6 ways to turn customers into partners
The idea of partnering with customers is often confused with providing good customer service. But they're hardly the same thing.
Working to build partnerships with customers is a considerably more consultative process than delivering satisfactory point-of-sale transactions.
Partnering requires you to break down the wall between seller and buyer in order to re-think the transaction altogether. Partnering puts aside traditional hunter/prey marketing conventions — such as "targeting" customers, "beating" the competition or "stealing" market share — in order to identify and deepen the value that customers find in your offerings.
By identifying ways to invite customers inside your business, you multiply interactions and instill loyalty. "Most companies underestimate the power of creating a robust approach for connecting with their customers to hear what they have to say about their products and services," says Jeanne Bliss, author of "Chief Customer Officer," and, formerly, a customer relationship manager at Microsoft, Mazda and Lands' End.
Ultimately, you make customers emotionally invested in your success, which can result in more revenue from existing customers, lower operational and marketing costs, greater brand equity and terrific word-of-mouth.
Here are six ways to develop customer partnerships as well as expert advice for leveraging the relationship so it increases sales and grows your company.
How to build the partner relationship
To forge the partnership, says Bliss, you need to listen to customers, to involve them and to maintain ongoing communications, whether it's a business-to-business or a business-to-consumer relationship.
Keep that advice in mind as you weigh these options.
1. Solve problems, completely. "The customer today is drowning in choices," says Joe Forcillo, a management consultant in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich. "At the same time, marketers are cutting costs and pushing more work onto their customers." So if you completely meet customer needs, you will stand out. To figure out what needs are paramount, Forcillo suggests you invest time in getting customer answers to these questions:"You'd be amazed at the information and value that comes out of these questions," advises Forcillo.
2. Make the customer feel like they "know" the company. "Publicize the story behind the business, adding personal touches where you can," suggests Robbie Baxter, a strategy consultant with Peninsula Strategies, based in the Silicon Valley. "People are always more loyal to people they know than strangers." Baxter points to the way Paul Newman's face on the label markets Newman's Own and how Annie's Natural organic foods tells the story of the company logo and mascot.
3. Share documents and information online. When work is done in teams or in far-flung locations, create a central and private Web site with applications like Microsoft's Sharepoint Team Services. Such groupware sites are protected by passwords and give each team member — client or staff — the ability to track every stage of a project. For instance, imagine a boilerplate contract that needs specific client requirements. You can post the document on the site for everyone to read, make changes on-screen and approve, from legal and IT to the client contact and counsel. But such tools are only as good as your control of the versions that are sent round. Make sure to set up a system that will ensure only one live version at a time.
4. Research how customers can gain more value. Expensewatch.com, based in Plymouth Valley, Pa., is an on-demand applications service provider of software that tracks and controls company expenses for travel and entertainment, purchase and requisitions and invoicing to the company. Its sales team spends lots of upfront time with potential clients to learn how their needs can best be served by the company's product."Customer support is traditionally reactive," says Bill Vergantino, vice president of operations. "But we call it 'customer usage.' For any given account, we analyze how the customer is using our system, what percentage of employees are logging on, which features of our software are being used successfully and more." Armed with that customized information, the Expensewatch.com team puts together a plan that outlines system capabilities the customer might leverage and suggests specific training classes for staff. "That has no incremental cost to the customer," says Vergantino. "We want a good fit so it's win-win. Customers will then personally champion our product and we'll attract other customers."
5. Use the Web to collaborate on test products. It's always costly to expand product lines or services. And the price isn't only dollars. There's also time, resources, rollercoaster emotions and distractions from ongoing business.For example, imagine that a biotech company with a new, multimillion-dollar product needs its offering reviewed by dozens of research doctors in the United States and abroad. Instead of flying such experts in to company headquarters and paying each one's expenses plus an honorarium, you can now hire companies that design and manage online surveys on password-protected Web sites.For example, busy doctors might log in at their convenience to evaluate the product and post comments. Such a process easily translates for a host of other products, from consumer to business-to-business to academic.
6. Enlist your customers in community efforts. If you get customers involved a in joint effort to improve community life, you go a long way to developing deep customer loyalty, suggests Mal Warwick, co-author of "Values-Driven Business," and a nonprofit fundraising consultant based in Berkeley, Calif. He recommends several tactics, including:
Remember, no matter which method you choose, the best way to begin partnering with customers is to make them feel a valued part of your business.