If there’s one thing my eight year old has mastered it’s getting attention. There’s no mistaking when she’s in the room or the next room for that matter. There’s a lot of things I can do when she is in the house but ignoring her is not one of them. She makes sure of that. She gets attention!
Is your business getting attention? Are you making your business impossible to ignore? Are your customers being drawn to you by something captivating about your business? If your business isn’t growing maybe it’s time to get back to the basics and act like an eight year old.
8 Ways To Become Impossible To Ignore
(1) First Impressions– My eight year old dresses to impress. As most eight year old girls do she likes to be stylish and make an awesome impression.
What kind of impression are you making? What do your customers see when they visit your store? Is it clean? Is it easy to navigate? Are your employees engaging? Are they friendly? Is your website engaging? Is it clear and uncluttered? If you have uniforms for employees are they clean and neat?
Take a day and walk through your business from a customer’s perspective and write down your first impressions. Evaluate everything from the front door to the back including the parking lot. Better yet have someone who is not involved with the business do it for you. You’ll get a fresh perspective that could give you ideas for immediate action to change your business.
(2) Stay Visible– At times my eight year old seems to be in every room of the house at the same time. She is everywhere. Being visible is what keeps me engaged with her throughout the day. There’s a proverb that says “Out of sight; out of mind”. She’s always on my mind because she is never out of sight. She stays visible.
How visible are you? Are you engaged with community activities? Are you managing your marketing effectively so that you are “top of mind” when customers think of your type services? Is your branding effectively promoting your business?
(3) Ask Engaging Questions– If the FBI ever runs out of interrogators I have an eight year old that can do the job. Blessed with an inquisitive mind she never fails to ask questions that make me think. She asks questions that cause me to engage in a dialogue with her.
Are you asking deep questions that engage your customers? Do you ask “How was your visit?” or “How could we have made your visit better?” Big difference. Engaging questions dig below the surface to get better answers that address core issues. Action step to take today-develop a list of engaging questions for customers that focus on key performance metrics. When you get your responses back look for patterns. When you find them dig deeper to find what’s driving the patterns and make the necessary changes that will improve your customer experience.
(4) Prodigiously Persistent– My eight year old has patience. Not the ordinary kind that mortals posses. She has patience that puts her in the superhuman category. If she wants something she will wait until the next millennium to get it.
Are you consistent with your marketing message? Do you abandon one method of marketing for another when you don’t see instant results? Do you have the patience to allow your marketing to grow your business? Marketing should be about creating the “why” your customer should buy from you. Focus on selling the “why”. Don’t worry about “when”.
(5) The Connector– One of the things my eight year old does is that she keeps everyone in the family informed of what everyone else is doing. She is the information hub of our family wheel. She is a connector.
Are you a connector? Are you connecting your customer to someone you know in a non-competing business that can provide quality service? Are you connecting other business owners together? Do they see you as a connector? Remember in business it’s not who you know it’s who knows you.
(6) Be An Entertainer-Anyone who has ever spent anytime with an eight year old knows that they are natural entertainers. My eight year old sings, dances, hoola-hoops, wails on a harmonica and plays the keyboard. All at the same time. She’s impossible to ignore because she is entertaining.
Are you an entertainer? Do you engage your customer with an exciting show in your business, on the phone or your website. Every time your open your doors for business think about it as putting on a show. You have an audience and your cast (employees). Your performance is how you treat your customers. After they leave your store, website or hang up the phone will they rave or rant about the performance they just experienced?
(7) Outrageously Unexpected– About once a day I get a heart attack courtesy of my eight year old. I only regain my composure when I realize that the blood gushing from her finger is not real (fake blood) and that huge ink stain on the couch isn’t real either (disappearing ink). She gets a kick out of shocking me by delivering outrageously unexpected fun.
What outrageously unexpected fun can you deliver today? Have a free “giveaway” day? Call your best customer and pay for dinner for two at their favorite restaurant? Are you doing anything that will make a lasting impression with your customers? Something unexpected? What can you do today to genuinely surprise your customer?
(8) Be Nice– It never fails. When I take my eight year old shopping with money she has saved for herself she never forgets to get something for her big sister. I can only hope that the world she grows up in will have more people like her. She lives the golden rule everyday.
How nice are you to your customers? Do you offer free umbrellas on rainy days to customers and let them return them later? Umbrellas are cheap but the impression you make with your customers is priceless. Maybe hire a masseuse for a day for your customers so that they can get an unforgettable massage in your store? Do something for them that they wouldn’t do for themselves. Being nice makes a lasting impression.
Being impossible to ignore is essential to business growth. Using these eight ideas is a starting point. But it takes revisiting your business on a consistent basis to determine if what you’re doing is working. If declining revenues indicate you are being ignored by customers then your business may be in danger of becoming extinct. Take action now. Learn the lessons from an eight year old and put them in action to make your business impossible to ignore.
