 Sales
Moves Best Practices
If your customers are
“satisfied,” why are they leaving?
By Jeffrey Gitomer
Customer satisfaction is dead.
Oh, there are a bunch of huge companies that haven’t
figured it out yet. And there are a bunch of hotels and
airlines that haven’t figured it out yet. And some (OK
most) will never figure it out.
There are even organizations that give out “Customer
Satisfaction” awards. (J.D. Power and Associates is
among the most notable.) And the companies that win the
“satisfaction awards” – especially the WORST SERVICE
PROVIDERS IN THE UNIVERSE (like airlines and automobile
manufacturers) -- brag to everyone. They take out
full-page ads. And they put up banners in public places
as though it will change the mind of the public that
already knows the score.
Another word for satisfaction is: mediocre. How would
you like to win an award for mediocrity? “We are the
highest rated mediocre company in the universe!” What a
joke – and not a funny one.
TRUTH: Anyone that posts a “satisfaction” award has an
army of people that hate them for the lousy service they
provide, and a bigger army of people laughing at the
audacity and the phoniness of the banner.
Satisfaction is the lowest level of acceptable service.
And in the end, it means nothing. Companies like AOL
measure “satisfaction,” while they lose thousands of
customers a day because of lousy service and apathy. Why
measure?
THE FACT IS: Customer loyalty is all that matters.
And many companies are (finally) coming to that
realization.
I define loyal customers as people who will do business
with you again, tell others about you, and refer others
to do business with you.
Most large companies spend all their time worrying about
“share-holder value” and do nothing at the source of the
opportunity: loyalty value.
THE REALITY: To get loyalty, you first have to give
loyalty. Loyalty is a chain. It starts with a corporate
philosophy. One that is created and written by the owner
or the CEO – not the marketing department, HR people, or
some ad agency.
The CEO has a vision beyond self-service. His or her
vision of the company is the one mission that must be
carried out. How can anyone march to a philosophy or a
vision that’s not created by the creator?
Can you imagine God saying to his marketing department,
“Hey, you guys create a bunch of commandments, and run
them by me before you carve them in stone. Oh, and make
it an even number, like ten or twenty.” Not too
authentic.
Consider the vision of Hugh McColl, arguably the
greatest banker of all time, founder of North Carolina
National Bank that ultimately became with Bank of
America. His philosophy was simple: “I take care of my
people, my people take care of my customers, and my
customers take care of my shareholders.”
He never said, “I want to be the number one bank in the
universe.” He just espoused his strategy -- his
philosophy -- and the rest just happened.
Here’s what you can do:
Loyalty starts at home. Loyalty to employees – taking
care of employees is the number one job of any business
owner or CEO. Happy people, respected people, cared-for
people, and empowered people are more likely to transfer
those feelings to customers. And vice versa.
Take loyal actions. Loyalty to customers stems from the
actions that are taken, and the words that are spoken
from employees. It’s not just “business as usual” – it’s
going the extra mile and taking a proactive approach to
communication. Get the idea now? Loyalty is earned.
Earn loyalty and you’ll get it. Loyalty from customers
is a result that occurs when all the other elements of
your business have been mastered. Loyalty is not a
report card. It’s THE report card.
Make loyalty the imperative. From the CEO to the person
that answers the phone. From sales to service. From
shipping to purchasing. Make loyalty the corporate
language. BUT to make it work, there has to be total
senior-level support. If you concentrate on loyalty,
satisfaction is no longer relevant.
Start with attitude. You can’t teach loyalty, but you
can teach and instill positive attitude among all the
people in your company. Loyal action and great service
starts with people who have a positive attitude.
Measuring satisfaction? Waste of time, waste of money,
waste of customer interaction. But it’s the perfect
“c-y-a” vehicle for middle management to justify their
job and existence.
Here’s the real world measurement:
Will they do business with me again?
Will they refer someone to do business with me?
Will they give a testimonial?
Measure loyalty? Easy. Count the number of repeat
customers. Count the number of referred customers. Count
sales. And count profit. The rest is bogus.
If you want my formula for loyalty, go to
www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first time
visitor, and enter LOYALTY FORMULA in the GitBit box.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of
Selling and The Little Red Book of Sales Answers.
President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives
seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts
Internet training programs on sales and customer service
at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112
or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com.
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