Readers Write: Happy Customers Don’t Just Pay Their Bills!

Happy Customers Don’t Just Pay Their Bills!
By Dean Kaufman

Dean Kaufman, MS is founder and CEO of Healthcare Service Consultants of Millburn, NJ.

“The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers.” Those are the words of Shiv Singh, chief executive officer at Savvy Matters, a business growth consulting firm, and author of “Savvy: Navigating Fake Companies, Fake Leaders and Fake News in the Post-Trust Era.”

The problem is that many company leaders are short-sighted when it comes to customer relationships and don’t make the most of satisfied customers in the long term. Singh’s sentiments, however, ring especially true in the healthcare IT and health tech markets, where ongoing customer success and relationship building are ultimately critical to long-term business success.

Indeed, this long-game approach is an absolute must-have for continued growth. This rings even more true for cloud-based SaaS companies since turning off the spigot is as easy as turning it on.

As such, healthcare IT company leaders must remember that happy customers can do more than simply pay their bills. They can evolve into strategic assets that fuel business growth in more ways than one might think.

The unfortunate reality, however, is that early stage healthcare IT companies are often pressured to focus on near-term customer acquisition and rapid top line revenue growth. This is often necessary to show investors they can solve a pressing problem and acquire paying customers. Company leaders, however, must look beyond these immediate concerns and realize that enduring success requires a people-first approach that nurtures trust and long-term customer relationships that extend beyond the initial sale and out-of-the-gates technology implementation.

Customer Success as a Product Commercialization Strategy

Concentrating on these relationships is crucial, because healthcare IT buyers at provider organizations typically are risk-averse and make fact-based buying decisions. For this reason, acquiring new customers hinges on the company’s ability to substantiate the accuracy of product claims. The best way to accomplish this is to provide quantified evidence via existing customers. This is why successfully nurturing long-term customer relationships is so incredibly important.

Happy customers are not “just” satisfied when a vendor solves their pressing problem. These customers will often vouch for the benefits their organization has realized by using the company’s products. Optimally, they will eventually see beyond their unique clinical or operational workflows and understand how a technology company’s solution can be applied broadly across the market.

If done well, a delighted customer will not only buy more from the company. They will become sales agents as well. By evangelizing the problems solved and benefits realized by healthcare IT products, happy customers attract others with similar needs. This creates new leads and leapfrogs these new prospects further along the sales process as interest and credibility are already established.

Happy Customers Drive Sales

Unfortunately, most early-stage companies are under pressure to complete an implementation as quickly as possible and move on to the next one so revenue recognition can begin. As a result, when an IT company walks away after implementation, the company is likely to miss a growth opportunity.

Truly successful companies are those that continue to satisfy customers’ needs while seeking new ones. Ensuring existing customers are taken care of by solving their problems as they arise, taking an interest in their ongoing needs, and identifying legitimate opportunities to sell more to them are three successful sales strategies. This ongoing relationship-nurturing process is especially important in healthcare, where continuous customer and technical support is required.

A happy customer is more likely to be willing to:

• Contribute to case studies, webinars, and other forms of thought leadership content.
• Provide favorable verbal and written testimonials.
• Support reference calls, site visits, trade shows and introductions to others.

Such evidence-based product marketing content is invaluable for building confidence and eliminating the fear, uncertainty, and doubt necessary to drive the business forward.

Relationship Building Starts at the Top

The role of company leadership, particularly the CEO, is pivotal in fostering a culture focused on long-term customer success. CEOs who focus too much on technology or near-term revenue generation risk overlooking the importance of long-term personal relationships. After all, people buy from people, even in this day and age. No matter how sexy the technology, trust that another human will do what they say and solve a problem they say they can solve is the foundation for business success, not just in health tech and IT.

When company leadership is people-focused, other teams follow suit and are more likely to build customer trust through meaningful interactions that foster a richer understanding of the client’s business challenges and pain points. This benefits sales and support, leading to better products and a deeper understanding of market needs.

Customer Success as a Strategic Philosophy

Satisfied and engaged customers are a competitive advantage and a prerequisite for long-term business growth. Unfortunately, not every CEO gets the memo. There are plenty of companies that seem to care little about their customers and erroneously believe that “if we build it, they will come.”

When company leaders stay informed about customer journeys and optimize processes that ensure ongoing success, customers are apt to become fantastic allies. Remember, the reverse is also true. Unhappy customers are not always able to stop paying and switch vendors, even if they want to. When this happens, they can expose the soft underbelly of a company or product in unexpected ways, such as around interfacing and workflow issues that may not be a core expertise. They can hurt a technology company’s reputation through direct conversation, social media, and the rumor mill. As such, these customers might be doing just the opposite of what company leaders want them to do: Creating customers for competitors.