The #1 Customer Killer in Your Business and How to Beat It

What makes a customer, do business with you, once, twice or several times and then suddenly, choose to do business else where? What almost keeps a customer in a business?

It’s the good old consistency!

There is lack of consistency that sneak up in every business, if you allow it to come and make camp in yours.

It will scare your customers away, you customers will stay with you as long as they can but at the end they will take their business somewhere else.

Visit to a barber

A friend who went to visit a barber. On their first meeting, he says he received one of the best haircut he have ever had.

The barber used scissors exclusively, never resorting to electric shears as many other do. Before cutting his hair he insisted on washing them, explaining the washing made the cutting easier.

During the haircut, one of his assistants made sure his cup of coffee was fresh. In all, the experience was delightful, so he made an appointment to return.

. . . Something happens

However when he returned, everything has changed. Instead of using the scissors exclusively he used the shears 50 percent of the time. He not only didn’t wash his hair but never even mentioned it. The assistants did bring him his cup of coffee, but only once, never to return. Nonetheless, the haircut again was excellent.

Several weeks later, when he returned for a third appointment. This time, the barber did wash his hair, but after cutting it, preliminary to the final trim.

This time he again used scissors exclusively, but, unlike the first two times, no coffee was served, although he did ask if he would like a glass of wine. At first he thought it might be the assistant’s day off, but she soon appeared, busily working with the inventory near the front of the shop.

He said as he was living that day, something in him, decided not to go back.

It certainly wasn’t the haircut — he did an excellent job. It wasn’t the barber. He was pleasant, easy to talk too, seemed to know his business. It was something more essential than that.

There was absolutely no consistency to the experience.

How to beat it

It’ doesn’t have to be hard.

Fresh cup of coffee, washing the hair before the trimming and scissors exclusively. Three things, would have kept my friend around, and win business for the barber every time.

What the barber did was to give him a delightful experience and then take it away.

There is a psychological reason for this.

“Burnt Child Syndrome”

This is where when a child is alternately punished and rewarded for the same kind of behavior. This form of behavior in a parent can be disastrous to the child; he never knows what to expect or to act. It can also be disastrous to the customer.

The “Burnt Child,” of course, has no choice but to stay with the parent. But the “Burnt Customer” can go someplace else. And he will.

What my friend experienced, he says he would have been embarrassed to ask for those things, let alone give his reasons for wanting them. They were all so totally emotional, so illogical. How could I have explained them, or justified them, without appearing to be a boob?

Thinking about your business, keep those simple things consistence, the one you customer didn’t expect and can repeat the experience with every visit.

What you do in your business is not as nearly as important as doing what you do the same way, each and every time.

This post was first published on joelmwakasege.com where he talks about business development for smart people.