5 tips to make your business memorable
- By Jennifer Warawa -
- Oct 08, 2012
You may provide great customer service (and even a great customer experience), but making a business memorable is what keeps customers coming back and builds ultimate loyalty. If you’re trying to achieve maximum success, making your business memorable should be a key part of your strategy. Today's guest blog offers five tips to make it happen...
1. Deliver flawlessly (or close to it). You can offer all kinds of bells and whistles, but if the core product or service your customer purchased from you wasn’t delivered well, rest assured your business will be remembered – just not in the way you’d like! It’s important to set service standards in every business to maintain consistency and excellence in the way you deliver your products or services.
2. Surprise and delight. At least two or three times a week I find myself in a conversation at my office regarding how we can “surprise and delight” our customers on a more frequent basis. Sometimes this looks like a fun box of goodies mailed to their business, pizza delivered to their team when we know they are working late or a phone call from one of our executives whom they don’t often get the chance to connect with, but regardless of the approach – it’s a surprise and they are delighted! It doesn’t need to be related to what you do (in other words, you don’t need to be a pizza restaurant in order to send pizza) – it just needs to be a gesture that shows you care.
3. Ongoing, relentless engagement. When people think of the product or service you offer, do they think of your business at the same time (in other words, they can’t think of one without the other)? Years ago I met a mortgage broker at a trade show and following that brief encounter, he sent me mail (yes, actual ‘old school’ mail) every few months for years. Because of his relentless (non-intrusive) engagement with me, he was the first person that came to mind whenever someone asked me for a referral to a mortgage broker, despite the fact that I hadn’t even worked with him personally. He definitely made himself memorable!
4. Under-promise and over-deliver. When someone breaks a promise, it’s disappointing regardless of whether it’s in your personal life or in business. If you believe you can return your customer calls within four hours, you may be better off to set the expectation with your customers that all calls are returned the same business day. Then when you call them back quickly, they will be very happy you over-delivered.
5. Remember the small things. How great is it when someone unexpectedly sends you a card to wish you a happy birthday or asks how your kids are by name? It’s even more amazing when they didn’t remember your special occasion because Facebook reminded them! Those special touches show that you have taken the time to personally get to know your customers and this goes a long way to building loyalty and making you memorable. If you have a hard time remembering special dates, invest in a CRM (customer relationship management) system that will help automate all these reminders and keep track of important customer information.
Nothing builds customer loyalty like making your business memorable. Take time to build a strategy that makes your business one that your customers can’t forget.
Image by chintermeyer on Flickr
By Jennifer Warawa. Blogs at jenniferwarawa.com and Tweets at @jenniferwarawa
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