Although Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield may have been right about love relationships when they penned their hit, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” when it comes to business, that notion rings less true.

Customers frequently break up with their suppliers, vendors and partners. And guess what? Most of them don’t find it hard.

Are breakups inevitable? Not always, but businesses need to understand these four reasons why customers leave and how they can use relationship extenders to avoid these situations.

 

Better Product

Sometimes customers decide to break up because they find a better product. They discover something that addresses their needs that’s faster, easier, healthier, more effective, more enjoyable or improved in other ways that are important to them.

Are you buying the exact same things you were buying 20 or 40 years ago? Have you any use for a Walkman? Probably not. Smart companies listen to what their customers want, think beyond those demands and push themselves to innovate and improve.

Relationship Extender 1: Pay attention. Know what your products and services are, what others are selling and how your customers are using what they buy from you. What problems are you solving? What would customers buy if you weren’t around? Who were they hiring for drain cleaning services before you?  

Relationship Extender 2: Challenge the status quo. It’s easier to innovate when you’re not being reactive. Don’t wait for a customer exodus to motivate you. Challenge yourself to innovate before you’re faced with no choice. What could you do better?

 

Better Process

Leaving for a different product isn’t the only reason customers tell companies goodbye. Good processes count, too. Without them, the customer experience suffers.

For instance, imagine a movie theater with great films, state-of-the-art sound, pleasant employees and clean facilities. So far, so good. Now pair that vision with long lines, staff members who can’t figure out how to work the cash registers despite their good manners, double-booked theaters and so forth. Would you risk taking someone you cared about to such a place, or would you choose to avoid the headache and go somewhere else? Most people would prefer to opt for a breakup and avoid potential pain and problems.

The lesson? At a minimum, doing business should not be hard. If you’ve got processes in place that inflict pain on your customers, don’t be surprised when they bolt the minute they find an acceptable alternative.

Relationship Extender 1: Make doing business easy. Walk in your customers’ shoes, and experience your business the way they do. What are you making difficult? What could you make easier? Where are you wasting their time? What used to make sense but doesn’t anymore?

Relationship Extender 2: Borrow from others. Process improvement ideas are everywhere you look if you know how to find them. When you are interacting with other businesses, ask yourself what they are doing well and what you can adopt or adapt.

 

Better Service

All else being equal (or even in the ballpark), customers will often break up with service providers because someone else is paying them more attention or better attention.

Consistent caring doesn’t happen by accident. It requires companies to define great service, hire people who are capable of delivering on those promises, train them how to do it and put a management team in place to oversee the process.

Relationship Extender 1: Define what you expect. If you don’t identify what quality service looks like, don’t be surprised when your employees don’t deliver.

Relationship Extender 2: Train people and hold them accountable. Plenty of companies offer training, but they treat it like a one-and-done activity. After you’ve defined what you want to see and hear, put a plan in place to teach people how. Once they know what they are supposed to do and how to do it, reward good performance and coach deficiencies.

Relationship Extender 3: Don’t get too comfortable. If you think your customers will just be there because they’re there, you’re mistaken. You must earn and re-earn your customers’ business. Look for signs you’ve gotten sloppy or lazy, and take immediate steps to get back to your best behavior and woo your customers again.

 

Better Price

The final reason customers will leave a business is price. If customers can get the same product and service you provide from someone who charges less, often they will leave. In other words, when the value-to-price equation gets out of whack, people look elsewhere.

That doesn’t mean companies should race to the bottom and strive to be the low-cost provider. What it does mean is businesses need to ensure they have a value proposition that matters to customers and aligns with the price being charged.

Relationship Extender 1: Shop around. Know what your competitors charge and what they deliver for that money.

Relationship Extender 2: Find out what matters to your customers other than price. What do they care about? What are they happy to pay more for? What are you offering that they don’t seem to value? What should you add? What should you subtract?

Try and try again.

Staying in any relationship requires work, and when it comes to customers, many a suitor will try to take them away from you. With some diligence, you can avoid the breakup blues and spend many happy years together.

 

About the author: Kate Zabriskie is president of Business Training Works, a Maryland-based talent development firm. Reach her at www.businesstrainingworks.com.