by Daria Steigman on July 12, 2010
I’ve talked before about how picking up the phone is a key component to customer service. But that’s really only the starting point for building customer loyalty.
If you’re lucky, your best customers are evangelists for your brand. Here are four ways to earn that loyalty:
1. Be the solution. OneWorldHosting gets that most small business owners don’t just want a place to park their Web sites. We want (and need) tech support. So when a recent service upgrade messed up access first to my WordPress dashboard and then later to my ability to upload blog photos, I could make a call and get the problems solved.
RNJ Sports is another example. While lots of stores sell running shoes, RNJ sells peace of mind. I know that after watching me walk and run that they’ll recommend a shoe that will decrease the likelihood of injuries ranging from shin splints to hip pain.
2. Make it easy. Is it easy for customers to connect with you? I’m not talking about social media per se, just whether you’re socially accessible. If I have to jump through hoops to find someone who can talk with me, I’m going somewhere else. Companies that that have made it easy for me include Eddie Bauer, Dell, and (usually) Verizon.
3. Value me. I’m very loyal to my local GNC store because the owner knows me, remembers what I purchase, and chats with me when I stop by. Ditto for my local Robeks franchise, where the owner and employees know my name.
4. Be remarkable. You don’t have to be Zappos to wow your customers. When I mentioned to Lee Watts that I’d backed off slightly on my workouts because of ligament pain in my left tricep, he cleared time on his schedule that morning to bring me into his studio to tweak my routine. This is a guy who primarily trains elite athletes, but he made time for me. Not only does this go to #3, but he also created a wow moment.
What is your business doing to get talked about today?
Photo by PD Breen (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Brand,
Customer Service,
Dell,
Eddie Bauer,
Lee Watts,
OneWorld,
RNJ Sports,
Robeks,
Watts Performance,
Zappos
by Daria Steigman on June 7, 2010
Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness* is a good reminder that sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and follow your passion.
Part autobiography, part tale of success-wrought-from-hard-work, part customer service bible, Delivering Happiness is a good read for entrepreneurs and business owners. There are lessons leaned about business models, core competencies, and flexibility. And Zappos’ 10 core values–and how they came about–will hopefully make you pause and assess whether you have identified and articulated your core business values.
What I liked best about Hsieh’s book was the process stuff:
- Zappos didn’t just identify problems (i.e., “We just don’t have the right products to offer our customers”), but took tough steps to change its business model to become profitable.
- Hsieh acknowledges mistakes (i.e., “As an e-commerce company, we should have considered warehousing to be our core competency from the beginning. Outsourcing that to a third party… was one of our biggest mistakes.)
- Zappos focused on three key areas (customer service, culture, and employee training and development).
If you’re looking for a dry business book, this isn’t the one to buy. But if you’re looking for a quick read, conversational style, and good takeaways, you won’t go wrong with Delivering Happiness.
Want to read Hsieh’s book? The kind Delivering Happiness book team gave me a second copy to give away to one lucky reader. Just tell me in the comments something you’ve done to wow a client or customer. The best answer (deemed by me) wins the book.
*Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for agreeing to review it and post this link–but without any restrictions on what I might say.
Tagged as:
Customer Service,
Delivering Happiness,
Entrepreneurship,
Tony Hsieh,
Zappos
