When you ask people what business is all about most likely you will hear something along the lines of business is all about profit or making money. This may not be entirely wrong. However, it is not a proper view. The proper view is that business is all about customers because without customers there will be no profits. A business that puts people before profits will do hundred times better than one that puts profits before people! Now that you know that business is all about customers, let me share with you two quick tips about how to give your customers what they want, so you can keep them coming back.
1) Listen. Have you ever been in a situation where you walked into a store to buy something and you tried talking to the sales representatives and no one seems to be listening to you or trying to give you what you want? How did that make you feel? Angry? Disrespected? Less valued? Nothing makes a customer feel disrespected and less valued than when businesses do not make the effort to listen to them. Listening to a customer shows that you care, that you value them and their business, and that they are human beings! When you listen to a customer, magic happens. You get what you want (which is their business) and they get what they want also. You cannot maintain your client base or grow your business if you do not listen to customers and give them what they want. When you give customers what they want they will tell the world and that will bring you more business. Also, when you don’t give customers what they want they will tell the world and that will cost you more business. It’s that simple. With that said, is there a time when you should never give a customer what they want? Yes, there is. The only time you should not give a customer what they want is if what they want will make you compromise or lower your professional standards. Here’s what I mean. Let’s say a customer comes into your hair braiding salon and asks for a kinky twist, and you know based on your professional experience that kinky twist is not suited for the type of hair on their head then giving the customer what they want will not be good for your business because it will cause you to do a poor job and she will blame you for it. In such scenarios, simply communicate your professional opinion and offer alternative styles that will be better suited to the customer. If the customer does not accept, you can respectfully decline to offer your services. You have a professional standard to uphold and no customer should ever make you lower or compromise that standard!
2). Think Like a Customer. Ask yourself, if I was a customer coming into my hair braiding salon, how would I feel? Will I feel welcomed? Will I feel appreciated? Will I feel valued? Will I feel relaxed? What vibes will I get from this hair braiding salon? Think about it. As a business owner, you are also a customer. You have been a customer to numerous businesses. Ask yourself, what made me to keep going back to shop at this place or that place or what made me to stop shopping at a place? If there are things you experienced and loved during your own shopping experiences create those experiences for your customers at your salon. If there are experiences you hate from your own shopping experiences, make sure your customers do not have those experiences at your salon. You worked hard to setup your hair braiding business, do not let bad customer experiences ruin your business. Get to work and create the best environment you can create for your customer that will help your customer feel valued, appreciated, and wanted.
3) Treat Customers Like Money. The first job I had was in retail. I was eighteen at the time. I remember walking in for orientation being so green. During orientation, the lady who was doing the presentation took out a $100 bill from her purse, waived it at us, and then asked which of us wanted this $100? Everyone of us raised our hands. Next, she asked, what were we willing to do for the $100? Would you clean for it? Everyone of us in orientation said “yes!” Next, she asked us to imagine the $100 was a customer, how would we treat that $100? Would we be rude to it? Disrespectful? Etc. All of us said, “No!” She went on to say every customer was a $100 and that the more customers we treated right, the more $100 we will have. This lesson stayed with me since, and now that I run my own business, I strive to treat every customer as a I would a $100. Sure, not all customers are $100. Some are $5, some are $10, some are $200 etc. But the principle is the same: customers are money and if you want to make more money in your business, you must treat customer right.
To conclude, business is all about delivering values to customers. In other words, business is all about customers. If you think about money first before thinking about the customer, you will lose money from your business. However, if you think about the customer first before thinking about money, you will make more money. Customers are like sheep. If you pay attention to their needs by listening to them, think like them, and treat them well they become easy to lead. Now go and give your customers what they want and see how quickly your bank account numbers rise.