Increasingly, customers and investors are wary of brands, businesses, and information. There are many technologies surrounding data and information, but many companies struggle to ensure trust in everyday interactions. Those often result in most of the missed opportunities and customer attrition.
A single bad experience between a customer or patient can lead to negative WOM (word of mouth) or outright complaints that can impact your business.
So, here are a few things to reinforce as you start out the new year with every interaction:
Commitment – keep your promises
If you tell the customer you will follow up, make sure you do by (or before) the date/time you promised. If you promise a delivery or a service to be provided by a given date, then make sure you can meet it. Don’t over commit, since that only creates a spiral effect on other commitments and/or operations.
Sincerity – listening and responding with meaning
Typically, the customer will reveal their feelings about a product or service and their experience. Make sure you listen for these queues and respond with understanding. “I know this is important to you…” or “I understand your frustration, and we’re going to make this right…”.
Honesty – be candid and don’t wait to communicate
Mistakes happen. Reach out to customers and let them know about the mistake (esp. if you find it first) and explain how it happened and how you’ll prevent it from occurring in the future.
Integrity – steer your customers to RIGHT
Do you let customers overbuy or buy the wrong product or service as long as you can make a sale? Do you cross sell products or services that are not needed? Eventually, customers will figure out that you’re just in it for the money and not interested in a relationship. They may never say something, but they may not come back.
Fairness – make the deal a win/win for everyone
It’s very easy to take a bit more profit as part of a deal or transaction. The purpose of the deal is to ensure the value you provide is perceived as a fair exchange by the customer. Make sure you convey the value provided so the customer understands the price justification. If you need to raise prices due to higher operational costs, then let the customer know about the price change.
Quality – deliver the RIGHT value?
Make sure your products and services deliver the value promised to customers. The key challenge for most companies is their inability to measure what customers want against what they are sold. These are value gaps. If they are the result of operational mistakes (deviations), then they are quality concerns that should be addressed with Once you can do this with some precision, you can drive innovation and your market.