Engaging our Customers

I was reading the book, Strength Based Selling, and I came across this particular chapter on Engaging your customers.

We know how important customers are for business. Some says customers are "King" while others say they are the real boss of the business. There is no right or wrong to this but more importantly is the organisation end to end process align with what they see their customer as?

The key message for this chapter falls on 2 groups of customer.

1. Emotionally Satisfied Customers
2. Rational Satisfied Customers

Emotionally satisfied customers usually have strong connection to the company. They are the number 1 die hard fan and believe in the company. They are also the key reason for the growth of the company.

Rationally satisfied customers on the contrary usually behave almost the same way as customers who are dissatisfied.

How many of you knows what I talking about? 


It further note customer engagement are build on 4 emotional needs:

1. Confidence - the company can be trusted to deliver on their promises


2. Integrity - Customers trust that you treat them fairly and resolve their problem


3. Pride - Proud to be associated with this company. Customer like to feel good about the decision they made and see themselves as capable and competent.


4. Passion - Customers who are passionate about your company offering. Their describe their relationship as irreplaceable and perfect fits for their needs.

When customers feels their emotional needs are met everytime they are more likely to become emotionally engaged with you.

So, how do we know where we are? 

We all gonna start somewhere right? There are a set of questions which we can engaged our customers for status check and us to work on the shortfall.

1. Overall what things are working well as a result of our partnership


2. What elements of this relationship are helping us build solid results together


3. Is there anything that is not going well as it should be?


4. What could we change to correct this?


5. Are you dealing with any issues right now that I could help you work through to improve the business?


6. Is there any information or education you need that you are not able to get?


7. If you could change one thing about how we are working together, what would it be?


8. What would you never change about the way we work together?


9. Is there anything else that would help us build an even stronger working relationship?

The above questions I find them to be useful as a customer relationship status check amidst our hectic schedule. Try them out next time and let me know how well it works for you!


Side notes: Some of the information were extract from the chapter from the book of Strength Based Selling.

Listen now.

My mom is a very wise woman. As a kid, I loved to talk and i still do now. In school, I always like to talk to my classmate seating around me and I was constantly caught for talking. One day, Mom sat me down and said : you were given two ears and a mouth for a reason. To listen twice as much as you speak." Brilliant point!

Listen intently to someone is one of the best ways I know of to honor that person and forge a deep connection.

When you Listen to someone, it sends a message : "I value what you have to say, and I am humble enough to listen to your words." So few of us are really good at listening. Most people's idea of listening is waiting until the other person has finished speaking before answering. And the sad fact is that while one person is talking, most of us are rehearsaling our replies. How many of us are guilty of that?

New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer has a line that empahsis the best. "Never talk when you can nod" Your effectiveness as a business person, family member or human being will absolutely soar if you get this one right. Listen twice as much as you speak. Become a world class listener. Get wildly interested in what others have to say to you. And just watch how people respond. They'll fall in love with you. Quickly.