How Do You Get Your Customers to Do Stuff?
Even Motivated Customers Can Use a Little Encouragement to Take Action
Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?
A customer has agreed to do a project with your company, and the only step left is that they need to follow up with their legal department to get a final clearance. For the past three weeks, your customer has been “too busy” to make the call to legal, and now the project - and your ability to collect money - are significantly delayed.
Or …
A customer has agreed to stop by your showroom and check out the latest model of your product. You're confident that he will want to upgrade to this new model once he sees it. But for the last few months, he keeps ghosting you.
Or …
A customer has agreed to make a referral to one of their colleagues, but after nearly a year of follow-up, he still hasn’t made the referral.
No matter what business you are in, your success requires your customers to act. And, if you’re following Brand Harmony principles, the actions you would like your customers to take are beneficial for those customers. But still, customers sometimes seem lethargic.
As I wrote in “From Beliefs to Business Results: Your Company’s Secret Weapon for Growth,” unleashing the latent profit in your business depends on customer action:
People’s understanding of this concept is often limited, believing that the only action they need to motivate is a customer’s purchase. But for most of my newsletter subscribers, success depends on the customer taking many other actions in addition to buying:
Agreeing to meet with you.
Agreeing to introduce you to their boss.
Filling out your credit application.
Getting you the information you need to start the project.
Responding to your requests for information or feedback.
Paying your bills.
Providing referrals or testimonials.
And an unlimited number of other possible actions.
So the question becomes: How do you encourage your customers to act?
Of course, the specific steps depend on who your customer is and what actions you need them to take. However, there is one key concept that works in all cases:
Make it about them
Your customer won’t interrupt their day to follow up with their legal department if they see it as a favor to you. But if they see a personal benefit in doing this, they will act.
They will not respond to your requests for information or feedback if they see it only as something you need. But if they see that it will support their personal goals, they will act.
They will go out of their way to introduce you to their boss or to a colleague if they see how this not only helps you but helps them as well.
This “selfishness” is not surprising. It’s human nature.
Three steps for getting customers to take action
In summary, here are a three things to think about… and do:
Identify the key customer actions you need to motivate that will fuel your success.
Focus on encouraging customers to take those actions. Be disciplined.
Always communicate the benefit to the customer of taking the action.
I’m writing this in the middle of July, a time when it is especially difficult to get customers’ attention, let alone getting them to take action. So now is as good a time as any to try this approach. Whether it’s the middle of summer or the dead of winter, always help your customers see why it is in their benefit to take the actions you need them to take.