Today’s economy is tough for so many businesses, and in times like this, most spend their time watching cash flow, cutting expenses, and not enough time figuring out how to do things differently for new customer acquisition or generating repeat business from existing loyal customers.
The challenge, however, is that consumers today are receiving information and making purchasing decisions differently than ever before. Social media and other interactive tools are just a few of the major consumer shifts. So how’s a small business supposed to succeed?
Sometimes, generating business doesn’t involve cutting prices, changing your product, or anything having to do with your product or service, in fact. New innovative ideas that are effective solve a problem for your customer or speak their language, meet a need in their world, not yours. These ideas demonstrate, “Wow, you get me.” Verizon exploded years ago, gaining unprecedented market share, because at the point of pain, when customers experienced a thread of discontent (dropped calls), Verizon figured out the power of speaking their customers’ language (“Can you hear me now? Good.”). With marketing changing dramatically the last 10 years, what hasn’t changed about people is this: we want to feel valued, special, understood, and appreciated.
Here are two principles and a few examples that might get you and your team thinking differently—from your customer’s perspective—to come up with ideas that speak your prospective customers’ language and make them feel important.
1. Customer retention is a lot cheaper than new customer acquisition.
Recently, I took my family out for breakfast at a restaurant here in Greenville that has become somewhat of a family tradition (shameless plug: Stax Omega). Good food? Yup. Service? Usually fantastic. This time? Not so good. Bathrooms? Too small. Cost? There are cheaper options ($45 w/tip & tax for two adults and three kids). So what’s the tiebreaker? Fish tanks. Two massive fish tanks. My kids (3, 4 and 8-years-old) have named all the fish. Freddy the fish, Wally the white fish, Yippy the yellow fish, Bubba the blue fish, Goofy the green fish, Peppy the pink fish, and Oscar the orange fish (buggy eyes—the goofiest of them all!). Bubba’s my favorite. He makes my youngest, Alana, laugh hysterically.
Almost every Friday night when I tuck them in, after we pray and they kiss me good night, they say, “Daddy, can we go see da fishies in da morning?” They couldn’t care less about the food, quality, service, convenience, or price. But these three kids, for the breakfast restaurants in my city, are driving the purchasing decisions of a household for a market segment, based on two fish tanks.
Two weeks ago, I took my wife, for our anniversary, to Chophouse 47 for the first time. Phenomenal food, first-class service (a completely different experience. Thanks, Miller!), and arguably the perfect steak. But the tiebreakers I won’t forget? Without asking, the servers put a white napkin at my wife’s place (she had light beige slacks) and a black one at my place (I had black pants). They also kept putting her fork at her right side and mine at my left (they picked up on the fact that I’m a lefty).
What’s the point? Price might be a non-issue, if experience exceeds expectation.
2. Understanding your target customers’ needs and habits is more important that yelling louder and more often to everyone about your product that you need to move, but they may not need.
My (former) bank used to send me bill stuffers asking me to consider opening an IRA with them. Problem: I already had one with them. Key word: Had. Message: “We lump you in with everyone else. We don’t really get you.” And, as of last year, they don’t get my business either. Conflict = the distance between expectations and reality.
Over 20 years ago, all of my college friends went to the same barber. Why? Definitely not the haircut (no jokes). Tiebreaker: They gave free beer to college students. Knowing what matters to your customers can change your strategy in a slow economy. It’s why a dry cleaner should consider the fact that consumers have limited time and might pay an extra $1.50 to save an inconvenient trip to pick up their clothes. Why not meet them where they already are going to be and partner with a church—an established, loyal audience conditioned to a great, reliable life pattern that matches your business model: drop off Sunday; pick up Wednesday.
Okay, now look at your customers’ lives, not your business offerings. What do your customers LOVE? What matters to them? How do they live? Then, how can you incorporate the answers to those questions into your brand experience?
They’re worth it. So are you.
