Do we sometimes treat our employees like children?
Sales are down, profits are dwindling and so is our patience. At times like this we can allow our stress to show in the way in which we treat our team. I would suggest that now is exactly the time to embrace our team even closer. In the words of the 3 Musketeers “All for One and One for All!”
Or to modernize the reference, in the words of the kids from High School Musical “We’re all in this together.”
As the New Year dawns, let’s make a pact to look upon our employees as part of the team that will help us navigate the tough economy together. How can we do that? I wrote an article a few years ago called “The key to obtaining buy-in, explain the “why,” in which I offered the following suggestions:
When communicating with your associates remember these tips:
- If there is an action, task or deadline for the reader, state it early and often
- Explain the why behind the message – it should be as simple as a sentence:
“In response to competitor’s recent advertising we are…”
“Due to changes in our vendor supply capability you will need to…”
“In response to requests from your peers we are changing…”
-Tell them how their compliance will impact the company. When associates realize that the request isn’t busy work but will actually impact the overall company results, they are more likely to comply.
-Thank them in advance
-Reinforce any specific task and/or deadline
-Give them a contact in case they have questions or comments
Out of the eleven speech topics I offer chambers and rotaries, the most popular by far is the one entitled Earning Customer Loyalty. Why is that?
Don Neal, Director of Business Development for Hallmark Business Expressions has this to say: “Companies spend 6 to 10 times more to acquire new customers than they do to retain existing customers. But a 5% increase in customer retention can have a bottom-line profit increase of 75%, depending on the industry.”
What percentage of your marketing budget and more importantly – your marketing focus – is attached to enticing prior customers to return? What programs do you have in place to ensure they remember, refer and return?
One of the ways to earn customer loyalty is to make it a point to develop a relationship with your customers, rather than just fill the order and move on to the next opportunity. You have to engage in an ongoing conversation with your prior customers through the use of:
* Thank you notes and phone calls
* Newsletters
* Press releases and announcements
* Post cards
But conversations need to be two-way. So ask your customers what they want. Ask them how you can make the experience even better and then LISTEN. Find out where your customers hang out – locally and online – and then engage them in conversation to learn how you can make their life easier. Chamber meetings, chat rooms, blog platforms, business expos, industry conferences are just a few places you can learn more about your customer.
Carl Sewell, author of the 1990 book Customers for Life talks about turning one-time buyers into a lifetime customer. He offers the 10 Commandments for customer service – most are familiar (the customer is always right, under promise and over deliver) but one might be something new to consider:
“Systems, not smiles. Saying please and thank you doesn’t guarantee that you’ll do the job right the first time, every time. Only systems guarantee you do that.”
Do you have a system in place for building that lifelong relationship with each and every customer, every time? What does it look like?
Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni have written a book entitled 1,001 Ways to Keep Customers Coming Back in which they share tips and techniques and most importantly actual examples that you can put in place today.
Customers that have already purchased from you understand your product, your service and the quality of the experience/product. What percentage of them return? Could it be better?
I was hopping around the net just now and found a quote on the Conversation Agent blog that says:
“Receiving isn’t easy. If it were, more of us would do it with grace and gratitude. Is there a way to change that? Can we learn to receive so we can be nourished and empowered? These are crucial questions, not just because the holiday season is a time when giving and receiving are part of our daily experience. The ability to receive is, in fact, essential to physical health, psychological balance and spiritual engagement.” [Ode magazine, The Art of Receiving]
That quote reminded me of a story I heard about a month ago. I was chatting with a member of the audience after a Make or Break Customer Relations workshop and he told me of a great restaurant experience he had. The evening was so enjoyable that he sought out the manager to say thank you for the helpful, friendly staff that made the evening so special.
“I was amazed because the owner assumed I sought him out to complain. I assured him that wasn’t the case and the owner, clearly in shock, confessed that he’d never had a customer come to tell him about a great experience. In fact, he went on and on about how often he heard the bad stories and what a shock it was to hear something good.”
My friend told me how sad it was that people didn’t take the time to share thanks with management when they have a good experience.
Two things stuck me as I listened to the story:
1. Are there really that many bad stories that reach the owner? If so – I’d be taking a closer look at my staff as they interact with customers. Sometimes when the manager is absent or in the back office, the customer/employee experiences are less than they might be if the owner was visible and actively participating in the business. If you only hear the bad stories, wouldn’t you start to wonder? Think about how many people don’t take the time to tell you when they are less than satisfied. What brand image are you projecting to the community?
2. Just say ‘thank you.” I would like to think the owner was exaggerating when they said they’d never heard a positive comment before. But even if that is the case – just say thank you. There’s no need to show surprise, even if you are surprised. Humbly accept the gratitude from the customer and make sure you let the appropriate employees know how well they were received.
