How do you get customers through the doors of your business, whether those doors be physical or virtual? Most companies rely on advertising to tell the public how wonderful their products, services – and employees – are.
There are two problems with this method. The first is that companies are spending billions of dollars in hopes that their messages will entice customers to do business with them. In fact, during the third quarter 2009, U.S. organizations spent almost $5.5 billion on Internet advertising and almost $9 billion on TV advertising.
The second problem is something called “truth in advertising.” Many of those companies feature happy employees in their ads and are quick to tell you that those employees provide “service with a smile,” but you’d be hard-pressed to find either service or smiles in any of their businesses. The general public is leery of most advertising and has adopted a “don’t tell me, show me” attitude.
That’s not to say that advertising won’t get a customer through your doors-once. The goal for any business is to increase revenues by increasing customer loyalty. You don’t have to be a genius to understand that it’s cheaper to keep a current customer than it is to attract a new one. And yet, too many businesses focus their time, energy, and money on paid advertising when there is something much more effective-and much less expensive: customer service.
When a company does what it says it will do, it earns both the respect and the loyalty of its customers. Those customers, in turn, tell others about the great service they received and serve as a “personal advertising team” for your business.
Let me give you an example: Robert purchased liquid sander and paint, but discovered that the paint would not adhere to the kitchen cabinets he was re-doing. He contacted the folks at The Home Depot, where he had purchased the products, and could not believe the response he received. The Home Depot apologized for the problem-and sent out a team employees to complete the project for Robert. Now that was service above and beyond the call of duty. And Robert told anyone who would listen about it.
While providing that level of customer service certainly cost The Home Depot some money, it wasn’t nearly as expensive as running an ad on TV or in the local newspaper. And it’s almost impossible to put a price tag on credibility. The people who listened to Robert’s story believed him when he described the extraordinary service he had received. And you can bet that the next time they were planning a home-improvement project, they headed to The Home Depot for their supplies.
How would your company and your employees stack up against The Home Depot? If neither comes close, there are some steps you can take to ensure that your customers are treated just as well as Robert was.
The first step is to hire people who genuinely enjoy helping people, whether that be identifying an insurance plan that meets a customer’s needs, ensuring that a printing project is completed accurately and on time, or correcting a banking error.
You also must train and empower your employees. Present a new customer service training program every four to six months to keep enthusiasm high, and give employees the authority to bend and break the rules in order to satisfy customers and keep them-and their money-coming back to you.
Praise employees who provide exceptional customer service-and terminate those who don’t. One bad employee can cost you much in lost customers and lost revenue, while 50 good ones can send your sales skyrocketing.
Most important, however, is to walk to talk. Make customer service a priority. Make it a part of everything you do. Talk about it; write about it in your company publication. Make sure every one of your employees understands that it is your number one focus.
Exceptional customer service is a magnet that will draw customers to you. It will increase your revenues and ensure your success. And it won’t cost you millions of dollars.
Millionaire Shows You How to Become Rich
There are many people nowadays who are secret millionaires. They don’t tell that they are that rich for security reasons. These are the people who know how to become rich and have spent their efforts on truly getting that wealth to become rich. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to be rich. They think that being rich is associated with one’s personal luck and that there are people who are meant to be rich and people who are not meant to be that way.
Well, here is a simple idea on how to become rich. Each person possesses a “financial blueprint”, which is an internal script that dictates how we relate to money. This blueprint is created through lifelong exposure to money messages from friends, current events, entertainment programs, and, especially, our family. Unfortunately, our blueprints usually contain errors that prevent us from achieving our dreams.
The following are examples of correct and erroneous messages on how to become rich:
- Rich people believe: “I created my life.” Poor people believe: “Life happens to me.”
- Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
- Rich people admire other rich and successful people. Poor people resent rich and successful people.
- Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.
- Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
- Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.
- Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people think about their working income.
- Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
- Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.
- Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promoting themselves.
The above examples of thinking are just some of the common beliefs held by rich and poor people. You will notice from these examples that those who are rich have positive thinking and those who are poor have negative thinking. Whatever circumstance you may have, it is the will and way on how to become rich that determines whether you will be truly successful and enjoy financial freedom.
You may not be rich now, if you will do everything in your power to attaining your goal, then there simply is no reason why you can’t achieve what rich people have achieved. The secret is to stay focused on the correct financial blueprint.
Now that you can differentiate between positive and negative blueprints as outlined in the above examples, the next step on how to become rich is to set a clear goal and formulate a plan to reach that goal. For example, instead of spending your money on gratifying your wants now, you can instead spend to satisfy your needs first and spend the money you would have spent on your wants on investments. Investment can make your money grow, while wants will take your money away from you. Taking the cue from the above examples, millionaires actually promote themselves and their value when they make an investment, and you can do that, too. Be aggressive on selling yourself. You cannot make money that much if you will not make a step towards expressing to others about your true value. The best way to do this is to associate with successful people. When you are with this kind of people, do your best to constantly learn from them. You will find that successful people are more than willing to share with you their secret on how to become rich.
