Is Your Company Great, Or Yet To Be Good? - 5 Basics:

So many business leaders I chat with these days pontificate about how their company will be moving from “good to great” as their business plan. Well great, unfortunately what I have witnessed of late is  many customers would be happy if the same companies would just be “good”. 

There is just too much “big hat no cattle out” there when it comes to understanding why people buy today.  Some companies believe “if you build it they will come”. Yes, at first, but will they come back?  Loyal customers and repeat buying is the basic yet so many companies never learn it. They constantly look for new customers to bring in but rarely track the patrons they are losing for little reason.

I submit, buyers would be happy if the basics were executed, as today’s buying climate has very low expectations. With all the “brew ha ha” about CRM systems and Web enabled visibility, it still is about getting a quality widget to the customer ( in a box, on time, in good condition, fast, paid, and few returns or call backs, period).

Five “Good” customer basics to remember before you even think about trying to be “Great”. Consider these if you offer a product or service B to B or B to C:

1)       They want to buy your product, but you make it too difficult to buy. Listen, you may hear..."I want it now, without the “story” of how to buy, I’ll lose interest fast….."

2)      "I want your product to make me happy, even for a moment, if your quality is less than I expected, I’m unhappy for a long time."

3)      Are you easy to find, understand, and remember on the web, storefront, phone number, Email,  and catalog?

4)     Can  they understand your five P’s and S within 15 seconds? Price, Product, People, Promotion, Promise, and Service?

5)       Are you a fun to buy from? Tom Hopkins once said. “People buy emotionally, then defend their decision logically".  Guess what, Joe Girard also said  "If you patron has even one frustrating customer service experience, they will warn 250 other people not to buy" (His law of 250).

                                                                                                 

You will notice there is nothing new here, other than to say just master all five before you try to move your company to “Great”, there are no shortcuts.