My wife spent $200, got soaked, and barely spoke to anyone about our dog’s health. The vet clinic thought they were being efficient. They were actually being terrible.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
- Maya Angelou (who understood that customer experience is everything)
Key Takeaways:
- Cultivating a customer-focused mindset will lead to raving fans (and referrals, and repeat business, and sleep-at-night confidence).
- How customers feel about your company is as important as the product or service provided (maybe more important).
- Nothing says you care like a personalized approach (and nothing says you don’t like making them wait in their car in the rain).
- Every person in your company is responsible for customer success (yes, even accounting).
- Identify friction points in your value delivery process and make them disappear (they’re costing you more than you realize).
- Knowing your LTV (Lifetime Value) and CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) helps emphasize the importance of customer retention (lose a customer, lose $144,000).
- Most companies are inwardly focused—asking “what’s best for us?” instead of “what’s best for the customer” (this is why they lose).
- The customer is not the enemy or the obstacle—they’re the path to success.
Questions to Consider:
- Do we have a documented, proven customer success process (CSP)? (Or are we winging it?)
- If yes, are we reviewing this regularly for opportunities to enhance it? (Or did we create it once and file it away?)
- How would we describe our attitude toward our customers? Grateful? Indifferent? “They’re lucky we exist”?
- Who in our organization is responsible for monitoring and improving the CSP? (If the answer is “nobody,” that’s your problem.)
- Do we differentiate from our peers when it comes to our customer approach? (Or are we just another option?)
- Can we list every customer touchpoint? (Before, during, after.)
- Where is there friction in our customer journey? (Be specific.)
- What’s our LTV? What’s our CAC? What’s our ratio? (If you can’t answer immediately, you’re flying blind.)
- Are we inwardly focused (what’s best for us) or customer-focused (what’s best for them)?
- Do we ask “how can we make this easier for our customers?” or “how can we make this easier for our business”?
A Quick Story (That Reveals Everything About Customer Focus)
We have a veterinarian just down the road in a great location. They do great work and seem to care deeply about animals.
The only problem? They are focused on the wrong thing—pet care. They fail to realize they are in the people care business.
How are they demonstrating that they are failing?
When you arrive for an appointment with your pet, you are asked to stay in your car. The vet tech will come out and get your animal, perform the exam or whatever service they are providing, and return your pet to your car afterward. The vet then explains what they observed and the treatment protocol. The receptionist shares the bill and takes your credit card.
Done. Efficient. Optimized for the clinic’s workflow.
Pets are integral to many people’s lives, and vet care is costly. Making people wait in their vehicles might be ideal for the clinic, but it is bad for business.
Recently, my wife took our dog, Boomer, for some blood work. The skies opened up right before the tech came out to grab Boomer. Upon return, the tech left the back door open while explaining how to administer the prescribed medicine. The door, the car, and the tech got soaked. The conversation was rushed.
How would you feel in that situation? In 15 minutes, you spent $200, got the inside of your car soaked, and had little interaction with the staff caring for your family pet.
My wife was not pleased.
Is What They Are Doing Wrong?
Not necessarily. At least not for them.
They have set their business up to serve their preferences, not the preferences of those who pay the bills.
When supply is limited, you can do what you want because there are few alternatives. (Monopolies are great for business owners, terrible for customers.)
Ample supply, however, requires a different approach to maximize your capacity. (And last time I checked, there are plenty of vets around.)
Here’s the deeper question: Are you designing your business around what’s convenient for you, or what’s best for your customers?
Most businesses—if they’re honest—design around their own convenience. Then they wonder why customers leave, why referrals are weak, why they have to compete on price.
The First Step: Cultivate a Customer-Focused Mindset
Mindset matters. If the leader isn’t all-in on customer success, the organization won’t be either.
Why does your company exist? (And “to make money” is not a good enough answer.)
In my experience, the most successful businesses have customer service at the heart of their work. To serve and be served is the ultimate exchange.
Team members in organizations that obsess over customer success find their work more fulfilling. They have a sense of purpose and meaning. In return for your organization’s passion, raving fans will promote your business and buy more of what you offer.
(Free marketing. The best kind.)
Next: Map the Customer Journey (Before, During, After)
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. You can’t fix what you haven’t identified.
Action steps:
- List every touchpoint for your customers: Before, During, After. (Build a flowchart. Make it visible.)
- Where is there friction or potential for friction in the current customer journey? (Hint: If you’re making people wait in their car in the rain, that’s friction.)
- What is one step in the process that can be changed to improve your customer’s experience? (Pick one. Fix it. Then pick another.)
- Has everyone who interacts with our customers been trained and tested? (Or are we just hoping they “figure it out”?)
- Schedule time quarterly to review the customer journey for improvements. (Quarterly. Non-negotiable. This matters.)
- Conduct audits regularly to confirm that what you believe to be true is the reality. (Your assumptions are probably wrong. Test them.)
The Personalization Advantage (Or: How to Make People Feel Special)
Nothing says you care like a personalized approach.
How do you feel when a place you frequent knows your preferences? I love it. I feel special. I feel good about myself all day and look forward to my next visit for another hit of that “I am special” feeling.
Social media platforms like Facebook have a trillion-dollar market cap because they have personalized their members’ feeds. The personalized approach leads to outsized success when done right.
