Make your customers feel they're special

Customers are like boyfriends - they are fickle, Sasin lecturer and former TV game-show anchor Kritika Kongsompong advises people in business.

"I used to ask myself: 'why do men like to have minor wives?'" she said when addressing a recent seminar. "It is because a minor wife asks how they're doing. She appears to be very caring. [The men think:] I feel happy. I feel like I'm a VIP; someone special. It's a contrast to when I'm home [with my principal wife].

"So, if you don't like your customers to have 'gigs' [Thai slang for casual sex outside marriage], you must make them feel they're very special," she said.

Kritika contends that because customers are as fickle as husbands, companies must always freshen up their offerings.

"You must not [appear to] be old, but new and fresh, every day," said the marketing lecturer from Chulalongkorn University's Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration. She was speaking at a seminar held by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand and the SMEs magazine.

Making customers feel "special" is the first of Kritika's "10 Ss" that she urges firms to adopt in a bid to differentiate themselves from competitors. The other nine "Ss" are:

Smooth: Regardless of how bad economic conditions may be, company leaders must create stability in their minds. When they feel stable, their staff and customers will feel the same way.

Speak: Talk with customers. Make them the centre of attention. Conquer their hearts and everything will be fine.

Smart: Company staff should dress well, because customers always like to see beautiful and pleasant things.

Smile: When customers are greeted with a smile, they will have a positive attitude.

Small: A company's "bigness" should always be smaller than the customers.

Spirit: Staff should always be in good spirits. A firm should not be wicked to its staff. If customers know you will fire your employees simply to cut costs, you will lose them.

Speed: Be speedy and deliver on time. However, don't be too fast, or customers may not have time to clear warehouse space.

Super: What is it that makes goods different to others - be they fish, cloth, or anything else? It is not the products themselves, but the service that makes customers feel superb. Every spa offers massage, but the one you choose to visit usually provides the best services.

Save: Think not only of your own pocket, but also of saving your customers' money.

Kritika said that successful companies, especially during an economic downturn, were among those that didn't become discouraged or "give up". They took the economic conditions as an opportune time to enhance their potential and profitability, and in the process won the hearts of business partners and employees.

Companies should also not delay the building of their brands or initiating co-branding campaigns because consumers with less money in their pockets are less likely to risk buying products with which they are unfamiliar and in which they have no confidence.

Brand building is no longer expensive provided firms know and understand new marketing technologies and media tools, she said.

"Building a cluster is also a way to survive," she said.

Kritika urged firms to shift from cost-based to value-based marketing by becoming "customer-centric", and considering the requirements of customers before anything else.

In modern marketing, the "4 Ps" - product, price, place and promotion - are no longer enough. To survive, companies must adopt a "360-degree approach" and consider other elements including people, process, production and physical evidence, she said.

Companies should be explicit about their business processes, such as explaining to employees what procedures they must

follow when customers buy  products. Firms should prepare a checklist for staff - much like those for airline pilots - instead of leaving them to teach each other verbally.

They should also consider the reliability of their quality control, because non risk-bearing customers will shun them forever if they make a mistake, Kritika said, citing her own experience of buying a Chinese pearl necklace that later embarrassed her by falling apart in front of a crowd.

pichaya@nationgroup.com