If you were a customer, would you do business with your company?
That’s an interesting question to ponder, but unfortunately one not enough business owners are willing to ask themselves, says Scott McKain.
Speaking at the HDA Truck Pride Annual Meeting Thursday in San Antonio, McKain says self-evaluation is one of the biggest keys to successfully improving your company’s perception and creating distinction in the aftermarket today.
If you wouldn’t want to buy from your company, what’s the motivation for your customers to do it, McKain says.
“How do customers identify the difference between you and your competitors? How are you standing out in your market?” McKain says.
Great prices and customer service always matter, but businesses cannot thrive forever on those features alone.
“Great isn’t good enough to grow your business today, and great today doesn’t insure greatness tomorrow,” McKain says.
Maintaining business success moving forward requires the ability to differentiate yourself, he says. To make your company unique in a way that customers accept, appreciate and remember.
McKain says four cornerstones to creating distinction are clarity, creativity, communication and customer experience focus.
He describes clarity as the ability to focus on one very specific area of your business you want to highlight, and creativity as a willingness to think imaginatively to improve it. Communication refers to your ability to communicate this distinction to your employees, and then how they communicate that to your customers.
Together, he says the four traits work in unison to improve provide your ultimate customer experience.
The kind of experience you’d want if you were the customer at the counter.
“The goal has to be an ultimate customer experience every single time,” he says.
