Focus on Your Product: The Key to Winning Customers and Keeping Them

A lot of businesses fail, not because they don’t have great marketing ideas, not because they don’t have a good sales team, and not because they don’t have a great pitch. Many businesses fail simply because they don’t offer a product that people want enough.

Now let’s break down what “Product” means. Product is what you give your customers, so that doesn’t just stop at a physical product that you give them. That means that your customer service, their perceived experience interacting with your company, and everything else that’s involved from reaching out to you the first time all the way through when they finally get what they paid for is part of your “Product.” Even if you have a service-based business, your service is your product.

So let’s take a look at why having the right product can make it or break it for your business.

Reason #1: Your Product Is the Reason People Choose You

Your customers work with you, not because they owe you anything, but because they think you can solve a problem they have. Maybe you own a restaurant and you help families have a warm atmosphere that’s great for families on the weekends. Maybe you own a construction company and you deliver quality results on time for a fair price. Or maybe you have a photography business and you capture unforgettable moments for your customers and create an experience they can cherish forever with their loved ones. 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. 

Whatever you’re selling, if you’re not solving a specific problem, your potential customers will not want to work with you. Identify what specific problem your business solves, then you can start figuring out if you’re pricing that solution competitively, showing it to the right people, and continuing to improve that product so more people naturally are drawn to your business.

Reason #2: Your Product Is the Reason People Come Back

If you solve someone’s problem with your product or service, now they have someone they can trust when they have that problem again. And you might even have other problems you can solve for them related to the one you just took care of. If you have a plumbing company and you just fixed a leak for a customer in record time, you might have another side of your company that helps people with their home improvement projects. Or maybe you solve a problem that’s recurring so there’s a reason for your customers to keep coming back as long as they continue having great experiences with you!

It’s hard for consumers to find businesses that they can trust, so solving one problem is your gateway into solving that customer’s future problems. By providing a great overall product experience, you build trust that can last a lifetime.

Reason #3: Your Product is the Reason People Give You Great Reviews

If someone is comparing your business to a competitor’s, the first two things they’ll usually check are your reviews and your price. If the price of your product and that of your competitors are similar, they’ll go to your reviews to make a decision. And the best reviews come from providing a great product. 

Consumers are much more likely to give a bad review than they are to leave a good one. Negative experiences stand out in our head much more than good ones.One path to getting more reviews for your business is to hound people to leave a 5-star review and try to get as many as possible. The other method is to make it a seamless part of your customer’s experience. So by the time you ask if they’d be willing to leave a 5-star review after you’ve solved their problem, they’re already so impressed that they are more than happy to do so.

And there’s a big difference between a customer who leaves a simple “5 Stars” from a customer who’s so excited about what you did for them that they write paragraphs talking about how helpful you were. If one business has a bunch of simple 5 star reviews and another has a similar review count and rating but longer and more heartfelt reviews, guess who’s getting the business?!

Reason #4: Upgrading Your Product Shows that Your Customers are Your Focus

When your customers work with you, they want to be the focus. They don’t want to feel that they’re just another number or ticket in your process. They want to know that you’re doing what it takes to help them and making adjustments to your process as needed to make sure they’re taken care of. They don’t want to feel like it’s a pain for you to take care of them. They want to know that you’re thinking critically when necessary so they don’t have to repeat the process with someone else.

And one of the best ways to make your customers feel like a priority is to improve your process, upgrade your materials (or staff), and even introduce new products when it makes sense and helps your customers solve related problems. “You spoke and we listened!” can be a slightly cliché way of introducing improvements to your company or product, but people love working with companies that take their feedback seriously and are focused on doing a great job for them.

Especially when most people are used to spending a lot of time and effort with airlines, car dealerships, and tech companies just to resolve issues with their customer experience or product they purchased, making it clear that you handle anything unexpected proactively goes a long way towards building a brand that your customers trust for a lifetime.

Conclusion

Your current and repeat sales depend on how great your product is. And your product isn’t just a physical one. It’s your customer’s experience working with you and how well you deliver the service that you promised them to begin with. Focus on making a great product, and your customers will give you sales, reviews, and referrals without you having to dump hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars into marketing, sales teams, and other extra resources for your business.