Running a business is tough
I used to run my own business. It was hard work.
I have the utmost respect for anybody who does it.
The constraint on my business wasn’t the lack of good ideas or cash — I have plenty of ideas and I could always find somebody to lend me money. The constraint on my business was a lack of paying customers.
- You can’t dream up a new customer
- You can’t go to a bank and borrow a customer
Finding new customers is tough. Once you have a customer or two it is best to keep them.
Being a customer is tough
Now put yourself in the customer’s shoes. It is easy to do.
As a customer it is hard to find a good supplier — has anybody ever asked you to recommend a good builder, or plumber, or baby sitter? As customers we want somebody we can trust. We want a supplier who is going to do what they say they are going to do.
Once we have a supplier we can trust we rarely look for anybody else.
The key word is trust
If you want your customers to stay then you have to make sure they trust you.
- You don’t supply substandard products
- You don’t charge existing customers more than new customers
- You don’t lock them in so they can’t cancel their membership
- You don’t fudge your legal responsibilities
If you give your customers reason to trust you then they will stay.
The greatest constraint on your business is a lack of customers. And the way to overcome it is trust.
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James,
I think you just got to the root of why it’s so important to focus on the customer experience… creating a consistently good/great/delightful experience for customers allows companies to earn the trust of their customers… and then customers will come back again and again.
Annette :-)
Most of the time I just stand and stare in amazement Annette. Running a business really shouldn’t be that hard, should it?
It shouldn’t be!
James,
I wish that we took more of what we know from our personal lives and what matters in relationships into business. What do you think stops us from doing that?
Adrian
Very good question, I have no idea. It is like we run parallel lives. Funny what is acceptable in one environment but not another.