Ain't We Wonderful!

It may come as a surprise to you to discover that customers don't buy your products or services because they feel that you have a right to make a profit. In other words, their motive for doing business with you is not to help you buy the latest Jaguar or put your children through college. You think this is a joke? Recent research shows that something like 60% of businesspeople place more importance on what they will get from a transaction than on what their customers will benefit.

In essence, their profitability is more crucial to them than is customer satisfaction. And it shows.

If you are in any doubt about this, cast your eyes over the myriad of ads, brochures, websites and so on that major on the successfulness of their organisation, as opposed to the benefit their products or services might be to the customer.

Certainly, they pay lip-service to customer satisfaction, but beneath this thin veneer of eye-shine is the belief, probably implanted at birth, that their bottom line takes precedence over everything.

Oddly, advertising agencies are among the worst offenders in this respect. Their promotional material illustrates what great work they have done, and states how many millions they billed in the last financial year, but none (and I mean none) tell you how much product their efforts have helped shift. To put it another way, none bother to demonstrate what benefit their services have been to clients.

While I am on the subject, there's something else just as puzzling which may have escaped your notice. I refer to the ubiquitous advertising awards handed out to agencies by various advertising organisations around the world. These awards are given, without fail, to campaigns that are outstandingly funny, or technically slick, or wonderfully realistic. Rarely, and I mean never, are these awards made on the strength of how much product a given campaign has sold. They don't even take into account response rates or conversion rates generated by a campaign.

Such figures, I agree, would involve a little trouble to collate, and there would no doubt be quite a bit of trickery in the shape of false returns to overcome. But I feel that a yardstick of this kind would be far more worthy - and more relevant - than one which considered only the creativity or the cutting-edge techniques involved in a piece of work

Over the years, I have won dozens of awards for my clients; and very grateful I have been for them. A copywriter who can tote a portfolio or a showreel filled with award-winning material is guaranteed work for life. Likewise, the ad agency that employs him will see its equity rise and rise. And the client? Well, who gives a damn about the client. His products and services are merely vehicles upon which an agency can ride to glory.

The moral is clear. Rather than thinking what your customers can do for you, think what you can do for your customers. With this kind of philosophy, your profits will take care of themselves.

About The Author

Patrick Quinn is an award winning copywriter with 40 years' experience of the advertising business in London, Miami, Dublin and Edinburgh. He publishes a FREE monthly newsletter, AdBriefing. Subscriptions are available at: http://www.adbriefing.com.

j.p@markethillpublishing.co.uk

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Customer Service Information:

Related Articles

Your Number One Asset
Customers put you in business, keep you in business, and they can put you out of business. Therefore, your overriding feelings at all times should be: customer love, customer satisfaction, and customer convenience.
E-Business's Best Friend: eCRM
From Ebay to the smallest home-operated start-up, e-businesses of all sizes struggle to accurately answer a common question: who are my customers? If you can't answer that question, chances are you're also in the dark about the following questions. What customer demand trends can I expect in the future? How can I improve customer retention? What can I do to build long-term relationships of trust with customers? Knowing the answer to these questions can mean the difference between long-term growth and profitability and crashing and burning.
Cultivating the Trust Factor
In today's highly competitive economy, it is difficult to maintain a significant market advantage based on your professional skills alone. Developing a trusting relationship with your clients is key to your success.
Quality vs. Quantity
There is a battle in Call Centers. The teams are Quality vs.
Is Your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System Doomed To Fail?
"Right, People. Let's blast out that mail campaign we've been planning for so long.
What Every Manager Should Know About How to Learn from the Complaints of Customers and Employees
Listening to complaints, whether they're reasonable or not, is a part of every manager's job. Sometimes complaints can be overwhelming.
Under Promise & Over Perform: The Art of Managing Customer Expectations
I'll always feel warmly about Conrad's restaurant, in Glendale, California.On the morning of the Northridge earthquake, Conrad's was the only restaurant in town that opened for business, and stayed open until the last customer went home.
Saying Thank You to Your Clients
"Thanking your customers" - Why you should do it and how..
Restaurant Owners - How Important are People Skills?
You are serving great food. Your establishment is new, spotless and inviting and yet you are not getting the repeat visits that you expect.
The Consumer Power
While most companies talk about consumer friendliness, customer centricity, customer relationship etc. more often than not they are mere lip service or jargons with little sincerity behind these grand sounding words.
Listen to Suggestions
If you are up to your ears in a stressful situation, it becomes difficult to think clearly. Sometimes, it is best to walk away from a problem, and think about it, rather than try to solve it with an instant solution.
Clients... and 38 ways to communicate with them
As Alan Weiss (guru to the savvy consultant) says: "It is actually difficult to contact clients too much. It is easy to fail to contact them frequently enough.
Setting Up a Customer of the Week Program for a Mobile Car Wash
In a mobile detail or mobile car wash business you are on a first name basis with your customers. You sink or swim with your ability to please your customer and rely on them to build your business by referring their friends, associates and neighbors.
How to Walk the Floor and Talk to Customers
This may seem a strange topic to introduce. Yet, it is the most under-used skill by many retail managers, but one of the most important roles in their supervision.
The Sellers Creed
I will not make sales. I will make Customers.
8 Critical Steps to Establish a Customer Service Culture
"Every company's greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company,"--Erwin FrandDuring our recent weakened economy, many businesses have seen declining revenues and declining budgets. Declining budgets often lead to reduced staff levels and diminished services.
What's in a Name?
Different people call their Customers by different names. If they don't have Customers, they have Clients, purchasers, licensees, users, patients, members, franchisees, or buyers.
Complaining Consumers
The salesman's job is to be well informed; extremely well informed. For this information is how he earns his bread.
Create Win-Win Deals With Your Competitors
In the competitive world of the 20th century, we generally viewed competitors as the enemy. And a competitor was anyone who sold to the same target audience as us - even if they sold a different item.
We Sell For Less and Our Stores Are a Mess!
What kind of image do you present when marketing your products? Are you professional and well organized or does your store/site/whatever scream, "sloppy!," to those who matter the most: your customers? Let's see how one leading retailer is winning the sales war, but losing an important battle: store organization.WalMart is dominant in so many categories with the various products that they sell.