
- It costs many times more to sell to a new customer than to an existing customer
- Word of mouth and referrals are the most effective marketing
How to set and manage customer expectations:
- Better understand customer needs, challenges and behavior
- Evaluate emotional factors (urgency, anxiety, etc.)
- Listen to customers and their comments and expectations (Twitter, Facebook, sales/service calls, surveys, etc.)
- Document your findings! Include “expectations” into you marketing planning and strategy process.
- Communicate the right story. Make sure your marketing/sales communication to customers doesn’t over-promise or set the wrong expectations
- Step into the role of a customer and evaluate what they “experience” when doing business with you – think about every touch point. How do they learn about your product? How and where do they buy? How do they pay or get invoiced? How do they get your product/service delivered? How do they use it? How do they get help and support?
- For every important touch-point, you should identify (and set) the customer expectations and then align your services/products to match or exceed those expectations.
- Design a more customer centric process and culture. Encourage the whole organization to “work for the customer”. Give your employees the freedom to “wow” the customer (discount, free shipping, special treatment, etc.)
- Evaluate if you are targeting the right segment (If you offer a high-price, high quality product and you target the “low-price” audience, you won’t be able to exceed their expectations)