The Secret to Sustaining a Stampede of Customers

Always give more in use value than you take from anyone in cash value. This is the advice of Wallace D. Wattles, author of the 1910 classic The Science of Getting Rich.

This brilliant little book gave Rhonda Byrne, producer of The Secret, her first glimpse of “the secret”. It’s a concise little gem packed with wisdom, and if you haven’t yet had the pleasure I highly recommend it. You can get a free downloadable pdf copy from Rebecca Fine’s site, The Science of Getting Rich NETwork. Rebecca is a friendly, happy lady who teaches the principles in this book and applies this one extremely well herself by providing lots of great free stuff and a set-your-own-price for her online course, Science of Getting Rich for Practical Geniuses^TM – which is overflowing with value. Even if you’re not interested in her material, I recommend her site as a case study in “always give more in use value than you take from anyone in cash value” and in great customer service. (The two are linked but they’re not always the same thing.)

So you ask – what’s in it for me? Apart from just coming across as generous, why exactly should I do this? Glad you asked because I’ve got a scientifically based bullet-proof answer for you.

“The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the fundamental impulse of the universe.”

Mr Wattles says that because of this fundamental law, “People will go where they are given increase”. This is the core reason why ‘going the extra mile’ for your customers is worth it for you. Customers not only want great experiences, they want their money’s worth. In fact, they want more. So when they feel they got more than their money’s worth they are happy little campers indeed, and they will tell everyone about it. Rebecca’s site is a perfect example of this – I’m so impressed with her I want to tell everyone. It’s a simple principle that works a treat.

The power of this principle was driven home to me recently when I encountered two incidents at opposite ends of the “value to customer” spectrum. You can have the slickest brand and a marketing message that pulls people like flies to a picnic – but if you don’t give them value, you’ll pay the price. No “increase” (i.e. added value) = no come back + no tell friends.

When you get creative, there are lots of ways to add value for your customers, many of which can be low cost such as small gifts and “surprise” extras. But here I’m going to focus on enhancing your customer service, and thus the customer’s experience as a way of adding value.

My best lessons in customer service came during my years in HR. It was a very interesting training ground because these types of internal “transactions” often have emotion around them and you need to learn to navigate and manage these for positive outcomes. This is especially true when it comes to people’s money as I found out during my time as a payroll manager. If you think you’ve got demanding customers, try paying people on a complex award structure for a living! Wow, if there’s one thing people have a lot of emotion around, it’s money. Talk about going the extra mile, my life depended on it! But in turn I was rewarded handsomely for it, in many respects. Not the least of which was valuable insight into people’s needs and behaviour patterns around customer service.

I also learnt a great deal about customer service through observing the best manager I ever had. A cheerful, generous and smart guy, Peter used to wander around saying things like, “Wouldn’t be dead for quids“. Apart from teaching me a whole lot, he was also a great inspiration. Employees lined up to see Pete, and he would greet each one like he was on holiday and they were a long lost friend. Employees bothered to take the time to come and see him because they knew they would get their problem solved and walk away feeling on top of the world. A busy HR manager is like a busy restaurant – people go where they know they’re going to get their problem solved and have a good experience.

Most often it takes just one or two small offerings to make all the difference. Very often these centre around treating your customer like a person – giving a genuine smile and having a chat (or a friendly email exchange) is enough to give your customers a memorable experience. One of the keys things I found was that it’s not necessarily what you do, it’s your genuine intent that really matters. When you demonstrate that you really care about the outcome for your customer, you’ll not only make them happy, you will earn their respect. People sense it, even if they can’t articulate it, and the same is true for the other way around. If you treat your customers like transactions – something to be executed and gotten rid of, albeit politely – they will sense it; and even if they do come back they will never become raving fans. Guaranteed.

In our highly automated world, here’s some very simple, thoughtful things you can do to ensure a great customer experience:

• The Golden Rule: Never forget that customers are people. Treat your customers like people, as opposed to transactions, and you’ll make an impact. You will also be miles ahead of your competition.
• Be friendly – Be helpful – Be genuine (whatever you do or say, mean it)
• Never skimp on nice – it doesn’t cost you anything and people know when they’re being short-changed
• Take a genuine interest in them as a person (don’t underestimate this one)
• Send follow-up emails or make calls to enquire about how they got on
• Wherever possible write personal notes
• Follow-up – if you say you’re going to do something, do it!
• Answer your emails like a person wrote them rather than an autoresponder
• Stop sounding like a marketer and start sounding like a person
• Smile and look like you’re enjoying yourself (preferably for real!); even when you’re on the phone or sending emails
• Give away ”free” stuff
• Recommend other products and services that you genuinely believe in and which may benefit your customer (you can also earn commissions this way)
• Use humour
• Go out of your way to get things to people quickly
• Keep your customers informed about where you’re at with delivering your product or service (this is especially important when it’s a project that takes time)
• Include nicely written notes in your packages – this will make your customer feel important, even if it’s a standard letter sent to everyone
• Remember that no matter how great you may think you are (and I’m sure you are!), you’re never more important than your customer

Make them feel on top of the world. They’ll rave about your business and you’ll also feel great about yourself. This is Mr Wattles’ “increase” at work. Everyone gets more – win/win. Oh, and then there’s that little issue of getting rich.

P.S. I couldn’t resist using “The Secret” in the title because isn’t everything just “the secret” these days!