Spreading joy to your customers

“Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” – Jeffrey Gitomer, author & speaker

Hopefully by now you’re on the path to being a more joyful person/employee and you’re gaining confidence about how you can spread that joy to those around you at work.

Maybe you’ve already tried a few steps and are seeing some good results – things are more fun around the office in general and productivity is rising here and there. And, finally, perhaps you’re taking some deep breaths and stepping back before exploding in front of that challenging coworker. If any of this applies to you, bravo!

Now it’s time to focus on bringing joy to our customers. Whether you realize it or not, we all have customers – no matter what job we have. For example, for government workers, it’s citizens. Teachers have students. Factory workers have the people who use or consume the products they help bring to fruition. You get the point.

You may be rolling your eyes at this point and thinking, “I already work hard each day to serve my clients/customers. I provide this product/service to them every day. It’s good and meets their needs. Why do more?”

First, now that you’re becoming a more joyful person and spreading that joy around your workplace, you’re already off to a great start to making your customers truly happy. According to a May 2017 article in forbes.com, happy employees make happy customers. What happens on the inside of an organization is often felt on the outside by its customers. So, yay, you!

Second, Murray Goldstein of Cox Business wrote in ForbesVoice in October of 2015 that without satisfied customers, you’re simply out of business. Happy customers are loyal customers. He wrote that if you go above and beyond for them, you’ll see real results with increased revenue. Retaining current customers is efficient and more profitable than seeking new ones. Loyal customers are also easier to sell to.

Goldstein continues by saying happy customers are more likely to recommend your company or product to others. With the Internet and social media driving so much business these days, this is crucial. Most business owners will tell you that word-of-mouth is the absolute best form of advertising since it doesn’t require any time, effort, or money.

Finally, Goldstein talks about how happy customers can give you valuable feedback about your product or services. They can also tell you what you’re doing right for customers and how you can do even better.

Entrepreneur.com sums up in March of 2013 why it’s so important to bring joy to your customers in one sentence: Customer loyalty is hard to win and easy to lose. That sentence says so much I practically want to plaster it on my forehead.

Folks, to be competitive, keep improving, and well, make more money (which is most always our goal) we absolutely cannot ignore bringing joy to our customers. We must not just deliver what they expect but surprise them with the unexpected – in good ways.

If we consistently make our customers happy, we’ll feel the rewards for years to come. And just like what we talked about with spreading joy your coworkers, most ways to bring this joy are not hard. In fact, they can often be fun for all parties!

Next week we’ll dive into the simple things we can do starting ASAP to make our customers joyful.

Amy Shankland is a writer and fundraising professional living in Noblesville with her husband John, two sons, two dogs, and a cat. You can reach her via email at amys@greenavenue.info.