As owners or managers sometimes the bad stories seem to over shadow all of the good we do for our customers and on a particularly bad day it may in fact seem like all we hear is bad news. And it is true that people are more likely to share their complaints rather than take the time to offer a heartfelt thanks.
However, on the occasion when someone does tell you about a great experience, accept with grace and appreciation.
It is Christmas Eve. A time of tradition, family, music, great food and gift giving. As a crafter, I begin in the summer thinking of gifts I might make to give. A small cross-stitched ornament, a crocheted blanket in college colors, a stuffed bear decked out in queenly attire or the Sleepy Santa pictured above. My favorite part of Christmas is watching the faces of those I’ve made or selected gifts for as they open the wrapping to reveal the surprize inside.
Giving.
A true, heart-felt pleasure.
As the hour approaches to gather as a family in church to celebrate God’s greatest gift of all, His Son, I think about our customers. I know – seems like a stretch, but not really. Our customers bring us a gift each time they do business with us.
The gift of trust.
The gift of choice.
The gift of their business.
And if we do a good job, work to build a relationship, match their needs with solutions; they give the gift of returning to us another day and inviting their friends and family to do the same.
Often we get caught up in the details of our business day and the ringing phone, email and shopper just looking can seem like an intrusion keeping us from finished the task at hand.
I would suggest that on this day – the day of the greatest gift, we view our customers who choose to do business with us as the ones bringing us a gift.
I wish for you and yours a healthy, happy holiday and that this New Year be filled with gift-giving customers!
When I first opened AllWrite Ink as a freelance writer I wanted my focus to be “writing with the reader in mind.”
If asked, most will say “oh, I do that” and yet few really take the time to put on someone else’s shoes and feel what it’s like to walk a mile in their shoes, to truly understand their:
Life experiences
Challenges
Health issues
Family joys and struggles
Fears
Educational background
Financial status
Goals, hopes and dreams
We think we talk and write with the other person in mind, and yet it is so hard to shake off our own preconceived notions and experience to really understand the other person.
True empathy is what I believe sets an exceptional customer experience apart from all others.
To create a make or break experience in the minds and hearts of our customers we have to walk a mile in their shoes.
When I was in Hawaii recently for the Sweet Adeline’s International competition I had the incredible joy of hearing the 2007 International quartet winners perform.
SALT is a wonderful quartet from Sweden. The artists: Anna Ohman, Annika Andersson, Anna-Stina Gerdin and Susanna Berndts have an amazing way of bringing their music to life for the audience. Watching the joy in their faces, the total blast they are having on stage performing, transfers to those in the audience and at the end you are on your feet screaming for more!
One of their songs is Walk a Mile in My Shoes. As soon as I heard it I knew that I wanted it to be the theme song for my company – to play while I work, to have available for you to hear and to play for my audiences as they enter one of my workshops.
The musicality is incredible, the fun they are having with the arrangement is evident and the words say it all: we need to take the time to walk a mile in each other’s shoes.
Thanks to Anna-Stina Gerdin for giving me permission on behalf of SALT to bring their wonderful sound to you. Enjoy WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES!
My cross-stitching group had their annual Christmas party at the local Bob Evans last Friday night. We love it there. It is close, affordable, always has a nice big table for the seven of us and the menu is filled with wonderful comfort food.
Six of us gathered, giggling, hugging and causing quite a raucous. One father and son stopped by our table upon leaving and said that he’d wished he’d ordered what ever we were drinking because they’d enjoyed listening to our laughter.
It was a good night. We ordered, knowing the seventh in our party was to be late and just before she arrived, the waitress – a young, lovely, NEW employee, brought a bread basket over for the four of us who’d ordered banana bread.
The last in our party finally arrived and ordered an egg breakfast. It arrived after our food and didn’t have any bread.
“Don’t a get toast with my egg?” she’d asked?
“There’s bread on the table already,” the waitress said.
Now we had been rather loud and each needed a little individual attention; one member can’t have food touching so she’d asked for extra bowls for her beans and one needed lots of diet coke (okay, that would be me) and so perhaps she became confused. She asked what kind of toast and went to retrieve it however, the eggs and bacon were consumed by the time the sad little toast arrived.
“It’s dessert,” I said cheerfully.
As the bills came to the table, for of course we needed separate checks, the seventh in our party found she had been charged double for her sad little toast.
When she questioned the bill the waitress said – “There was already bread on the table and so I had to put it on the check as an extra order.”
My friend questioned this and so of course did several others in the party. A rousing toast debate began.
The flustered, NEW, waitress sought counsel from her manager however, the end results was that the toast would remain on the bill.
My friend said “Not to worry, I’ll pay the bill but I’ll never be back.”
