3 Ideas to Spring Clean your Customer Relationships for Better Value

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said, "We're not competitor obsessed, we're customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs, and we work backwards. ..we know customers want low prices". The current surge in general price levels is causing great anxiety among many customers. Rising prices are different from what any customer will wish for. For some customers' this situation has been compounded by tax hikes, shrunken balance sheets, and household investments caused by the Domestic Debt Exchange Program. These events have punctured consumer confidence. How can businesses continue to offer value to customers and preserve the customer relationship for a brighter day? It takes a crisis to reveal the strength of a relationship, including customer relationships. It's time to spring-clean your customer relationships for the trying times ahead. In this final episode of the spring cleaning series, I suggest some steps businesses can take to deepen their relationships with customers and serve them profitably despite the crisis.

Re-learn, know your customer first:
It's time to get back to the basics. First, start the spring cleaning with a proper "Know Your Client" [KYC] exercise. Your customers, whether businesses or households, are experiencing the same economic challenges you face since they also operate in the same market. The recent economic disruption might have disrupted your customer's business significantly. Uncertainty requires that you stay close to your customers and seek to understand their changing situations better. It's time to connect with clients meaningfully to learn what has shifted and what has remained the same. These engagements require a heavy time and emotional labour investment, but your organisation must take up the challenge. You must engage them to understand their situation, pain, and changing needs caused by the economic crisis and their (new) aspirations. It's easy to ignore this and give excuses because every business is overwhelmed, and leaders are dealing with business disruptions. Focusing inward on your business is not ideal for any business that expects to build a good reputation with customers and continue to enjoy their patronage.

Organisations should design engagement opportunities that enable them to get to know their customers and deepen relationships. These could be one-on-one sessions, structured phone calls, targeted customer visits, forums, or surveys. Any of these is an important signal. It shows your business cares. Your business can take the lead on organising an industry forum for various customers group to discuss common challenges and provide expertise on how to address some of the challenges. Customers appreciate these events and expect the organisations they do business with to lead them and show them the way, especially in a crisis. These events pave the way for meaningful customer relationships that sustain business performance over long periods. Also, insights gained from the engagements will enable businesses to target their marketing efforts. It provides an opportunity to update customer profiles and effectively segment your customer base. There are customers you have served well in the past and who appreciate your brand. They will be supportive as ambassadors of your products and services. Engage them for referrals in this challenging time.

Re-boot the service experience with empathy:
Every business is going through economic distress, but that is no excuse for poor customer service. In most industries, customers are looking for something other than extravagant service. They seek a welcoming, responsive approach to problem-solving from the organisation and its representatives. They are seeking sensible solutions that work and alleviate their pain. As we say, "town make hot", and many cedi-wielding, paying customers will not countenance poor service when parting with their hard-earned currency. How can you help anxious customers to deal with all the changes in their lives and the changes they may have to go through to do business with your organisation? It's time to freshen up the service experience to inspire customer loyalty.

Customers enjoy the service experience when they do not go through unnecessary form filling, emails are responded to quickly or within the time frame promised, and customer service persons communicate clearly and fully the information they require from customers to resolve a service challenge without needless back and forth, etc. Unfortunately, all the above and more were ignored in my recent encounter with a service provider when I engaged them to understand the changes I witnessed in my billing. Such behaviours are unacceptable, especially when the business can access my entire transaction history with a button click. In this instance, spring cleaning is long overdue. First, review the customer experience journey and remove redundant processes and requests while adding meaningful experiences customers can look forward to. Second, put your best service-oriented people at the frontline if you have a frontline that interfaces with customers directly. Third, make it easier for customers to give your organisation honest feedback about the service. Implement easy-to-respond to customer satisfaction surveys and work on the feedback you receive from customers. Fourth, develop your team's capabilities to understand and serve customers in ways they have not imagined. The service team must undergo refresher training and be ready to handle client frustrations effectively.

Re-load your value offering:
What makes a business stands out is the value it offers to its customers. Never give in to the temptation to short-change the customer and save on pesewas at the expense of ruining a hard-earned reputation. Armed with a better understanding of the customer needs and aspirations through the KYC exercise, it's time to re-design and enhance your customer value proposition. Only continue to push down existing offerings that might work due to the disruptions your customers have experienced. Note that adapting to your client's needs is not an opportunity to cut back on some of the valuable services you offer to your customers. Such actions must be communicated to customers first, especially if the service is offered as a bundled package. You must pay attention to specific needs within the various client segments.

Always take the opportunity to share with customers and other stakeholders how your organisation's purpose supports a thriving community. Communicate your mission boldly and use it to inspire hope in your customers and stakeholders. Being a brand of hope and inspiration in such a badly needed time will cement your place in customers' minds as a worthwhile partner. Tough times don't last forever, so set a forward-looking agenda for all your customer engagements. Just a couple of years ago, organisations moved in unusual ways to support clients and communities to save lives and livelihoods. Such actions may be required again in some other ways. It is still possible to have win-win situations with clients, even in a demanding environment. A business with no client is no business. Start understanding and delivering your offering with extraordinary service, one customer at a time, and you will have many customers beating a path to your door soon. Customer relationships take time, and your business must invest in them. Let's make customer service an organisation-wide effort. Fantastic customer experience starts from the top. The experience at the frontline reflects the intentions and aspirations of the leadership. As the founder and CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, said, "Customer service shouldn't just be a department; it should be the entire company."

Robert M. Bennin - (CFA, CPTD, FIoD)
Chief Learning Strategist, TEMPLE Advisory