“Customers are never happy!”
That’s what it often seems like. They have very short memories. One day they are praising us for saving their world, the next we might as well not exist.
Sound familiar?
I received a plea for help from one of our loyal readers this week. She described a circumstance where she was doing everything that the customer asked yet they were still unhappy. She said her customer wanted more.
I asked if the customer was receiving value from the relationship. She said they were but they just didn’t realize it. I had to think about that for a moment.
Is such a thing possible? Doesn’t the customer create the perception of value?
Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Let’s face it, only our customer can decide whether something is valuable to them. Not you. Not me. Not our company or employees. If a customer perceives something to be valuable, then it is.
Said another way by one of my very own clients, Ian Mitchell from First Capital: “value is created when responsibility is assumed, shifting the burden from client to service provider. All value is lost at any moment when perception of responsibility is altered and related agreements, spoken or unspoken are broken.”
If you think about it, responsibility has a lot to do with value. When we as service providers act responsibly by meeting or, better yet, exceeding our customer’s expectations, we are creating value. (Hope you feel that WE are creating value for you Ian.)
But the question remains, are we creating enough value for our clients? In today’s new economy, unless you are creating value every single time you’re with a customer, you’re vulnerable to being replaced by another supplier or professional.
That’s a pretty strong statement to make, but it’s the most important concept for marketers to grasp in this new millennium. Since your success depends on value creation, you must understand exactly what the term “value” means — and that can be a tough challenge since it’s entirely relative.
Here are some things that you can do to increase your chances of creating exceptional value for your clients:
Anticipate their needs.
Even the most proficient, educated and well-informed clients are unaware precisely what they need in order to solve their problems. They may have a good idea but much of their perceived solution is guesswork. When we can help customers anticipate their needs we set ourselves apart. We become more than just solution providers. We become problem identifiers. This is what allows us to be the best possible solution providers at every step of the way.
Be willing to take the burden.
Today customers are looking for business partners that will assume the burden of implementation. Simply selling your product or providing your service just won’t cut it anymore. It is our RESPONSIBILITY to ensure that our product or service is implemented correctly by the client. That sounds nice, you may be saying, but how can we ensure that the client will fulfill their role or do their part. There may be variables that are not under our control. Then I say, GET IN CONTROL. As the leader in the relationship it should be our role to always be in control. We can maintain control by taking a leadership position and accepting greater responsibility for implementation.
Know your client’s motives.
In today’s competitive, information rich environment simply having a better performing product or service is not enough. It’s not about just giving our clients WHAT they want anymore. It’s more about understanding WHY they want it. This is their motive. By matching our solution to their motives we differentiate ourselves and make our solution personal. How will your product or service change your client’s business position or even their life? When we are in touch with this we have incredibly powerful leverage.
Be willing to take a risk.
With leadership comes responsibility. With responsibility comes risk. If you allow your clients to assume all the risk, then you relegate yourself to a commodity. You will be evaluated based on your price and price only. If you join your clients in taking some of the risk they will truly begin to see you as a partner.
In short the marketer that creates the most value will win the client’s business and fuse a relationship that will stretch far into the future. Creating value for the client is about anticipating their needs, taking their burden, knowing their motives, and being willing to take a greater risk. This is not the easy path but the most responsible.