How To Create Customers For Life By Providing Superior Experiences By Robert Dempsey

It all started when my wife and I spent a few hours in a spa here in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

From the moment we first walked into the spa until we were dropped off at our destination the next day, I began to truly understand how to create a superior customer experience that brings customers for life. After that is the goal isn’t it? It’s far less expensive and time consuming to sell to a customer you have than to sell to a customer you haven’t. In this article you’ll discover more than 15 touch points that potential and current customers have with your business. What may surprise you is that most of them are encountered before a prospect ever contacts you. If you get this right you can make pricing a non-issue, work only with the types of clients and customers you want, and make your competition irrelevant.

If that sounds like an exciting way to operate your business then let’s get started.

If you’ve ever heard the cliche, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” let me tell you that it’s even more true today. And there are many places your next customer will get that first impression from:

•    A search engine
•    Your business website
•    Your blog
•    An ebook you wrote that someone forwarded to them
•    A YouTube video
•    On Twitter
•    Your Facebook page
•    A conversation with a colleague that is providing a recommendation (pro or con)
•    Guest posts  you’ve written on other blogs
•    And the list goes on and on…

Now once these folks find out about you, there’s even more ways they can learn about you and how you operate before they get in touch:

•    Signing up for your email list
•    Following you on social media
•    Downloading your ebooks, guides, case studies, white papers or videos

This is where it all begins. So the question is, what impression do you want people to get?

If you past the test here, the next step is most likely a call or email. This takes us to our next set of touch points.

You’ve made a fantastic impression on your next customer and they’ve been learning more about you by subscribing to your email list, reading your blog posts, downloading your ebooks, and interacting with you a bit on social media. They’re ready to make the leap and talk with you.

How will they get in touch? At a minimum, you should have two things on your website:

•    A phone number (preferably an 800 phone number)
•    A contact form, or many

Let’s say you are a services business and have someone booking appointments for you. There are now 3 touch points you’ll have with the lead:

1.    Booking the appointment
2.    Pre-appointment
3.    The appointment

At each of these stages it’s critical for you to increase the level of service you provide. The goal is to keep wowing them.

So let’s assume you wowed them and they are ready to begin working with you. There are 3 touch points to be aware of. Let’s take a look at each.

Now it’s time to land this lead and get a project. We have three touch points between now and when you start your project:

1.    Post-appointment follow-up
2.    Delivery of estimate and purchase link
3.    Booking the first project call

Let’s look at each of these.

Post-Appointment Follow-Up

As soon as you hang up the phone with your next customer, enter the details from the conversation into your CRM system (most likely on an opportunity) and send them an email with:

•    A personal thank you note - be sure to use their name
•    A review of what was discussed on the call
•    A definite date they will receive your estimate
•    Instructions on what to do when they receive the estimate

Delivery Of Estimate And Purchase Link

The next thing your prospect should receive is your estimate with a purchase link. You want to make it was easy as possible for them to give you their money.

Booking The First Project Call

Once you’ve won the project the next step is the first project call. At Dempsey Marketing we highly recommend doing a project kick-off call before launching into work. If you can do this in person that’s best, otherwise a video call is the way to go. Barring that use the phone.

During the call set expectations for how things will go. Talk about:

•    How often communication will occur and by what means
•    If you’re producing something that will take days or weeks and will show them the stages, how they’ll be able to access materials during the project
•    If they will be working directly with producers, who those folks will be

The important point here is to set or reset expectations of how things will proceed during the project. After that it’s go time!

This is where you deliver the goods to your client and deliver on the expectations you’ve put in place. I won’t tell you how to run your projects if you don’t tell me how to run mine, but I will stress exceeding the expectations you previously set. It’s extremely important to deliver what you said you would, otherwise your integrity and any hope you have for more business or a referral are out the window.

Now here’s something most people won’t tell you - if you want to truly keep your customers coming back what you do AFTER you finish the project is even MORE important than what you did to get the client in the first place. Here’s how to make it happen.

Let me repeat what I just said - what you do AFTER a project is complete is even MORE important than what you did to get your customer in the first place. Why is that? Many people know that a business will do just about anything to get a customer in the first place - they expect it. But the sad fact - a fact you can use to your advantage - is that many companies fall flat on their face with current customer follow-up. Here are a number of things you can do to keep your customers coming back and gain large amounts of referral business.

1.    Send a thank you note, a survey, and ask for a referral - all in a single email
2.    Create a customer loyalty program that costs nothing to join. Instant enrollment is even better.
3.    Exclusive customer club - only allow in the elite clients and let them know how special they are to be in the club. Scarcity continues to work on every human alive - use it to your advantage.
4.    Customer nurture sequence - automatically keep in touch with clients using email marketing. Be sure to send them information on how they can use what you’ve already done better, as well as letting them know what else is available to them.

In order to make pricing irrelevant, be able to work with only the types of clients you want to work with, and make the competition irrelevant, you need to create a superior customer experience. You do this by continuous communication with your customers at every touch point, wowing them every step of the way. Those touch points are:

•    Before they first speak with you
•    When they first speak with you
•    After they first speak with you
•    During the project
•    After the project is complete

Be consistent, keep in touch, deliver superior service and a superior experience and you will be successful. Now go make it happen!

Robert Dempsey is the CEO of Dempsey Marketing, and helps entrepreneurs navigate the business map from being a new business to a controlled business to taking it to the next level. Get more leads and sales from your website using the free guides, case studies and articles at http://DempseyMarketing.com.
 

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