Donna Hann
Good morning, or good afternoon, or maybe even good evening, depending on where you are in the world. Thanks for tuning into the She's in Business podcast.
Now I'm going to assume that you listened to episode zero and that you know my story and why it's so important to me to empower and support women and more specifically to empower and support women who are Mums in business, to step into and embrace your beautiful life and make the most of it and also grow your business in a way that really lights you up instead of burning you out. And I wanted to kickstart this podcast with a short series of really punchy, value packed mini episodes to fast track you on the road to success within your business things that you can put into action straight away. And I thought you know, our business is really nothing without customers. So this three part mini series is called 'Customer Love'. We're going to talk about how to attract them, convert them how to seek and understand feedback, how to really love them up and get an abundance of them.
So to start us off, I really want to talk about and ask you, is your business customer focused? Now recently, my bricks and mortar business Dance Kix won a business award for Best Customer Focus. And in fact, we've won multiple awards in this category for three years running and I want to share with you how we do it!
If you want to create a real competitive edge in your business, you need to start focusing on your customers. And it sounds obviously simple, but the fact is, most businesses continue to focus on what they value and what they can get out of it as opposed to what value they can give to their customers. And when we start to focus on your customers and what they need and how you can create better products and services and generate more business opportunities and sales, you can also develop more loyal customers and increase your referrals.
Now, I'm going to give you in this part one of the three part series six things that are going to help you to become more customer focused in your business straight away.
So number one is to stay connected to the needs of your customers. Your business success is directly determined by how connected you are with your customer and their needs. As a business owner, it can be really easy to fall into the trap of offering or stocking or doing what you THINK they need instead of considering what they ACTUALLY need. And it's one of the fastest ways that you can limit your growth. To refocus yourself and remain connected to your customer, you need to be constantly asking questions, both of your customers and of yourself. So questions like 'What do my customers want from my product service, business or industry?' 'What are their current frustrations or complaints?' And how can they be improved or solved? You always need to go back and talk to your customers and clients and never presume that it's always going to be the same.
Which brings me to point number two is anticipating the future needs and trends. While we can meet our customers needs in this current time, it's important that in order to future proof your business, you really need to establish your point of difference, and you need to anticipate their future needs. So ask yourself 'What will my customers want from my products and services, three, five or 10 years from now?' 'What new trends or technologies are going to impact on how they currently use my products and services?' Maybe you can think about 'What is not yet being offered, that would actually really benefit my customers and also help to make me stand out from everybody else in the marketplace?'.
The third thing I want to share with you is about writing your marketing from the customer's perspective. So ideally, you want to really know and understand your ideal customer, you want to know where they are, dialling down into the places of where they hang out, the lifestyle that they lead, the lifestyle that they want. And knowing then what brings them joy and what their problems and pain points are. When you're creating your marketing message or you're writing your marketing posts for social media or for print media, whatever that might be, think about how you can include the word 'you' when you're writing those words. Because when you continually write from the angle of using the word 'you' instead of maybe using the word 'we', you're going to stay in the front of mind of that customer and they're more easily going to identify with you as an extension of their identity. A really complex part of marketing is really extending on the customer's identity. And it's a big part of branding and the brand anatomy that you need to set up for your business. And I talk about that a lot in my Ready to Rise program, this is just skimming the surface with these six points. But if you want to know more about it, you should definitely check that out.
Number four is seeing your customers as a friend, not a sale. One of the smartest things that you can do in your business is to stop selling and start serving. When you change your approach from how much can I get out of you to how much can I help you, your customers are going to relax and they're going to be ready to have that dialogue with you. When we can add value to them and really look out for their best interest, they're going to be way more receptive to what you're saying, because sometimes we know what customers need, but it's not really what they think that they want. And we need to build their trust more and get to a place we can actually show them what other things there are available to them that are actually really going to help them to problem solve what it is that they're struggling with at that moment in time.
Number five is to stay in regular contact. So building a relationship with your customers where you can stay in regular contact with them. But not just through newsletters and email marketing, but genuine personal contact, talk to them and ask how they are going and keep in touch with them in a way that makes them feel really valued. And this is about being proactive. Your existing customers are the easiest sales that you will ever make. So make sure you look after the people that you already have. Look after them and take an interest in what's going on for them so that you can, you know, market yourself differently and tune in to what it is that they need, which goes back to always making sure that you're looking for ways that you can anticipate the future needs of your customers.
Number six is always adding value. So one of your goals in business should always be to give your customers what they can't get anywhere else it or perhaps in a way that they can't get it anywhere else. And it could be as simple as taking the time to answer all of their questions without rushing them. It could be about giving them added bonuses, sending them something extra in their packages or a thank you note. Looking for those opportunities that you know they would benefit from and then sharing it with them. Always be looking out for how you can be adding value to each of your customers in order to make their experience with you even more memorable.
Unknown Speaker
That's it for today. I'd love to invite you to tune in again, tomorrow for part two in this mini series where I'm going to be sharing with you the importance of marketing to your customers in a really simple way. So often we can complicate and make it harder than it really needs to be marketing to your ideal customer can be simple and I'm going to share with you in the next part of this series just how to do that.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
