Page 328 - Duct Tape Marketing

312 Part V: Winning and Keeping Customers

To eliminate the possibility of a quality gap — and to build customer loyalty —
train your customers to have high service expectations. Then exceed them
with each customer encounter.

Customer loyalty prescriptions

Sort your customers into the following three categories and then use Table 19-2
as you work to move as many as possible to the invaluable loyal customer rank:

ߜ Satisfied customers find their relationship with your business accept-
able. They have no complaints about the promptness with which they
are served, the accuracy of their transactions, the responsiveness of
your service, or the effectiveness and friendliness of your staff. But nei-
ther are they amazed by their dealings with your business, and for that
reason they are susceptible to better offers from competitors.

ߜ Dissatisfied customers believe that their value and service expectations
were not met. Perhaps they received outright poor service. More often
they received mediocre service, based on how they were greeted, the
time it took to help them, the way their complaints were handled, or the
quality of the service or product they received.

Once dissatisfied, they will make an immediate or gradual departure
from your business. Most pay their final bill politely and say thank you
on the way out the door, and 94 out of 100 leave without a word of com-
plaint to your business. But they won’t remain silent. They’ll personally
share their dissatisfaction with anywhere from 5 to 20 other people, and
thousands more if they use the reach of the Internet as they air their
discontent.

ߜ Loyal customers are the only customers who are safe from defection.
They reduce the cost side of your profit and loss statement while bene-
fiting the revenue side by costing less and spending more than others
who buy from your business.

Use Table 19-2 as you work to move customers into the loyal customer
category.

Table 19-2 Customer Loyalty Prescriptions

Customer Type Customer Mindset Service Prescription

Dissatisfied Service expectations have Establish rapport. Learn and
Customer not been met. address concerns. The
damage may be done, but
try anyway.