Are you delighting your Customers?

11 Aug 2015

More than ever before, wherever there is a relationship between a buyer and a seller, the customer is in charge. Customers are led to brands via social media, television, personal recommendation or other means. Effectively, customer service and that relationship has begun long before any actual sale or perhaps even interaction has taken place.

Today’s consumers are savvy, and they are armed with resources to carry out their own research before even making any enquiries about products or services. Rather than letting a salesperson take them by the hand and walk them through the features and benefits of a product or service, they will want to know how that product can solve their particular problem, because they’ve already found out a lot of the basics for themselves.

However, once a customer is on your radar, you will have established a mutual interest whereby your product is able to resolve a particular issue, so in theory you are onto a winner from the outset. This customer-driven sales approach means that you have a greater degree of insight into your client’s way of working. Rather than spending the sales process extolling the virtues of your product, you have been listening to their problems, and become interested in them. This insight is incredibly valuable, as coupled with your in-depth knowledge of your product, you are able to identify other areas in which you could solve a customer’s issues.

To give you an example, I worked on a project for a client recently where my background knowledge of their company helped improve their OpenCRM set-up. Because I had a clear understanding of their customer journey, I was able to suggest, when someone filled in a form on their website, that data should be captured in OpenCRM, using a tool called JotForms. A set of follow-up actions then needed to be carried out, so I suggested that they try an in-built tool which would help automate this (Action Plans).

Due to the intimate awareness of the customer’s procedures, my suggestion that was not only relevant to their requirements, but as it was not something that they had anticipated, this meant I was able to not only meet, but surpass their expectations.

Whichever industry you are in, your competitors will no doubt be always present, and never forget they are only ever one click away. With that in mind, it is so important that that whilst your products or services are geared to satisfy your customer, it is your delivery that puts that big smile on their faces.