. We rented a canoe and ventured out into a lake at dusk. If truth be known, I was mostly watching, not really fishing. But my friend was very serious about it. As dusk turned to darkness he opened his tackle box and began searching for a new lure. I watched, curiously.
Up until that moment he’d been using a yellow lure. He explained, “It’s time to switch to a black lure.” This mystified me almost as much as what I was doing in the middle of a lake, in the dark, fishing.
I had to ask, “Why would you use black lure in the dark, in what now looks like a black lake?”
It was late morning and I was in my hotel room getting ready to speak and then to travel on to my next engagement. It was a long flight and wanted to be able to change into my travel clothes before getting on the plane. Knowing what a hassle that can be without having the convenience of a hotel room, I called down to the front desk to ask a favor.
I know there are popular books out there telling you not to sweat the small stuff – but I’m telling you that when it comes to your customers – you should sweat.
There’s no doubt about it; customer loyalty is key to profitability. A mere five percent increase in your customer retention could as much as double your bottom line profits! On the flip side, it costs anywhere from 6-30 times more to get new customers than it does to keep the ones you have – that is, if they’ll stay!
JoAnna Brandi hates to generalize, but I am beginning to think the service givers, especially here in Florida are suffering from a disease I call E.D.S. – Empathy Deficiency Syndrome. Some of the symptoms include apathy and an amazing ability to look right at a customer and not see a thing. The other peculiar indication of this syndrome is the inability to use the words “I’m sorry” or calming phrases such as “I can understand how that might be upsetting.”
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