Did you watch Barbara Walter’s interview with the president elect and his wife on Wednesday night? YouTube has the entire event in small segments and I would recommend you watch if you haven’t.
During the first part of the interview with Michelle, (around minute 3 of the attached video) there is a tender, honest moment between Barack and Michelle.
When we think of national and world leaders we imagine people who are serious, focused and driven to success – or at least I do. We can tell ourselves they put their pants on one leg at a time, but if we try to put ourselves in their shoes to understand the magnitude of their responsibility and their impact on the world, it just becomes impossible.
They are too far above us ordinary folks. It is impossible to imagine having anything in common with them. We have a hard enough time ruling our own roost let alone having an effect on the roosts all around the country.
But in that one moment of honest tenderness between husband and wife on national television we can suddenly envision hanging out with our next president and his wife.
He reaches over to tell her she has lipstick on her tooth and she admonishes him for not listening to her when she’s talking.
What a moment.
I guess the bigger reveal for me was that this very personal moment didn’t land on the editing floor.
So how does this relate to our every day life with customers, vendors, employees and peers? I guess it says to me that we should never be so focused on business that we can’t afford to be a little human. For it is in those little human acts that we become relatable – someone you want to hang with – someone you want to have a relationship with.
Someone you want to do business with.
I wish all the best for our new first family as they transition into their new lives, facing umpteen challenges; both monumental and everyday.
What are you thankful for this holiday season? Did you ever read the Mitford series of fiction novels by Jan Karon?
In one of the books the main charcter Father Tim is making a long drive to visit a friend. He doesn’t have a radio in the car – or perhaps doesn’t want to listen (can’t remember) but he decides to spend the entire two hour+ drive listing the things he’s thankful for.
At first you think – oh this will be easy, but once you pass by FAMILY, FRIENDS, HOME, HEALTH AND CAREER, what is there?
How about homemade spaghetti and meatballs, the smell of freshly mown lawn in spring, a field of daffodils, toasted marshmallows and towels straight from the dryer.
The next time you have a long drive – perhaps this weekend as you travel to/from family – consider this car game:
Early Bloomer, a fellow twitterer, asked the question “What is a make or break moment for an online store.”
That’s a great question. We may think of customer connections as only happening in person or over the phone but it today’s technology age, the Internet is a key way that our customers find us/do business with us.
So how do we ensure our customers have a make or break moment on our website?
Yesterday I talked about the fact that customers come to us with historical moments they draw on for comparison and so we need to take that into consideration when viewing our website from the customer’s perspective:
What experiences do they have at our competitor’s site?
What is the customer looking for?
Is it easy to find on our site?
is our homepage inviting with content that addresses their needs?
Do the links work?
Is it easy to find our contact information on every page?
Do we offer a variety a contact vehicles?
Do we provide something unexpected: information, free white papers, additional resources, coupons, humor?
Do we make it easy to do business?
View your site from the CUSTOMER’S PERCEPTIVE and ask the question “is this a site that appeals to me and makes it easy to do business?”
I was having a conversation with my Dad the other day about Make or Break Moments and he said, “You can’t have a make or break moment without something to compare it to.”
I had to stop and think about that for a minute. I define make or break moments as those times of interaction; first impressions, dissatisfied customers, customers with unknowing needs, etc. I thought, “if the moment is the first moment – how is there any history for comparison?”
But of course we all have an encyclopedia of historical moments that we draw from – unconsciously most of the time – but they impact how we view a given circumstance.
He gave a great example: shopping for a car. When was the last time you went to a car dealer? The lot is full. Full of cars waiting to be sold, needing service, shopping – cars and cars and cars.
You pull into the lot and don’t know where to park. There is no clear area and without double parking and perhaps blocking someone in – you aren’t sure. So you find a little spot of pavement to call your own, park the car and begin the shopping experience. This is normal. You think nothing of it.
My Dad told of an experience he at a Saturn dealer where he drove into the lot to discover an area by the building with a big sign “Shoppers Welcome to Park Here.”
It was a make or break moment. He had a positive customer interaction without ever talking to a person. He felt welcome the minute he entered the lot. And because he’d had a prior experience for comparison it became a moment that EXCEEDED his expectations.
So what does that mean for sales associates and employees looking to serve the needs of our customers?
If we recognize that almost every moment has a historical moment for comparison – we have to strive to exceed the customer’s expectations and in doing so, start the process of building loyalty and building a relationship.
They say history repeats itself. If that’s true – how can you make sure the newest historical moment is the best yet?
Remember this scene? Tom Cruise’s self-absorbed character in the movie Jerry McGuire has finally realized what is important in life.
Renee stops him before he cries her a river and says “You had me at hello.”
