Do you roll out the red carpet for every client?
What would happen if you focused on creating such a mind-blowing experience and making your clients feel so good that they don’t want it to end and keep coming back for more?
I am a massive believer in the power of people and how by creating a fantastic customer experience, you can make people feel special, show them you care and encourage them to come back time after time.
Fixing that leaky bucket
If you know me or have heard me speak, you will know that I often talk about the concept of ‘fixing your leaky bucket’.
A leaky bucket is simply a bucket with holes in it, which means that any water you pour into the bucket will start to leak through the holes. You can never completely fill your bucket to the top because there is always some water that is slipping away, so it becomes an endless cycle of topping up and slipping away, topping up and slipping away.
I often work with business owners who describe to me all the different things they are doing and all the time and money they are investing each month to attract new leads and clients to their business.
They are proud to show me the latest trends, the fancy dashboards, and the complicated funnels they have in place. And then, I ask them about their lifetime value and their customer retention strategy, and they suddenly go quiet.
Customer lifetime value (CLV, or CLTV) is a metric that indicates the total revenue a business can reasonably expect from a single customer account throughout the business relationship. (Hubspot)
I want to invite you to think about your own business as the bucket and your clients as the water.
How leaky is your bucket?
I think it is easy in today’s digital and fast-paced world to get caught up in the excitement of new marketing techniques, tools, and methods to attract and bring in new customers. There are a lot of marketing agencies and gurus out there who are teaching you how to bring in new clients, and it has become normal to constantly focus on new client acquisition and spend a lot of money in the process.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you should stop trying to attract new clients to your business. In fact, for most of this book, that is what I am talking to you about and helping you to do. However, I am encouraging you to think differently again at how you look at your sales and customer retention.
If you are delivering the best service and best quality products, if you are delighting your customers each and every time, then they will come back for more. In leaky bucket terms, if you are doing everything right and your customer experience is five stars, then the number of holes in your bucket will be dramatically reduced, which in turn means that the amount of water or customers that slip away will also be reduced.
We know it is also easier to sell again to an existing client than to acquire a new one. Again, this makes total sense as you have already done all the hard work in building that goodwill and know, like and trust factors.
So, what if your strategy turned from a focus on acquiring new clients to focusing on delivering as much value as possible to keep hold of your existing ones? In other words, what if you focused on customer retention and customer lifetime value?
For me, it seems logical that the most effective way to future-proof your business is to always offer ‘Celebrity style service’ to your customers so that not only do they keep coming back for more, but they also become your super fans and shout about you and your brand from the rooftops to all their friends and 600 connections!
“Here is the Jedi Mind Trick to make you craved by your competitors, and raved about in your industry: treat all customers like they are a celebrity.””
Taken from Chapter 9 - Becoming the Brand that Does in my book - Clarity, Communication and Connection, Three Clear Steps to Future-Proof your Business.