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Why Have Your Customers Come to You?

Watching a recent news show about the making of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, one of the producers cited how important it was for the director to make the audience believe that what it was seeing was real and not just terrific special effects.

And that made me think about the great lengths that good moviemakers go to in order to get into the mind of the viewer. That is the objective of just about everything they do, and that needs to be our goal as well: we need to get into the minds of our customers to see what they want from us.

A successful movie producer works hard to come up with a product that the viewing public will spend millions on. And we need to come up with the kinds of remodeling projects that will similarly reach our potential customers.

It is essential to understand what brings customers to your company. Spend some time asking yourself why people buy from you. What makes you different from your competitors? Write down your observations.

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Think outside the box. Do not write down customer service, attention to detail, quality and craftsmanship. These are all generic answers. If you don’t have any answers on what makes your company unique, then determine how you can set yourself apart in the future and modify your business plan.

Spend some time answering two questions: Why do customers buy from us? How can we be better at what we do?

Your answers to the first question will probably fall into a few groups. Then take those groups and identify how you can make improvements within them. Put some time into this, and the process will be beneficial for your business.

We all need to spend time thinking about our company. This can be a great step.

Erik Anderson, CGB, GMB, CAPS is vice president of Anderson-Moore Builders, Inc. in Winston-Salem, NC, and currently serves as vice president of the Home Builders Association of Winston-Salem. For more information, send him an e-mail.
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