Client Evangelism, Marketing, Uncategorized
Book Review: Cult of the Customer (How to Get Clients to Evangelize You)
January 10, 2010 by Brian Smith · 6 Comments
Author Shep Hyken explains that customer evangelism is possible and can be a profitable strategy for any business, including yours as a successful real estate agent. The full title of the book is The Cult of the Customer: Create an Amazing Customer Experience That Turns Satisfied Customers into Customer Evangelists.
You may be wondering, what are customer evangelists? “Evangelists are special people who go out of their way to tell the world just how great you and your company are.” The evangelist says to family and friends, “This company is great. You’ve got to try this!” Satisfying customers is not enough because satisfied customers are not loyal. They are merely satisfied.
Turning customers into evangelists looks like extra work, so why bother? The obvious answer is the increase in business from referrals and repeat business. But let’s also remember that referrals tend to be pre-sold on you, so they often require less work because a level of trust has already been established. And referrals usually have a lower marketing cost so your ROI for a referral is higher than for another lead type.
A culture of client evangelism does not mean that you don’t make mistakes. But it does mean that you consistently provide above average experiences throughout the buying process, even when you have to handle problem situations. And it is that consistency of experience that creates a client who is willing to forgive you when you make a mistake.
So where do you start? Start with your employees, partners and strategic relationships. It is important that they not only buy into the journey to client evangelism, but that they are treated within the workplace in a way that creates loyalty and evangelism towards you. This part is key because employees and partners have to go through this phase before the client.
When working with your clients, there are two important opportunities. The first are touch points. These are the points of contact directly with your client. The second are impact points. These are behind the scenes actions that are not in direct contact with your client but impact the client. Shep provides some great exercises and worksheets so that you can recognize these opportunities and capitalize on them. Here is the link: http://www.cultofthecustomer.com/forms.html
Shep also has a blog at: http://www.thecultofthecustomer.com/ and you can subscribe to his e-newsletter at: http://www.cultofthecustomer.com/subscribe.html
A healthy relationship between a loan officer and real estate agent means the agent is never alone. Often an agent and I will sit down and go through these client evangelism exercises together. We’ve found that it’s a great way to uncover missed opportunities while getting to know each other. If you are interested in learning more, just contact me.
If you have employees, this is another great book on client evangelism: http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Buffalo-Excellence-Learning-Employees/dp/0446670081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263146491&sr=1-1
And here is another great book on client evangelism, whether you have employees or not: http://www.amazon.com/Customer-Driven-Company-Moving-Talk-Action/dp/0201608138/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263146551&sr=1-1
Here is a link to another review of The Cult of the Customer:
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