‘Encourage customers to complain’
UBAIDILLAH MASLI
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Friday, November 4, 2011
BUSINESSES should urge their customers to complain about their services or products, as a means to identify their needs and alter the relevant aspects of the business to meet that need, a branding and marketing expert said yesterday.
Brenda Bence, president of Branding Development International Associates Ltd, said that encouraging customer criticism was a no- or low-cost measure that could help businesses understand their customers better.
“I know that sounds hard to believe but it is so important to be able to have them complain. Because remember, if they are not complaining to you, (then) they’re complaining about you,” she told entrepreneurs at a business development forum in the capital yesterday.
“Maybe we are not asking the right questions to get to the complaints we need to hear. So make it easier for customers to complain,” she said.
Bence cited one example where a branch of a renowned hotel chain in Thailand employed a manager to stand by the hotel’s main entrance from 10am to noon everyday, when the bulk of people check out. The managers would have to interrupt and ask guests what they liked about their stay and their opinions of how the hotel could improve.
“You give them a chance to compliment you and you give them a chance to tell you what went wrong.”
She said the feedback allowed the hotel to fix the challenges “immediately”.
“And if people are feeling (heard), they’ll come back more often,” she added.
“So that’s a simple way; ask those two questions: ‘What did we do well? What could have we done better?”‘
“Asking the right question doesn’t cost you a thing and it makes sure you really hone on the need,” she said.
Customers were one of five assets that all business already had access to, and should therefore be capitalised upon to build a brand. She also explained the advantages of focusing on existing customers.
“It costs six to nine times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one happy. And yet, I see this with SMEs, we spend most of our time focusing on getting new business.”
She stressed that shifting that focus was “fundamentally important”.
“I can spend $100 and attract someone that knows my brand, likes my brand, knows what I have to offer and is probably likely to buy it. Or I can put in $600 to $900 for someone who has no idea who I am, what I offer, or whether or not they are even thinking of buying.”
She added: “Focus (more) on the ones you have than the ones you would like to have.”
In reaching out to target groups of customers, Bence said that looking at the psychographics of a target group to study their attitudes and aspiration was far more important than looking at demographics, which she said could be limiting.
“You need to understand their lives from a 360 degree standpoint. What do they do morning to night? How do they function, what are their dreams, their hopes (and) their aspirations? What are they after?”
To make it simpler, she advised SMEs to “define your target of one”.
“Let’s say you have 2,000 potential people that could be customers, choose one that you think represents the ideal market for you.
“If you could replicate that customer 100 times, your business would grow like a weed,” she said.
“Make it simple. Bring it to life. Understand what their lives are about and how you can meet their needs.”
The Brunei Times