Five Mistakes that Drive Customers Insane, and why YOU need Point-of-Contact Marketing
No matter what line of business you’re in: Customers are the life-blood of any business. You work hard to make the phone ring, and to get customers to walk through your door. You train your staff to treat customers like royalty. And then, you mess it up, by:
Answering your phone with “Thank you for calling! Please hold…”
Customers hate to have their call answered promptly by a human, who then immediately fobs them off without giving them a chance to speak. It tells the customer he/she is a second-class citizen of little importance. Think about how much you spent just to get the phone to ring. Satisfied with the impression you’re creating?
Holding your customers hostage to music they hate
Music is intensely personal and generates extreme emotions. The wrong music drives customers away, and leaves a lingering sour taste in their minds when they think about your business. Do you understand the demographics of customers visiting your store or calling you on the phone? Does your background music properly reflect this – or are you and your customers at the mercy of your shop-floor staff’s tastes?
Being inconsistent
Customers have different points of contact with you: They come to your web site, they call you on the phone, or they walk into your store. Are you saying the same things in all cases? Are you playing music in your store that is in tune with the brand you project on your web site? Does your telephone messaging dovetail with the music and messaging in your store? Whenever you make changes to your web site, such as store hours, do your phone messages and visual displays keep up – or do they fall behind?
Annoying customers, wasting their time, and making their hair stand on end
Customers are being bombarded with imagery and messages. Don’t make them resent you for wasting their time. Whenever you have a time-sensitive message like “we’ll be closed on the 28th,” can you guarantee this message will be gone after the 28th? Can you guarantee that you’re never running ads in your store for your competitor? Do you subject customers to time-wasting platitudes like “we value your business”, “you’re important to us”, or “thanks for waiting”? What does your business “sound like” in store and on the phone? Does your brand sound like a screechy, sour or nasally staff member?
Shoving hard-sell marketing down your customers’ throats
When customers are on your web site, in your store, and on the phone with you, they are somewhat of a captive audience. You have a fantastic opportunity for messaging to solve business pains you may have, like increasing dwell time or moving dead stock. But does the customer value the information you’re providing – or does it just feel like you’re trying to shove more product down their throats?
The Point-of-Contact Industry
An entire industry exists to help you avoid these mistakes. You’ve already made a huge investment just to get the phone to ring, and the customer in the door. Point-of-Contact Specialists help you maximize the investment you’ve already made, by making sure that each precious touchpoint that you have with your customer (web, phone, in store) will work together for the customer’s benefit, and yours. We work with many different Point-of-Contact Specialists; they rely on CUBE as part of their service offering, so that they can do the best possible job for you and your customers. If we know of a Point-of-Contact Provider that is a good match for you and your business, we’ll be happy to introduce you. We’ll also be more than happy to send you a complimentary copy of our guide “How to Choose the Right Point-Of-Contact Specialist: 7 Questions to Ask.”
