Ok,
we admit, the title isn't "exactly" what we are asking
you to do - but not far off, at least in principle. This
isn't a guide on office politics and what to do if you
are romantically inclined with someone you are selling
to or serve as a customer. So what exactly do we mean by
Marry Your Customer? What we are talking about is how
you can serve your customers in such a way as though it
was like being married to them - understanding exactly
what they want and being able to deliver it to build a
Trusted and Loyal Relationship for a long time into the
future. As you continue to read, I think you will
understand how powerful the analogy really can be for
you and your organization.
Let's start with the personal side
of the analysis. Put yourself in this situation. Say you
are trying to build a "Trusted, Loyal Relationship" with
someone. That someone could be a spouse, significant
other, boyfriend, girlfriend, child, friend, or a host
of other people with whom you would desire to have this
type of relationship. Take a minute and visualize who
this might be and fix it clearly in your mind as you
continue to read. What does it look like? We will use
the analogy of a "boyfriend/girlfriend" and ultimately a
"spouse" as our example to illustrate the point but you
can substitute any of the other people you might be
thinking about as well to understand how this works. As
with any good story, let's start at the beginning. Let's
look at when you were first dating and then continue all
the way to getting married.
If you are looking to have a
long lasting relationship you would want to have it
built on Trust and Loyalty, correct? If you agree, then
an initial step would be building some level of trust
with the other person. We all know that Trust is not a
given and has to be "earned," regardless of the
relationship. If Trust is one of your first goals, then
how should you to go about building that Trust? One of
the ways would be by keeping "Promises" (implicitly or
explicitly) to your boyfriend/girlfriend along the way.
For instance, you might Promise something simple, like
meeting them on time. Or you might Promise them
something more complicated, like planning a trip. Either
way, you have made a Promise that could lead to Trust.
Now for the $64,000 question -
do you keep your Promises? If you do, congratulations,
you will be developing some level of Trust with the
other person. If you don't show up when you're expected
to, or you don't come through with the vacation plan you
Promised, you're liable to end up with a very unpleasant
discussion or much worse. If the relationship is
relatively new, you shouldn't be surprised if the unmet
expectation causes the relationship to end. But for the
sake of discussion, let's say you generally keep your
Promises and the relationship is moving forward nicely.
Sooner or later, in spite of
your best intentions, the inevitable happens - you break
a Promise. Ouch, someone isn't happy. Now the key
question is, "at what stage of the relationship were you
in when you broke your Promise and how big was the
Promise?" If you developed a high level of Trust and the
mistake is minimal, there will be little to no impact to
the relationship - forgiveness comes easy with Trusted
Relationships. On the other hand, if you are early on in
the relationship, you probably haven't developed a high
level of Trust and even a minor mistake could create
some distrust. If you broke a significant Promise, then
it is unlikely the relationship will continue.
Notice there is a correlation
between the degree of trust, length of relationship, and
tolerance for mistakes. Trust, relationship, and
tolerance for mistakes correlate whether we're talking
about a marriage relationship or a business
relationship. And regardless of which type of
relationship we might discuss, without trust, in the
long run, there can be no relationship or opportunity to
build Loyalty - just like with your customers.
If this is the first time you
didn't keep a relatively small Promise and your
boyfriend/girlfriend understands, they will give you "a
second chance" and allow you to continue building Trust
in the relationship. As you continue the cycle of making
and keeping your Promises, Trust continues to be
"earned" and built over time. Exhibiting this behavior
over a period of time will build deeper Trust and
eventually a "Trusted, Loyal Relationship." This is how
Loyalty is built and "earned" and is the ultimate goal
of any relationship. If you are successful at building
Trust and Loyalty, you might decide to move to the
ultimate stage of Loyalty - marriage.
