BUSINESS GROWTH AND ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT:

BUILDING EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

In today's world, any organization that desires success must attract, serve and win the loyalty of customers by providing worthwhile products and delivery of excellent services; a good way to do this is by putting to work efficient customer relationships skills. You may have the best products or render exceptional services, but if you don’t have good relational skills; you will continuously lose customers.

To my mind, getting and maintaining loyal customers affects an organizations bottom line more than any advert campaign, marketing or public relations. With many organizations offering and selling similar products or services, the quality of your service and most especially, its presentation, is the only variable that can distinguish your company from its competition. Also, how you treat your customers is what determines if they will be willing to build a relationship with your organization. A good relationship with you will keep them doing businesses with you and also publicizing you. The greatest form of publicity for your business is mouth-to-mouth publicity and the surest way to getting it is by offering common services, in an exceptional way.

Friends, there is no product in the market that is entirely new absolutely nothing. What we see everywhere are just modifications of what already exists. Therefore, what stands out an organization is the uncommon way common services are rendered.

One major skill anybody who wants to be successful in today’s business world is good CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT. Our new generation banks are embracing it; other mature and start-up organizations are equally taking queue. Question is, what about government agencies like PHCN, NITEL, NIPOST, WATER BOARD and the others? Employees of these organizations always one reason or another to be uncouth to customers - caring less about their satisfaction and happiness, possibly because they believe the customers don't have options. Their customers are treated like 'captives'.

In case you never thought about it, in the business world, customers make their decisions with their feet - they do this every day! If dissatisfied; they walk away. Sometimes, they run to your competitor. With a government or public utility like PHCN and the likes; it may look like customers don't have a choice, so it's no big deal to the employees when they treat customers poorly. They feel they provide services that can't be given anywhere else; hence the justification to treat those who do business with them as CAPTIVE CUSTOMERS. Funny enough, customers must always use their feet. Since in the present condition they can’t vote with them, they will use them for something else; they will kick you. The customer's displeasure with you and your services quickly becomes customer hostility. This hostility can snowball. Since customers now expect to be treated poorly, they in fact begin to treat the employee poorly (mostly, in self-defence). The attacked employee fights back and the stress on both parties mount. What does this result to? Employee absenteeism, employees quitting, negative public view of the organization, lower sense of pride in the organization, lower sense of self worth among employees, et al. Therefore, giving poor service is a way of beating up yourself.

This kind of sorry situation can be avoided if we consciously pay emphasis on building valuable relationships with our customers. There is this common ideology that: ‘not all customers who currently have a relationship with our organizations should not be treated equally.’ Popular excuse for this is that some clients consistently spend large sums to purchase products from an organization; others do not spend large sums but hold the potential to do so; and still others use up a large amount of an organization's resources but contribute little revenue.

However, any wise businessman knows that he cannot afford to lose any of his customers. A poor client today could be your biggest miracle tomorrow. Treat PEOPLE well.

Business surveys show that the cost of attracting a new customer is at least five times more than the cost of keeping an existing one. Also, dissatisfied customers tell an average of 10 – 20 other people about their bad experience with your organization. With the digital ease of communication, some tell far more. Imagine how many people get bad reports about your organization when you treat 2 or more of your customers poorly! Irrespective of what the customer currently brings to your organization, you lose nothing being nice to them.

You can't keep treating your customers like slaves and expect your business to grow. You are in business for them, the moment you cease to see it in this light, success will positively avoid you.

No man likes to be treated like a slave, no matter how poor he is. The ego thing is still there, no matter how poor one is. Every customer’s desire is that you make him happy and proud doing business with you. And in return? You will smile to the bank, always.

In the long run, your customers will reward you for valuing your relationships with them and for showing respect in your service delivery. You really don’t have to make people feel you are doing them a favour when they do business with you; no matter how charming or indispensable your services are. I usually don’t make a repeat transaction to anyone or organization that tries to make me feel that way. Some folks give this ‘I-am-just-helping’ you attitude so they can be seen by their customers as being nice; most young entrepreneurs are under the illusion that this is the language or carriage you need to give clients in order for them to make a return purchase or recommend them to others. To my mind, this is the formula for failure.

Please, treat your customers like the KING they really are. Do you know the reason it is being said that “the customer is king?” It is because they are the ones that put food on your table; they are the reason you are in business, they are the reason you render the services you do... You can’t treat them like trash and expect to last long in business...

Even when you have to your sell your products at cost price (it hardly ever happens); you don’t have to throw it in the face of your clients. Customer loyalty is a catch 22 situation; you can’t earn their loyalty, if they don’t earn your respect.

I believe there are some very little things we can start putting in place to win the long awaited love of our customers. However, I think with deep and proper evaluation, we can do without certain policies that we’ve up until now termed ‘company policy’. Fact is, these ‘policies’ scare customers.

There was a time when you couldn’t make or answer a phone call within the premises or hall of a bank. Most new generation banks noticed customers weren’t happy with this, thus banks like Guaranty Trust dropped that ‘policy’ and allow customers to make and answer calls within their premises or in the hall. Because of this, they have become the toast of customers. They are doing everything to make the customer feel like the king he really is. Imagine how a client feels when he wants to make a call to confirm an account number that he’s been told by the bank is not correct, he is told to walk out of the bank and make his calls outside the bank premises! Horrible! Occasionally, staffs of the bank yell at the customer should he attempt to make a call in the bank... Even security operatives harass them if their phone rings or beeps within the hall... These are the same customers that were wooed into opening accounts with the bank. Most old generation banks are still with the status quo; as a result, they are gradually losing customers.

To be a success and a high-flyer in business, you must put everything in place [including your tongue] that will make clients love doing business with you.

© Sule Emmanuel, June 2007.

ARTICLE LINKS

National Development

• How did we get here?
• Towards a better Nigeria
• Why we must all be interested in October 1st

Business Growth and Entrepreneurial Development

• Effective customer relationships
• Customer value is everything

Success Motivation

• Face your fight
• Bring something to the table
• In the face of challenges
• Do Something
• The SUPPORT Language

Relationship

• Who said I must be like you?