Are you connecting with customers?

Billionaire Mark Cuban had a great post in his blog, Blog Maverick, a couple of years ago. Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, an NBA basketball team, and chairman of HDNet, an HDTV cable network. His remarks are especially relevant now when consumer confidence is low and sales are slow. Banks need to pull out all the stops to attract and retain customers.

Take away points (whether you’re the CEO or marketing manager):

• Customer service starts with the CEO.Treat customers like they own you, because they do. Remember YAHOO when dealing with customers, because they will. YAHOO stands for You Always Have Other Options.
• Get out there and experience your product/service like your customer does. Stand in the teller line with your customers and test the service. See what they see. Don’t rely on someone else doing it. Do it yourself!
  
  (In my experience, these next three points are especially critical. While the suggestions seem obvious, I’ve seen CEOs, as well as marketing execs, do the opposite and insulate themselves. )
  
• Make yourself accessible. Post your email so customers can reach you. The CEO who doesn’t listen to direct customer feedback will never take the institution as far as it can go.
• Communicate with your customers. A happy customer tells one person, but an unhappy one tells 20.
• It’s better to be proactive than reactive.
  

Read Cuban’s entire blog post, “Success and motivation - Connecting to your Customers.” The comments on the post are great, too.