Build Loyalty and Consistently Beat your Competition - 5 Steps to Succeeding in Difficult Times

Recession or not, there are ways you can not only "survive" but "thrive" in these economic times. We offer a 5 Step Process for Building Loyalty while Beating your Competition.

Written May 27, 2008, read 497 times since then.

Let’s face it, more and more people are worried about the current economic conditions and how they will be impacted. Comments such as, “Our inquiries have really dropped off,” “People are sure taking a long time to make buying decisions,” “Our customers are demanding more from us or leaving,” “Pricing pressures are becoming the norm,” “Far more “shoppers” than buyers,” “It costs a lot more to find new customers these days,” “Customers are defecting at all time high rates,” along with many other similar and related comments.

Now, more than ever, is your time to Be Disruptive, Build Loyalty and Change the Game so you not only survive, but thrive in the future! This is NOT the time to hunker down and hope the storm blows over quickly – it is here for the foreseeable future. What are you going to do to Take Advantage of it and come out stronger when the growth cycle kicks in again? What are you going to change from what you are doing today to give you different results? Most look for ways to cut the fat out of the organization and improve processes to squeeze every dime out of operations – certainly something to consider. However, while this cost-cutting effort is going on, what are you doing to focus on the group that actually pays you money – the CUSTOMER? How are you capturing more revenue so you can increase profitability and dominate your competition?

We recently conducted our own informal research to find out what companies are doing to attack this situation and move themselves to the head of the pack – or why they weren’t. We began by asking a number of business owners and executives in a variety of organizations to give us their thoughts on these same questions. We hoped to learn some new ideas in addition to validating or modifying our own hypothesis about what we were seeing. The comments and discussions were very interesting and confirmed one thing – we were “dead on target” with our hypothesis. However, one question kept coming up in almost every conversation we had, “How can we beat our competitors and win more share of wallet from our customers?” Stay tuned…

There is no question we are experiencing some economic challenges today – most indicators are telling this story. And even though no one wants to talk about the “R” word, it may very well be here or looming in the near future. Many businesses are seeing decreases in sales and getting more pressure to cut their prices to compete for the same customers. One executive we talked with asked, “How can you build loyalty during these times when customers are looking for more services than they did before and at a lower price?” Great question. The answer I gave him wasn’t the one I think he expected to hear. I said to him, “Be Disruptive and Build Loyalty when everyone else is hunkering down. There are great opportunities in these times if you act “proactively” instead of “reactively.” If you haven’t built a following of LOYAL CUSTOMERS before now, begin immediately and be blatant about it. This will move you ahead of your competitors today and help ensure you have them when times get better. Customers (and employees) still want and organization to deliver a consistent, repeatable experience and to keep their promises – that still reigns above price.” He agreed.

The other word we kept hearing in our discussions was the “C” word – “commodity.” As businesses are being squeezed on price, their customer base is defecting to their competitors. If they hadn’t already built an experience that created loyalty, along with the products and services to differentiate themselves, they ended up drifting toward the commodity space. This is where customers see little, if any, differentiation between businesses and begin to move toward the lowest price point – resulting in no distinction or value for the experience. Once customers believe you are a commodity, the only way to compete is to lower your prices – creating a downward cycle turning your product or service into a commodity. This is absolutely not where you want to head unless you have a model that always wins on price.

For example, one of our clients, a software development firm, was seeing exactly the same picture – pressure on price and no clear differentiation. Upon further investigation, we found the reasons were lack of consistency in the experience and focusing on the “wrong” promises. The customer told us many times, “If they could just keep two or three of their promises all the time we would give them more exclusivity and more opportunities.” You can read more about them on our website, www.customerexperiencesinc.com under Case Studies.

Our research shows that companies have the best chance of surviving, and even flourishing during tougher economic times, when they have more Loyal Customers than their competition. While this may seem intuitive, it is amazing how few have really actively focused on this effort. The best companies have invested the time and resources to build Trusted, Loyal Relationships with their customers. As the economy slows, customers gravitate to these companies because they know they will receive a consistent and repeatable experience. These companies don’t sit back and relax, they continue to build from the powerful vantage point they already have over their competitors. They are in the enviable position of being on top and controlling the experience while their competitors spend extra dollars and resources to try and win these customers away. A case in point is Southwest Airlines. They were still very successful, even during the attacks of 9-11 when air travel dropped off sharply, and remained profitable (unlike the other airlines). Why? Because they had done what was necessary to build a loyal customer base and capitalized on supporting them during this difficult time.

