Did you know that customer thinking can cost you dearly? Now there's a concept! If that is true, do we all want unthinking clients and customers? Well, in a way. The real question is, how much do customers have to think about doing business with you?

The more clients or customers have to think about whether to do business with you rather than someone else, the more it costs you. It is more expensive because it takes more time and effort to make each sale and the percentage of business you successfully close is lower. The more prospects have to think about whether to do business with you, the more likely they are to do business with someone else instead. That is costly.

How, then, do we lower the cost of customer thinking?

1) With a strong brand
With a strong brand, your prospective customers think of you first when they think of your type of product or service. In marketing speak, we refer to this as occupying “top of mind.” For example, when we think of income tax preparation services, what name comes to mind first? H&R Block. They own top of mind in that market. For a prospect who doesn't know an accountant and doesn't want to prepare his own taxes, the choice is H&R Block or someone else. There is not even a second choice! All of the other accounting firms, large and small, are included in "someone else." That is a strong brand ... and a low cost of customer thinking.

Now, we don’t all have multi-million dollar advertising budgets, so how can we build a strong brand and occupying top of mind? Large or small, it is done pretty much the same way. After all, most companies with big advertising budgets don’t have as strong and well defined a brand as they might. So don’t be discouraged, a smaller company can do it too. Read on for more tips.

2) By clearly differentiating yourself
If prospective clients aren't sure how you are different from your competitors, they have to think too much about whether to engage your services or someone else’s. Do you appear to be just another attorney, accountant, or candlestick maker? Or, do you excel in some important area? How have you differentiated your company/products/services from all the other attorneys, accountants, or candlestick makers?

You don't want your customers to have to think about whether your company is any different from any of the others. You want them to know. But in order for them to know, you must have a clear and unique selling proposition. Here are the kinds of questions we ask:

• What is unique about your business?
• What product or service do you offer that none of your competitors do?
• What promise can you make to customers that no one else can or will?
• How have you designed your products or services to make them unique and compelling?

Somewhere in the answer to those questions is the basis of your differentiation.

3) By clarifying your message
Once you have determined your unique selling proposition – what it is that differentiates you from others in your business – how do you best communicate that to your prospective clients or customers? It is the rare business that clearly communicates its unique message in a way that, 1) engages its target audience, and 2) is truly memorable. Instead they more likely say something like, “We are a leading provider of ________.” This doesn’t tell prospects anything engaging or memorable. In fact, those statements usually don’t even clearly say what the company does. Instead, prospects have to try to figure out whether you offer what they need. Clarity and specificity reduce the cost of thinking.

Here is an example: Bob and his wife want to go on a cruise, but they are not sure how to find the right itinerary and a good deal. Bob decides to find a knowledgeable travel agent rather than try to investigate and book the trip himself. He starts his research in the travel section of the newspaper, and he finds an ad for a travel agent that says, "THE CRUISE EXPERTS." Great! Bob doesn't have to think anymore. He now knows whom to call.

Undoubtedly this travel agency helps clients with all sorts of travel plans, but it is canny enough to differentiate itself by usurping this one category. If it had said, “Help with all your travel plans, including cruises,” Bob probably wouldn’t have noticed them. A statement like this doesn’t stand out and engage readers. Yet this is more like what most businesses do. They don’t want to exclude any prospective clients by appearing too specialized, so, instead, they become forgettable to everyone. That is not a good trade-off!

A clear, specific message is what it takes. People are only going to think of you for one thing anyway. You might as well have it be the right thing.

4) By providing positive experiences
If your customers' experiences in doing business with you are positive, they aren’t motivated to think about finding other sources. If you are satisfying their needs and they get a warm, fuzzy feeling when they think about dealing with your company, they are happy. None of that costly thinking is going on.

Even in a small company, however, it is difficult to know how good or bad your customers' experiences are at each touch point. How is a customer received on the phone, on your Web site, when they send an email query? At the front door? At the back door? When they have a problem? Every dealing they have with your company either goes in the plus column or the minus column of customer experience.

5) By being proactive
If you are proactive in your customer communications, they don’t have to think about contacting you – or someone else – when they need your products or services. You have already thought of it for them.

At the beginning of each year my accountant sends me an organizer package. It contains a checklist to make sure we are considering all the applicable tax ramifications and deductions, plus pages to help me organize my income and expenses. To make it even more helpful, all of my information from the previous year is filled in.

Sending out this organizer package is a great, proactive service. Not only does it remind her clients about her every year, it serves two other purposes. 1) It helps us collect and organize the needed information, and 2) it helps her by getting us thinking about taxes earlier in the year than we might otherwise. By having fewer last minute returns to prepare for repeat clients, she may be able to accommodate more new ones. Plus it makes the whole process more efficient. With the organizer, we are better prepared when we meet with her. Fewer follow-up faxes, emails, and phone calls are needed. Being proactive not only helps her retain clients, it makes life easier for us and for her. It is a great win-win service.

6) With clear, consistent marketing communications
Once you have determined your differentiation and clarified your primary message, using it consistently increases your memorability. Consistency in message, in look, in voice, in branding all significantly lower your cost of customer thinking. If your ads look and read differently than your literature, for instance, customers have to think more to be sure it is the same company.

If your Web site is different yet, they have to think again. You don’t want your prospective clients or customers having to think about whether your Web site represents the same company they saw in print. And you don’t want them to have to think about how to use it. You want them to be able to just think about doing business with you. Whether your company Web site is transactional or just informational, clarity of information and an intuitive structure and interface are critical. If your site is difficult to navigate and the information prospects are looking for is unclear, not logically organized, or lacking altogether, they quickly start thinking about finding an alternative source for their needs.

Raise your customers’ cost of switching
If you occupy top-of-mind in your market niche, and it is easy and affirming to deal with your company, your cost of customer thinking will be very low. This also has the effect of increasing your customers’ cost of switching.

In order to deal with someone else, they have to start thinking again. They have to think about how to find an alternative source and determine if that source meets their needs. They have to think about how much hassle it will be to switch and try out the new source, and what has to be set up, learned, remembered, or done differently to do business with the other source.

The lower you make your cost of customer thinking, the higher their cost of switching. The easier and more painless it is to do business with you, the more of a bother it will seem like to switch to someone else. The greater that apparent cost of switching, the more likely they are to stay with you.

After all, we all have enough to think about!

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Copyright 2005 by Reid M. Neubert. All rights reserved.