Starbucks, CiCi’s Pizza and Chick Fil A all have one thing in common that makes them the best at what they do. No. It’s not making the best coffee, pizza or chicken. It’s they all say “Hello welcome to (company name)” the second anyone enters the door. They all three acknowledge you and make you feel important, the second you enter their establishments.
Money is not easy to come by. We ALL work really hard for it, no matter how much we have. We continually spend money in the places that make us feel good about spending it. I’m more apt to be a repeat customer in an establishment with mediocre products but excellent service, more than I am the opposite.
We like being treated well when we spend our money.
We’ve all seen great businesses come and go. Yet, that dinner up the street that has Sharlene at the front door saying “hi” to every person that walks in, has crappy food but excellent service and has been open of 4 decades. Meanwhile the best steakhouse in town just closed shop.
Service makes or breaks a business.
We all pay so much and work so hard to get each customer. The key to running a profitable and sustainable business is to turn that one time customer in to a repeat customer. If you treat them like the gold they are, they will continue to pay their gold for your services. If you treat them like sh!t, they don’t give you sh!t for repeat business. OR referrals!
Ask any great business consultant how to increase profits easily and they will tell you to find a way to repeat sales to the already existing customer database. The cost of acquiring a new client vs selling an complimentary service to an existing one, is the difference between staying in business or going out. If you’re constantly having to get new people to buy your stuff, you’re constantly paying for traffic. It cuts into your margins like a hot knife through butter.
The other sales equation that service helps out with, is getting referrals. Maybe you sell a service like real estate or mortgages. people generally only need your help once every 5-10 years, so they can’t repeat that often. They can tell all their friends about you and send them to you in the form of referrals. It’s new business you get for free, due to your superior service delivery.
Referrals won’t happen without great service. Just like repeat customers won’t happen if you treat them wrong. These days so many businesses treat prospects like they don’t need them. It doesn’t take long for word of mouth to spread and the people decide they don’t need the business.
Negative service gets more attention than positive service. Very few people love a place so much that they will go on yelp and review it. Yet, that same person, if they get upset will create a yelp account just to warm others of how bad things were for them.
You have to fight 10 times as hard for good service publicity than you do bad service publicity.
It all stems from our reptilian fight or flight mechanism. When we get bad service, it’s in our DNA to warm others in our circles of the danger. When we get good service we take it as what we are supposed to get, and we may never mention it to anybody we know.
Some of the best service delivering businesses offer discounts to repeat customers. You’ve seen punch cards, coupons and Starbucks does the deal where you can bring your receipt back later that day for a discounted second daily visit. The more you can get the same person to repeat business with you, the more each customer is worth to you. That’s why Starbucks welcomes everyone that comes in. Even when you don’t buy a drink.
The question now is “Do you provide grade A service to every single person that comes in your establishment?” Even with my business that’s 100% online, I treat every prospect and customer like gold. Giving them all sorts of great service greeting them by video, following up and rewarding via email and so on. Even though clients may not walk in your office and you may not even speak to them, you can still give them great service, with the right systems in place.
The keys to running and maintaining a super successful business are service, upsells and referrals. Those three things all fuel each other and create a synergy that propels a business into perpetual momentum. To put it simple, service sells. The better the service, the more the clientele spends with you.
We love being treated well for spending money. We work so hard for it, we deserve the best when we’re buying.
Maybe it’s time for you to take inventory and see where you can step up your service game. How could you increase the customer experience? How can you make them want to come back and pay you as often as possible? How could you convert them into raving fans who send referrals on a regular basis? Figure those things out, do them and watch profits increase dramatically.
If you’re in sales, you’re in service. Selling is one thing but creating the experience is another. My sales program Show Up and Close will show you how to close sales then make them feel like a million bucks so they come back to you and send all their friends you way as well. Check it out at www.showupandclose.com
Lastly, if you’d like to know more about my programs and products, in order to purchase the right one for you, simply fill out the form below and we will be in touch. All I ask is that you come ready to invest and not waste our time. We have a lot of people to help and we want to help those who are ready, first.