With what we have seen and heard, we wanted to share a 5 Step process we believe can help businesses thrive in the current economy and well into the future. These Steps are a compilation of both the responses we received from our research and our own experience. There is no “magic pill,” but what we can give you is a specific recipe of proven Steps you can take to build Loyalty quickly and rise to the top of the list with your customers. These Steps aren’t difficult to grasp but will take some effort to execute so you can Consistently deliver a Truly Awesome Customer Experience each and every day and create your own list of LOYAL customers.

Here are the 5 Steps…

OK, unfortunately my original article exceeds the limits Biznik allows for articles so if you are still interested in reading about the 5 Steps and my summary, I need to direct you to the page on our website (http://www.customerexperiencesinc.com/Pages/beat_the_competition.html) so you can view/download/print the entire article. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, I will try to write shorter articles in the future. Thank You.

Learn more about the author, Blaine Millet.

Comment on this article

Posted by Lisa Kee, Everett, Washington | Jun 02, 2008

This is a great article with a lot of helpful information. This too shall pass, the key is where will we all be at the other side of the challenge. Thanks!
Posted by Blaine Millet, Redmond, Washington | Jun 02, 2008

Thanks Lisa - appreciate your comments. Completely agree and I too believe that the companies who invest now in their customers will be the ones rewarded many times over when the economy improves. Anyone, especially in a service type industry, can really take advantage of these times and jump ahead of compeititors and build tremendous loyalty for the future. Best of luck.
Posted by Jen Vondenbrink, Foxboro, Massachusetts | Jun 03, 2008

Hi Blaine - thank you for the reminder about the shift that can happen when customers view your services/products as a commodity. I think it is important that as entrepreneurs we don't lose that perspective ourselves. As the economy shifts, it is easy to slide into "panic" mode and say "what can I sell next?"

Your points about developing a loyal customer base are dead on. Looking at some of the large corporations who are struggling, many of them lost their loyal customers somewhere along the line. Now they are trying to get them back. It is a lot harder to win back a customer's trust than it is to maintain an authentic relationship with them.

Jen Life Simplified www.yourlifesimplified.com
Posted by Blaine Millet, Redmond, Washington | Jun 03, 2008

Jen - couldn't have said it better myself. That is one thing that really bothers me with organizations - they get complacent. Some where along the line they forgot about the one group that "writes them checks" and focused more on themselves and internally.

That was the original reason we wrote our first book, because we didn't see the customer experience being viewed as a business process and something the organization should focus on as much or more than anything else. Those that "get it" are leaps and bounds ahead of their competition - which is what we try to help organizations figure out.

Thanks again - I appreciate you taking time to comment.
Posted by Stephen Cancler, Seattle, Washington | Jun 04, 2008

I completely agree. Now is not the time to cut costs and sit back. In fact, this market requires that we spend more time and effort to work our market base. Personally,I don't want to be seen as a commodity. I provide top notch service and I want more people to know the difference. This actually ties in to my next article about USPs. Thanks for the article!
Posted by Blaine Millet, Redmond, Washington | Jun 04, 2008

Thanks Stephen - glad it hit home for you. I like your comment about "this market requires that we spend more time and effort to work our market base." That is precisely my point - invest now and you won't just survive, you will thrive - especially when things start to turn.

Customers have longer memories than elephants - they will remember who really stepped it up in tough times and stay with you. Good luck and look forward to your next article.
Posted by Susan Gold ASP, IAHSP, RESA, Seattle, Washington | Jun 05, 2008

Thank you so much! This was the reassurance I needed to stay on the track of maintaining the quality of our service and stressing long term customer satisfaction. We do get underbid often by newbies to the business and it is sometimes discouraging, but I cannot cut corners to deliver something I am not proud of. I assure myself they won't be around long if they are performing an inferior service, but it gets tough sometimes. Thank you again, Susan

Stage Right Now, for dramatic results
Posted by Blaine Millet, Redmond, Washington | Jun 05, 2008

Susan - Happy to reconfirm what you "already" knew was the right thing to do. I always believe if you do the right thing, no matter what, the longer term rewards outweigh the shorter term pains - looks like you are living proof of that as well.

One suggestion - lose the word "satisfaction" from your vocabulary. Satisfaction simply means someone is "looking for the next best deal" to come along. If you are satisfied, you are "content" but if a better deal comes along you, and your customers, will defect. Move up the scale to Loyalty, Trusted Relationships, Delight - NOT satisfaction. Check out our website for more on how to move you up the chart from merely satisfied to "Loyalists."

Hope that helps...Good luck and keep going, it will pay off for you - thanks for the comments.