What change am I talking about? How people think and interact with both each other and your business.

No longer is it ok for businesses or their staff to treat customers as people who just spend money on a product or service that you provide. In the past, if they walked away disappointed, it didn’t matter because there was always be another customer who will walk through the door tomorrow.

The world has changed and now these customers have a voice of their own. If they have a bad experience with your business, no longer do they just walk away with a bad taste in their mouth, they go home and blog, Twitter and Facebook about you so that all their friends and the rest of the world also know of their experience and why they too should stay away.

Now this isn’t all bad news, in fact this is great news for both the business and the customer alike. Sure this could be terrible if you offer a poor experience but imagine what this could do if you provided a truly remarkable experience for them? This could be some of the greatest marketing you will ever do.

People want to be involved and feel valued. They want to have their voice heard. They don’t just talk if they have a bad experience but they also talk if they have a great experience. They want to give feedback on your product, they want to give feedback on your staff and on how great (or not so great) they looked after them.

My challenge to you is to try and find ways of giving your customer a great experience each and every time they buy your product or use your service.

Make their experience so good that they just can’t help but tell everyone about it. Don’t try to squeeze every last penny out of them but rather over deliver every time, time after time and make your business worthy enough to talk about.

It’s not about being hip and out there by using all the latest media to advertise. I’ve never once bought something from a company just because they have a Facebook or Twitter page and were hip.

Instead, use the power of this media to benefit your business by providing a reason for people to talk about you. Stop talking yourself up trying to tell people you are great and start proving to the world that you are great.

Dave