Going into business you promised to do two things:

1. Exceed your customers' expectations.
2. Give them a reason to come back.

If your business isn’t making good on these two fundamental promises, then little else matters.

It has been said that a promise without action is a lie.

Does your business keep its promise? Are you clear about what that promise is?

Promises, Promises…

Being in business is, first of all, a promise to produce value worth more than the money you take for it.

Keep your promise and your business grows. Break it and you fail. It's that simple.

And while most businesses focus on producing more sales, the best businesses figure out how to create loyal customers first. After all, do you simply want more marginally satisfied customers? Or do you want customers who come back again and again?

Smart companies clarify their unique promise and build systems to keep it every time, everywhere. It goes beyond pride in the product. It is about the personal commitment to excellence that every customer feels, in every interaction.

At E-Myth we often speak of the Seven Centers of Management Attention. For your customers, the one center that is most relevant and most vital is Client Fulfillment.

This is where your promise comes to life, where the “rubber meets the road.”

All of the wonderful processes and functions of your business operations will come to naught if you fail here. And failure can be simply “meeting your customers’ needs.” Why? Because any competitor can do that. You must exceed their needs and provide value beyond the mere product or service.

To create a consistent experience for your customers that will delight them, and even surprise them, you must have a strategy and a plan.

To create customers who come back to you again and again, who tell their friends about you, who wouldn’t think of using another brand, requires intentionality and focus on your part.

The Foundation of Trust

Marketing expert John Jantsch provided a great definition of marketing when he said that it is “getting people who have a specific need or problem to know, like and trust you.”

After people have discovered your business and decided they liked it enough to try you out, the quality you want to establish is trust.

It is the trust that causes customers to come back time and again.

One of the characteristics of this trust is that your customers experience that you and your staff truly care.

• Caring for your customers must be genuine and authentic. It must be experienced by your customers from not only you, but from everyone in your business. It originates from you as the leader.
  
  
• Caring for your product or service means that you truly believe in what you do or produce. And, again, this must be experienced with your staff as well. If someone who works for you doesn’t care about your product or service, do you really want them there?
  
  
• Passion for excellence is a somewhat well-worn phrase, but it is still speaks volumes about what is missing in many businesses. Quality should be seen as a pervasive and all-encompassing goal in your company. Everything that is done should be pursued with a goal of excellence.

Another key element that must be experienced by your customers is enthusiasm. We like doing business with people who not only care, but are enthusiastic about what they are doing for us.

Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses puts it this way to his staff: “We want each guest to leave their interaction with you feeling as though they were the best thing that happened to you that day.

If you are striving to build loyalty in your customers then one more quality must also be considered, and that quality is consistency.

It is not enough for your customers to have an extraordinary experience with your business one time and a mediocre experience the next. Your customers’ expectations of your business – not simply your product or service – must be met time and time again with the same level of quality, the same degree of enthusiasm, and the same depth of caring.

The Three Steps:

How many merely “satisfied” customers does your business make each day? As the business owner, you need to develop an awareness of what constitutes a less-than-exceptional experience for your customers.  

Don’t overlook the little things. You can’t afford to because your customers won’t.

As the leader you need to model the excitement and passion you have for your product. And you need to be on the lookout for those inconsistencies in each customer’s experience.

In order to do that, you’ll need to change the way you approach client fulfillment. Your goal is to create a consistent experience that creates loyal and enthusiastic customers. Here are three steps to help you start the process:

1. Determine what your customers truly want.
   You need to know your customers better than they know themselves. The one question every customer asks is, “What’s in it for me?” This is what you need to define for them.
   
   
2. Deliver your product or service (what your customers truly want) with passion, with precision, and with pride.
   Quality and excellence are what your customers expect and what they are paying for. But even a high-quality product or service delivered in a lackluster fashion will take away from the customer experience. Truly caring about your product will be exhibited in the passion, the precision and the pride in your delivery.
   
   
3. Go above and beyond – do just a little bit more.  
   A lagniappe, a word chiefly used in the Gulf Coast of the United States, is a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase (such as a 13th doughnut when buying a dozen). What are you doing to provide that “little bit more” to inspire them to keep coming back?

Don’t let your promise become a lie.  Customer loyalty is the result of a relationship and lasting relationships are built on integrity.  When you show that you truly care for your customers they will care for you – with their loyalty!

To learn more about creating systems that truly exceed your clients' expectations, check out these two resources:

• E-Myth Online: Client Fulfillment Course
• Creating Brand Loyalty online seminar