In part one of Strong Customer Relationships, I introduced the six vital pillars that support strong customer relationships. I also discussed pillar #1: Making The Right First Impression (read about it  HERE).

In part two, I discussed pillar #2: Being Easy To Do Business With (read about it HERE).

In part three, I discussed pillar #3: Remembering Your Customer Has A Choice (read about it HERE).

Each of these pillars have an important role to play and the stronger each of them are, the better your overall relationships will be. Today, let’s talk about pillar #4: Making Life Better For  Your Customers.

Pillar #4: Making Life Better for Your Customers

As well as making it easy for your customers to do business with you, you need to remember that the role of your business is to make your customer’s life better or easier in some way.

They are not doing business with you because they like you or want to help you.

They are buying the solutions you offer. That means you have to help them to eliminate their pain points or to make their life better.

Your products or services must therefore help to improve their lives or relieve their pain in some way.

Every one of your customers is tuned in to their favorite radio station: WII-FM (What’s In It for Me?).

So you need to be able to give them something that satisfies that requirement.

For an auto repair shop, the customers’ pain point is often the inconvenience of getting their cars serviced. They have to drop off the car, and then find a ride to get home or to work.

If there was a trustworthy mechanic who offered this service, it would be exactly the solution most customers needed, and it would ease their pain point.

Now, if that same auto shop washed and vacuumed the car in addition to servicing it, that would be over-the-top customer service – and customers would tell all their friends.

At my car dealership, I know there are at least three recurring pain points that customers have regarding buying a nicer, newer car: down payment, monthly payment and financing/credit.

That’s why I focus on these issues in my advertising and marketing.

It’s no coincidence that those are outlined in my “Car Buyers Bill Of Rights”, and my marketing addresses these pain points in a big way.

I have hundreds of happy clients in seven countries so I know that when you cure your customers’ pains, you are well on your way to having deep customer relationships. And that’s the key to having a profitable business.

So, it’s a good idea to find out what your customer’s top pain points are and then include them not only in your marketing but in all your main touch points with customers, such as personal contact, telephone calls and on your web site.

If you keep your eyes and ears open on this, you’ll be ready to respond immediately when issues arise.

Recently I found out that a brand-new customer was having problems with a vehicle he had just bought from us.

I immediately followed up with him and had my support team schedule a VIP Reservation with our service department.

In the end, we found out there was not a problem – he had simply gotten some trash in his gas.

But the fact that we responded swiftly to his situation not only made him very happy, it also helped to pave the way for a longer relationship, because we had built extra trust.

If you want to keep customers long-term, you have to make their lives easier by alleviating their pain.

However another potential pain point is that they may have doubts or suspicions about their purchase. So you need to take steps to alleviate those right away.

For example, if your website is not working properly, a new customer may be suspicious that he or she has just been scammed. You need to take account of factors like this and be ready to react to them quickly.

Prompt follow-up and problem resolution are important for businesses that have a lot of online activity. In this case, you need to let your customers know there are real people running the show.

When customers can feel confident that there are real people looking out for their interests, this helps build trust and loyalty.

When you address pain points with existing customers as soon as they arise – or even before they do – they’ll continue to do business with you.

It’s just good, solid customer service, and helps sustain long and profitable relationships.

To help you deal with these issues before they get out of control, you need to always be listening out for recurring problems.

That’s why you need to have good two-way communication with your customers and also have good feedback mechanisms for your own staff.

When you discover any indications that you’re not easy to do business with in some way, make sure you take action to fix it quickly. That’s vital to building long-term relationships.

– Stay Tuned For Strong Customer Relationships: The Six Pillars/Part Five. Coming Soon.