The customer service that we all normally get from businesses can be downright insufferable. It's either the long hold times or hard to understand - and sometimes incompetent - reps. The general system for customer service is to focus on driving new sales and clients, while giving existing customers the bare minimal service just to keep them hanging(anyone have a cell phone? then you get it.).
This is a TERRIBLE way to do business - any business. There are few but still important differences between new clients and existing clients. It takes more time and energy to seek out and sell to new clients than to existing ones. The reason being is that existing clients are already sold on your services/products. They should be comfortable with dealing with you and know what to expect from working with you. New customers need to be introduced to you and your business, taught how a relationship with you will work and they need to be "sold" on your business. Also, some new customers have objections because they have heard through different means negative things about your services.
If you've ever worked for a large company and gone to any training sessions, you might have heard of what they call "overcoming objections", which is a buzz term that means,"Let's find an answer to get around all of the main objections that customers give to not invest in us." Now at face value this sounds like a smart idea, although it can do more harm than good. To actually train to overcome objections adds more stress on the customer-based worker to drive new sales by remembering a list of scripted answers instead of the actual product/services they are trying to sell, it does nothing to benefit existing customers(the lifeblood of a business) and it doesn't eliminate the source of these negative ideas about your business.
Most potential clients will hear negative things about any business through word-of-mouth. It makes sense, since word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful means to advertise, why wouldn't it be just as good at damaging a business image?
So who are these people saying these bad things? EXISTING(and past) CLIENTS. There are some good reasons to treat your existing clients like gold. The most obvious one is that they invest in you, some over a long time period, which means that they keep you working when there is a drop in new clientel. That means that they are your lifeblood, your buoy, what keeps you from going under in the long term. If you have enough existing clients to keep your business running and make a good living for yourself - then you wouldn't technically need new clients. But things don't stay static like that, and it is always a good idea to make more business for yourself. Another reason to treat them well is that they not only pay you for your services, but they advertise for you too. If you treat them second class then they will spread the word as such, if you treat them like gold they will do the same - but they will do it even more. People tend to tell others what is really good and what is really bad, which of these do you want to fall under? Treating existing customers with appreciation also has the benefit of decreasing the # of them that will leave you for your competitors, which means that you are even less desperate for new clients - which is great! When you approach new clients, you don't want to seem desperate; desperation shows a lack of confidence in your work, and no potential client wants to invest in a business where even the owner isn't confident.
As I stated before, existing clients will spread the word like wildfire, and if you treat them well they will only spread good words. Do you know what this does? It makes it even EASIER to get new clients. Your competitors still flash their smiles like a shark waiting for the kill, sputter over half memorized scripting, trying to overcome objections or downright lie to a customer to get just one more sale. You on the otherhand have new clients that haven't heard a word of negativity about your work. Their friends have boasted about how wonderful it is to work with you and how you really care about their needs. These are the clients that instead of saying,"Well I like this about your package, but someone told me *insert objection here*." you will hear,"My friend told me to come here because you were the best, I want *insert client details here* and I may have some more future work if this is as good as I've heard." I've had these clients, I LOVE these clients and I appreciate these clients. All they've heard is goodness, so I know I've done well taking care of my existing clients. This saves energy and money, to be spent on more crucial things, by not having to go all out on advertising or thinking of ways to "trick" new clients by taking some type of training in underhandedness. I don't need to stress myself out by thinking of new flashy ways to attract new clients or how I can twist words around so that I can get more work. I keep afloat with existing clients that stay with me because I treat them right, my existing clients generate new clients(and remember they're paying me while doing this) with no objections to overcome, this keeps me confident that I can meet their needs without having to resort to hard(and sometimes uncouth) tactics, and the cycle continues.
So by being decent, no, by being dependable to the people that know me already, I can increase my client base with hardly any effort. There is still the selling point to my business, but all the talk is about how I can help my clients - not how they can avoid problems in my business plan. I eliminate the problems from the source and I am a reminder to my clients of what real customer service is. It's almost karmic. It feels clean and fresh and good. There's so much "corporate pollution" out there, it can make one feel sick - I'd rather do something different. I'd rather do something right.
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