• How To Give Your Customers Control, Clarity And Confidence

  Filed under marketing
  Sep 7

  As a professional services provider, it’s wise to remember that customers are calling upon you to provide something they can’t do for themselves. The very fact that they can’t do it themselves means that they are uncertain about what it is that needs to be done, how it should be done, and at what cost.

  What can you do to improve the chances that this customer will ultimately become a raving fans and the source of many future referrals? Eliminate the mystery of what you are doing. The degree to which you can give your customer confidence, clarity and control will result in a great experience for you and your customer.

  As entertainment, mystery is a lot of fun; as part of real life – not so much. In fact, in the workplace it leads to anxiety and stress. Your job is to demystify the journey you will be taking your customer through.

  Provide and Guide – From the very beginning, spell out what is going to be happening. Walk your customer through the various steps and milestones. Have a checklist; it provides comfort to your customer. The first time you explain the process, just assume that the customer may have some confusion. With your patient guidance, they will begin to get clarity with each step. Seeing progress on the checklist will give them larger and larger chunks of confidence. This means greater confidence in you and their decision to engage you.

  Explain and Ask – Commit yourself to educating the customer. Short term, this education will go a long way in soothing the pain of change. Keep returning to and explaining the process. While it is very familiar to you, it’s brand new to the customer. Give them greater understanding of what is happening and why. In the long term, the better educated the customer is, the better able they are to refer you in an intelligent and meaningful way. Don’t forget to ask questions and probe for areas that are still unclear to them. Again, much of the customer’s anxiety is unspoken.

  Review and Celebrate – Take the time to sit down and review significant milestones with your customer. It showcases the accuracy of the “map” and the guidance you are providing as well as reinforcing the steady progress that is being made. And it’s a great opportunity to celebrate with the customer. They are closer to completing the transformation that is going to make their business better; you are closer to the finish line of your mutual success.

  New customers are entering into change with many unexpressed emotions that could range from concern to fear, mild stress to anxiety, will this cause pain, will this cost me my job.

  Proactively addressing the unspoken worries of your new customer by providing and guiding, explaining and asking, reviewing and celebrating will give them the control, clarity and confidence to get through the process with more success and less stress. As a result they will be thrilled with you and much more likely to rave and refer.

  Dawn Westerberg has been developing effective Marketing Strategy for entrepreneurs for twenty five years. She helps entrepreneurs focus on the right target audience to attract ideal profitable customers who do repeat business and are happy to refer. Also published at How To Give Your Customers Control, Clarity And Confidence.

  Tagged as: business, customer experience, customer satisfaction, dawn westerberg, Leadership, marketing, project management, referrals
  
  Comments Off

Comments are closed.