Every business in this generation is being hit with a
variety of challenges. It would be easy to just roll over and sink. Sadly many
companies are even getting to the point where simply surviving has become their
daily mode of operation. They’re cutting their marketing budget, laying off
people and, unfortunately, worrying about their bottom line more than they do
the customer.
But the customer matters more than anything, and, believe it
or not, customers and clients aren't as hard to reach as you might think.
You just have to focus on the customer,
and the customer only. It isn't new advice, but it resonates now more than
ever. Good old fashioned business works online and in social media because it
revolves around people more than anything. It doesn’t depend on pictures, links
or making sure your advertisement is mentioned 87 times in a week. It puts the
customer at the focus of things and makes serving them the number one priority
in the company.
As a small business owner or even a corporation that is
looking for some ‘revival’ to take place in your culture, take a look at how
you got to where you are. Never forget what initially made the customer feel the
most important, don’t forget the long nights of coming up with unique ways to
stand out so people felt special. These strategies last even as everyone else
rolls over and cries, “Economic crisis!”
Has the going gotten rough? Try these three strategies for
growing your business instantly, but putting your focus back on the customer.
Have a conversation. Use
social media to stretch your ad dollars by engaging directly with your clients.
Don’t depend on automated tools to do the work for you. You want ROI? Then have
a relationship with your customers, just like the merchants of old did many
years ago over a countertop.
Talk back. That’s an ingenious idea. Stop tweeting and
posting and sending out your sales message 800 times a week. Care about people.
Talk back to them! Real engagement is not how often your link gets clicked or
your picture gets liked, it’s about people caring enough to verbally answer,
engage and have relationship with you.
Hit the stationery store. Want
to increase customer loyalty and your email open rates? Then send out a
handwritten thank you card to every single person who buys something from you,
even if it’s a digital product. What you do daily with your clients influences
your email campaigns.
It’s important to be the one sender that they LOVE to
receive mail from. Be the one they can’t wait to hear from, just like a good
friend. Your company's emails should be a favorite. We want to hear customers
say things like, “I have a special folder for your emails so I don’t miss a
thing!” This means you won, and your open rates will tell the rest.
Obsess about them. Want
to blow the socks off of your competitors and increase your sales? Then
start obsessing about your customers and quit worrying about your bottom line
all day. Your customers are your bottom line. Ignore them and you have a
beautiful recipe for failure.
This whole “be less and don’t compete and just be content
with where you are” is a pathetic scheme to disable the entrepreneurial spirit
from our world. You were created to fight.
Life is not a playground. It is a battlefield. Inside every
entrepreneur is a dream that if pursued and won, and I believe with all of my
heart, the entire world benefits from this. This is about more than just
dollars and ROI, it’s about economic change, creating jobs and creating a
better world. The wealth will follow the entrepreneurs who resist the status
quo and do everything they can to serve well.
Be more as a company. Your customers deserve it.
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