It’s been said time and again, the customer is king. If you serve the customers well, surely you are on your way to increasing your profit.

It does not require an intelligent man to understand the importance customer service. Your product could be the best in the market and may be priced at the lowest, but all that could count for nothing, if your customers decide not to buy your product for some reason.

Coming to the point, Customer Care is the focal point for your business to survive in this highly competitive world. I would be tempted to say that if your company does not have a good customer service model; it would not survive long in the trade.

Why is Customer Care so vital in a business?

Customer Care has gained a lot of importance from business owners especially after the dot com bust. Business Owners realized that if they wanted to sell a product or a service to customers, they had to sell their benefits to the customers. They realized that if customers wanted to buy a product, they would buy. The key point of focus there was to get customers in a position where they could take a decision on buying the product.

Today, you can hardly see a shop owner or a business owner forcing a customer to buy a product. Most good business owners will inform the customers of benefits of using their product and their price. Once that is done, they leave the decision to the customers. This practice is becoming somewhat of a global standard and I am sure that it will be here for years to stay.

Think about Customer Care when you are building your company

If you understand the whole principle of Customer Care, it is all about habits. Hence, if you establish a strong Customer Service Model at the start of the company it will be very easy for you to enforce and implement the concepts to your employees. Essentially, habits that form a part of your company at the start stay with your company for a long time.

Don’t do Push Marketing, Adopt Pull Marketing

Conventional Marketing Professionals have always believed in pushing the product and its information to the customers. Though, it was appreciated a decade ago, things have changed now. Customers feel that the product is pushed on them if a company adopts a Push Marketing Technique.

On the other hand, if the customer is involved in the marketing efforts of a company with frequent interaction with the customers being the order of the day, customers would most willingly contribute to brand promotion. Apart from winning over customer’s minds, you would also end up getting a lot of resources for you to do the marketing of your product.

Sell the concept, not the product in your first meeting

Irrespective of whether you meet your customers in person or have a talk with them over the phone, understand the importance of concept selling. Customers buy products because of their benefits and features. The benefits and features of the product are closely correlated to the concept of the product. Hence, if you have managed to sell the concept of the product you have taken a large step towards selling the product itself.

Customer Care is the most important factor for businesses to consider when they look to survive in this world. If you focus well on Customer Service, repeat business is almost always a guarantee. This is your chance to excel in what you are doing. All you need to do is to start thinking on the lines of what your customers want, and ultimately deliver.

Think back to the last time you made a major purchase. Maybe it was a car, an appliance, a house, etc. I have a simple question for you. Did the salesperson send you a thank you note? Probably not! In fact, I am going to be bold and say that probably less than 10% of salespeople send thank you notes. This is another reason why most salespeople fail.

Just a few weeks ago I got back from the Southern Disc Jockey Convention in Dallas, TX. For me, this was one of the biggest life changing events I have ever been to. The first thing I did once I got back to the office was begin to write thank you notes. I wrote thank you notes to as many people as I could think of.

Why?

Because these people invested their time, money, and talent with this convention. Some of them were speakers, exhibitors, or just plain attending. Each one of them was part of the experience that was created for me in Dallas and they each deserve some thanks for that.

Think about your own business. When was the last time that you sent out a thank you note? Was it because someone booked you? Was it because they met with you about an event? Was it because you just met them for the first time and they have no need for your services?

All of those are great reasons to send a thank you note. Too many people think that there needs to be money exchanged in order for a thank you note to be sent. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I met a guy at the convention in Dallas that told me he does this. He says that he has a database of names and addresses, and then once or twice a year he types up a letter on his computer and mail merges the database and the letter together so that he can send out the 500 or so letters to his vendors, thanking them for their business.

NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!

There are many things that are wrong with this. First of all, ALL thank you notes need to be handwritten. The minute that you have a computer produce them, and then the person will think that it is just a standard form that you send out after each event or meeting. When you handwrite them, it shows the person that you truly mean it. If you are a multi-op owner, make each on of your dj’s write them out for the events and meetings they attended. Also, never just send them out once a year. You should be sending them out constantly and making a habit of it.

Now set down this paper and go write 5-10 thank you notes. I think you will be happy with the results.