How to Bag a Customer for Life
When we bag a customer for life we get to work with some amazing “BIG” brands including L’Oréal, Elizabeth Arden, Nespresso, Swarovski and just last week we added Tiffany & Co and Tesla to the list.
Brand loyalty is one thing that stands out and is a big factor behind the success of Big brands which got me thinking about how can you build a business that’s based on deep and significant customer relationships.
It didn’t take me long to understand that BIG brand loyalty is based on highly emotive reasons rather than purely rational reasons. Being totally rational why would anybody pay over $10,000 for a handbag? Basically, it is never about price but rather it’s the entire customer experience as they go through their “buyers journey” and owners experience.
When you map your marketing and sales process against your customer’s “Buyer’s Journey” you can start to understand some of the psychological triggers that are going on in their minds and you can begin to leverage the positive and counter the negative emotions along the way.
Let’s have a quick dive into the some of the emotional issues across a standard marketing and sales process
During this phase your prospects are looking to solve a problem. Their main emotion they are dealing with involves fixing a pain point. They are looking for answers while researching possible solutions. They may be dealing with feelings of anticipation, overwhelm and even anxiety.
This is their decision-making time. They have a focus on the relationship they are building with the individual sales person and are looking to establish trust while gaining peace of mind that your business can solve their problem.
As you move into delivery mode one of the first emotion you must deal with is “Buyers Remorse”. That dreaded feeling that you may have made a mistake, this isn’t going to work, will I hate working with these people…you get the picture. For most businesses, this is when the team that delivers the product or service is introduced. Suddenly your customer’s personal relationship and trust they have developed up until now is handed off which, when done badly can have enormous emotive repercussions.
Just like the BIG brands, how your business communicates around the psychological shifts that occur during your buyers’ journey will determine if the customer you worked so hard to win will remain a loyal and valuable customer for life.
Stay tuned for the next article where I dive into the different communication methods you can use along the way.
Ian Bosler is the founder of Intertype which provides a suite of integrated online and offline communications tools that are configured to help you Stand Out and Get Noticed.
Click the following links to join and engage with the “Internet meets Printing” community.