(And no, you don’t need a trillion-dollar budget to make your customers feel special. You just need to pay attention.)
Know Your Numbers: LTV and CAC (This Is Critical)
The key to your company’s success is understanding these numbers.
What is the Lifetime Value (LTV) of a customer?
Understanding the LTV will help determine where to focus the company’s efforts. In general, there are two transaction types:
One-Time Transaction: A fence is an example. Most homeowners will only install one fence on their property. Of course, if they move, another fence might be needed, but the likelihood is low.
Recurring Transaction: A veterinary clinic is an example. Yearly checkups and pet emergencies are part of pet ownership.
Which of these requires a more personalized approach to maximize LTV? The answer is both.
Even though it might seem like the vet clinic has more incentive, the fence company thrives on referrals. The LTV for each can be equally valuable.
How to Calculate LTV:
LTV = (Average Revenue per Customer × Gross Margin) ÷ Churn Rate
Important Note: Average Revenue per Customer is a time-based number. For example, if you charge $1,000 monthly, your average monthly revenue would be $1,000 and $12,000 yearly. This is important because your churn rate needs to match the rate used to determine the average revenue per customer. If you lose 5% of your customers annually, this is very different from losing 5% monthly.
Example of LTV:
LTV = $144,000
Assumptions:
- $1,000/month average revenue ($12K annually)
- 60% gross margin
- 5% yearly churn rate
Calculation: LTV = ($12,000 × 60%) ÷ 5% = $144,000
That’s the value of keeping one customer happy. Still think it’s okay to make them wait in their car in the rain?
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): What It Costs to Get Them
Another vital metric to know and understand is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).
After we know our LTV, we can determine how much we’re willing to spend to acquire a customer. If the LTV is $1,000, we should spend less than $1,000 to acquire the customer. (This seems obvious, but you’d be surprised.)
We want to establish a ratio. If your LTV is $1,000 and your cost to acquire the customer is $100, your ratio is 10:1. In other words, you put $1 in and get $10 out. Not a bad return.
The higher the ratio, the better the investment. It should also be noted that a high ratio might mean you’re not growing as fast as you could be. (You might be leaving money on the table.)
Determining the optimum LTV/CAC ratio will ensure your business is growing at an optimal rate—not to mention in a more predictable manner.
Keeping this ratio front and center will help you understand the impact of a new competitor or market downturn. (Because they’re coming. They always do.)
Calculating CAC:
CAC = (Marketing + Sales Costs over a specific period) ÷ Number of new customers over the same period
Example:
- Marketing & Sales Cost = $10,000/month
- 10 new customers acquired in the same time period (one month)
CAC = $10,000 ÷ 10 = $1,000 per customer
Bringing It All Together (The Uncomfortable Truth)
Most companies have limited visibility into their customers’ journeys. They are inwardly focused.
In other words, they don’t ask “what is best for the customer?” They ask “what is best for the business?”
This approach leads to customer dissatisfaction and lack of loyalty. It only stands to reason: You don’t care about me, and I won’t care about you.
The customer is not the enemy or the obstacle—they’re the path to success.
Understanding your customers’ journey and the cost of acquiring customers helps you identify friction points for your customers. When you have the friction points identified, it is important that everyone in the organization work to eliminate those friction points.
Doing so will make it easier for customers to do business with your business and refer others to your business. The objective is to create raving fans who refer your company.
Understanding the customer journey and the cost of acquiring customers will lead your company out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light of reality.
Long-term, repeatable success awaits.
The Five Questions Everyone in Your Organization Needs Answered
My experience has been that transformation begins when leaders take an intentional approach to leading.
Winging it is the path of least resistance and the path to limited success.
Are you regularly answering the five questions everyone in your organization wants answered?
- Where are we going? (Vision)
- Who is going with us? (Culture)
- Why are we going there? (Purpose)
- How do we get there? (Plan)
- What does winning look like? (Performance Measurement)
If your team can’t answer these questions, you’re not leading. You’re just hoping.
So, Do Customers Rule or Don’t They?
Here’s the truth: In a competitive market, customers rule. Period.
You can pretend they don’t. You can design your business around your convenience. You can make them wait in their car in the rain.
But they have options. And they’re taking them.
The businesses that win long-term are the ones that obsess over customer success. The ones that eliminate friction. The ones that personalize the experience. The ones that make customers feel valued, not tolerated.
The businesses that lose are the ones that ask “what’s best for us?” instead of “what’s best for them.”
Which business are you building?
Because customers can tell. They always can.
And they’re voting with their wallets.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION FOR LINKEDIN:
Visual Description:
- Background: Split image – Left side shows person sitting in car in rain looking frustrated (vet parking lot); Right side shows warm, welcoming interior with staff greeting customer with care
- OR simpler version: Customer waiting in car (lonely, frustrated) vs. customer being warmly welcomed inside
Text Overlay:
- Top: “$200. Soaked Car. Zero Interaction.”
- Middle (bold): “Is This Really Customer Service?”
- Bottom: “Understanding LTV, CAC & Customer Journey”
Color scheme:
- Left/waiting side: Grays, blues (rain, isolation, frustration)
- Right/welcome side: Warm yellows, oranges (hospitality, care)
Canva Search Terms: “waiting in car,” “rain on car window,” “frustrated customer,” “welcoming business,” “customer service,” “hospitality”