Page 92 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

old 80:20 rule and see if it applies to your business. Typically some 80% of
a business’s profits come from just 20% of the customers—time to start
expending more effort on targeting that 20% and ensuring you deliver the
service they expect. This demands a CRM (Customer Relation Management)
system. If you are a one-man band with only a few clients then your CRM
could be as simple as good people skills, nice manners and a razor-sharp
memory. For pretty much everybody else, however, it’s worth investing in
CRM software.

Software alone won’t do it, though. To keep customers happy you need staff
who share your ideals and are sufficiently empowered and motivated to
deliver them. Complaints shouldn’t be swept under the carpet; they should
be reported—and acted on.

Nor is fixing a complaint the end of the process. It should be followed by a
review of the lessons and communication to other customers to let them
know that you’re on the case. Make sure that everyone, no matter how
senior, gets to experience just what it is like to be one of your customers,
and one of the staff that deals with them. It’s because boardrooms become
so distant from the customer that they lose sight of the importance of
keeping their existing clientèle.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU…
You don’t have to be a supermarket or an airline to introduce a loyalty
scheme. They can be scaled to suit the size of your enterprise and
could be as simple as theatre tickets or a bottle of wine sent to anyone
who makes a repeat order or spends a certain amount.