Am I Taking You Home?

“Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk of life.” Napoleon Hill, author.

We all want our customers to say that we are their go to place. We want our customers to identify us as theirs. Not someplace they go to, but their place they go to. How do we do it? What are the steps necessary to build that kind of loyalty? What things can we be doing to position ourselves as THE place for them to be….that kind of loyalty in this economy is priceless. Developing a dedicated customer base can make all the difference for survival in this economy.

It is not nuclear physics – it is common sense. It is the simplest lesson that our parents tried drumming into our heads when we were little. “Treat others as you would like to be treated.” That’s it. It’s that simple. If we can instill the Golden Rule into our employees’ heads we will have the race won. I want you to think of the places that you call yours….be it a bar, a gym, a coffee shop, a bookstore, whatever it is….think about it – why are they YOURS? I go to a ton of coffee shops each month (a great place to get stuff done between appointments). Many of them look the same, smell the same, sound the same and sell the same things. But only a couple of them do I consider MY coffeehouse. What is the difference? The differences are subtle but extremely significant.

The biggest difference is that at MY coffeehouses, the employees don’t treat me like an interruption but rather as a welcomed guest. It is amazing to me the impact being looked in the eye has on my perception of service, warmth and quality. Learn my name or my drink and it goes one step further…..we all want to be recognized. It makes a huge difference in the perception of a place. At one of MY old coffeehouses I was Triple Tall Americano Guy for a year, and it made a total difference in how I felt about that coffee shop – I loved it….they knew who I was even if they didn’t know my name.

What does this mean to you? I am sure you are saying “great I am glad you felt special, but what is in this for me?” Do you have “regulars?” What are their names? What percentage of them can you tell me their names, jobs or marital status? Even better, what percentage can your staff identify by name? Every wonder why Norm always went to Cheers? Wouldn’t you love to go to a place that every time you walked in you were greeted with a chorus of hellos?

“Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.”

Its corny, and its probably stuck in your head now, but think about it. Those lyrics give us the simple directions on how to make our place your place.

Why do I want to have regulars? Why do I want my customers to identify my place as their place? Having regulars is like buying an annuity. You can bank on the returns they will provide. It may only be a cup of coffee or a cup of soup, but those dollars add up. The marketing value of having customers identify you as theirs is priceless as they tell their friends (and their wallets) about how great your place is.

Are your customers taking you home with them? Are you their go-to-place? A great place to start becoming their place is to begin by teaching your employees to look them in the eye and to learn their names. Sometimes it is the simplest things that make all the difference in how we are perceived.