Service / Product Wow – You Must Systematically Exceed the Expectations of Your Clients To Grow Exponentially
“Expect more than others think possible.” – Howard Schultz – Visionary and Founder of Starbucks
Now assuming that you have already crafted a business that makes money on paper after doing a detailed costing analysis, let’s move on to the fun stuff.
Napoleon Hill once wrote, “Over-deliver and you will soon be overpaid”. Hill was stating the obvious, yet often forgotten truth that customers will be glad to give you free exponential-growth-causing “word of mouth” if you are willing to exceed their expectations with your product or service. Doing this is not hard, but it does required diligence. In Proverbs 21:5 (NIV), it is written, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” Sam Walton the famous business mogul and founder of retail giant Wal-Mart once famously said, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” My friends, your service and product must wow your customers. Your product and service must wow humans or it will fail, and because we are operating our businesses on the planet Earth, you will have to wow them in a profitable way. You can’t simply just throw huge sums of money and bribery at the customers to earn their business, unless you are a political candidate (sorry, I had to get that in somewhere). Think about the truly amazing customer service experiences out there today. Take Starbucks and Southwest Airlines for instance.
When you walk into a Starbucks you are greeted by a “Barista” not just an employee. Your drink is customized for your unique palette and flavor preferences. Your name is written on the cup to even further enhance the experience. The drinks are referred to as Tall, Venti and various other unique nomenclature. The fact they don’t have small, medium and large actually ads to the perceived value and experience. What does it cost to change the words your team uses to refer to sizes of things? What would it cost your team to write the name of your clients on their cups? How much value does this add. Southwest Airlines offers unassigned seating to make the seating process go quicker. Flight attendants are encouraged to be funny. In fact they actually celebrate and reward the most innovative, unique and spirited flight attendants by featuring them in commercials and featuring them in their own magazine they produce for the passengers viewing pleasure while flying. Southwest gives bonuses to their most spirited employees. They don’t charge extra for bags. How much does this cost them? How much will this cost you? Do the math. Take the time. Figure out what is going to wow your clients while producing a nice profit for you and your team. Ultimately the prices that your customers will be willing to pay will be based upon the perceived value that they believe your product or service offers them. The more you write their names on a cup, the more they will be willing to pay. Starbucks gets away with charging a large sum of money for each coffee because they offer a large amount of value. However, I must warn you. If you do not add value to customers in a systematic and memorable way, they will be forced to make their purchasing decisions based on prices alone, and this places you in the commodities market and this is not a good place to be. Always remember that when value is absent pricing concerns and objections will become super prevalent. Take 10 minutes and write down all of the benefits that your chief competition offers and how you will systemically “best them” or “one up them” and you will win.
Benefits your competitors offer and how you will “out do them” with your service:
If you have completed the above exercise and you find yourself unable to correctly price your services or products I would highly recommend that you do one of two things. Option one, spy on your competition and then do more than they do for less than they charge. One two, call up to our office and schedule an in-depth pricing, and value-add brainstorming session with our team. In less than 2 hours we can help you build a pricing model that makes sense for both you and your customers.
**If you need help beating your competition, and you can’t find someone who is willing to spy on your competition on your behalf our firm will be happy to “mystery shop” or “spy on them” for you. Visit www.MakeYourLifeEpic.com or give us a call today at 918-851-0102 and we will help you do this. For more ideas on how to wow your clients, read “Soft Selling In A Hard World” by Jerry Vass.
Clay Clark
U.S. Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year
**For additional reading material and information about booking Clark to speak to your group or to hire him as a business consultant call our office to schedule an appointment today at 918-851-0102.
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