Several weeks ago, my fiancé Joe needed his suit emergency dry cleaned for a funeral. Normally he does a Saturday afternoon ritual visit to the cleaners with his dress shirts, but this time Joe appeared early in the morning mid-week, and, explaining the situation, asked for special expedited service. Not only was he OBLIGED, but also when Joe hit traffic picking up his suit, and was 20 minutes delayed after the store closed, the shopkeeper not only waited for him, but also did so after having a medical procedure earlier that day, Joe discovered later.
“I’ll shop there FOREVER,” Joe exclaimed, telling every local person he knew about the above-and-beyond customer service.
I thought I would share that story, not just to tell you about a wonderful dry cleaner, but ask you, “What would make your customers shop with YOU forever?”
What is your special advantage? Your mojo? Your secret sauce? What gets customers ringing your phone, locked onto your website, calling you “the only game in town” for them?
Whatever it is—and it might be a number of things to many people—THOSE are the things you should be marketing, promoting, mentioning and evangelizing everywhere you can. From social media to your business cards to the email signature on your emails, to headlining or bulleting these prominently on your website, you need to be shouting these strategic advantages loudly and proudly every way you can.
If you’ve never really sat down and compiled a list—not just “I give great service…”(Anybody can say THAT! It’s not SPECIFIC.)—I challenge you to do that exercise. Think of what your customers have said about why they love doing business with you. Jot down every little SPECIFIC advantage you can think of. “I have never missed a deadline.” “I triple check my orders.” “We are available 24-7.” Whatever these advantages are, be loud and proud and profess these things everywhere you can.
And hopefully, like Joe’s dry cleaner, you’ll have more “forever” clients than you ever dreamed of.
To repeat business for all of us!
