Show Your Customers Their True Value

Marketing Expert Seth Godin

Build a profitable relationship with your most valuable asset, your customer.

It’s hard to believe how little value is given to the customer these days. Emails are ignored, support is outsourced to call centers, salespeople mislead just to close a deal. If you consider the use of the Internet in today’s business, you might just say that customers have become, “a dime a dozen!”

Very wrong! Marketing expert Seth Godin recently pointed out just how much the lifetime value of a customer can be. “Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth,” Seth says. “Add to this the additional profit you get from a delighted customer spreading the word–it can easily double or triple the lifetime value.”¹

It’s not about how much you win with one sale, or how much you lose with one lost deal, but each customer actually has the potential to increase in value 100 fold over a lifetime.

Outstanding Service

I’ve never called in to Godaddy and waited more than three minutes on hold. When I am greeted, I am treated like a star. They truly value me as a customer. They provide me with outstanding service, and in turn, I have directed every one of my friends to their service.

For instance, Tony Hsieh’s e-commerce giant Zappos.com (which was purchased by Amazon for nearly $1 billion last July 2009) values their customer as their most valuable asset. They focus on customer service, something often overlooked in the last decade, and while sales reached $840M in 2007, they continue to maintain the culture and feel of a small company.

So if Tony can do it, so can you! You just have to understand the true value of your customers.

Listen to your Customer

A big mistake I’ve made in the past is ignoring my customers. What could they possibly know better than I? It was not until I started listening to my customers that I really connected with them, learned their desires and improved the quality of what I had to offer them. I can now say that I get plenty of referrals for my work now, and have built many solid, lifelong relationships with great people.

Be Passionate or Get Out

If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, then you should probably be doing something else. When you’re passionate about your work, your customer will see this and want to do business with you. I know that I wouldn’t get into the hamburger business with the local McDonalds clerk, because i can tell that he’s not passionate about what he does. If you are passionate, you will attract more customers and more people who want to be around you and witness your success.

How do you show your customers their true value? Comment below.