Seeing Through Your Clients' Eyes
I've been really fortunate of late. I've been getting paid to get massages and facials. Why? Because I am able to give an educated, professional assessment of how a business is doing in serving their customers from the look and feel of their website to how the receptionist answers the phone to the actual services I get.
So why is this important? To be honest, most business owners and the employees who work inside the businesses can lose sight of how clients see things. And when that happens, our clients often lose sight of us. When they do, bad things follow. We can literally lose business, sometimes for good.
I remember years ago when I worked in a restaurant as a wait staff trainer, one of the managers and I did an experiment. He took a small piece of paper, balled it up and threw it on the floor in a high traffic area and watched to see who would pick it up. Countless employees strolled right past it never even noticing it was there. Then perhaps the 10th employee that walked through stopped to pick it up. We gave him a free dinner because he was seeing with the eyes of a customer and, sadly, was the exception to the rule.
So my question to you is, what are you "walking past" or failing to see in your own business? What areas or procedures need to be straightened up, cleaned out or simply changed? Be honest with yourself and step back to see what you might be missing that your clients are catching. And if you need someone to give you a thorough and professional critique of how you or your staff is doing, give me a call.
Felicia Brown, LMBT
Trainer & Consultant ~ Spalutions!
NCBTMB Approved Provider
Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach
336.508.0790 ~ Direct
www.Spalutions.com
http://blog.spalutions.com/
Categories: Client Care and Customer Service, Success in Life and Business
Tags: the client experience employee massage therapy spa treatments marketing
Great job Felicia, this is so true! Since we're in our business day in and day out we tend to take the uniqueness for granted. Then after a while we may begin to take our customers for granted. It's human nature, just look at how we act on a date versus how we act with our spouse.
You're right. Keeping an open eye to the client experience will put you head an shoulders above the competition (especially if it's an outsourced objective view!). Well said!
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Thanks for your comment Christopher. That is a great comparison! In reality, we are really always dating our clients, always working to keep the "relationship" interesting, evolving, more committed. If we take them for granted and think that they are always going to stick around just because we once said we loved them or gave them a nice gift, we are sure to lose more than one or two along the way.
The same is true with our staff members. We need to always work to keep them "engaged" in the business, remind them that we value and appreciate them for what they contribute to the business and be willing to listen to their ideas, issues and viewpoints. They are a part of the relationship with the business too and often feel more rewarded by these actions than they do by their pay.
In other words, it's all about the relationships in this business, none of which we can take for granted! Folks, remember the golden rule in all that you do, honor and value everyone that walks through your door and continue to look at all the facets of your business from a variety of viewpoints and perspectives, especially the clients!
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