Being indispensable, partnering, developing customer loyalty–a renewed appreciation of these areas has been growing in the economic downturn. Every businessperson I talk to is very confident that they are above average, if not at the top of their field, in customer loyalty. It reminds me of the survey of Fortune 500 presidents who were asked where they placed among the other Fortune 500 presidents. 92% ranked themselves in the top 5%, proving that people are not good at evaluating themselves. Armed with this perspective, let’s assume we can grow significantly in the customer loyalty area.

The steps to becoming indispensable to your clients are:

1. Great customer service

2. Transparent communication

3. Empowered employees who can solve

issues themselves

4. Proactive programs that improve the

customers’ experience faster than their

expectations change.

5. Caring as much about your customer’s

business as they do.

Step 1, Great Customer Service, is where most companies focus, thinking that this is the great differentiator rather than the entry gate to indispensability. Great service is the starting point, not the ending point of the journey. The next four steps are much harder to incorporate into our businesses.

Step 2. Transparent Communication is easy to claim but hard to execute. When something goes wrong there is a natural inclination to fix the problem before the customer finds out. This rarely works out well. The customer always seems to get a sense that they are being kept in the dark. Although they may not be able to prove it, they certainly will feel it. This leaves them trying to figure it out on their own and their theories will always be worse than the reality. Resolve today to report everything relevant before the customer starts wondering.

Step 3. Empowered employees: To understand how important this is, just think back to the last time you were the customer and the person you were talking to either was explaining why they couldn’t help you or, even worse, explaining to you what customer policy was. A business needs to enable the person talking to a client to solve the client’s concerns. To accomplish this, you need to hire well and train better.

Step 4. Proactive programs are necessary because customers learn to expect what they already receive from a company. The service or product that was perceived as outstanding last week is viewed as simply average this week. Study each contact point a customer has with your company and figure out how to improve it. Then figure out the steps that your customer is not aware of and develop a way to communicate that information to the customer. For example, a service company could send an email after each service call outlining what was done on the call, what is pending and when those items will be finished, and what issues need to be addressed in the near future. A second example is a retail company that emails its customers when an order is placed explaining timelines, and then notifies the customer each step of the way: shipped from warehouse, arrived at hub, dispatched to your door.

Step 5. Care as much about the customer’s business as they do: I have said this to many people who have responded with, “But it’s their business–not mine.” This misses the point that your business is dependent on your customers. There are numerous ways to demonstrate this, so let me give three examples. 1. A business came up with an idea for a new product for a customer that became one of the customer’s most profitable items. 2. Another business discovered an issue one of their customers had and not only told them about the issue but also supplied two solutions. 3. A third company ran a fundraiser for a charity that was very dear to one particular client.

When a business is operating at its peak, the employees are figuring out how to improve these five areas continually. They have regular staff meetings about how to improve these areas. They go to workshops, read books, hire specialists–whatever it takes to be on top!