The Secret To Getting Lifelong Customers (and Employees)

Have you ever bought a product expecting one thing, but instead received something totally different. The quality is off and it’s not at all what you’d imagined. Chances are, you’ll never do business with them again.

Whether it’s a refund, a guarantee or just a voice on the phone, hounding down a company (especially one you’ve never done business with before,) is far from fun…Perkins had it right with his catchy tune he wrote and sang entitled “Honey Don’t”. To paraphrase the message in his song, we don’t like it when people promise to do one thing and then don’t follow through.

Has it ever happened in your business or organization, where you, as a business owner, department head or employee, say you are going to start an initiative and you don’t get around to it? Worse yet, you start an initiative, but don’t follow through. How about the granddaddy of them all: you say something like “ I’ll get back to you”, and you just flat don’t do it. Interestingly enough, when you stop to listen, you hear one of your employees making a promise to follow through with a customer’s special request and later does not.

Is there a connection between what your employees do (or don’t do) and your management style? You can bet your next house payment that it does. We can’t expect our managers or employees to follow through on their commitments and responsibilities, when we don’t do so with our own.

For instance, we expect our employees to attend a training program or webinar and yet we don’t make the commitment to improve our own skill level in areas where it is needed. Let’s face it. The biggest room in the world for all of us, is the room for self improvement.

We shouldn’t expect our customers to do what we won’t do, i.e. pay our invoices on time when we don’t pay ours on time. Return our calls or emails when we don’t return our vendor’s calls or emails in a timely manner.

Some people call it “karma” some call it the “boomerang effect”. Whatever you call it, it exists and we are part of it.

So, how do we make our business or organization more successful? Do these two things:
1. Stop making promises you can’t keep.
2. Start following through with the promises you do make.

Once you start following these two principles, the people you work with and your customers will appreciate it and so will you.

Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author. He helps companies and organization become more profitable by increasing their value and lowering their costs through the professional development of their managers and employees.