RM Online - Customer ideas & concrete floors

Customers for life

"Keep Your Customers for Life" is a point of view for many businesses like ours. If you keep every customer that comes to your store, you will have done your best. That should be one of your top priorities.

Here is a way to convince yourself and your employees. Do an easy calculation - multiply the average rental (say $75) by the number of times the average customer rents in one year (say two) and then multiply that by the average number of years a customer uses your business (say 10) and you get (in this case), $1,500. This is the total you can expect your average customer has spent at your business. In fact, you and your employees should always consider that amount for each customer standing in front of you or calling for service. Here is the "convincer":

Lose the profit.

Lose the rental/sale.

Keep the customer.

Have you seen those phrases be-fore? Look at each one. The profit of an average transaction of $75 is $10 to $20. A rental/sale is obviously $75. The customer value by calculation is $1,500. Which do you lose if you must lose something and which must you keep? Obviously it's "Keep the customer at all costs" (that's probably where the phrase comes from).

More "connections" can

mean more business!

What I am about to suggest may help you make new customer connections or maintain "old" connections, which are, in effect, the lifeblood of any business!

Let me take you back to your childhood when you needed support from your parents or whoever was responsible for you. They were your first "connections." As you grew older, you maintained those connections and made many others. Making and maintaining connections with others is a human need - it's as simple as that!

It's easy to maintain those connections with people you see regularly, but how about new people in your life, such as customers? Here is a straightforward way to have them perceive you in the best light, even if you disagree with them from time to time. This will help to make, and keep, important connections.

1. Mirror - repeat back to your customer what he is saying in your words. This begins the connection and lets him know that you have the facts straight (good or bad).

2. Validate - explain and express to the customer that you acknowledge the situation and see it in his terms (good or bad from your perspective). This helps build a positive connection and defuse a bad one.

3. Emphasize - by sharing with the customer how you would feel about his situation, based on his perspective. Try to feel what the customer feels. This will help cement the connection you are working toward. This connection needs to be maintained regularly or it will become stale. If it does, hope that you will get the opportunity to reestablish the connection. Many customers only visit us a few times a year, so we need to make a strong connection, which will then be passed on to potential customers via word of mouth.

4. Do All Three - many of us already follow the first two steps with our customers, but only those who have tried the third step realize its positive effects and undeniable results.

Examples of customers or people you want to connect with are new, repeat, irate, dissatisfied and tight (on money) customers; employees; supervisors; friends; parents and children.

A four-way comparison

on cleaning concrete floors

While channel surfing recently, I came across The House Doctor and saw Ron Hazelton compare four products and their ability to clean oil and grease off concrete floors. If you don't have concrete floors with oil or greasy types of residue, read no further.

The products tested were: (1) a mix of detergent, bleach and TSP; (2) an engine degreaser spray by Gunk; (3) the old solution of Classic Coke; and (4) a granular product, Swab, also by Gunk. They were tested on the same area, and the results are:

1. Worked rather poorly, but removed some oil and grease.

2. Removed much of the oil and grease, but left an oil film on the surface after cleanup.

3. Also had poor results. Better to drink than use for cleaning.

4. Had the best overall results in cleaning oil and grease off the floor, but did not remove some rust stains hidden under the grease and oil.

In a conversation with a large supplier in my area, I learned that the Swab product is very popular for floor cleaning with automotive and truck dealerships. There are probably many products like this one, but having seen this comparison test I felt it was worth passing on. Swab comes in a small liquid can, as well as a 25-pound bucket of granules. It sells for about $45 per bucket in my area with no indication of its expected coverage like you see on a paint can. They probably figure you will use what is needed to remove the grease or oil off your floor - "Life is messy, so clean it up." It is a free-flowing powder with a pine-oil odor, water soluble and non-flammable, but has an alkaline pH so eye and skin protection are recommended. When cleaning is done, it can be flushed down the drain since it is biodegradable.

A previous Trade Tip, "Concrete floors can look great," (August 1997, page 18) did not give any cleaning tips, so here you have them now!