Don’t we wish our customers would feel the same way? The first impression we give; our location, our merchandise, our staff, and their initial greeting – that MAKE OR BREAK MOMENT is so fantastic that when they look back on the experience they say:
“YOU HAD ME AT HELLO.”
On Friday I wrote about an unfortunate restaurant experience in which I waited in vain to be seated at a table. At one point an employee came within speaking distance to fill the salad bar but chose not to speak or acknowledge our presence.
It makes me wonder at the focus that is put on greeting customers in our company training programs. We worry about making sure the employee knows how to clock in and out, how to make the widgets we sell, how to fill out paper work and other task oriented assignments, but how much time do we spend on HELLO?
Do we assume people know how to greet effectively?
Here are just a few tips for greeting customers in person (please comment with your additions and together we’ll create a tutorial for how to say “hello”
greet within 15 – 30 seconds of their entrance to the business (think that’s too fast? Raise your arm up high and now count “one, one thousand, two one thousand” up to 30 and see if your arm gets tired – that is about the length of your customer’s patience
Put a smile on your face – even a fake one is better than none
Make eye contact – eye contact coupled with a smile sends a message that you are happy to see them
Say “HI WELCOME TO XYZ, HOW CAN I HELP YOU?”
If you are busy with another customer, excuse yourself for a moment to look up and say “hi” with a smile and eye contact and mention that you’ll be right there
If you know you can’t be right there – grab the attention of another associate or manager to help
Keep the person informed (I’m tied up but Sue will be right there)
If you are busy with a task (like the salad bar guy) ask yourself this question: who pays my check, this broccoli or the customer at the door? Then give your attention to the person or vegetable most likely to use cash
It’s that simple. Each company will have their procedures for after “hello” but everyone – even the person who has only been working 60 minutes – if they are visible to the customer – should confidently greet and welcome each person entering the business.
We’ll talk about the phone greeting another time. But remember this:
A potential customer greeted warmly is immediately made to feel valuable and that is the beginning of developing a relationship you hope will be lifelong. How long does it take to say hello? Just a second.
How long is the damage you can do to your business if you fail to greet promptly and warmly?
I was in a hurry Tuesday night. I had 45 minutes to grab a quick bite before heading to a meeting. I didn’t want fast food but didn’t have time to enjoy Ruby Tuesday’s lovely menu so I opted for Eat and Park in Streetsboro. I always wondered about the name of this chain of restaurants. The natural progression would seem to require the name be reversed: Park and Eat.
And that’s just what happened to me. I got parked at the front door waiting to be seated.
When I arrived a single customer was waiting, in fact leaning on the podium that stood by the front door. We exchanged eye contact and then proceeded to wait in tandum. I watched the manager through the door to the kitchen walk by and glance in our way. “Oh here comes someone,” I thought. I was wrong.
I watched a harried waitress in the distance as she walked briskly from the tables she served to the kitchen area.
Out came a male employee with three containers to add to the salad bar. He didn’t look our way.
Another couple arrived to wait behind me and we all said hello. “Much of a wait?,” the couple asked.
“Well, let’s put it this way,” the guy said that had arrived before me. “I’ve been here long enough to notice there are two waitresses, this guy filling the salad bar and I even walked over and looked at the salad bar. Frankly I was tempted to grab a plate and help myself because I think that may be the only way I get dinner.”
The couple behind me said, “That’s this new generation. Look at that guy filling the salad bar. You know he can hear us and yet he is ignoring the fact that we are waiting because it isn’t his job. Why in my day…”
I spotted the manager again through the kitchen door’s window and yet still he did nothing to take care of the new customers waiting for a meal. He was not part of the new generation but looked to be about my age. Don’t think it is a generational thing, but I could be wrong.
I looked at my watch. I now had 30 minutes.
The waitress approached and said ‘I’ll be there in a minute.” She returned and said “Party of four?”
No. Three separate parties.
The pained look on her face truly made me feel sorry for her. It wasn’t her fault. She was working her tail off but to ask two waitresses to handle the door and their tables was clearly not enough.
So I thought:
It’s the manager’s responsibility to staff appropriately so did he staff too few and decide to anger customers rather than go to the expense of having more employees scheduled in hopes of additional customers?
Are we raising a generation of “it’s not my job?” employees?
Is it possible that the employee filling the salad bar was new and hadn’t been trained to greet and seat customers?
Shouldn’t that be the first thing every employee learns: how to say “hello” with a smile?
If local word of mouth has spread the word about the lack of service and under staffing of this Eat and Park – what will the manager need to do to turn things around?
It’s almost a chicken and the egg story. If you staff adequate people and then don’t get the customers because the word is out that service stinks – you suffer financially.
However, if you don’t staff enough people you continue to support the local WOM that service is bad and you suffer financially.