A lost customer over toast. $1.49.
The rest of the group was up in arms – you can’t boycott the place we have dinner! Something must be done.
So just how many people does it take to dispute $1.49 serving of toast? Five to share the story with the manager at the cash register, the person in question standing by embarrassed and me – taking notes for this blog post!
Well – the price was removed. Whew. What a lot of effort.
How could this have been avoided?
EMPOWERING THE EMPLOYEE.
Had the employee understood the fact that the customer comes first and been trained to have a little financial lea-way when a customer kicks up a fuss – she could have been the hero instead of the shamed.
Whether the customer was right or not (and in fact, this time the customer was right) an employee needs to be trained to see the big picture. My friend was clearly upset. The reason for her upset? Toast that was late and on her bill in correctly. A double injustice.
I can’t really fault the waitress. At one point she said that if she took it off the billed, when her tickets were AUDITED she would be in trouble. So clearly she had been trained that the financial accountability was more important than the customer experience.
Too often managers are short-sighted – eyes on the bottom line and possible bonus instead of the fact that it is through the graciousness of our customer and their business that we even have a bottom line to view.
Are your employees empowered to FIX THE PROBLEM right then and there?
It is times like this when I’m reminded of the Ritz Carlton credo of GOLD STAR SERVICE. As employees they can say: (Check out Number Six!)
Service Values: I Am Proud To Be Ritz-Carlton
1.I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life.
2.I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
3.I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests.
4.I understand my role in achieving the Key Success Factors, embracing Community Footprints and creating The Ritz-Carlton Mystique.
5.I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve The Ritz-Carlton experience.
6.I own and immediately resolve guest problems.
7.I create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of our guests and each other are met.
8.I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.
9.I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me.
10.I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior.
11.I protect the privacy and security of our guests, my fellow employees and the company’s confidential information and assets.
12.I am responsible for uncompromising levels of cleanliness and creating a safe and accident-free environment.
Peter Kim recently asked several social media/marketing leaders to share their thoughts about the trends for this phenomena in the upcoming year. The 23 page document entitled Social Media Predictions for 2009 holds lots of interesting insights and Peter sums up the thoughts this way:
After reading through the thoughts here, some key themes emerge for me:
- We understand the technologies but need to employ them with a human empathy
- Mass participation will continue to grow, while experienced users employ refined filters to drive
increased relevance
- Measurement needs to be addressed, soon
I think the last point was covered well by Todd Defrean who said “…it may be the way of the future but you still gotta eat.” True.
As I read through the thoughts one theme kept resonating for me and that was the theme of human emotion: relationships, empathy, passion and a sense of commitment.
In order for social media to be successful (and by successful, it isn’t necessarily the number of Twitter followers as it is the wave of influence and quality of relationships built) it has to be used with a desire to reach out and connect.
Those blogs that TALK AT their readers are less interesting to read than those that ask questions, share a controversial but passionate opinion and reach out for a response.
Rohit Bhargava compared the current social media experience with what the trend should be in 2009 and in one case said that we currently assign the task of social media to the most logical person on the communications team when in fact it should be given to the most PASSIONATE.
Peter Blackshaw says “intimacy touches emotion; emotion POWERS conversation.”
It is all about building relationships – making connections.
Companies need to get off their high profitability horse and face facts that if they want to remain in the game going forward, their focus needs to shift from the bottom line to the customer relationship.
If ever there was a make or break moment it is TODAY. The start of the new year. The bottom of the economy. A “no place to go but up” time in our lives and if we want to succeed – we have to start listening to our customers in person and on line.
Andy Sernovitz nails it on the head when he says “there will be a customer satisfaction uprising.” People will not hesitate to share their views on the Internet.
What will your customers say about you?
What trends do you see for social media in the coming year?
Are you shopping this holiday season? Are you noticing a smaller number of employees roaming the aisles and available if you have questions? You almost have to hunt one down, don’t you?
Shopping has become self-serve.
I was talking about it with my Dad the other day and we realized that we handle shopping challenges differently. If he is at the grocery store looking for toothpicks and can’t find them; he’ll hunt down an employee for help.
If I’m looking for toothpicks and can’t find them it becomes a challenge. I must get in the mind of the merchandiser. “if I were a toothpick, where would I be?” Well, when do I use toothpicks? When I’m baking.
So I head to the baking aisle. Hmmmm. No toothpicks. So where else do I use toothpicks? Appetizers. I use them to hold together my appetizers. So I look by condiments because when I serve spicy bite-sized pieces of sausage, I serve them with hot mustard. No toothpicks.
It takes awhile, but finally I think ALCOHOL. Toothpicks and olives in a martini. So I look near straws and find toothpicks. It is a game. If I’m not in a rush – I feel great satisfaction. If I’m in a hurry, I get pissed.
