Employees typically connect with your customers more often than ownership or upper management. But the reality is that ownership and upper management needs to have a close relationship with every employee at the company so that everyone shares the same vision, enthusiasm and passion for your product.
When everybody is excited about the company they work for, it’s much easier to transfer that connection to customers. I cannot stress enough that without the right team, it will be very difficult to create real brand loyalty and sustain it over a long period of time.
Be the best
Now that you have an amazing team representing your brand, I have a very simple question: are you the very best at what you do? I’m not telling you to be good — I’m telling you to be the best! If you are anything less than great, you will find it much more difficult to attract and retain customers.
When you have an amazing product or service, you will find that it is much easier to connect with your customers and ultimately, turn them into loyal brand ambassadors.
The little things count
Connecting with your customers seems like a fairly simple concept; however, most companies get it wrong. Social networks have helped level the playing field, as every company out there has similar resources to connect to customers, but sometimes we need to step away from all the social networks and keep it simple.
It’s amazing how far a 30-second phone call can go and how impactful a human connection can be versus Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. The heart and soul of your company is sometimes best conveyed with a very simple and rudimentary approach.
At Plan Check Kitchen + Bar, one simple way we connect with our customers is through comment cards, which we include with every check.
I find it truly amazing the amount of cards we get on a weekly basis, which is a testimony to the passion people have for our restaurant. Not every card is positive, and when we do get a negative comment card, I’m still optimistic as I know that the person does care and wants to be heard.
Now, the obvious approach would be to correspond with just the negative cards.
However, we make the same attempt to reach out to all the positive cards. I make it my goal to personally call or email as many comment cards as possible, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Wow, I’ve never had a restaurant call to thank me.”
It is exciting to know that almost every person we contact will tell their spouse, friend, or co-worker about the phone call.
