Losing a valued, loyal customer to a competing business can be a serious gut-punch. Especially in this current climate where every business is feeling a little more fragile, and every transaction seems hard-won. Of course, we all know that consumers are fickle. They’ll always go where the best deal is. But if you’re not doing all that you can to ensure that the best deal is always the one that’s under your roof, you can expect to lose more customers to your conniving competitors. As tempting as it may be to assume that this is an aberration- a flash in the pan, you may need to consider that maybe the issue isn’t them… it’s you.
Here are some reasons why your customers may be breaking up with you and propelling themselves into the open arms of your competitors…
You’ve made promises that you haven’t kept
In your zeal to engage new prospects, it’s all-too easy to fall into the trap of over-promising. The trouble with this, of course, is that over-promising tends to lead to under-delivering, which can create a powerfully negative impression of your brand. Proper expectation management is extremely important if you’re to wow customers with your service. By all means be available and amenable… but never make promises that you won’t be able to keep.
You’ve under-invested in staff, equipment and infrastructure
You’re a savvy business owner, and you understand the importance of managing overhead costs. Especially in this current difficult climate. However, there’s a difference between keeping an eye on wasteful spending and under-investing in your infrastructure.
If your equipment slows staff down, your employees seem stressed, tired or out of their depth and your premises is starting to look the worse for wear, this is hardly going to make a glowing impression. You may need to see this lender about a business loan that will allow you to make significant investments in your business without decimating your cash flow.
You’re not there for them when they need you
If you want to engage your customers and earn their trust, you need to make yourself available to them on their terms. That means you need to give them more than a poorly-manned phone number to contact you from. Or an email address that will take them over 24 hours to get a response to. You need to be active and responsive on social media, whether customers are singing your praises or making public complaints. You also need to have a mechanism that makes them feel that they’re getting an instantaneous response, even if it’s only from a chatbot.
The good news is that customers you’ve lost can be won back. With the right outreach strategies, you can pique their curiosity in your brand once again. And when their eyes are on you once more, you can wow them by showing them that you’ve build up and reinforced your infrastructure for operational excellence. And this can ensure that you continue to enjoy their loyalty for years to come.
