If The Customer is King — Why Don’t You Treat Them That Way??

In today’s economy every small business owner is scrambling to gain, and keep every bit of business they can. There are countless resources to tell us that we must provide superior customer service no matter what we do.  To treat the customer like a King–because the customer is the key to our survival.  It’s far more costly to find a new customer than it is to keep an existing customer.  Has your business started an aggressive campaign to provide better customer service?  How about a program to improve that all important relationship with your existing customers?  Remember it’s all about communication and that’s where technology can help or hinder your efforts.

During the last few months I’ve watched first hand as small business owners began to connect and build a stronger relationship with their existing clients. Unfortunately what I saw was frightening.  I’m afraid it’s an all too common story.  Something happens and requires the small business owner to make that all important connection.  Something they should have been doing all along.  These days, the first stop is to the computer that has the customer information in it.  The contact list, the customers, their employees, their email addresses, the phone numbers, the street addresses and all the other critical information about those customers is in the computer.  Or is it???

The information they needed to contact the customers wasn’t available. The database wasn’t maintained, the sales guy didn’t keep records, the phone numbers were in his cell phone, the billing address was in QuickBooks but not the correct contact, the business cards are stacked up in a pile on the desk and have never been put into the system, there was no system to maintain customer data, nobody knows when the last contact with that customer was, and on and on it goes.  The Golden Information that’s needed to provide support to those key customers is just not available.  It’s a tragedy!

We want to treat our customers like the Kings they are — give them everything they need and want from us. Support them so well that they stick with us and buy more — even in the toughest of times.  But unfortunately, we didn’t take care of the basics–we didn’t capture the data needed for us to effectively support them. When it came time to call them, to email them, to find out how we could grow our business together — we failed miserably because that all important computer system wasn’t ready to provide us with the information we needed.  These failures aren’t technology failures–they are people failures.  The people failed to do their job and capture the data, capture the golden information.

As we celebrate Memorial Day this year, think briefly about your all important customers. Remember that without them–you wouldn’t be as well off as you are today.  When you return to work on Tuesday — is your customer database readily available with all the information you need, to offer the very best customer service?  Do you know who to call, do you know where your best prospects are for increased business?  Is your plan ready to offer superior customer service?  Are your technology tools ready so you can treat your customers like Kings?  If Not — Why Not??

Have a Great Day,
Rusty Lee