Becoming a recording star starts with great customer service

Becoming a recording star starts with great customer service

Mark Fitzsimmons - 360 Degrees Management Consulting

My brother-in-law is in the music business; along with writing and recording, he has a production studio and typically receives a few hundred demos from musical performers each week. Recently, he lamented that many of them don't even take the time to write much about themselves. Amazingly, a couple of people have literally asked him, to Google them, to hear their music rather than making it easy for him by providing it directly.

What they fail to appreciate is they're competing for his, or any other music industry executive’s time, with every other 'wannabe' artist. They haven’t aligned their interests with his in a way that makes it easy to see why a relationship is of mutual benefit.

There's a remarkable similarity to the way many organizations behave. Both fail to appreciate that their customers have a choice. Ironically, more and more, organizations are being commoditized as customers aren’t seeing a meaningful difference between brands. 

His advice? “If you want to get noticed, try and do something creative”. Whether you’re a business or a potential recording star, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

What are you doing to stand out from the crowd?

There’s a lesson here. Regardless of what you’re selling, or whose attention you’re trying to get, you have competition. You need to make it as easy as possible for your customer to choose whatever it is you’re selling; a product, a service; or your potential to become a recording star.

Any potential recording artist, or business that wants to capture the attention of potential customers, needs to find a way to stand out from the crowd. That might mean being creative in your pitch or providing something unique, but you have to create something that sets you apart from everyone else and compels potential buyers to give you a chance.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, or your employees, why should anyone buy from us? Were you impressed by your answer? If not, neither are your customers. Worse yet, if your answer isn’t aligned to the answers you hear from across your organization, what it’s like for your customers to do business with you?

Here’s a test: 

1. Do you know what it’s costing you in lost sales?
2. Do you know your market share for the products and services you sell?
3. Do you know the share of wallet for existing customers of the products and services you sell? 

Great organizations find a way to do this. They create an image their brand becomes known by; and it’s very rarely the actual products or services they sell. It’s usually something that makes their products or services desirable. It’s what their customers are really buying. Whether you drink Coca Cola because ‘It’s the real thing’, eat at Subway because it’s ‘Always fresh’, or watch CNN because ‘It’s the most trusted name in news’, you need to have it.

A great product or a great service is not enough. It has to be packaged in such a way that the customer’s experience resonates and generates a positive emotional connection to it. Fans of Apple products are passionately loyal. So much so, they line up hours in advance of every new product release with a willingness to pay a premium for their products.  

One final test: 

1. Do you know the value of a customer?
2. What is the lifetime value of a customer (by product, service or other meaningful category)?
3. What is your customer attrition rate?
4. What is ‘word of mouth’ worth; positive and negative?

It takes a well-constructed, carefully planned and flawlessly executed effort.

Creating a customer experience that separates you, or your business from everyone else requires a thoughtful and carefully planned approach that translates the needs, wants and wishes of customers into actionable strategies. When accomplished, it serves as a protective shield because it differentiates you from the competition and serves as a rallying point for employees and fans alike. Employees are proud to represent the brand and have a vastly better understanding of what their actions need to be in any given situation in order to support it. And ultimately, it’s what your fans come to love about your business.