{"id":1122,"date":"2019-11-20T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","slug":"ive-never-seen-a-business-fail-that-delights-its-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/ive-never-seen-a-business-fail-that-delights-its-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a business fail that delights its customers.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Obviously, a marketing plan must be in alignment with the customers it hopes to attract.\u00a0 But because marketing is equal parts skill and artform, achieving that alignment can be deceptively difficult.\u00a0 What do our customers <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">really<\/span><\/em> want?\u00a0 What are they <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">really<\/span><\/em> willing to pay for it?\u00a0 How do they <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">really<\/span><\/em> want us to communicate with them?\u00a0 And so it is with customer service.\u00a0 How much customer service do our customers <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">really<\/span><\/em> expect from us?\u00a0 If we over serve them, they may believe that we\u2019re charging too much for services that they neither need nor want.\u00a0 If we under serve them, they will be disappointed and will never be back as a returning customer.\u00a0 So how do we solve this over serve\/under serve dilemma?\u00a0 For more on this, please continue reading below <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a business fail that delights its customers.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0                                 ~ Warren Buffet         \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0                                 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As\na point of clarification, Buffet says he isn\u2019t talking about merely satisfying\ncustomer expectations . . . he wants to go beyond \u201csatisfied\u201d to\n\u201cdelighted.\u201d&nbsp; He also said, \u201cPeople will\nforget the price they paid, but they\u2019ll never forget the experience they\nhad.\u201d&nbsp; Warren apparently believes that if\nyou\u2019re going to miss, miss high.&nbsp; Since\nhe has had a bit of success in the business world, his beliefs ought to count\nfor something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legendary\nretailer Marshall Fields chimed in saying, \u201cCustomers, when given a choice of where they spend their\nmoney, will invariably go back to that place where they have been made to feel\nspecial.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Warren Buffet wants us to delight our customers and to give them an unforgettable experience.\u00a0 Marshall Fields wants us to make them feel special.\u00a0 So apparently there\u2019s more to this than simply focusing on <em>what<\/em> we offer as customer service.\u00a0 We need to think carefully about <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">how<\/span><\/em> we deliver that service and <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">how<\/span><\/em> that service makes people <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">feel<\/span><\/em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re thinking that your company\u2019s\ncontribution to customer service is price . . . that is, making your customers\n\u201cfeel\u201d great only by offering them a lower price than any of your competitors .\n. . you might want to rethink that strategy.&nbsp;\nConventional wisdom says that the euphoria coming from getting \u201ca real\nsteal\u201d has a limited shelf life. \u201cThe bitter taste of poor\ncustomer service lingers long after the sweet taste of low price has\nfaded.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>~ Anon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re wondering whether it makes sense to\nmake a big deal out of customer service, consider this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>\u201cAfter one negative experience, 51% of customers will never do business with that company again.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>~ Newvoicemedia.com<\/em><\/li><li>\u201cFeeling unappreciated is the #1 reason customers switch from (one company to another).\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>~ Newvoicemediaq.com<\/em><\/li><li>It is anywhere from <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">5 to 25 times more expensive<\/span><\/strong> to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>~ Harvard Business Review<\/em><\/li><li>7 out of 10 U.S. consumers say they\u2019ll spend more money to do business with a company that delivers great service.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>~ American Express<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s important to note that customer service\nneeds to be viewed in the context of the niche you\u2019re in within your\nindustry.&nbsp; Motel 6 and Ritz-Carlton\nHotels are both in the hospitality industry, but in vastly different parts of\nit.&nbsp; Motel 6 should still seek to\n\u201cdelight\u201d its guests, but that should be compared to other national chain\n\u201cbudget\u201d motels, not to Ritz-Carlton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of online retailer\nZappos,has said, \u201cWe asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for.\nWe didn&#8217;t want to just sell shoes. I wasn&#8217;t even into shoes &#8211; but I was\npassionate about customer service.\u201d&nbsp; He\nalso said, \u201cCustomer service shouldn\u2019t just be a department, it should be the\nentire company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or consider this comment from best-selling author and syndicated columnist Harvey Mackay. \u201cSouthwest Airlines is successful because the company understands it&#8217;s a customer service company. It also happens to be an airline<em>.<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So Zappos is a customer service company that happens to be an online retailer, and Southwest Airlines is a customer service company that happens to be an airline.\u00a0 And therein lies a lesson for all of us.\u00a0 You may be a retailer, a wholesaler, a distributor, a manufacturer, accountant, attorney, butcher, baker, or candlestick maker . . . it doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 First and foremost, all of us are in the customer service business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obviously, a marketing plan must be in alignment with the customers it hopes to attract.\u00a0 But because marketing is equal parts skill and artform, achieving that alignment can be deceptively difficult.\u00a0 What do our customers really want?\u00a0 What are they really willing to pay for it?\u00a0 How do they really want us to communicate with<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/ive-never-seen-a-business-fail-that-delights-its-customers\/\">Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33,31,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1123,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}