Customers Rule OK

 

Guy Arnold’s excellent book, Great or Poor, states “it costs six times more to get a new customer than to keep one.”  Very few businesses have any idea of what it costs to get a new customer.  There are even fewer who have a programme for measuring the cost of customer acquisition.  The few that do are able to plan their growth and allocate sufficient resources to create a sales and marketing operation that inevitably achieves a pre-set budget.

We all know that any business that is not attracting new customers will eventually go bust.  

The point that I am eventually getting around to making is that in today’s marketplace the power is with the customer.  I continually bang on about being customer lead and sales driven.  This means a change of mindset for the vast majority of British business and those that will struggle the most are those who have been trading for many years and of course the bigger the company the greater the challenge for adopting change.

I am continually suggesting in my consultancy and business training programmes that the sales and marketing budget must include customer care and that customer care must come under the umbrella of the sales and marketing people.  Most companies are claiming that customer care and quality service is their priority but the departments with this portfolio are equipped with poorly trained staff recently seconded from the customer prevention department with the culture that the customer is wrong even when they are right.

It can take 20 years to build a brand and 20 minutes to destroy it.  Most destruction comes from within and is self-destruction.

We are going to see more and more self-destruction exposed on the internet by stupid and crass decisions made that upset and alienate customers as against making the customer a friend and ambassador.  

If you want to make money you must deserve the support, the loyalty, the enthusiasm and the willingness of your customers to promote your product and brand.  Just remember…”the customer rules, OK!”