Engaging our Customers

I was reading the book, Strength Based Selling, and I came across this particular chapter on Engaging your customers.

We know how important customers are for business. Some says customers are "King" while others say they are the real boss of the business. There is no right or wrong to this but more importantly is the organisation end to end process align with what they see their customer as?

The key message for this chapter falls on 2 groups of customer.

1. Emotionally Satisfied Customers
2. Rational Satisfied Customers

Emotionally satisfied customers usually have strong connection to the company. They are the number 1 die hard fan and believe in the company. They are also the key reason for the growth of the company.

Rationally satisfied customers on the contrary usually behave almost the same way as customers who are dissatisfied.

How many of you knows what I talking about? 


It further note customer engagement are build on 4 emotional needs:

1. Confidence - the company can be trusted to deliver on their promises


2. Integrity - Customers trust that you treat them fairly and resolve their problem


3. Pride - Proud to be associated with this company. Customer like to feel good about the decision they made and see themselves as capable and competent.


4. Passion - Customers who are passionate about your company offering. Their describe their relationship as irreplaceable and perfect fits for their needs.

When customers feels their emotional needs are met everytime they are more likely to become emotionally engaged with you.

So, how do we know where we are? 

We all gonna start somewhere right? There are a set of questions which we can engaged our customers for status check and us to work on the shortfall.

1. Overall what things are working well as a result of our partnership


2. What elements of this relationship are helping us build solid results together


3. Is there anything that is not going well as it should be?


4. What could we change to correct this?


5. Are you dealing with any issues right now that I could help you work through to improve the business?


6. Is there any information or education you need that you are not able to get?


7. If you could change one thing about how we are working together, what would it be?


8. What would you never change about the way we work together?


9. Is there anything else that would help us build an even stronger working relationship?

The above questions I find them to be useful as a customer relationship status check amidst our hectic schedule. Try them out next time and let me know how well it works for you!


Side notes: Some of the information were extract from the chapter from the book of Strength Based Selling.

Your Customers Buy with Their Heart

Everytime I walk pass Starbucks, I can't help but always people reading, relaxing, chit chatting. The vibe is always good, no wonder people enjoy hanging around there. I feel happy when I am there too.

If you are in business, many will agree one of the most important things is people don't just buy with their head, they buy most of the time with their heart. The competition in today's marketplace is not for customer's money but for their emotion.Touch the people you serve and they will be back for more. Engage their emotions and they will become your most die hard fans.

Quoting from neurologist Donald Calne "The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions." 1 key take away I would believe is Human beings moved when their emotions are moved.

How does having the latest Iphone make you feel? How does having a branded Chanel Bag make you feel? You get the point?People go where they are cared for, special and good, People buy from a place of emotional engagement. Seems obvious? Not many put it in good use.

Convert Your Staff

How many of you agrees in order for an organisation to grow fast, they need to be able to grow their leaders as fast? How many of you experienced working in an organisation that wants to grow but their leaders are still staying stagnate?

I believe one of the competitive advantage of any organisations is the ability to grow and develop their faster than their competition. The more quickly you can develop the leadership in every single staff the more quickly the organisation will be able to lead the field. I mean every single staff regardless of position.

A leadership culture is one where everyone thinks like an owner, CEO or Managing Director. Everyone if proactive and entrepreneurial. This will means they focus on getting to solutions rather than on the problems This leads to doing whatever it takes and keep a group of happy customers. In turn, they are concern about sales and the bottom line which they will do their part to reduce cost. Taking personal responsibility for achieving results.

Think about this culture, positive staff who lead by examples. I am not saying everyone needs to do a job of the CEO, everyone starts "leading" instead of doing. I meant the mindset of a leader. Thinking from a leader perspective, acting and working from that personal responsibility mentality. And soon, how big the organisation will get? Your mind, the limit.