To create lasting impressions on customers is to manage every interaction with them. Technology has rendered mass market a term of the past. Products are no longer in charge, customers now are. The trick is to give them control and you can use it. To thrive is to lead a conversation with your existing and prospective customers and enable them to collaborate with you. Ask for their feedback; listen to their conversations about their experiences with your brand. You do that by conversing rather than telling. You first manage every single point of contact with those customers to keep your brand sustainable and relevant. When mismanaging each interaction with them you will risk the danger of a mob formed against you in an instant.
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Each moment you come into contact with your customer reveals who you are as a brand. These revealing moments are moments of truth about you. Try to reflect on your experience when you once traveled through a specific airline. How was your experience when you made a reservation? How the check-in was at the ticket counter? How was the employee’s responsiveness when you asked for a special request? Can you recall the employees smiling faces when you first showed up till leaving them? Every single interaction, however trivial, is an opportunity for you to form an impression.
To leave an indelible impression on customers is to turn each encounter with them into moments of magic. Simply because every single thing communicates. What you say and don’t say communicates. The way you package your product communicates and so goes your promotional materials, advertising your brand in social media and mass media, the events you sponsor, the way your salesman present your brand, even the responsiveness of your operators on the incoming calls. Every single thing counts. What you say and don’t say counts. Managing these interactions is what creates positive outcomes. You consciously choose what kind of communication to go for. The revealing moment of truth about you is directly linked to that moment of choice.
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Dell computer supreme customer service is indebted to its worst customers. Dell was reputed for its fast responsiveness, but one angry customer swept that belief overnight. After buying a Dell and paying extra for at-home service, that customer had problems the moment he turned on the computer. The computer had a number of bugs in which the customer tries to fix of no avail. He called the company more than once to find a way but no response on the other side. He went mad and wrote a blog titled, “Dell sucks.” He posted it on social media. Eventually thousands of people rallied around and commented on that blog. As a result, Dell’s customer-satisfaction rating fell which affects the brand badly.
Turning your worst customer to your best friend is the task of the visionary. Michael Dell, , the Chairman and CEO of Dell Computer Corporation, knows that a complaining customer is an opportunity to turn things around. He knows that when you lose a customer you don’t lose just that customer, you risk losing that customer’s friends and supporters, thanks to the internet and consumer rate-and-review services that affect the value of your brand. Michael daringly opens direct conversations with that angry customer and all his supporters and went on fixing his internal problems instead of denying them. That experience helped Dell transform itself and become incomparable in terms of customer service.
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Managing your interactions with your customers creates solid foundation for a sustainable business. Each interaction must be consciously communicated to make your brand. You strive to rightly communicate each counter in order for that customer to be a loyal one. Failing to do so not only alienates your existing customers but keeps the new ones from coming as well.
