Customer
satisfaction is just the minimum; your goal is to engage your customers.
(article continued below ...)
 Customer satisfaction is “merely the entry point for achieving a deeper
foundation that rests on total customer engagement,” according to the book
“Discover Your
Sales Strengths: How the World’s Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning
Careers”
by Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano.
Everyone aims to satisfy the customers: in fact, you and your competitors
may have the same customer satisfaction ratings. What will set you apart
from your competition and ensure the growth of your business is to
satisfy your customers to the point that you engage them.
The authors point that an engaged customer is the most valuable asset of
any organization. Engaged customers assure a business of sustained and
profitable growth. They are the first who will continue to repurchase your
products, and the most likely to recommend you to other people.
Your goal, therefore, is not just to generate sales, but bring in loyal
and engaged customers. The authors say, “The key to winning a leading edge
is in building customer attachment to you, your company, and its products
and services.”
How do you build customer engagement? Using research from the Gallup
Organization, the authors find four emotional dimensions that create
customer engagement. The building blocks for an engaged customer and how
your sales team can work at it are as follows:
1. Confidence.
You will gain the customers’ confidence if they feel that the brand or
company is trustworthy and keeps its promises. You must make your customers
trust you. How exactly do you elicit “trust?” Different researchers
offer different explanations. Customers trust the people they like (too
subjective!) and suspicious of those they do not like. They trust people
with similar backgrounds (same school, same neighborhood, etc.). Some trust
a business that was introduced to them by a friend or opinion leader that
they trust.
Building trust is a highly complex process. While there is no known
formula, trust is about predictability. Customers hate surprises: you must
deliver what you promise will deliver, in a consistent manner. Avoid
promises that you cannot keep; and make sure that your product works.
2. Integrity.
Your customers must feel that your business treats them fairly. The authors
contend that most customers are reasonable in their expectations of you and
they “expect to be treated in a way that is commensurate with the terms of
their business relationship with you.” For example, make them understand
the rationale for your pricing, particularly your discount structure. Make
them feel that you are treating them above board.
3. Pride.
More than snob appeal, your customers must feel good about your product or
service. Consumers feel that products or services are often extensions of
themselves: what they use reflects on them. Your customers must be proud in
using your products. They must feel that they are important to your
business, and that they have made a smart choice in dealing with you.
To engage your customers, you must continue making them feel good about
their decision to choose you among your competitors. Give them the kind of
attention that generates a feeling of pride, even long after they have made
the purchase.
4. Passion.
You are able to instill passion in your customers if they view your product
as irreplaceable. This is the point when customers say that they “love”
you.
According to the authors, discovery is the key to instilling passion from
the customers. The best sales representatives observe that they can achieve
the “pinnacle of customer engagement” if they are “bringing them new
ways to do business.” Instead of waiting for customer’s request, you
need to look for “opportunities to be innovators” on your customer’s
behalf. This entails going the extra mile for your customers.
The book provides that sales is about “being trustworthy, diligent,
consultative, and, at the highest levels, inspiring.” To succeed in an
ever-changing market, you can no longer simply operate based on customer
satisfaction. Instead, you must find every means to keep your customers
engaged to you, and be with you over the long haul.
-- Steve Ma. Reyna is a writer for
PowerHomebiz.com.
February 1 8, 2003
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