Public Safety Insights Newsletter: How to Help Satisfied Customers Become Your Advocates

How to Help Satisfied Customers Become Your Advocates
Public Safety Insight:	Satisfied customers make great advocates for public safety. Let them tell YOUR story by helping them share their experiences with your agency.

One of the best ways to demonstrate the value your agency provides the community is to let your satisfied customers tell your story. Because you see them on what often is the worst day of their lives, you know they have stories to tell! And they can tell that story in ways that you cannot. In fact, although your customers often feel compelled to share their experiences, they don’t know how. You can change that – quickly, easily, and immediately. And in so doing, you benefit your community.

The psychological principle of reciprocity is simple yet compelling: it states that people feel obliged to respond in kind to others’ behaviors, both positive and negative. Why not use this powerful principle to help you do a better job of creating a safe, healthy, economically viable community? Here’s how.

Invite your satisfied customers to share their stories. The reciprocity principle virtually guarantees that they will say "yes," especially when you make it really easy for them to talk about their positive experiences. Here’s how you can do this:

1. At an appropriate time, visit or call those who for whom you provided a service. Usually this is after the fact; however, there are some situations (e.g., conducting a business inspection) in which on-the-spot requests are in order.
2. Ask if they would be willing to take a few minutes to help you out by sharing their story about their experience with your agency. Assure them that it will take only a few minutes and that you will provide a suggested format so they just have to fill in the blanks. You then will post the story on your website and/or Facebook page.
3. Give them the option of recording their story or of writing it. You can record the story with a smart phone or tablet on the spot, literally in one minute or less. We’re not looking for perfection; we’re looking for results.
4. Record their story (verbal or written).
5. Post the story on your website or Facebook page. Create a separate page for customer stories. Give the page a title that catches people’s attention such as "Here’s What Our Community Says about Us."
6. If you think you need it, get a written release allowing you to post their story.

Here’s the template I suggest my clients give their customers; feel free to customize it for your agency:

• My name is ____________.
• I live in [name of community – NOT address].
• I called the [name of your agency] because ______________.
• When the [officers, paramedics, firefighters] arrived they [describe briefly what they did].
• As a result of their actions, [describe the OUTCOME – e.g., they saved my life, they kept the fire damage to a minimum, they followed up afterward to make sure we were okay, they caught the person responsible].
• I am grateful to [name of the agency] because [tell what changed for you as a result of this interaction, or how it affected you and/or your family].

This template can be used for a video or written testimonial. Cost: your time and your customers’ time. Value of allowing your customers to be your advocates by telling the positive impact you had on their lives: priceless.

Bonus: by giving people an outlet to express their gratitude, you are continuing your service in two ways. You enable them to (1) honor the reciprocity principle and (2) help you continue to keep the community safe, healthy, and economically viable. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and collect those stories!
           
To see examples of video testimonials from two of my satisfied fire chief clients who used this format, take a look at the Testimonials page of my web site.

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To find other articles and resources that may be of value to you, I invite you to visit my web site at www.PublicSafetyInsights.net.

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©2014 Pat Lynch | Public Safety Insights