“I love to do business with small businesses—in-store, online, for myself, for others, for pleasure, for work—it doesn’t matter to me,” writes Guy Kawasaki at his eponymous blog. Based on his experiences, he has 10 tips for making the customer experience enchanting. Here are four:
Staff your frontline with personable, passionate employees. Customers want to interact with friendly people who care about your product or service and know what they’re talking about. “Ask yourself this question,” he says. “Is the first impression of my business a good one? Because if it’s a bad one, it may also be the last one.”
Build a customer’s trust by trusting your customer. If you need inspiration, Kawasaki cites Nordstrom’s famously liberal return policy, which clearly indicates that the retailer thinks highly of its customers. “If you trust me, I’ll trust you, and we can build a relationship.”
Avoid placing unnecessary barriers in the path to a sale. When someone wants to do business with you, make it as easy and painless as possible. “Don’t ask people to fill out 10 fields of personal information to open an account,” he cautions. “Don’t throw up a CAPTCHA system that requires fluency in Sanskrit.”
Deliver bad news sooner rather than later. Even the best-run companies encounter the occasional problem, and withholding information from customers is a mistake—especially if they figure out what’s wrong before you get around to telling them. “[L]et them know how you’ll solve the problem at the same time that you’re letting them know it exists,” he suggests.
The single most powerful way to enchant me is a ‘yes’ attitude,” says Kawasaki. We’ll bet most of your customers—and potential customers—would agree.
Source: Guy Kawasaki.