In our last post, we talked about how consumers today are looking for new experiences, not just transactions. In today’s turbulent world, people are hungry for a sense of connection and Harley-Davidson Motorcycles gives that to them.
Let’s talk about your business. Do you feed people’s hunger for a sense of connection? Do you refer to ‘them’ as customers or clients? A customer is someone with whom you have a transaction; a CLIENT is someone with whom you have a relationship! Most owners get this but…do your employees understand this?
What do customers/clients see when they interact with your business? What is their experience like? It doesn’t matter if it’s online, over the phone, or in person – what’s their experience like?
I’ve always been impressed with my friend Pete Lillo’s experience when it comes to the customer experience of his Elite Gold Crown members. He’s constantly looking for ways to impress them; sometimes it’s just the speed with which they get things, other times it’s unannounced valuable bonuses. Since partnering with Pete I constantly hear from new members how they feel it’s a WOW experience.
Here’s the bottom line. YOUR responsibility is to build a relationship with your potential and existing customers. This is the marketing of today. People perceive Harley-Davidson to be like a friend, not a company.
You should be working to deepen the relationship with your consumers.
The big question you need to answer. Are you developing a relationship with your clients? Here’s a quote from a Harley-Davidson dealer I interviewed for part of this article:
INVISIBLE_TEXT
INVISIBLE_TEXT
I suggest you google Mike’s dealership to see the many events he holds throughout the year to build and foster his relationship with his client base; this is in addition to everything that Harley-Davidson Motor Company does.
Opportunities to strengthen the relationship are everywhere… It’s about a business having a personality and it is also about appealing to the emotions of your customers.
Increasingly, it is more and more about creating an experience around the product/service and the visit.
There has been a societal shift and we should be leveraging that shift to our advantage. Treat that shift the same as we do new technology – embrace it and train our staff to embrace it!
Harley-Davidson has shown that it’s a sound proven strategy for creating raving fans, one that everyone CAN implement! One that everyone SHOULD implement!
Following Harley’s model will help YOU to turn YOUR customers/clients into YOUR RAGING FANS!
Now go out and get your clients to tattoo your logo on their body!