Let's stop and examine where we
are in relation to Customer Loyalty by asking a few key
questions. First, "Is what we have described above in
our personal relationship analogy any different from
what you would want to develop with your best
customers?" "Is this not the exact same process you
would go through in 'courting' a customer who you wanted
as a Loyal Customer?" "Does it make sense that keeping
your Promises to your best Customers you could 'earn'
their Trust and ultimately 'earn' their Loyalty?" Our
experience shows this is EXACTLY the same process and is
why we suggest you think about "Marrying your Customer"
in the same way you would "Marry your Fiancée." The
principles are similar and the desired outcome is the
same - Trusted, Loyal Relationships.
With Promises as our foundation,
let's examine exactly how this works for a customer. If
your ultimate goal is to create a loyal relationship
with a particular customer, it is critical to start by
understanding the Promises that are of real value to
them. Keeping Promises the customer doesn't value
doesn't build Trusted and Loyal Relationships. It is
only when you keep Promises they value that you begin to
build trust. Once you have a better understanding of the
Promises your customer (or personal relationship) values
and wants you to keep, the second stage is all about
execution. One thing we hear over and over again from
the customers we interview is, "If they could just keep
three of the Promises they made me, but keep them 100%
of the time, I would trust them and be more loyal to
them than if they Promise me 15 things some of the
time." If there is one word to remember in all of this
it is "consistency." You have to be consistent about
keeping the Promises that are important to your
customers to build Trust and Loyalty - anything less
will teach them you can't keep your word and your
Promises.
There is one over arching piece
of advice we can give you from our years of experience
working with customers. It is, "If you can't keep a
Promise your customer values or don't think you can keep
it, don't ever Promise it - you will end up doing more
damage to you and your company's reputation than if you
did nothing." Customers will always remember what
you Promise and measure you on it. They will always
assume you can actually deliver on it if you Promise it.
If you can't, don't Promise it. If you do Promise it and
don't keep your Promise, they will not believe you can
deliver on any of your Promises and your ability to
build Trust will be significantly damaged. If you take
nothing else away from this article, take this paragraph
and paste it on everyone's wall. "Don't Promise anything
unless you know absolutely, positively you can deliver
on that Promise."
We would like to leave you with
a couple of thoughts to summarize the key points. To
have a successful Marriage with your Customer you have
to invest the time to understand the Promises they
value. This is the only way you can truly understand
what is needed to build a Trusted and Loyal
Relationship. Then determine if you can deliver on the
Promises they desire. If you can, then you build Trust
and Loyalty with them. If you can't deliver on all their
valued Promises, have an open discussion on why you
can't and see if there is some common ground to
compromise. Either way, do it now and don't wait until
you realize it is too late. Marriage takes work, time
and commitment - as well as adapting to change - whether
it is to your spouse or to your Customer. The most loyal
relationships we see between the customer and an
organization are all built on delivering the Promises
the customer values - as close to 100% of the time as
possible. This is what builds a happy and prosperous
relationship for both parties. So in the end, Marry your
Customer and you will have a great future together.
Blaine Millet is the co-author
of the leading edge book, "Creating and Delivering
Totally Awesome Customer Experiences." He has also spent
over 25 years working with companies in the areas of
strategy, customer experiences, business processes,
sales and management. He has seen how companies fail in
being able to deliver consistent and repeatable
experiences to their customer because they don't
understand the core drivers behind building both a great
customer experience, trust and ultimately loyalty - what
everyone strives to achieve.
Blaine also has and MBA in
finance and marketing and has developed these leading
edge approaches from a financial perspective -
increasing profitability to the organization. The
uniqueness of their approach is that it works in almost
any industry and in almost any size organization -
including not-for-profit and governmental agencies. If
you truly want a solution that is sustainable and will
be there for tomorrow as well as today, you owe it to
yourself to see how this approach works.
You can also learn more
by visiting the website at:
http://www.customerexperiencesinc.com and also their
blob at
http://www.customerexperiencesinc.com/blog We also
encourage you to drop us and e-mail or give us a call -
we will always respond to any question that comes our
way - WE PROMISE.
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