How to Build Your Perfect Customer Lifecycle Brick by Brick

“It won’t happen as fast as you want, but it won’t take as long as you think”

This is one of my favorite quotes from my friend Johnny Dzubak.  Johnny is an expert in the personal development field and teaches people how to hone their social skills.  But today I was thinking about this quote in the context of growing and marketing your business – and there’s a TON of parallels!

In our busy society, we all want immediate results – and if you look at the ads on TV, it’s obvious as to why.  In the world of “6 minute abs” and get rich quick schemes, we’ve lost our patience.  Rome wasn’t built in a day!

I have some good and bad news for you: building a business won’t happen overnight, but if you consistently take action it will grow and attract new customers impressively fast.

Infusionsoft Perfect Customer LifecycleOne of the well known statistics in marketing is that it typically takes somewhere between 5-12 “touches” with a prospect before they will be ready to buy from you.  However if you try to fit all 12 touches into one day, you’ll likely scare away your prospect and come across as overly needy.

Luckily we have client relationship marketing tools that can spread these points of contact out over time in a way that feels authentic and natural to your prospects, yet automated so that you don’t have to remember to reach out to each person those 5-12 times.

I really love the concept of the “Perfect Customer Lifecycle”.  In essence, it’s the process of breaking down your interaction with each customer in a systematic way that WOW’s them, follows up appropriately, addresses their reservations, nurtures them towards a sale in an authentic manner, and ultimately turns them into raving fans who promote your business for you!

You can download a free workbook to check out the process here.  I go through the Perfect Customer Lifecycle with my private coaching clients and it always amazes me to watch the transformation of their business as we apply these systems.

It can be daunting when you look at the whole customer lifecycle so remember “It won’t happen as fast as you want, but it won’t take as long as you think!” Begin today with the very beginning of the process and be consistent in building it out piece by piece.

If you need to implement quickly with an expert guiding the process, reach out for support and accelerate your results! One of the best parts of investing in this process is that – while you may tweak things over time – once it’s done your marketing and follow up is on auto pilot and creates so much freedom in your business!

Need help getting started? Head over to my contact page and get in touch! 

WOW Your Customers With Systematic Love

Lately I’ve been reading The E-myth Revisited.  While this is a fantastic book for all business owners and is full of knowledge, there’s one particular story that really struck me.

Wow Customers with Amazing Customer ServiceThe author tells a story of his hotel stay at a small quaint lodge located near the Pacific Coast on a particularly cold night and after a long day of travel.

As he checks into his room at the front desk, he notices that the hotel is warm, comfortable and inviting.  He unloads his bags into the room, and heads down to the connected restaurant – also a warm and inviting place.

He was quickly seated (since this particular restaurant actually respects reservations), and after a delicious dinner and a pleasant chat with his waiter, he heads back to his room.

Along the way, he notices that the lights along the path had been turned up to compensate for the darkness of night.

Upon arrival in the room, he had planned to start a fire to keep warm – but someone had already beaten him to it!  The pillows had been plumped and a mint rested on each one.

He noticed a card from the friendly receptionist welcoming him for his first night at the hotel.   Along with the card was a glass of brandy – the same as he had ordered at the restaurant.

Compassion Through Attention to Detail

The following morning he awoke to a strange sound perking in the bathroom – upon inspection, he found another card – this time wishing him a good morning and a note that the coffee brewing next to him (automatically triggered by a timer) was his favorite brand.

How in the world would they have known?   He quickly remembered that at dinner the night before they had asked what brand of coffee he preferred – yet so casually that he hadn’t thought twice about it!

Upon pouring a cup of coffee, he was greeted by a knock on the door.  As he opened, he spotted his local newspaper – The New York Times.   How did they even know he was local to NY, as this hotel was across the country?  Aha – he remembered that the receptionist had inquired about his favorite paper upon checking in.

After such a fantastic experience, the author returned to the hotel many times.  With each visit, he was greeted with exactly the same hospitality and attention to detail – without ever needing to remind them of his preferences.

How Can We Apply This To Our Business?

Customers love and expect consistency and attention to detail.  McDonalds is not one of the most successful businesses in the world due to it’s quality of food products – it’s successful because McDonalds has developed an amazing system to provide customers with nearly the exact same super-detailed speedy service anywhere in the world at any time of day.

Today, as solo-preneurs and small business owners, we have tools to create this type of system in our business to provide a consistent and enjoyable experience for our customers.

Combining the power of a CRM, automated and well-thought-out emails, customized yet automatic promotions for complementary product offers – we can develop a system that truly suits the customer and nurtures a strong relationship.

Through intelligent data collection, we can pay attention to what our customers REALLY want – and hand it to them on a silver platter without even officially asking.  This kind of interaction shows them that we care about them and their needs – which is what everyone truly wants deep down.

Look at the success of a company like Zappos, who built their brand by focusing on 100% Wow-ing the customer.  It works!

What customer service tweaks have you tried in your business, and what results have you noticed?  Leave your comments below.

The Value of Awesome Customer Support

How to Rock at Customer Service

I just had a really amazing customer service experience that contained a really awesome lesson for us small business owners.  I had recently bought a few T-shirts from CafePress.com. Overall the shirts were okay but I had a few quality issues with two of them — in fact, one had a hole in the armpit!

I submitted a ticket to their support help desk and I was promptly greeted with an automated response.  Fairly typical these days, but it’s still nice to get quick feedback that they are aware of your issue.  I’m doing some work with FuseDesk lately (awesome software by the way!), so customer service is always running through my mind.  Ignored customers are NOT happy customers!

I received a quick reply email from one of their service reps saying:

“In order for me to process a refund for you, please reply to this email with the product numbers or a brief description of the designs on the items you would like refunded.  I will process your request when I receive your reply.  I look forward to your response.”

This of course seems pretty straight forward as well, but with a slight amazing twist: “or a brief description“.  Trying to match up the product item # with the product was a total pain because the numbers were long and the descriptions on the receipt were vague.  However, they made my life easy.  I just described the two shirts that I wanted to return and I was done with it.

Customers Service Key #1 – Make Your Customer’s Job Easy!

The easier it is for the customer to interact with your customer service department, the happier they will be.  After all, we are all just humans and want to be taken care of.  Make our live a bit easier and we will love you for it!

After replying to the first email from my customer service rep, I received one that totally blew me away.

Dear Patrick,

Thank you for your reply! We want you to be 100% satisfied with your CaféPress.com experience.

I have processed a refund for you and you will receive an e-mail from Amazon confirming the refund amount and timeframe for the credit to be received (usually 5-10 days).

I know the items received are not up to your complete satisfaction but as our way of an apology please go ahead and keep them. There is no need for a return!

If there is anything else I can do for you, please let me know.

They don’t even want me to send it back?  This is awesome!  If you’ve been buying products online for the past few years, chances are that you’ve had to return something at least once.  At best, this is usually just a small inconvenience, at worst it can be a nightmare.  I already had the next steps running through my head before this email came… “Well now I’m going to need to find a box to put these in… Crap the printer is still out of ink, need to go to a friend’s house to print the return label… When am I going to have time to get to UPS or the post office?”

Customers Service Key #2 – “WOW” Your Customer!

That one single email changed my opinion of CafePress.com from a midly disgruntled customer with a lackluster purchasing experience, to that of a RAVING fan who will almost certainly be a repeat purchaser and spread the word to my network.

This is the kind of amazing customer service experience that has propelled companies like Zappos to incredible success.

What action steps can you take in your business to WOW your customers?  Trust me, it will be worth it!

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