Yes, you heard me right – Give your CUSTOMERS away to the competition. OK, so maybe not entirely but in principle at least.
Everyone is touting how great their customer service is or how wonderful of an experience they give their customers or how well our employees treat our customers, etc. etc. etc. Put your money where your mouth is on this one. If you truly believe you have the best service or experience or loyalty programs, then you shouldn’t be afraid to give your customers away to your best competitor. Why? Because if you have truly delivered the best experience in the market or provided the best customer experience in your field then you shouldn’t be afraid to give them away. If they are truly LOYAL customers, they will see the difference between you and the competition and come “running” back to you.
However, if you don’t feel like you can literally give them away to your competition, then you have some work to do – and that is the purpose of this exercise. Test yourself and be honest. If you don’t think you can make that call and give them away, then start to find out WHY. Why are you afraid? Why do your employees think they would defect? Why don’t you think you have the best customer experience? Why would your customers enjoy the competition more than you? These are all excellent questions and questions that hit at the heart of any customer loyalty program – or at least they should.
If you are an executive, ask your employees these questions and expect honest straightforward answers – don’t punish them for the truth, they know what is going on. If you are an employee, test your executives with these questions and ask them what they think your customers would say. Test each other, test the system, just simply test your customers. You will be amazed what you will discover. Hope it helps…
Blaine
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.