“The primary purpose of any organization is to create customers.”
This is a quote from the famous marketing teacher and consultant Peter Drucker.
So what does this quote have to do with today’s headline? Everything.
The “dog” analogy makes all the sense in the world if you pause long enough to reflect on behavioral characteristics of individual pet ownership.
Think about how people treat their beloved dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and other furry animals. The bond between them is as strong as steel. It should become pretty obvious that this is a winning strategy if we can manage to “treat our customer like dogs.”
Let’s look at a few specifics. I will use dogs in my examples:
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- Owners speak to their dogs regularly… in an endearing language. We can think of this as communicating with our customers every chance we get. With kindness and understanding.
- Owners physically “touch” their dogs at every opportunity. We can think of this as meeting with, and speaking to, our customers on a regular basis. The key word here is contact.
- Owners appreciate the companionship of their dogs. We can think of this as knowing and realizing that our customer is our competitor’s prospect. It has been said that a dog is man’s best friend. Likewise, a customer is a business owner’s best friend.
- Owners reward their dogs for good behavior. We can think of this as thanking our customers for being our customers. We can also thank them by being creative, timely and thorough.
- Owners don’t leave their dogs alone for long. We can think of this as never taking our customers for granted. Just like The Rule of Seven is a key strategy when cultivating prospects, it is also a good directive when securing client relationships.
- Owners forgive their dogs when they goof up. We can think of this as understanding our customer’s human frailties. Remember the last time you acted like a jerk? I rest my case.
Now that you have a better understanding of how this dog thing works, go out a treat your customers like a dog.
Mike Marchev freely shares his experiences, strategies and observations with travel professionals in an effort to keep them on top of their game. For a complimentary copy of his 12-Word Marketing Plan send him an email at mike@mikemarchev.com.
Mike’s daily column is made possible by AmaWaterways.
