When walking into a business, calling on the phone, having service work done, or viewing a website, have you ever asked yourself the question, “How can the owner not see this?”
What Owners Don’t See
It might be:
• A disinterested person answering the phone
• Signage that can’t be read
• Slow and annoying sales process
• Rude employees
• Lack of customer service
• Unsightly landscaping
• Lack of consistent quality
• Website difficult to navigate
…or a thousand other items that make customers shake their heads in dismay. How can an owner not see the same things customers see? The lack of three simple words account for this: attention to detail.
This essential business element is easy to practice, yet so many times overlooked. It is as if the owner operates a different business than the one customers are doing business with. Customers must have a pleasurable buying experience, so they will return to purchase again regardless of the business sector…retail, wholesale, service, manufacturing, e-commerce, or professional. A pleasant buying experience includes everything from pre-sale to post-sale including benefits received or a customer’s problem solved.
Buying Chain Breakdown
When one element of the buying chain breaks down and part of the purchasing experience becomes unpleasant, the business risks losing that customer. The first time, perhaps, the customer excuses the experience. Second time, the customer-business relationship starts to get precarious. Third time’s the charm and the customer is lost forever. The competition just got new business.
Turning a satisfied customer into a dissatisfied customer does not have to happen. Certainly, a business cannot please every customer all the time, but all it takes to save a dissatisfied customer is for the owner or manager to be observant. Sitting in an office receiving feedback from employees is not seeing and hearing what customers see and hear. In fact if this is the situation, the owner probably hears from employees what they think the boss wants to hear.
Experience What Customers Experience
Owners and managers must experience and understand what their customers experience…how they are treated and feel about the entire buying process from beginning to end and the related customer service. The goal is to ensure that customers are satisfied and become loyal. Attention to detail creates this situation and produces repeat business. Practice this concept of attention to detail. As an owner or manager, do what the competition doesn’t do. Be observant, follow-up with promises, and be your own worse critic. It can only do one thing for your business – improve it by seeing what customers see!
