One sure test of your ability to attract more customers is to ask how you are doing with the customers you already have. Most businesses rarely ask that question, thinking that a lack of complaints means everyone is happy. The reality is that you will only hear from two types of customers: those who love you and those who are unhappy with you. The killer is the great silent majority who don't whine or complain. They just quietly leave you for your competitors.
ACTION ITEM
Create a system that regularly invites customers to sound off so you know how your services rate. This will help you attract and retain the prospects you want.
When a salesman asked how his company was doing at making deliveries to Bob's mechanical repair department, he was flabbergasted to learn that Bob thought their service needed some work. Bob said that, in recent months, the service had deteriorated and that he had had to go to a nearby competitor when he needed something in a hurry. The salesman was smart enough to spend the remainder of the day polling his other customers in the area. He found that their service had deteriorated so badly that many customers were abandoning them.
A late-afternoon meeting with his key people determined that they had taken on some businesses in outlying areas and that it was keeping their people and trucks tied up so they couldn't deliver to their existing good customers. The end result was that they had to tell some outlying customers they were sorry they couldn't serve them, and rebuild their service for the customers who were their mainstay. How are you doing with your service? What would your customers really say if an outsider polled them at this very moment?
TAKEAWAY
A lack of complaints doesn't mean your customers
are out of ammunition. It may simply mean they are
reloading, and they're going to come after you again.