The Sunday Mail
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba
“The key is, no matter what story you tell, make your buyer THE HERO.” – Chris Brogan.
We can do all the tricks in the world to win the hearts of our customers but the truth is if you fail to move with the changing times, they will definitely leave. Loyalty is only guaranteed if you are able to exceedingly satisfy your customers with services and products that meet the changes in the environment.
In all fairness, all customers do not give a hoot about your business unless if you are able to make their lives soft. But how do you make it soft?
The answer is simple: You solve their different problems through your services and products.
This means you are only relevant when you can provide a solution to their challenges. When customers realise that you can help them, it is easier to win them over.
Thus, one can say their love for the organisation is conditional.
A month ago, Zimbabwe was celebrating its liberations war heroes, and that made me realise that organisations do also have heroes that sacrifice their hard-earned income everyday by paying for different products and services.
These heroic customers ought to be celebrated so that you can have a definite assurance of their continued patronage.
Celebrating this revenue stream will definitely get you more customers. However, there is need for organisations to alter their marketing strategies a bit and make their customers heroes.
These are some of the ways they can do it.
- Emotional Connection
If you want to have a long-lasting relationship with your customers, you must build an emotional connection. Emotional connection is far more than just having a personal bond, it is about being available for the client when the dial your number or knock on your door for a conversation. Things like delivering your goods and services on time or giving customers any update on new developments about the organisation and its offerings also helps in emotion building. Customers always want to be on the loop on the goings on at their favourite service providers offices so catching them by surprise will not do you any justice as service providers.
Staying in contact with the customers creates strong bonds and will make them stick around for the longest time. Often times, customers who were once one-time customers may end up converting to become customers forever. A successful emotional connection will make these customers feel like they are part of the organisational family hence, it will be difficult for them to break that tie.
- Convince the customers that you know their problems before they say it
Before you offer your products and services to your target market there are things that must be on your bucket list as an organisation. Firstly, you must remember that your customers are after what you are offering, therefore, you need to consider how their lives will be after using what you either your products or services? If you are selling clothing materials, you need to pause and think how you would help your customers to imagine the different designs of dresses that can be made from that pieces of fabric. Will they feel that they made the right bargain by buying from you or it will be cognitive dissonance? Their main worry is the assurance that whatever they are buying from you is safe.
Customers are generally comfortable and eager to do business with organisations or people that they can trust. If they trust you enough that you have solutions to their problems then they can give you business. More often, customers fall for businesses that have a better understanding of their deepest desires because to them that is a sure sign that they are committed to providing a solution to their problem.
- Tell the customers what you can solve
The reason why customers search for you either online or physically, is because they have a problem which they think you might have a solution for. It is with regret that a lot of companies are not able to have a conversation that addresses what they can solve. Such unanswered question, will render your offerings empty and without context and connection.
Imagine a pharmaceutical company selling tablets that do not have information of what they cure. It will be absolute nonsense to the patient because a solution to an unknown problem is useless. So, it is important to put context to your offering by mentioning the problems that you can expertly solve. That way you do not keep your customers second guessing, in fact it will be a relief to them that there is someone out there has a solution to their problems.
It is important to mention the problems that your customers are facing and the solutions you are providing to ease them. When you relate the problems, your customers are facing it shows them that you understand the pain they are going through and when you offer a solution to that effect, they can understandably believe you and support you. Moreover, it shows that your solution will be coming from an organisation that have walked the path and they know exactly the pain associated with that problem. Hence, when they offer a solution, it will be genuinely from a good place.
*Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments, suggestions and training, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461, 0719 978 335
