Year after year entrepreneurs work to build their businesses. Some are successful. And others not as much so.
Even though everyone is hard at work to make their business a success, there is something at the core of the work that separates the super successful entrepreneurs that achieve the dream they have for their business from the ones don’t.
Do you know what the distinguishing factor is? It’s simple actually. The business owners who thrive are the ones who get their customers to sing. Specifically, they get them singing a bit of Barry White.
Figuratively speaking of course.
Here are just a few lyrics from Barry White’s classic “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love.”
My darling, I can’t get enough of your love babe
Girl, I don’t know, I don’t know why
Can’t get enough of your love, babe
Oh, some things I can’t get used to
No matter how I try
Just like the more you give, the more I want
And baby, that’s no lie
Oh no, babe
I’m not suggesting that you need to become some kind of matchmaker. Rather, your business needs to treat your customers so well that they can’t get enough of what it is that you have to offer.
Your business exists to serve your customers. They are the ultimate bosses. Without them, you don’t have much of a business. So it makes perfect sense that to be successful, you have to focus relentlessly on delighting them.
And when your customers are delighted on a consistent basis, they are much more likely to want more and more of whatever it is that you are offering them. They won’t be able to get enough!
Good stuff, right?
But getting your customers to sing Barry White about you is no easy task. To put your business in the best position to get your customers to sing you a love song, you’ll need to begin with the end in mind. Make it your intention from the beginning to delight them in every way. How do you go about doing this? Here are four key steps.
Choose the right customer for you
All customers aren’t created equal. One of the great things about running your own business is that you get to choose who you work with. You want to choose the customers that you are best suited to meet the needs of. To do this, it is of course extremely important that you know your customers well so you can pick the right ones. This includes knowing their needs, likes, dislikes, and how to best reach them. It will also be key for you to know the strengths and weaknesses of your own business, to match that up with what you know about your customers to ensure it will be a good fit.
You also want to choose the customers that will allow you to do your best work. There are times when the wrong customer can suck all the life out of you, and that’s certainly not what you want. It’s bad for your business. Make sure you choose to work with customers that allow you to thrive.
Let them know you exist
Otherwise, they can’t choose you! Being a perfect match for your customers won’t get you very far if they don’t know you exist. Don’t assume that they’re going to just find you because you’re so awesome. Put yourself in the best position for your customers to know you are out there. Use all the things that you know about them, such as what their likes are and how they receive information to build and execute a plan to make sure they know why you have just what they want.
Add value
Solve a problem or bring them good feelings. And do it better than anyone else over the long-term. You don’t want to be a one hit wonder. And after all the work you put in to ensure the customers you want to work with choose you, you’ve got to give them something to make sure they know they’ve made the right decision about you. Give them some substance. Give them a lot. And then give them some more. Don’t ever stop adding value. The minute you do, you may quickly find that your customers stop singing you love songs, or worse yet, you may find them in the arms of another (Yikes!)!
Delight them like no other
Make them feel good. Fill their hearts with joy. Surprise them. Give them more than they expect. And do it consistently. This is the icing on the cake that will get them in the Barry White kind of mood. Delighting your customers is all about going the extra mile to create a differentiated customer experience, that keeps your customers coming back for more and bringing others with them.
To delight your customers, you absolutely need to know them well, including what their needs and expectations are. And then you have to deliver more than that. It also requires you to go beyond just the transaction to build a relationship with your customers that will deepen the connection they have with you over the long term.
Not interested in getting your customers to sing a little Barry White? OK, but be careful, we wouldn’t want you to end up singing a sad tune as a result.
The ultimate measure of success for all the work that you do in your business is judged by the response you get from your customers. When they are delighted, they reward you by coming back again and again. So make delighting your customers the focus as you build your business, and you should definitely hear them sing.
Can you think of any other love songs that it would be good to have your customers sing to you? Let me know in the comments!
