Customer Dealing Balancing The Two Sides Of The Same Coin

When you are selling or trying to sell your product/service you need to focus on an important aspect of any business dealing/transaction that is to earn trust of your customers. If they don’t trust you, it doesn’t matter how good product/service you are offering, you are dodgy in the end and that’s what differentiate a successful entrepreneur from an unsuccessful one.

Selling good quality product/service is one side of the coin and earning trust is other, you need to focus on balancing both sides. If they trust you but you don’t have anything worthy to offer against that trust, you won't be able to sell it (in the longer run) and likewise if you have great things to offer but they don’t trust you, you won't be able to sell at all.

So let’s focus on the first side of the coin that is “Good quality product/service”, I believe considering the following points related to the first side you can effectively convince your target customer about your offer.

First side: Good Quality Product/Service

There are probably hundreds of things that you have to consider before offering something to a potential customer. But I will share few important aspects that you must focus on when dealing (in real time).

Fact: 91% of American customers take customer service quality into consideration before deciding to do business with any brand, company ⁽¹⁾. 
   

1.      Offer stuff that can satisfy a need/desire

If you are not offering or you are offering something that will satisfy your customer for a little while or to little extent and you are doing that to promote your suppliers products or a new brand because that brand offers you a good deal or commission in return.

And tell you what, this won't last forever, yes you will make some good money in the beginning but sooner or later somebody would offer them something far better than you and they (your customers) would leave you for good.

On other hand the one who is offering better quality stuff might not earn as much as you in the beginning but eventually he will earn a lot, because quality is what most people prefer.

2.      Always count the core features and best uses

When you are dealing be sure you count what it is that makes your product/service different, unique, worthy to spend money on, what are its best uses/applications etc.

3.      Mention pros and cons

Though we all "believe" that our products/services don’t have any “cons” but we all know that's not true, there are always few dark sides or weaker sides, that we don’t want to mention for the fear of losing customer.

Well it is true that you may lose a customer by mentioning where your product/service might be of little or no use, wouldn’t deliver etc but if you mention it in a comparative way by balancing the cons by pro’s, negatives by positives, you give them reasons to consider even after knowing some deficiencies, this helps you not only give your potential customer a clear picture but also save you from being blamed by customers in future for any dissatisfaction. And that’s another reason you need to deal in stuff that “satisfies (quality stuff)”.

Comparison can be both within a product (features vs cons) or between different products,brands or between different services (premium services vs non premium or ordinary service) etc.

Okay, that's for this side of the coin, let's now talk about the other side!

Fact: According to a study, 64 to 74% of U.S. customers pointed out the following reasons that resulted in their dissatisfaction ⁽²⁾.

1.      Poor product/service quality
2.      Irrelevant information
3.      Being responded late/delays
4.      To contact or interact multiple times
   

Second side: Earning trust & Loyalty

When dealing with potential customer regarding product/service it is essential to earn the trust along the way because trust keeps your business going, growing. Now trust building demands quite an effort but here are few things that if you focus on will surely help you getting that vital customer trust.

Trust Building

Focusing on the following things can help you in effectively balancing the second side of the coin aka the trust of your customers. And once you balance the both sides it lays foundation for long term mutually beneficial relationships, a win win situation for both sides.

Trust building is not rocket science it is simple!
    

1.      By being honest

Be honest, don’t try to trick your customers, honesty does makes a difference; it helps you earn the vital trust you need to achieve that loyal relationship.

2.      Behavior is key

Don’t act like you are the one in charge and you have right to do/say anything to your customer; rather give that charge to your customer to do/say anything to you. This helps customers to inquire, to investigate, to share the situations that might demand your products/services.

This helps you gain insight of the underlying reasons, situations faced by customer and thus leads you to provide a product/service that will solve or come in handy in that situation, which means customer satisfaction in real terms.

Lastly such approach helps a great deal in earning trust as your customer feels that you are not just selling rather helping them, listening to them this creates a bond (of trust) beyond a product/service.

3.      Reason/Emotion balance

Sometimes its reason that you need to utilize in your dealings like presenting facts, statistics etc but other times you need to be empathetic, giving them assurances,hope of having great experience with product/service, helping their certain product related woes, you need to understand that you not dealing with computers but beings of feelings and emotions.

Human nature is easily seduced by emotions compared to reason, it helps them to take decisions (According to a research of Antonio Damisio,a leading neuroscientist and social thinker, emotions not rationals are responsible for each and every decision that humans make.

Therefore you have to make sure to focus on the right mix of rationals & emotions, keeping the right balance, when dealing with customers.

4.      Avoiding Chameleon effect

You had been pretty nice, candid, welcoming etc in the past with a customer but now your customer feels you are not the same guy, like the old days.  This is something that hurts rather completely erode trust consequently the whole relationship and loyalty.  Don’t be a chameleon, be what you have always been so that you have (loyal customers) what you always had.

5.      Transaction/dealing flexibility

Though this one is more related to the first side but I believe it plays vital role in earning trust, if you offer easy deals, money back guarantee, swift and effective return policies so on and so forth. These things do make a difference, it definitely helps you in earning that vital trust, you need to go beyond the product/service, to have a loyal customer.

Relationships

When you focus on above elements while dealing with customers, you are more likely to make those important relationships that lead to customer retention and loyalty.

Fact:There are over 2.5 billion loyalty program memberships in the U.S ⁽³⁾.

  

Benefits

• Advocates and supporters

They become advocates on your behalf to their colleagues, peers, friends, family, in their community. They refer you, because they trust you and that leads to more customers, more sales more proceeds.
Not to mention that advocate is the ultimate level of loyalty according to (Christopher et al., 1991) loyalty ladder ⁽⁴⁾.

• Cost cutters/profit generators

You don’t have to spend over and over again on marketing to attract new customers or to re attract the old ones; attracting new customers cost a lot more than retaining old ones. So they are your cost cutters. The more cost cutters you have the lesser it would cost and the more you will earn.

Though there are many more benefits that would take like forever to count, I wanted to mention only the big ones.

That's all, I would really appreciate suggestions, constructive criticism, be my guest in comments down below.

Fact: In America it cost 6 to 7 times more to gain new customer than to retain existing one ⁽⁵⁾.

Reference

1.      http://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2010/barometer.aspx
2.   http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Global-Consumer-Pulse-Research-Study-2013-Key-Findings.pdf  
3.   Colloquy Customer Loyalty Census
4.        Christopher, M., Payne, A. and Ballantyne, D. (1991), Relationship Marketing, Butterworth Heinneman, Oxford. 
5.   White House Office of Consumer Affairs

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