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Annoying Customer Behaviors

March 15, 2010 by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

A thorn in your side...

...or an opportunity for higher prices?

“Why can’t they just...?”  For the umpteenth time a customer has:

• Waited to the last minute to order.
• Failed to provide specifications on time.
• Returned your product.
• Refused to pay for services rendered.

Regardless of what they’re doing, your customers are driving you nuts and costing you a lot of money.  You can turn those annoying behaviors into gold by remembering this bit of wisdom - we live in a reciprocal world.  In other words if I treat you well, you’ll treat me well.  But if I frustrate you, you’ll find a way to balance the scales.  

With that in mind, if we list the ways that our customers annoy us, then ask ourselves “What am I doing to contribute to this problem?” (we always do); we’ll discover some simple, inexpensive, easy-to-implement solutions that will eliminate the frustration for both parties.  When you do that your customers enjoy a richer, more satisfying experience and you get to charge a premium.

Please don’t tell me that you can’t raise prices because your competitors won’t raise theirs.  Most businesses within an industry operate according to industry practices. If the source of frustration is one of your industry’s practices, and it often is, your competitors’ customers are experiencing the same frustrations your customers were before you made the change.

Now you not only have the opportunity to raise prices, you have a competitive advantage to offer the market.  Repeat this process regularly and you’ll maintain competitive advantage for years to come.

It’s counter-intuitive, but one of the ways to get premium prices is to spend time with your most annoying customers. If that doesn’t sound like very pleasant advice, let’s look at the alternatives.  You can continue to live with the pain and suffering of low prices or you can fire the customer and not only lose those revenues and profits, but the price premiums you could have earned as well.

Having said that, if a customer still isn’t happy after you’ve made changes that delight the majority of your customers, refer them to your competitors.  Some people you just can’t please.

For more pricing tips visit http://www.pricingforprofitbook.com.  

About Dale Furtwengler

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