Without a doubt, as entrepreneurs and business owners, we all love our customers... to buy! The more the better. We even love when they say great things about us and tell others to buy our products and services.
But do we love helping them, responding to their queries (even when they seem like “annoying” questions), answering their calls, serving them with a genuine smile, taking the time to train our employees to deliver exceptional service, treating our employees well so that they are happy to do the same for our customers, solving their every day problems (that we can solve), making it easier for them to do business with us, fixing it when we’ve fallen short, hearing from them and getting to know more about them, celebrating their special moments, surprising them every now and then, continuing to innovate so that we’re always producing better products and services for them? If we don’t love doing all these things then we can’t really say that we love our customers.
Here are 5 of my favourite quotes on what it really means to love your customers. I hope they inspire you as much as they’ve inspired me!
A brand is defined by the customer’s experience. The experience is delivered by the employees. ~ Shep Hyken
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so. ~Mahatma Gandhi
We see 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. ~ Jeff Bezos
It struck me as odd that we took so much care to make sure we had enough stock for customers to buy, but we put so few resources into making them feel like we cared or that they mattered once they were actually in the store. ~ Bernadette Jiwa
Customer experience is everything that happens when people encounter your brand. And whether it’s online or offline, you get to design it. Most people don’t put money on the table and hope that they hate the results of their choice. They actually want to fall in love with you and your brand. It’s your job to give them a reason to. The feeling your customer leaves with, as she walks out the door or clicks away from your website, is your best opportunity to differentiate your brand. Commodities are just stuff with a fixed value—until they’re not. The brands you love and talk about are not the ones that competed on price or features. They are the ones that changed how it felt to buy a cup of coffee, slip on a pair of shoes, or open a laptop in a café. ~ Bernadette Jiwa
Do you have a favourite quote that inspires you to keep improving your business? Share it in the comments below!