Elvis Presley is still regarded as the “King of Rock and Roll” and through his concert career it became a standard line from his show announcers to say that Elvis, aka “The King” has left the building. (Meaning, the show is over – go home…..he wasn’t coming back for an encore). It is still used to indicate that someone has made an exit or that something is complete.
If CUSTOMER = KING what does it mean when your customer leaves your building, or business? Does it mean that they left your business feeling happy, satisfied or fulfilled? Does it mean that something is complete? I.e. Remarkable Customer Satisfaction? Does is mean they left your business, and won’t be back for an encore? i.e. Another appearance.
A few months ago I had a customer service experience that was “less than stellar”. This business: “Less than Stellar Business Inc.” (I will change the name to protect he innocent 🙂 ) allowed me the opportunity to leave their business, and I must admit that I didn’t feel like a king. Ironically, I wasn’t even looking to be treated like a king….I simply wanted to receive “reasonable service for reasonable pay”, but alas, this didn’t happen.
All aspects of the “almost” sales and service process were poor. I say “almost”, as they didn’t get my money. I left before things went too far. In other words, I decided to walk away and avoid further disappointment. Sadly, no one was running to the door to save my business.
Does Customer = King? In my opinion, if your business is looking to grow revenue, offer more products and services to your customer, gain more customers, then your “customer” must be king. While being a king is all about royalty, being a customer is all about loyalty!
How to treat your customer like a king?
- Be Remarkable. (Give your customer something “great” to talk about)
- Assess your moments of truth from your customer’s eyes. (eg. greetings, smiles, cleanliness of your business, etc.)
- Determine the Lifetime Value of your customer. (i.e. Revenue/transactions; Transactions/year; Revenue/year; # of years that customer will be “your” customer; Customer lifetime value; Likelihood of “great” and remarkable service keeping your customer.
- Determine the cost of poor service. (How many people will an “upset” customer tell others about your poor service?)
- Assess your Service: Reliability (Consistency); Responsiveness (to requests & complaints); Speed (of everything your business does); Competence (skilled, trained and knowledgeable employees); Value (service to price ratio); Friendly (personable, smiling).
- Determine what “behaviours” support “remarkable customer service for your business.
These simple tips may prevent “The King” aka “customer” from leaving your business.
Our business, X5 Management specializes in Improving Sales & Service for business. We offer comprehensive Business Consulting Services, Coaching Services and we have an extensive list of Training and Professional Development courses/workshops, specific to supporting businesses with Improving Sales & Customer Service.
