HOW YOU TREAT YOUR SMALLEST CUSTOMERS IS WHAT MATTERS

Small customers can become big customers. If you develop a reputation for being poor in follow-up, what incentive does your customer have to stay with you, especially once they start being courted by your competitors? Even if they always remain a small account, your follow-up with them is part of the quality of the service you provide. If you had to publicly share your follow-up record, would you be proud of how you have handled your small accounts? Would big clients be impressed by that level of service? How you treat your smallest customer is the true measure of your success and your values. Focusing your attention on your smallest customer reveals that you care for all the people aligned to your business. This speaks to your integrity and it creates a foundation for very strong customer loyalty. When you cultivate excellence in your business practices, you create the values that your business lives or dies by. If you allow yourself to slack or deliver less than your best to an account that isn’t wildly profitable, you are compromising your own excellence and values. If an account is so small, that maintaining a reasonable ROI requires you to deliver sub-par services, it is better to find that client another service provider. Help them get what they need with a company that fits their budget. This generates goodwill from the client and the new company. Most importantly, it keeps you away from the temptation to lower your standards just to meet a financial objective. How Do You Treat the “Little Guys”? 3 Questions to Ask Yourself 1.How do you feel the deadlines for your smaller customers should be treated? Disregarding deadlines may be an indicator of how much value or importance you attach to the customer. The same standards you use for the bigger clients should apply to your smallest clients. If a pizza delivery company promises to deliver orders within 30 minutes, it must deliver its orders to meet that goal, regardless of the order sizes. 2.Does the quality you provide on small projects match your bigger ones? Think of a restaurant. They cannot serve inedible food to a table of one. They must provide quality meals to everyone. Failure to do so can result in liability and a poor review. In today’s market, even one bad review can damage your business. 3.Do you put calls on hold or lag behind when following-up with your small customers? Do your biggest clients get more attention and respect from you that your smaller clients? Source:www.forbes.com