What Customers Want

One of the challenges facing businesses today is attempting to figure out what their customers want. We have and continue to see a huge transition taking place in the real estate profession, much of it brought about from the impact the Internet has had on our business. In developing my personal real estate website http://www.propertycollingwood.com/ I spent months researching exisiting REALTOR® websites both good and bad. Many of these sites (the bad ones) extolled the various awards that REALTOR® had obtained along with copious amounts of information all about THEM. I asked myself "who cares?" The more frequently visited and successful real estate websites were in reality all about the customer and I have endeavoured to develop both my website and the service I provide in such a manner as to best serve my valued clients.
Perhaps rather than attempting to find our what customers want, it's easier to determine what they don't want or to quantify the things they just don't care about. The following list summarizing "what customers don't care about" was compliled by Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller, two executive and business marketing coaches that work with business owners, entreupreneurs and salespeople in various fields. Thinking as a customer, how many of these ring true with you?

The Top 9 Things Customers Don’t Care About:
9. How good you are at what you do. They only care about how good you are at who you are and how you can help them get what they want.
8. Your education, your certifications or your designations. They only care about how what you know can help make their lives more enjoyable, simple and prosperous.
7. Your brand. They only care that the experience of doing business with you is sensational.
6. You saying you have great service. They only care about getting great service.
5. How much you charge. They care about getting value for their money.
4. How you feel today. They care about feeling good themselves and having a positive day.
3. Why you can’t do something. They only care about fast, easy solutions.
2. How long you’ve been in business. They only care about how you can solve their problems under today’s conditions.
1. How cool or slick your marketing looks. They care about how your product or service can save them time, relieve them of pain, help their family or put money in their bank account. SOURCE: RISMEDIA.com

Essentially all of this boils down to delivering to your customers and clients exemplary service that offers them real value in satisfying their needs. Personally, I believe that doing the simple things extraordinarily well sets you apart from your competitors and will help to ensure your success in 2008 and beyond. Simply put, in business, I live by my motto "Helping YOU is what I do."