Is there any better dashboard item or measurement of success than having your “desired” customers doing your marketing (and selling) for you? How much more successful would your business be if all your customers came in because your existing customers told them to buy from you?
You might say this is impossible to achieve or is unrealistic…WHY? Maybe in its purest sense you can’t get 100% of your marketing and sales this way…but why not 50% or 75% or even 90%…that’s very realistic and companies are doing this today. Why can’t you? How would it change your vision of the future? How would it impact profitability if you had almost a zero cost of sale? What would it do to for your employees and the culture of your company? What would your customers say if they were there because they were passionate about their experience and loved doing business with you?
If these benefits don’t wake you up to the fact this can happen and should happen in your business, you can stop reading. This won’t be worth your time.
If this did wake you up and you asked the same question, “WHY NOT US?”…you have taken a major step to building a differentiated BRAND. But it all starts with measuring where you are so you can see the improvements along the journey.
The way to measure this is Word-of-Mouth…tracking how people came to you and having a specific item on your DASHBOARD that says it is improving as you make changes in your customer experience. Word-of-Mouth is very distinctive…it is a specific way to measure how you get your best customers.
One thing has been true forever…people know, socialize, and work with people like themselves. Humans are interesting in this way and we like to surround ourselves with people who have similar backgrounds, likes, habits, and enjoy the same activities. We surround ourselves with clones of who we are and what we like to do and experience. Spending time identifying the “desired” customers you truly want is absolutely critical if you deploy a Word-of-Mouth and customer experience strategy.
For example, if you identified that a key part of your desired customer audience is that they like…no, love country music…they will know lots of other people who like country music. They won’t be talking about you to people who like hip-hop or hard rock or rap…they don’t socialize with them (While I know this is stereotyping down to one characteristic, which is unrealistic, it’s easier to see in an example). They will be hanging out with others who love country music. IF you wanted to attract a large audience of people who love Hard Rock, you won’t be getting them from this audience…you will be getting people who love country music.
So when you determine your “desired” audience, then you will get more of these because you will also design your CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE around those who love country music. Everything you do will be to make the listeners of country music say, “WOW this company is awesome and they are speaking my language and they offer exactly the kind of experience I love being someone who loves country music.”
Aligning your CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE with your DESIRED AUDIENCE are key ingredients to creating and delivering a WORD-OF-MOUTH STRATEGY. Now you have the key ingredients to start tracking where your new customers are coming from. If more and more customers show up who love country music, you can find out how they heard about you…this is what you should be measuring on your CEO/Business Owner Dashboard. This is telling you that whatever the experience is you are giving to your existing country music audience is working because they are telling their country music loving friends about you and that they should buy from you.
ARE YOU MEASURING THIS CRITICAL INGREDIENT TO YOUR SUCCESS? Most don’t…they haven’t a clue about how to do this or set it up.
Setting it up starts with a STRATEGY focused on three primary ingredients…
- Identifying the DESIRED customer audience and all their attributes
- Creating an incredible CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE tailored to the desired audience
- Establishing mechanisms to TRACK the information and data for your dashboard
While none of the 3 are simple, they are incredibly effective at bringing in more of your desired customer audience, lowering your cost of sale/marketing, and improving profitability. As the CEO or Business Owner, it’s up to you to decide if these benefits are worth the investment in Strategy, personnel, resources…and of course, your customers! I passionately believe it is…and many of the world’s best companies and largest consulting firms believe it is not only worth it but will be critical to every businesses survival in the not too distant future.
No time like the present to start…today is DAY ONE.
