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Do You Fall Prey to Faulty Customer Assumptions? Admit it, we all do. Admitting it is one thing. Living with the results is something else. Making the mistake of assuming your customers know you or are loyal to you, will just drive away good sales and good customers.
I used to frequent a computer/technology store called MicroCenter. For a gadget lover like me, I'm like a kid in a candy store there. So, you would think that there would not be too much they could do that would drive me away. Then, you'd be thinking wrong.
You see every purchase that's made at their store, whether it's a pen or a PC, requires you to give your name, phone number, address, first born, and sometimes a little bit of blood. That's even before you are allowed to hand over payment! Forget using a credit card. Then, you'll need a drivers license and possibly even a finger print or retinal scan. (Ok, I may exaggerate on the retinal scan, but you get the picture). Adding insult to injury. They love to send direct mail pieces to everyone in their database. But they obviously find it too much trouble to check to see if there are duplicate entries. So, at one point I was receiving twelve copies of their flyers!
My point is that they make every purchase complicated. They are very inflexible to changing their system and force me to conform to their wishes. I wonder if the people who put all these sales hurdles in the way ever actually tried to purchase something in their store? I doubt it. There's a quick fix to dealing with a store like this--don't shop there. So I don't. It's not worth my time or aggravation. I'd rather go to the CompUSA store a few blocks further where I don't feel so harassed.
Too bad for them. I buy a lot of technology gadgets (to my husband's frustration). The main problem is that they have fallen prey to "faulty customer assumptions". They think customers are ok with long, drawn out sales processes and will stay loyal based on the products they offer. Since they are much more interested in THEIR processes and not MY money, I'll leave them to what they prize so much.
Unfortunately, my example is not unique. Falling prey to faulty customer assumptions is easy. That's why so many businesses do. Most times without even realizing it until it's too late. How can you identify faulty assumptions and work to overcome them? Take a look at the top six:
Assumption 1: Customers know about you.
People move, die, or have to deal with everyday life. That means no matter how much marketing you do, it's never enough. Unless you're McDonalds, there's an overwhelming chance that the majority of your potential customer base has no idea you exist. Why do I mention McDonalds? They are touted as the number one advertiser. You'd think after spending millions and millions of dollars each year for a couple of decades everyone would know who they are and everything they offer. If that was the case, why then would McDonalds keep spending? And, why do people still have to look at the menu before ordering?
Businesses fall prey to this assumption when they think they've got plenty of customers and they think they can stop marketing. If you do not continually stay in front of your customers and potential customers they will forget about you. It's that simple.
Assumption 2: Customers inherently care.
It really is true when people say, "it's all about me". Unless you find a reason to make customers care, they won't. They just have too many other more important things to care about--getting to work on time, picking Johnnie up at school, and paying the mortgage payment. Whatever widget or service you have better be pretty darn good to get them to take a look. If you want an example of how little people care about what goes on around them just look at the number of people that vote each year in elections. If it's that hard to get people to choose who's going to govern, imagine how hard it is to motivate them about what you do.
Assumption 3: Customers will tolerate complexity.
Remember the "all about me" line from the previous assumption? It comes in to play here. Go ahead, make getting a hold of you by phone or email complicated. Go with non-standard and complicated online or offline purchasing process. Make customers sign releases not just once, but multiple times stating that you will not guarantee anything and they could even get maimed or killed using your product or service. Here's what will happen if you do...
Customer will stop buying from you and go to a competitor. Yup, it's that simple.
Assumption 4: Customers will do as you wish/conform to your needs.
Just a few miles away, there used to be two car repair shops. Shop A, had been around forever. They had a huge customer list. They were also very traditional in how they did business. They did not accept credit cards. They were open Monday through Friday, 8am-5pm. They offered a good quality service but did not go out of their way to offer rides for stranded motorists or keep a very comfortable place to wait. Then came Shop B.
