Experience Matters

It’s been said that a business owner wears 15 different hats: owner, manager, purchasing, advertising, marketing, human resource officer, receivables, payables, accounting, estimator, budgeting, hiring and firing, job superintendent, trainer, maintenance, customer complaints, inventory control, baby-sitter… and I’m sure you can come up with many more.

Running a business has never been easy and the challenge of attracting and keeping customers in today’s competitive world has become even more difficult and a never-ending process.  There’s more competition today than ever before. It’s no longer just the new competitor that pops up across town but the hundreds, and potentially thousands, of like businesses that consumers have access to via e-commerce that you are competing with today!

To compete and remain relevant, we must be sharper than ever. We must ensure that we do not give our current customers a reason to look elsewhere and we need to be more attractive than ever to your potential new customers.

E-commerce has made things easy and less expensive, and of course “easy” and “cheaper” are two of purchasing’s great decision-makers.  So how do you compete in today’s world?  It can be summed up in one word – “EXPERIENCE”!

If the customers’ shopping and buying experience really is the difference-maker, how can you make sure you create an experience so profound that they will continue to choose your business over any e-commerce company or local competitor? It’s never just one thing; it’s all the little things that add up to the “I won’t go anywhere else” factor.

Tip #2 in the 11 Easy Tips to Creating a Better Customer Experience is having a clean parking lot. Sounds simple right? How many parking lots have you seen broken and crumbled, or that have wrappers and cigarette butts scattered about? Often, the parking lot is the very first impression a customer has. Keeping it clean and attractive is one of the things that will add up and help create that WOW experience. The same rule applies to bathrooms, only they need to be spotless!

Tip #6 is “Focus on the Customer”.  Everything you do and every strategic move you make should be focused on making a better “experience” for your customers.  America’s most successful grocery store owner, Stew Leonard, focused the entire experience on customer satisfaction and went as far as creating the quote and living by it, “Rule 1: The customer is always right. Rule 2: If the customer is ever wrong, reread Rule 1”.

Running a business tomorrow is not going to get any easier. Getting customers to know you and feel best about you is key to getting them to consider doing business with you. Then, giving them an “experience” that keeps them coming back and telling others about you is vital to future growth and success.

Pay attention to the little things and create an “experience” that your competitors can’t compete with!

If you would like to see the 11 Easy Tips to Creating a Better Customer Experience click here .

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