A few years back I switched telephone and internet providers because of how absurdly inconvenient my carrier made it to do business with them. When an issue arose and they informed me that there would literally be a 12-hour service window during which I had to be home (and no, the service person could not call me when they were on the way), I jumped ship.

Hopefully you’re not treating your customers poorly. But are you making things as pleasant for them as you can?

Want to build loyalty and motivate customers to sing your company’s praises to friends and strangers alike? Make things easy for them. Eliminate the friction they would typically encounter from a business like yours, and create an extremely convenient experience instead.

Think about how easy Uber and Lyft have made it to get a ride. Look at Ikea’s brilliance in putting restaurants and children’s play areas in furniture stores. See how some retailers are using automated checkout systems that tally your purchase and bill your account as you walk out the door. And figure out what you can do, too.

Take a “top to bottom” look atevery interaction that a person is likely to have with your company, and think about making it easier and more convenient. For example…

Marketing: Is your website easy to use? Do you clearly present the benefits of your offering and make them seem easy to obtain? Are you providing all of the information prospects need to make a buying decision?

Service: Is it easy to contact you? Are your hours convenient?

Paperwork: If your customers must fill out forms, have you eliminated redundancies and unnecessary information? For instance, if you have three forms that require the customer’s name and contact information, can you have them provide this information just once and then auto-populate it on the other forms?

Product: The more you understand your customers’ typical habits and patterns, the easier it is to design things to be convenient for them. I recently saw this concept in action when I bought some new furniture. Our new lamps, sofa and end tables all have built-in USB ports—a big convenience for the typical family that has lots of devices that need to be charged.

Make it easy…make it convenient…and make people want to do business with you.

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT: PATTERSON CUSTOM HOMES

Patterson Custom Homes specializes exclusively in building custom homes and luxury estates in Coastal Orange County. As Orange County’s premier custom home builder, Patterson’s white globe service is second to none.  

From tear down to finished home Patterson handles everything—permitting, specifications development (they actually produce an all-inclusive Specifications Book cataloging every component of the project), project management, quality control and more. Once the home is built, their turnkey lifetime home maintenance program takes “home maintenance” off of the homeowner’s plate. Learn more at the website I wrote for them, https://pattersoncustomerhomes.com.