Shop B was new in town. They did not have a huge customer list to pull from. But they did offer credit cards. They were open 7 days a week. On certain days they were even open from 6am-1am in the morning. That meant a customer could drop a car off at 7pm at night and depending on the work, be able to pick it up at 9pm that same night. For busy working families, this was a dream come true. To top it off, they would offer free rides to wherever you needed to go. There was a large waiting area with multiple TV's, current magazines and newspapers, ice cream, and even a work area that included computers to be able to check email or surf the web. Heck, I liked to go there even if I didn't have issues with my car!
Shop B eventually put Shop A out of business. Why? Shop B gave the customers not only what THEY needed but things they didn't even know they needed--extra hours, rides, space to stay productive, easy payment options, and cool food.
Make it easy on the customer and they will buy from you more. Notice the simple and easy theme that seems to keep popping up? It's because it's the main way to get and stay profitable. Even if making it easy and simple for the customer does not make it easy or simple for you. That's important, please read it again!
Assumption 5: Customers just want a complete list of what you offer (let them figure out which feature of benefit that need)
You do realize that no one really buys products or services, right? So then why do businesses still insist on focusing on them? What people buy is status (BMW), or good memories (travel), or a pleasant evening (dinner at a restaurant), or success (home in a good neighborhood). If you don't catch people with an emotional appeal and tell them specifically how you can make their life easier or better, you just won't catch them. People are too busy to figure out IF you have something to offer them. Do your research. Understand your customer base. Then clearly demonstrate how buying from you will make all the difference in their lives.
A friend of mine, who I've been trying to get to go skiing with me, recently paid me a visit. She had some extra money and was looking to spend it on something fun. I handed her some ski area brochures. The first one she picked up had over 20 different season pass options to choose from. There was "Pick a Day", "Weekday", "Weekend", "Early Season", "Late Season", "Adult", "College", "Family", "Four or More People", "Groups", "Five Day", "Rental", "Non- Rental", and a boat load more. After spending a few minutes looking over the options she handed back the brochures and remarked that getting a ski pass was obviously over her head and way too much of a time commitment (since she felt she'd need to create a spreadsheet to figure out which pass would work for her). Pleas for her to reconsider fell on deaf ears. She had already moved on to a pool membership flyer she found on my desk.
Unlike the ski areas, the pool membership kept the options simple and clearly stated what benefit my friend would get by joining. Did they list 500 options or reasons why she should join? Nope. Just one. The cover included a woman lounging by the pool with a handsome waiter handing over a drink. The tag line stated simply, "Half the fun of success is rubbing it in." We now go to the pool every weekend. I've yet to see the waiter though.
Assumption 6: Customers are predisposed to your brand = loyal
If you want loyalty get a dog or earn it. People are fickle. Remember the shop story? Although customers from Shop A may have felt a slight bit of guilt going to the new shop, they still went. They justified the defection by saying things like, "they weren't open", or "I need to charge it".
You're sitting down right? What I'm about to say may shock you. No matter how close you are to a client or customer they will still leave you at the drop of a hat if they think someone or something better has come along. Especially since your competitors are contacting them and trying to entice them away from you almost daily. You must constantly give reasons to your customers to stick with you. Things like special customer promotions or loyalty programs will go a long way to keeping your customers, YOUR customers.
If we are all predisposed to these six assumptions, then what can we do to keep them at bay?
-Trends
Stay on top of current market trends. Be able to offer products and services that reflect current trends. i.e. credit cards or a website that includes ecommerce
-Communicate
Stay in touch with your customers. Often. Thank them for doing business with you. Offer them special incentives to buy again. Direct mail or email is a great way to do this.
-Market
Market your business everyday. Whether it's through online of offline methods, make sure you are doing something to keep your company name out in front of your customers and potential customers. Otherwise, they may think you've gone away.
-Simplify!
Make it easy for people to do business with you. Take a survey of every brochure, form, file, technology, etc. Do you really need everything? If you can't explain to a customer in 1 minute or less how they can benefit by buying something from you, it's too complicated.
-Sell the sizzle
Forget listing every detail of what you do. No one cares. (Sorry to be the one to have to say that). Find out what gets your customers excited. Give it to them.
-Learn
If you fall off the bandwagon and slide back into an assumption, figure out what happened, learn from it.
Written by Samantha Rufo, President, nxtConcepts
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