Before we start, I’m not saying we’re the gold standard of customer service – we’re not – but we’re trying ????
I watched a podcast a while ago by Esther Perel who was talking about “Amore”! Love between you and your other half, and she said we should treat our wives/husbands/partners as well as we treat our best customers or clients!
Because I make a great husband (my opinion) ???? I had to flip Esther’s advice on its head and try to treat my customers as I would treat my wife.
I text my wife with those occasional things, the fun notes, or to see how she is doing, or to check how she is if things are annoying her at work…I tweet customers just like that too…OK I might not use the same language or get too personal, but they’re not dissimilar.
Occasionally I will give me wife an unexpected gift. I’ve been known to do that for customers too, I’ll give them little things, usually stickers, in fact, pretty much only stickers, but the sentiment is the same.
I tell people how great my wife is at this or that (actually my wife is a racing driver and she’s won many British & National titles). And I do that with customers too, when people ask who do we know that does this or that, I’ll tell them how great this person is, or their product is.
I go the extra mile for my wife because she puts up with me. That’s what I do for my customers when I can.
It is very difficult to hate or be indifferent to someone who cares. So in doing little things like the above, you build a customer base who loves you back! You cannot do this with an attitude of “giving to get” though, customer service has to be at the heart of what you do, not because you want your customer’s money, but because you want people to have a great experience. Fullstop.
A word of caution about the above, you do need to be aware that you can go too far and you will probably come off as really creepy.
If I had turned up at my wives parents house with a huge bunch of flowers, a CD with “our best songs”, and tickets for a weekend in Skegness the morning after our first meal out together…she might not be my wife today. So just try to apply normal rules of conduct with customers if you can’t trust yourself to not overstep into creepzone!
If you don’t currently have an ‘other-half’ the analogy is still the same.
Go after customers like you go after “other-halves”.
When you first chased a women/man you’d do almost anything for them.
You presented yourself in the best possible light, you dressed well, behaved well. You became thoughtful and caring, you moved mountains at the mere suggestion of a request.
So “court” your customers, just like you would a women/man, do what you can to make them smile and you are halfway there!
Number one rule is “be genuine”.
And rule two – do not expect something in return…that’s not love, that’s shallow, people will see it soon enough.
P.S. In writing this I feel a degree of fear, because I am setting a benchmark for our future selves to live up to ???? however at STKRS we’re about producing things that help our customers improve their businesses, so if for a small moment it helped you think about a customer based improvement, then maybe it was worthwhile.