Making Customers Feel Special

Make your customer feel part of a club

70% of customers return because of the way you make them feel

Needless to say, when you set-up a small business, you don’t have much of a marketing budget. As a result you must really focus on meeting customer’s expectations if you are to survive. Instead of formal marketing, therefore, you rely a lot on word-of-mouth, which is based on how the customer feels about what you have delivered.

If they don’t feel good, why would they be bothered talking about your brand (unless they want to give out about it). The least they expect is that you might be different to many others and be focused on their needs.

Our experience in O'C&K (and now MX-3) allows us to have a passion for excellent communication. We focus on sharing that passion with Irish SME clients which in turn enables them to focus on their customers in a smarter way.

We operate our client list like a club.

No matter how big or small your business is, or you use the most up-to-date technology to communicate, what will never change is that 70 per cent of people do business with you in a large part because of the way it makes them feel. (Source – McKinsey).

Gary Vaynerchuk's Viewpoint is Valid

I think Gary Vaynerchuk nails it in this excerpt from one of his books;

“People want this level of engagement from the companies with which they do business ... even the best of what formerly passed for good customer service is no longer enough. You have to be no less than a customer concierge, doing everything you can to make every one of your customers feel acknowledged, appreciated, and heard. You have to make them feel special, just like when your great-grandmother walked into Butcher Bob’s shop or bought her new hat, and you need to make people who aren’t your customers, wish they were.”   - Gary Vaynerchuk, The Thank You Economy

I am not proclaiming that MX-3 are reinventing the wheel here – but seriously, doesn't treating your customers like members of a club seem like an obvious and human way to run your business.

Most people thrive on belonging to something or someone. That might be through sports, politics, a cause etc. and it makes sense that they would look for suitable brands even more so in the current changing business environment.

A sense of belonging is what we strive to build within our own list of customers. We want to establish a community of clients learning how to do business in a smarter way, together.

To this end we base our approach on three activities:

•  Making our customers feel part of something special, repeatedly.
•  Over delivering – for free.
•  Making them feel important.

Tips and Timesavers.

So, put yourself in the shoes of the customer – what would you expect from a company that you would be proud of or be in a club with? - here are my own expectations:

•  Acknowledge me as a person not a number.
•  Communicate with me on my preferred online channels.
•  Be transparent about everything.
•  Stand by your customer communication / your beliefs.
•  Thank me every now and then.

To summarise – we know that people don’t want to be sold to anymore, and we are certainly aware that customers won’t put up with bad products or services any longer. In addition, there are many ways that customers (and prospects) can avoid listening to marketing communication.

Plus, more than likely they have already researched products/services online and with friends before approaching a vendor, at all. So if MX-3 is to remain relevant, useful and interesting in this complex world, we believe that forming a ‘club’ of clients that can grow their business together will be of mutual benefit.

It should also ensure that positive recommendations are being shared with prospects. We’d love you to join our club.

Stay safe - Jim