'Customer is the King'

'Customer is the King'

The top five reasons why you should always put the customer first are:

1. A CUSTOMER’S PERCEPTION IS THEIR REALITY

The first reason stems from “The customer is always right” school of thinking.  Of course they’re not, sometimes they get things very wrong.   Regardless of this though, customers are generally key to your business success and you are responsible for their perception of your business and services and of course – their perception is their reality…

2. IT’S EASIER TO KEEP YOUR CUSTOMERS HAPPY THAN ATTRACT NEW ONES

You know this one right!  So much money is spent on trying to attract new customers to a business when all you really needed to do was to keep the existing customers happy.  This works well in two ways, one clearly when you keep your original customers you stop the churn and reduce the need to acquire more.  The second way it works is by giving them a great customer experience they can work positively for you though word of mouth and referrals.

3. COMPLAINTS SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE ON THE INTERNET

And speaking of word of mouth, reason number three is an example of what can happen when you don’t look after your customers and the word of mouth turns into bad press.  We have never been more connected than we are today, what was once a case of people sharing a bad situation with 10 friends now can potentially be a post going viral though social media highlighting your poor service to millions of people – the now famous United Airlines guitar incident is a great example of this and the internet is flooded with them.

4. WITHOUT CUSTOMERS WE DON’T HAVE A BUSINESS

This one is a bit of a no brainer!  I don’t know of any businesses that do not have a customer of some sort and in some form.  They may be internal customers working for your business or the more traditional customer who purchases from you.  Regardless, they are important, you need them and the success of your business or your role in the business depends on them!  A great practice to get into is asking yourself – “who is my customer here?” and then plan your action accordingly.

5. BRANDS WIN OR LOSE BY HOW WELL THEY WOW CUSTOMER

Once you’ve identified your customer, then put yourself in their shoes and ensure that whatever you are doing is correctly “customer focused”.  A good place to get this right is to start with some Customer Segmentation.  You should understand the different types of customers you deal with and tailor your approach to them.  Once you understand your customers you can really start to WOW them.

So if you ever find you or any of your team thinking or saying “That’s not how we do it” then chances are you’re not always putting the customer first.