By Joseph Callaway
“We’re number two!” You’d never say it, but these eight red flags warn your company might be living it.
Picture this: You’re relaxing on your couch and watching your favorite crime drama. You’ve halfway tuned out during a commercial break when something catches your attention. “Come see what we have to offer. We’re proud to be second in area sales and customer satisfaction since 1992!” an announcer enthuses while a giant yellow “2” flashes on the screen.
Sure, it sounds absurd. But while most of us pay lip service to our desire to be our customers’ first choice, our actions may say otherwise.
Any time you don’t make the client your top priority, you’re tacitly agreeing not to be their top priority. You cannot truly be number one until your clients are. Being number one really is a two-way street, and it’s not an easy street. You can’t coast your way to number one—and when you settle for doing so, you soon fall to number two or even lower.
Putting your customers’ interests ahead of your own—every time—can seem counterintuitive, risky, and even frightening. That’s why so many businesses fail to be as competitive as they’d like: Even if they don’t realize it, they’ve chosen to operate in a way that makes it impossible for them to come in first from a customer’s perspective. Especially in an uncertain economy, you can’t settle for being number two—or three or four—because that puts you on the road to eventual failure. Sooner or later, your vulnerability will catch up with you. The best job security is being the best.
Here are eight signs that your business is aiming lower than you may have thought.
8 red flags
1. Your number one business goal is to make money. You may be asking, isn’t that the point of running a company? Well, it’s a point, but it’s not the point. A too-acute focus on improving the bottom line takes your attention off of the people who are going to enable you to raise it: your customers. Your clients can always tell when they’re not your first priority. If you’re skeptical, just consider the backlash that often occurs when small businesses are bought out and transformed by larger, more impersonal corporations.
The difference between paying attention to customer service so that your clients will give you more business and doing so because serving the customer is your first priority may feel slight, but it’s significant. Yes, taking your focus away from the bottom line may feel uncomfortable at first. But you’ll soon find that when you focus on how best to serve clients, tough decisions make themselves. If it serves the client, you do it. If it doesn’t, you don’t. This neutralizes moral dilemmas and really simplifies your life. And it almost always has a miracle effect on your growth and success.
2. You let the little things slide. So…what’s the problem? Rushing through paperwork so you can get home early, failing to spellcheck an email or two, and running late to a meeting probably won’t matter that much six months from now. It’s the “big” things like growing your company, expanding your client base, hiring more employees, and making a profit that are most important, right? Not necessarily.
So often in life, it’s the small details that differentiate “good” from “great.” So be careful not to become so fixated on the forest that you fail to see the trees. In other words, stop being so distracted by the ‘big grand ideas’ and start getting the small details right. Promises kept, deadlines met, little extra flourishes, and small acts of kindness add up to happy clients.
3. You habitually let certain clients go to voicemail. It’s happened to everyone: When you see that name flash on your phone’s caller ID, you slowly pull your hand back from the receiver and let the ringing continue. You just don’t want to deal with the drama, or the whining, or the accusations, or the belligerence just now. Yes, we all have “problem” clients. But to avoid them or just go through the motions for them is a mistake. They will notice and remember your behavior. And be honest: Would you want to give your business to someone who might write you off when the going got tough?
Clients first means all clients. In over fourteen years, my wife and I have never gotten rid of a single client—even when we secretly wished we could—and we believe this no-fire strategy has contributed significantly to our ultimate success. Here’s the payoff: When you make the choice to stand by all of your frazzled, frustrated customers, you will eventually reap financial and personal rewards.
You may even become known in your company or industry as the guy or gal who can handle the toughest customers. And chances are, your clients themselves will be grateful that you didn’t give up on them and may even send others your way.
4. You find yourself telling white lies. It’s true that telling clients white lies, or exaggerating, misdirecting, or omitting, might make life easier temporarily. It’s also true that we can often justify such behavior to ourselves (She’ll never know, and it’ll save me hours of work, for example). But these “little” lies are just as bad as the whoppers. There is always a chance that customers will see through you and call you on the carpet. And even if they don’t, a willingness to play fast and loose with the truth is indicative of a broader attitude that relegates clients to second or third priority.
Honesty can be tough in the moment, but a reputation for trustworthiness (or untrustworthiness) can stick with you for life. Live by a policy of never holding back or sugarcoating and you’ll gain customer loyalty that money can’t buy. Plus, when you have only the truth, you don’t have to worry about getting the story straight or remembering what you have and haven’t shared. You know you’re doing the right thing.
Read the other four red flags here. (Scroll down to the second part of our October cover story.)