While you can’t force customers to do anything, you can help nudge them in the right direction. Making customers remember you will keep your business on the top of their mind when they need further products or services.
The key to making customers remember you is to be memorable. As Seth Godin outlines in his book, Purple Cow, you need to be remarkable.
One surefire way to be remarkable is to put the customer first.
On a recent Southwest Airlines flight, we had a stop in Denver. We were scheduled to stay on the plane and continue on to our destination. However, once we landed, we were told that we’d have to change planes.
As you may know, Southwest has open seating so you really want to be on the plane first if you want a good seat. Having to change planes, with the whole family in tow, could have been a big headache.
However, when we got to the new gate, the agent had all of the “continuing passengers” line up and we boarded first.
In this case Southwest was acutely aware of our situation and put our needs first.
As you can tell from this article, I remember them because they took care of my family.
Consider how to handle changes with customers and how you can improve those situations.
Plan for common situations when customers will be disrupted. Each of these should have standard responses that enable you to deal with the issue and still meet customer needs.
Account for non-disrupted customer reactions. In our flight example, the gate agent announced why we were boarding first. This way those that thought they were at the front of the line understood and received the news as being fair to everyone.
Making customers remember you comes down to how you treat them today. Fairness, respect, and kindness can go along way to making you memorable and remarkable.