Five ways to help customers keep you in mind
It has been said that if all Coke Cola’s factories burned down in a day, the business would survive. But if 7 billion people got amnesia, it would not. The value of anything is clearly only what exists in a customer’s mind. But it is important to know that it is the remembering that matters, not the experience. Trouble is, how customers feel about an experience determines what their memory will be. And after only a few months, this becomes distorted, falsified or forgotten.
A focus on achieving “customer delight” would seem to be a good idea in this context. But often these initiatives end up costing more for no incremental benefit. And you know how you get suspicious when people are extra nice to you? Customers feel the same so they’ll end up questioning your motives and worrying about the value exchange.
So how do you get a customers’ repeat business (assuming you want it) when they might forget or misremember you. Here’s five suggestions:
- Always make sure the experience ends on a happy note. Happy endings have a dramatic effect on positive memory recall.
- Frame the value for them: Summarising the value exchange in terms of the value they derived. It helps create a record they can refer to later which will challenge memory lapses (so long as they remember they have the record!)
- Ask for feedback: Make sure you give them a chance to say what’s important. Open ended qualitative conversations are powerful and rewarding methods which in themselves create another positive memory. Quantitative, satisfaction type survey methods do not
- Be present: The next time a customer needs your service you need to be ‘present’ in their mind. This can be done through direct contact (eg in person or emails) and indirect (eg media) but little and often is better than pestering. I’m sceptical about branded items (eg mouse-mats) unless they are relevant to the job they hire you for.
- Stay relevant: If you understand what job they were performing with your product/service, you can add value. For instance, writing, speaking or hosting events, focused on their issues, are powerful ways to position your business. In fast changing markets, it also keeps you current.
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