Steve Jobs – Inform Your Customers
An uninformed customer is an unhappy customer.
“Get closer than ever to your customers,” he said. “So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”
Customers often don’t know how much an innovation benefits them until they have it in their hands. This means they may not even latch onto the exciting new product you’ve created.
Apple’s philosophy is to create something new, and then inform the customer. Tell them why they need it and you position your brand as one that’s always serving customers.
Ross Perot – Listen to Your Customers
“Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. listen to your customers.”
Your customers are the best source of information you have for finding out what’s wrong with your company. They’re the people who’ve used your products and services. As a result, they’re the people who are best placed to pass judgement on what you do.
Listen to what your customers have to say. Find out what the customer wants.
Which social media channels do they use
Jeff Bezos – Don’t Stagnate
”We treat our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”
“Good enough is not good enough - exceed expectations”
It’s all about improving the customer experience in any way that you can.
If you don’t strive to improve, you become what Bezos refers to as a Day 2 company. This is a business that’s declining towards an eventual total failure.
We want to make money when people use our products - not buy our products
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
The customer experience is key to retention.
Gates keeps it simple when he says:
Listen to your customer - Your customers want you to recognise that they have a voice. Tney want you to take action when they tell you about something that they don’t like.
JC Penney – Be Your Customer’s Friend
“Friendly service creates a personal connection that encourages people to come back. Every great business is built on friendship,”.
It’s the personal experience that really counts.
“Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care “
“Give them what you want and you will get what you want! “
Personal service will be a key differentiator. People don’t want to have to talk to a machine! People like to talk with people!
Picking up the phone can be a great way to show customers that you care
“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Brilliant Customer Service wins the game.”
How you make customers feel when they interact with your business influences their loyalty.
Jeffrey Gitomer – It’s a Long-Term Process - Consistency
It’s all about relationships - and strong relationships take a significant investment of time and effort.
The aim is to build klt - know like and trust”
“You don’t earn loyalty in a day. You earn loyalty day-by-day,” he says.
Customer loyalty comes as a result of meeting or exceeding a consistent standard.
Shep Hyken – how to wow
“What’s the difference between a satisfied customer and an advocate? “
A satisfied customer is one who received your service and got what they expected.
An advocate is one who sees that you go above and beyond whenever you provide your service.
That’s a customer who’s going to come back for more
.
Virgin founder Richard Branson agrees “The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.”
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At our BBG Innovation forum last week - we were talking about Brian Sher’s 14 mega trends that will happen post Covid-19 .
One of these trends was the rise of local manufacture.
In the SMH this morning, Cara Waters writes about audio equipment maker, Peter Freedman’s advanced manufacturing business , Rode Microphones - based in Sydney’s Silverwater. Rode now employs over 500 people in Australia, China and USA .
Going against the trend of moving manufacturing to China - (Aus Manufacturing has gone from 13% - 6% of GDP over past 20 years). Rode Microphones has gone against the trend - they manufacture a global niche product - microphones - selling over 2.5m products per annum!
The Australian economy needs to focus on value-added exports rather than simply selling raw materials into China, says Freedman .
“we can't just scrape the surface, whack it on a ship, sail it, that's gone. We have great raw materials - the best food - We should be the best delicatessen- not just a bulk distributor of wheat!“
Chinese manufactured goods worldwide (according to Euromonitor )
Theory of Constraints expert - Hendrik Lourens was talking about the importance of growing the Australian manufacturing base and not having to rely on other countries for our foods and services.
To do this, he says that Government will need to implement various policy measures to support this.
Mr Freedman agrees that the manufacturing revival will need a sustained push from government. There needs to be a long term commitment to the manufacturing sector.
“There are no short term solutions here, none at all." Says Freedman “Buying the cheapest is often not buying the best solution! “
The sustained long term investment in supporting Australian manufacture will provide a big payday for Jobs, Security and the general well-being of our nation.
