customers

December 10, 2008 - Are You Willing to Refer Your Customers to Your Competitors?

Main Idea

Have you gone into a retail store looking for a particular brand or item and they did not have it?  And the store sales clerk showed you something that should be as good but is just a little different.  When you got home it worked okay, but not as well as it should have. 

Expansion of Idea

Most of us love the Christmas season.  There is activity and food and getting together with friends.  One of my favorite movies of all time is Miracle on 34th Street.  I try to watch it almost every year.  (Yes, I am a purist and I watch it in black and white.)  If you have not watched this, go rent it and enjoy it with your family.  I just love the part where Kris Kringle, who works as the Macy’s Santa Claus, refers customers to Gimbels.  The reason he referred the customers to a competitor is that they had a better brand of skates for kid’s ankles.  This created a furor within Macy’s because it is crazy to refer a customer to a competitor.  The sales manager was livid when he heard about the referral.  Yet, when customers started sending telegrams and showing up in person to thank the sales manager, he had to rethink the whole approach.  The team at Macy’s had stumbled upon one of the greatest secrets of customer service that can ever be identified. 

PUT THE CUSTOMER’S NEEDS AHEAD OF OURS AND YOU WILL HAVE A CUSTOMER FOR LIFE.

Too often we will do whatever we can to make a sale instead of focusing on what the customers need.  We need to put our customers first and then we will be taken care of.  We can only cultivate true customer loyalty by putting the customer’s interests ahead of our own.  Sustained profitability can only come from customer loyalty. 

Action Items

  1. Watch Miracle on 34th Street.

  2. Read a book called “The Go-Giver” (It is a 2 hour read.)

  3. Ask your team if you are selling or serving.

  4. Ask your customers how you can serve them better.