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Business & Marketing John Ritskowitz on 21 May 2007 01:10 pm
Seize the Opportunity to “Wow” Your Customers
In the past I’ve written about customer service as an important marketing strategy. There are opportunities all around you to expand on your marketing in ways that may not be so obvious.
Retaining your existing customers certainly falls in that category. I’ve talked about how to reactivate lost customers before, but it would be even better if you never lost them in the first place.
Dan Kennedy just posted a timely article on his blog about what you can do when a customer complains. His tips are golden, and they illustrate what too many businesses today fail to do to retain their customers.
The key here is to turn a potential negative situation into a positive one. And sometimes you have to think and act fast.
It reminds me of a story Joe Sugarman told in his book, Television Secrets for Marketing Success.
Joe was a guest host on QVC selling his BluBlocker sunglasses, when a customer called in and said live on the air, “I love your sunglasses, but they broke the other day when I sat on them.”
Joe’s response is a perfect example of seizing the opportunity at hand to turn a negative situation in his favor.
“This is a great call,” he said. “You know why? Because given the proper circumstances, anything will break. But it’s what we do with a customer who breaks a pair that really makes us stand out.”
Joe went on to describe how the caller can simply send the broken pair to his customer service department, and they will replace it free of charge (minus a small postage and handling charge).
“This is for the life of that pair of BluBlockers,” he continued. “And we replace it within 48 hours after we receive it. Thank you for helping me point that out.”
Joe could have apologized meekly or tried to cover it up, but instead he took the chance to “wow” his customers.
Remember, there’s opportunity all around you at any given moment. It’s how we choose to seize upon that opportunity that ultimately determines our successes.
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