Costco gets it!
Is this the scene outside your business 15 minutes before you open your doors? Are they lining up to get the opportunity to buy from you? The scene above is from Costco store in my area on a Thursday morning, 15 minutes before they open. As I stood in this group, I watched in jealous amazement as the crowd continued to grow to over 50 before the gate finally lifted to open.
Regardless of the type of business, don’t we all hope to achieve this type of customer interest? Even though there are still many challenges in our economy, some businesses are thriving and growing at a healthy pace. What is it that Costco is doing that causes customers to show up in numbers, enthusiastically spending ‘tough to come by’ dollars and do so on a regular basis?
Here are my reasons for standing in line:
- Costco is consistent
- Costco is a resource
- Costco is fair
- Costco is responsive
- Costco listens
- Costco is clean
- Costco is efficient
- Costco is easy to do business with
- Costco is predictable
- Costco is innovative
- Costco fosters a feeling of belonging
- Costco provides value
- Costco is involved in my community
- Costco rewards loyalty
Can you imitate and adapt some of these traits for your business? How many?
Just go down that list and answer each question through your customers eyes. Are you easy to do business with? Is your customer service predictable? Do you really listen to your customers requests?
Now might be a great time to get everyone that can impact the response to these traits and talk about them as a team. Divide the list up and have everyone be accountable to deliver results.
Why do you shop at Costco? What are some of additional points that I missed?