Feature Article - What you Think Versus What Your Customers Think

Clear Thinking  - How many times has it happened to you?

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What do you do best in your company?

What makes your business stand out from your competition?

Is your answer the same answer your customers would give?

When is the last time you asked them?

There is often a disconnect between the way you do business and the way others perceive that you do business.  You think you are one thing and your customers think of you in an entirely different way.

This can cause problems when your customers think they are coming for one kind of service and you give them another.  They feel they have been deceived and you feel you are not appreciated.  Or even worse people don’t come to you because they are not sure what it is that you do.

How you do business covers many things such as how you make sales, your business model, your management systems and your product and service.  This gap, between perception and reality can be in any or all of these areas.  Your success in getting and keeping customers depends on closing that gap.

The best way to make more sales is to improve your services – to innovate, to be better than your competitors.  Then let everyone know what you do differently or better.  If you don’t give customers a reason to work with you, why would they?

One way to figure out what you do best and what you could improve is to ask your existing customers.  They can point to specific, quantifiable reasons of why they deal with you, why they refer their friends to you and why they keep coming back.

Once you know what you do best and why your customers are wowed by you, you can use that information to create your marketing message.  Potential customers have many options and you need to make it clear to them why they are better off dealing with you.  

If you stress your uniqueness, you take the emphasis away from price and put it squarely on your strong points.  A customer that comes to you for price will leave you for price.  You want customers coming to you for what you do best and they will stay with you forever and tell all their friends.

Answering the following questions will help you define what you do best and make it clear what you should tell your customers you do.
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• What is the one thing you do best in your company?
• What do you do better than your competitors?
• Does your marketing reflect this difference?
• Do your ads look the same as all your competitors’ ads?
• Why should customers deal with you and not your competitors?

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This is a great exercise for 2 reasons:
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1. It gets you thinking about how you can offer a better service.
2. You can make sure your marketing message reflects your unique abilities.

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To be effective, you can take this one step further by asking your customers these questions.  Use this information to improve your service and improve your marketing.  

You will do better if your customers know what it is you really do and you provide what your customers really need.
 

Have you found this article helpful?

Do you have a bookkeeping or business question you would like answered? 

Email us at feedback@cleartoyou.com.

Have you ever gone somewhere to buy something only to discover in the first 10 seconds that they didn’t sell anything like what you wanted?  Or you go for a service only to find out they deal with different businesses than yours?  Or clients are coming to you for work you don’t do?  Or you don’t go somewhere only to find out later that they would have been the answer to your problems?

Have you ever gone to a store to buy something; you find exactly what you want and buy it?  Or you work with someone who deals with your type of business all the time?  Or clients come to you and you know exactly what to do and how to help them and they are completely satisfied and even relieved?  Or when you have a problem you know exactly where to go?

What’s the difference?  And how can you apply it to your business?

Today's Feature Article explains this gap between what you do and what people think you do.  

Here is what we do at Crystal Clear Bookkeeping Ltd.

We solve your bookkeeping dilemmas.  We can do all the work as often as you require it at your place or ours.  We can train you or your staff to do the work.  We can oversee the work on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, if you want that, too.  We not only specialize in bags or boxes of loose receipts, we really enjoy those jobs.

We do not do taxes.

Is that what you thought we did?  

This week’s Lunch & Learn “Did I say That?” is presented by Sharon Skaling of Panoply 3D who will help us see how we can apply the perception gap to ourselves.  Do our mannerisms, clothes and voices match who we are?  Check out this Thursday’s Lunch & Learn at 11:30 – 1:00 

If you haven’t attended yet, why not?  Really, I want to know! :-)

These sessions are packed with information, not to mention the great networking and support.  The presenters are experts in their fields providing you an opportunity to meet them and start a relationship.  They are giving us practical information that we make relevant to our own businesses through questions and discussion.

What’s your perception about the Lunch & Learn series?  

I’d like to make a list of the best people in every category of service and supplies.  Who do you know who exceeds your expectations?  Who do you rave about?  Send me your favourites and I will post them on my website.  Think about dentists and printers, butchers and tailors.  Who is a good example of giving you more than what you want. 

Doing what people expect of you will bring you success; doing more will bring you prosperity.
 
 

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