Your customers have all the answers

It never ceases to amaze me the value of a customer. I don’t mean in terms of pure sales, but I mean in the amount of information they can provide.

You see, we’ve been completing surveys for a business over the past couple of weeks. We’ve been surveying their customers via phone, face to face and a web based survey. And the results are worth a fortune to our client.

No-one sees the business like your customer. And they are, when it all comes down to it, the only one that matters.

* They know how they were attracted to your business.

* They know why they really buy.

* They know what turns them off.

Asking them those sort of questions can give you information that is absolute gold.

1 Mystery call – $100,000 in profit

Part of our review for this very same client was what we call “Mystery Shoppers”. We have someone call, buy, complain….whatever, and assess the treatment the person receives.

Our very first Mystery Shopper phoned the business. She got through to the message bank. The Mystery caller left a message saying she wanted to buy a $1,000 product, could they please call her back so she could complete the sale.

That was on January 21. It’s now February 4. And she still hasn’t heard back.

(BTW, each customer of this business refers – on average – 2 others.)

As disappointing as that is, it’s just a simple breakdown in a process. It will only require a tweak of the systems in place and there will be no more potential sales falling through the cracks.

It’s simple stuff. But it’s the simple stuff that makes all the difference.