Yes, it takes some guts to use the C-word in blog post for our business. But why not? We’re all adults.
Hearing it can bring on severe anxiety. In fact, you may be cringing right now at just the thought of it.
What does the C-word have to do with a customer-focused marketing company? Everything.
Consistency is arguably one of the most important disciplines a business can embrace. It’s so important that people who interact with your business will expect it. If no one’s told you yet, you’ve heard it here first.
Take a minute and think about it based on your own experiences. When you interact with your favorite brand (or any brand, for that matter), you’re waiting for certain things to happen and you expect to be treated a certain way. Some have become so ritualistic that if anything isn’t just right, all hell can break loose.
Consistency fosters trust, and trust clears the way for remarkable things to happen.
Let’s play with an example, shall we? Suppose you’re a restaurant owner, and you cut the ribbon on opening night. It’s a packed house. Every little detail has been taken into consideration: linens are white, utensils are polished, wait staff is performing, the food execution is flawless and food critics would kill just for another experience at your establishment. You’re the talk of the town!
Word-of-mouth advertising is powerful.
Fast forward six months to a year, and success has arrived at your restaurant’s greeting station. Life is good, but busy. Now, your top priorities suddenly find themselves taking a backseat and yielding to your DIY free website and social media management, menu creation and all the other to-do’s that come with keeping all the balls in the air when you’re the boss.
Bad news becomes the hare, and good news becomes the tortoise.
Yep, you guessed it – the inevitable happens: the linens are stained and go unnoticed, utensils have hard water spots on them, chairs start to wobble as if they’re going to collapse (no matter how light your customer is) and wait staff is starting to neglect some of the standards you set out to have achieved for your guests’ experience.
Waiting until tomorrow to fix these things is like switching seats on the titanic – it’s not going to work.
The hit: The worst problems are the ones you don’t know about. When you start anything, think about the C-word. The world shouldn’t be filled with 5-star businesses; sometimes a 2-star establishment is what we crave. The experience your customers get today is the one they’ll expect throughout, so plan accordingly and set a level of service that can be sustained.