Are You Doing These 5 Things to Drive Customers Away?

Most business owners believe they’re doing a great job with their customers and use year-over-year profit increases to validate this thinking. But few actually KNOW whether their customers are truly happy or simply lack the will to switch to another business. Happy customers, especially those you consistently satisfy or even delight, don’t stray when offered something novel or trendy, while other companies easily lure away those who lack the will to switch. Do you drive your customers away by ignoring these implicit promises you make to them when you can easily and inexpensively tweak your operation to keep them happy? That’s the topic of our discussion today and I hope it helps you build a cadre of loyal customers who support your business far into the future.

As you can see in the image above, it’s costly to drive customers away. In addition to the increased cost to acquire new customers, you boost overall profitability by up to 95% with as little as a 5% increase in customer retention. Existing customers also spend more and are more likely to try a new product, which helps you sustain those profits far into the future. Just look at the success Apple experiences each time it introduces a new product (well, except for glasses, which were a flop for every firm). Thus, to help you grow your business to new heights, here are some of the things you might be doing that drive your customers away and easy changes you can make to avoid this.

Business failures that drive customers away

#1: Not keeping your promises

If you don’t keep your promises every time, you can drive customers away in droves. This includes implicit promises, such as providing transparency, offering high-quality products, and delivering them within a reasonable timeframe. This also includes making good on products damaged in transit or offering refunds for products that arrive late or are of poor quality. As you’ll see as we go through the rest of the failures that drive customers away, the root of the failure lies in not keeping these implicit promises, such as acting ethically at all times, providing a safe environment for employees and customers (including online security), and providing superior customer service.

When you fail to keep your promises, you damage the trust between your company and its customers. This damages or impedes a relationship, weakening loyalty and potentially driving customers into the arms of a competitor.

#2: Poor customer service

Poor customer service can drive customers away faster than almost any other failure because it’s evident immediately. While you might think you’re providing adequate customer service, if you don’t ask customers what they want and assess whether you’re delivering superior customer service in their opinion, you’re likely failing in some aspects of customer service. Here are the common issues with customer service:

• Not reading and responding to customers’ reactions and body language
• Confusing speed with good service. You may think customers want their food quickly, when, in fact, they’re enjoying a leisurely meal and feel rushed when the entrée comes before they’ve finished their appetizers or salads.
• Making the customer journey too complicated or inaccessible. This might include elements such as searching out a salesperson to ask questions or check out. It might also include a complex checkout process online that requires sharing too much personal information, completing a form, or even simply requiring customers to log in for service.
• Avoiding complete and accurate responses to queries.
• Making return processes onerous, for instance, charging a restocking fee, allowing insufficient time for returns, or forcing customers through a lengthy return process.
• Talking badly about competitors, customers, or employees within range of customers. This makes customers wonder what gossip you spread about them when they’re not there.
• Engaging in personal chats with colleagues or on the phone during work hours when customers are present. This drives customers away even faster if they must wait for you to interrupt your conversation to help them.
• Being overly pushy. Offer advice and answer questions, but avoid pressuring customers to make a decision.

Review your customer service practices with a customer service audit, upskill your team, and gain feedback from your customers. This combination will significantly improve your customer service and, in turn, your business success.

#3: Not living by the values that are important to customers

Maybe this surprises you (which it shouldn’t after seeing what happened to Tesla and Target in the last year), but customers around the world prefer to shop with companies that share their values and show them in the way they operate their businesses. In fact, up to 70% of US shoppers prefer to buy from a brand that shares their personal values and nothing will drive customers away like not living up to the values you espouse. You’ll find similar percentages of global customers feel the same way. This preference is even stronger among younger consumers. Among the values consumers care about are ethical behavior, social responsibility, and environmental protection.

When it comes to ethics, customers care about protecting vulnerable populations, treating employees and vendors fairly, and supporting worthy causes. Social responsibility entails acting as a responsible citizen and participating in community activities. There is no reason in this day and age not to adopt sustainable practices. Although you will need to make a financial investment, commercial solar tax incentives and other initiatives are available to support the implementation of sustainable business practices.

A sustainable, ethical business builds an excellent reputation, attracts more customers, and helps keep them loyal. You need to review your business to identify areas for improvement and determine how to incorporate ethical values.

#4: Neglecting employees

Employees are the heart of your business. Employees are often overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. This leads to high turnover in the business, resulting in inefficiencies, bottlenecks, poor customer service, difficulty forming relationships, and other significant issues that can drive customers away. You want employees who are motivated and passionate about their work, and who do a good job, as there’s no way you can get the most from unhappy employees.

If you don’t treat employees well, in addition to offering poor quality products and poor customer service, you’ll also risk showing customers that your ethics don’t align with their values. Some of the ways you can treat employees better are by:

• Create an environment that supports their well-being
• Fully equip them with everything they need to do their job well
• Pay them fairly, especially when they pick up new responsibilities
• Be aware of their workload and how it changes if someone leaves, so you can ensure employees aren’t overwhelmed
• Ask them for feedback regularly and take on board what they have to say
• Show them that you value them
• Invest in their skills and progression, as well as offering opportunities for growth and advancement
• Foster a positive work environment and high morale

Gaining feedback should be the first step, as it provides firsthand insights into what is happening within your business and what they need.

#5: Being inconsistent

Inconsistency is a real turn-off. Whether it involves the face you show on social media, your brand messaging, your ethical practices, or your lack of staff presence, consistency can significantly impact your business. Consistency is one of the most important things to customers when it comes to building trust and loyalty. How you show up in the world and your business reflects to them how much you value your customers. This, in turn, will damage your brand reputation and hinder your growth. All this will give you is confusion, a lack of recognition, increased stress, and difficulty scaling. Inconsistency leads to wasted time and resources, increased risks of legal issues, and lost revenue. If you want to grow your business, you need to determine your core values and how you will present yourself, ensuring you put the necessary procedures in place to adhere to your plan and maintain consistency. If you focus on this, you will see huge growth in your business.

Conclusion

Do you drive customers away? It’s a common issue with businesses, and they don’t even know it. Follow these top tips to help you identify your weaknesses and improve them.