Do you aim to satisfy or delight your customers? If it’s not the latter, then be warned. Satisfaction is not enough to build loyalty and advocacy. But how do you delight?
We all know how extremely demanding consumers have become in recent years. The offers of constant innovation and novelty have made us all more impatient and critical. Today we want things better, faster and sometimes cheaper as well. And customer satisfaction is becoming insufficient to drive growth alone. Companies need to deliver more, a lot more!
Here are four actions I suggest you try:
- Surprise your customers with something unexpected. Whilst I know it is becoming ever more difficult to do this these days, it is definitely worth the effort in order to build their loyalty.
- Touch the customer emotionally so your product or service resonates with them. The head can quickly be persuaded to change its mind, but the heart goes far beyond reason. Emotionally engaged customers will become not only loyal but advocates too.
- Strive for better in everything you do. Never be satisfied with just repeating previous successes or even plans. Aim to consistently exceed your customers’ expectations.
- Make it a part of every employee’s objectives to ensure your products and services not only obtain customer satisfaction, but go even beyond that in any way they can. As Tony Hseih says, “customer service is not the responsibility of any one department.” Make sure it’s the job of every one of your employees.
I hope you now agree that satisfaction is no longer sufficient to attract and keep your customers. It’s time to step up your game, to aim for surprising and delighting them.