I like Eat and Park and this was my first poor experience. I enjoyed the conversation I had with the three other hungry guests but I took myself across the street to Bob Evans where Shandra seated me with a warm greeting, brought me water and a menu and had my order into the kitchen before I’d settled and opened my paperback novel.
I was out the door in under 30 minutes.
As managers, are we blaming the economy for poor sales results when in fact we should look in the mirror and face the fact that perhaps we bring the problems on ourselves??
Hmmm. what do you think?
Photo courtesy of Girl Half check out her post on service in Manhattan.
Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.
Dean Koontz
Intellectually, we understand the value of empathy; the effort of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, to feel their pain.
But reality says “I just don’t have time.” “I don’t know how.”
If today’s consumer is looking to do business with a company that wants to build a relationship then our associates need to understand the value of empathy in undercovering customer needs.
But what if you don’t know how?
I’ve developed three easy ways to FAKE it. You’ve heard the saying “fake it ’til you make it.” Wake up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning, but if you put on a fake smile – pretty soon the responses will turn the fake smile into the real thing. Same with empathy. Here’s the three tips:
Learn to put yourself in the other person’s shoes by acknowledging the fact that they in fact have DIFFERENT shoes.
Listen with a desire to truly hear rather than quietly allowing the customer to talk while you formulate your response in your head.
Understand that their view of the situation might be entirely different than yours and since they are the ones making the purchase – whose view do you think is more important?
That’s it.So simple. The most important thing to remember is that the customer is coming at your conversation with other things on their mind that have nothing to do with you or your products. They have walked a different life than you and so their perceptions may be different.
You don’t have to understand what they are feeling, you just have to respect the fact that they may view the interaction differently from you.
What they feel has value and should be treated as such.
I recently rewatched the Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman classic Bruce Almighty. Jim’s character is given god-like powers and with it; the responsibilities. He is inaudated with prayer requests and decides, in an effort to save time, to just tell everyone YES. This causes all kinds of mayhem and he seeks out “god” (Morgan Freeman) to help fix the mess Jim has caused.
Jim says “there were so many prayer requests, I just gave them what they wanted.”
Morgan responds “Since when does anyone know what they want?”
Morgan’s character goes on to describe a miracle and in the end tells Jim “why don’t you BE the miracle?”
I guess I feel that it is our responsibility with our customers. We have the opportunity to be the MIRACLE in their life. Not by performing some magic, but by truly listening, understanding and uncovering their needs and desires and then helping to fit the proper solution to meet those needs.
It takes effort.
It takes time.
It takes a sense of caring.
It requires putting the customer first.
It demands putting ourselves in their shoes.
It takes practice.
It is well worth the effort.
How do you uncover what your customer truly wants?
Have you had an experience where a business owner or associate seemed more connected to their corporate policies than to making customers happy?
Not long ago a friend of mine went to Subwayin Columbia, SC for his favorite foot-long turkey sub. He loves vegetables and banana peppers are one of his favorites. If you’ve eaten at Subway you know that the vegetable choices are plentiful and each customer can select those they want and those they don’t.
When ordering you select a sandwich type (deli meat, tuna, chicken, steak or meatball), a bread preference (Italian, wheat, whole grain, etc.) and then cheese. If you want additional meat or cheese there is an extra charge, however, vegies are seemingly endless.
I love Subway however am not really fond of vegetables. A little lettuce, some salt and pepper and I’m good to go. However, my friend likes tomatoes, lettuce, a few olives and lots of banana peppers.
On this particular occasion he told the server “Use a heavy hand with the banana peppers please, I really like them.” The sandwich technican placed a smattering of the vegetable across the sandwich and my friend said “could you please put more on, I really like banana peppers.”
The employee said “I did put on extra.”
Here’s where PERCEPTION IS REALITY.
My friend wanted more.
The employee felt he’d put on enough.
But my friend wanted more.
So the employee said “That will cost you more.”
More? For vegetables?
My friend said “but I don’t want a lot of the other vegetables, just more banana peppers, why should it be more?”
The employee began to argue “I’ve given you more, if that isn’t enough you’ll have to pay.”
My friend wanted more and so said “Okay, fine, please put on more.”
The employee put on SIX more banana peppers.
Was this employee listening to the customer’s needs?
Will my friend go back to this Subway?
What was his perception?
“I just wanted more banana peppers. I wanted the sandwich created the way I enjoy eatting it and I didn’t expect an arguement over a vegetable. Once I agreed to pay more I expected a pile of banana peppers however, even then I only got six more.”
This Subway has lost a customer for life over a few banana peppers.
When does the company policy have more importance than the satisfaction of a customer?
By the way: since my friend told me this story I have dined in four different Subway restaurants and in every case I have asked if there is an extra charge for additional vegetables. In EVERY case I have been told “no, you can have all the vegetables you want included in the price of the sandwich.”
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