“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” –Michael LeBoeuf
The purpose of business is to create and keep satisfied customers. Mike learned this the hard way. A couple of months after he quit his job at a big company where he was a middle manager, Mike opened a restaurant. Not your ordinary sit-in and takeaway chips and burger joint. It was a top of the class venue serving high class and exotic meals and fine wines. The place opened with a lot of fanfare, with top business people and celebrities invited on the opening night. The buzz created that day was massive. You could not get a table in Mike’s restaurant if you were not connected, or you had to book a week in advance.
Phillip Chichoni
For several months, Mike’s restaurant was fully booked. Top class musicians entertained customers on weekends. It was simply class.
Six months later and the patronage started declining. At first, Mike and his managers ignored the drop in customers thinking that maybe it was due to mid-month slowdowns. However, the decline continued gradually without improving. A year later, Mike was unable to cover the bills and had to close shop.
This trend is fairly common, especially among the food and entertainment businesses. How many restaurants and nightclubs that you knew 10 years ago are still in existence?
When Mike told us his story, he was actually laughing. It was only after he had closed shop that he asked some of the customers why they had stopped coming. The majority of them said they simply did not like the food.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Unfortunately, Mike discovered that his food was not pleasing to customers when it was too late.
Unsatisfied customers do not come back. Peter Drucker once said, “Quality in a product or service is not what you put into it. It is what the customer gets out of it.” If a customer does not get what he or she expects from your offering, they will not come back and they will not bring their friends to your shop. For a business to grow and get traction, it must have a steadily growing customer base. This means it must make the first-time customers come back repeatedly. In addition, it must keep on getting new customers. Research shows that it is five times more costly to recruit a new customer than it is to retain an existing one. If you find your customers not coming, you must be concerned and take action.
As we have seen in Mike’s case, customers will not come back if your product does not meet their expectations. How do you know if your customers are satisfied with your products? Simply ask them. Create ways of letting customers freely give you honest feedback. Some firms place customer feedback forms in their premises. Some have machines where customers press some numbered buttons to express how they feel about your service. However, how many times have you personally stopped to complete any feedback form or press buttons on a feedback machine?
One company owner in the online clothing business thought of an idea to communicate with customers. The company started sending e-mails to customers, thanking them for their purchases. To the owner’s surprise, many replied.
“Our customers were really responding to the e-mails, writing back and thanking us for the message,” said the owner of the business. So she decided to push things a little bit further and started sending handwritten notes to a small group of customers. The results astonished her. More than half of the buyers returned to buy more stuff within a few months. Something else more important came from some of the customers; they told her of certain deficiencies in the firm’s delivery as well as products they wanted stocked.
You see, the best way to keep in touch with customers is by communicating with them. This way you will find out if there is any problem in your products and services and you can correct them in time before you lose customers. Keeping in touch with customers can also play an important role: you can inform customers of new products, special offers and events you will be hosting. This is more effective than sending your marketing message to people you do not have a relationship with.
Happy customers like to tell others about their experiences. If you know what your customers feel and need, then you get a chance to awe them. Exceed their expectations and they are sure to tell others. And nothing is more trust building to a potential customer than a positive word from a trusted friend or acquaintance.
For Mike, if he had asked customers what they liked, rather than first importing expensive seafood and wines, he would likely be running a thriving restaurant business right now. So take time to find out what your customers really need and like and work on exceeding their expectations. You will soon have a growing base of customers that will make your business sustainable and profitable.
Until next time, keep on accelerating your growth.
l Phillip Chichoni is a consultant who helps SMEs and entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses. You may contact him by email, [email protected]. You can also visit www.admiralbiz.wordpress.com, or phone +263-4-700812.
