How Would Your Customers Rate Your Integrity?

Customers today are Picky — more cautious in their choices (and they have many more choices), and interested only in getting obvious value for their money.  Customers are Fickle — much quicker to leave if unhappy.  Customers are Vocal — more apt to rapidly (and loudly) register concerns with their higher standards for value and their expectation of getting a tailored response.

This Picky-Fickle-Vocal moniker represents a dramatic shift in what is required to ensure customer loyalty — the stuff of growth and profits.  That shift has resulted in customer requirements for value being very out-of-sync with the tried-and-true methods organizations have relied on for years.

And now for the big kahuna: today’s Picky-Fickle-Vocal customers are also Wired!

Today, internet connections — whether blogs, tweets, or other forms of social media — have five times the impact of traditional word of mouth.  Recent research from Customer Relationship Magazine states: “68% of online users check out companies on social media before buying.”  That means customer reviews of your organization have a very significant impact on new customer buying decisions.

Do you know what your customers are saying on social media about your organization?

Customers are favorably attracted to organizations when they get an emotional connection.  This means organizations who build trust and ensure all customer interactions are heart-touching encounters filled with spirit, caring, and a positive attitude.

Whether in line, on-line, or face-to-face, customers recall the experience long after they’ve forgotten you met their need.

For example: a few years ago I flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The Delta regional jet was packed.  As the flight backed away from the gate, the flight attendant began her ritualistic safety spiel about seatbelts, sudden turbulence, and smoking.  She ended by saying, “The flying time to Grand Rapids will be two hours… no, it will be an hour and a half… no, actually, I don’t know.”  The cabin erupted with laughter and applause.

What jolted the half-asleep plane-full into cheering?  Unscripted, raw honesty!  We all loved her confident authenticity!

We grow up hearing “honesty is the best policy.”  As adults, we often hear half-truths portrayed as honesty.  Politicians keep secret the number of paramilitary civilians fighting in a trouble spot to disguise the true size of military engagement — a number the public would not tolerate.  The super low price loudly advertised comes with fine print describing a rebate only claimed with a pound of paperwork.  And when we hear the radio ad end with a super-fast talking guy rattling off all the exceptions and contingencies, we know we are not hearing raw honesty.

Customers love honesty.

It shortens the distance between people.  It frees customers from anxiety and caution.  It triggers a connection with the humanity in each of us.  And in that space we are quicker to forgive, more tolerant of error, and much more accepting of “actually, I don’t know.”

Honesty is not simply a “best policy.”  Honesty is a best practice!

What are your customers telling other customers and prospective customers today about your organization’s integrity?
 

© Chip Bell Group, 2023.  Courtesy of John R. Patterson (www.johnrpatterson.com).  Permission is given to download and distribute this article as long as it contains this copyright notice.