What are you doing that is going to make you stand out?
What have you done to make your last interaction with your customers memorable?
Have you given them a lasting impression?
Have you left them wanting more of you and what you offer?
What if they had such a great time working with you that they can’t wait to find an excuse to work with you again?
Loyalty happens when you give your customers more than a transaction. It happens when the results you deliver include an emotional connection, a sense of relationship, trust and values alignment. It happens when you work harder to get to know them, their business, their frustrations, their challenges and their opportunities.
You learn that by being intentional, by being caring, by being authentic and by being willing to do your homework with no guarantees of an immediate concern. For example, I attended the Kitchen and Bath Show, visited appliance dealers, researched the industry for three years before I landed my first order with one of the top appliance manufacturers in the country. I subscribed to Progressive Grocer magazine for years before landing major consumer packaged goods accounts.
Think about the business partners, suppliers, and brands that you admire and love doing business with. What is it that they do that makes them unforgettable to you? Learn from them. Model their behaviors.
Many in our industry complain about their online internet-based competition. Seriously? Can a website have more personality than you? Can a website provide a more satisfactory experience than you can?
Work on being unforgettable by being your truest and most authentic self and be willing to risk putting yourself out there and making sweet promotional memories.
Paul Kiewiet MAS+ is an industry speaker, writer, consultant and coach. He serves as the executive director of MiPPA. Kiewiet was inducted into the PPAI Hall of Fame and the MiPPA Hall of Fame. He served as Chairman of PPAI in 2007. A former distributor, he founded Promotion Concepts, Inc in 1982 and worked with some of America’s most valuable brands including Coca-Cola, Kelloggs and Whirlpool.