As the economy takes hold of the retail industry and businesses fight back by cutting down on the extra associates that used to walk the floor and be there for me before my frustration levels hits HIGH, our perception of the experience dwindles.
So retailors – ever smarter than shoppers – came up with a solution. A new script for the cash register employee.
“Did you find everything you were looking for?”
Have you been asked this? What do you usually say? “Yes, thank you.”
Why do you say that? Well, because as a customer – you’ve already spent the amount of time available in your busy schedule to shop and if you didn’t find what you were looking for; it will either wait until next time or it wasn’t all that important. Am I right?
So have you ever said “No.” Try it some time and watch the face of the employee.
They don’t quite know what to do. Most, when asking the question of their customers don’t even take their eye off their task. It is just a few extra words their boss told them to say. It is suppose to make people happy.
Now, if the associate stopped ringing my purchases, leaned toward me and asked “Did you find everything?” I might believe they really wanted to know the answer.
So the other day I said “No, thank you, I didn’t find it. I looked here and here and here and then tried to find someone to help me and I couldn’t.”
The associate said, “Oh, that’s too bad.”
Wow. That was helpful.
I know their boss MEANT WELL (and in some cases that might mean something) but as far as I’m concerned, asking if I have found everything as I’m on my way out the door is just a case of TOO LITTLE TOO LATE.
So what is a business to do? How can you convey concern, interest and empathy with half the staff?
The idea has merit – if you don’t have floor staff and the only customer interaction is at time of check out – then asking the question makes sense. However, it needs to be followed up with a response that conveys service.
If the associate asks the question before ringing up purchases then there will be time to look for the missing item and add it to the sale.
If a customer says no, the proper response should be “what couldn’t you find? Perhaps I can help.”
This leaves the door open for customer success!
If the product isn’t something you carry – having an associate confirm the fact that you didn’t find it because it wasn’t there to find rather than just being shelved in a place you wouldn’t think to look (like in the case of toothpicks) is somehow comforting.
Of course, going above the expected would be to suggest where the item might be found – i.e. a competitor. Remember the Santa in Miracle on 34th Street who sent customers from Macys to Gimbles for a better deal?
How do you feel when asked if you’ve found everything after you are done shopping? Do you believe the employee cares?
My friend’s brother has been a patient at a SummaCare Hospital for quite some time. His treatments require extensive stays in a protected environment and so my friend has had an opportunity to observe the patient care procedures.
In the two months that he has been in and out of the hospital my friend observed one thing that every nurse does, EVERY TIME he or she visits the room.
Once the reason for the room visit has ended and upon leaving, the nurse will walk toward the door, turn (and this is important) their entire body back toward the patient, make eye contact and ask:
“Is there anything else I can do for you?”
It isn’t an empty phrase thrown over their shoulder with their mind already on the next task at hand, but a geniune effort to ensure they’ve done all that is required.
The action of totally turning their body around – feet facing the patient instead of out the door – sends a message that they are focused on the patient, they can easily return to the patient, that the patient is the only person on their mind at that given moment.
“Every time, without fail, I have observed the nurses perform this simple, yet poignant and powerful exercise,” my friend told me. “I trust that my brother is in capable, CARING hands when I see them demonstrate that level of customer service.”
A small body movement.
A simple sentence.
A power message.
In what way can you consistently let your customer know just how valuable they are and how passionate you are about meeting their needs?
Not surprizing: SummaCare is recognized for outstanding product offerings and customer service by U.S. News & World Report.
I had the extreme pleasure to speak at Third Federal’s recent Sales and Marketing meeting. The topic? Earning Customer Loyalty.
I knew going in that I was preaching the choir. I had a conversation with Cindi Seese – employee extraordinare, as part of my pre-prep and she informed me that Third-Fed has a corporate philosphy about customer service that includes:
Love
Trust
Respect
Committment to Excellence, and
A little bit of fun!
I asked Cindi how she measured a great customer experience and she said:
“If, at the end of a customer interaction, the customer doesn’t hug me or show some sign of affection than I have failed!”
Wow. That’s powerful. I have had some great customer/sales associate interactions but I can’t remember a time when I was moved to hug the sales associate. Think of the RELATIONSHIP Cindi is developing with her customer to create that comfort level. And I’ve seen it happen. She is open, honest, a great listener and truly shows she cares with her eye contact and the ways she responds to her customers.
Cindi’s approach to the customer relationship is ALL ABOUT THE CUSTOMER. Third Fed doesn’t pay their employee’s commission which allows the relationship to truly be about matching financial products with customer needs. And when you are talking about someone’s money – it gets pretty personal right off the bat.
Talk about needing to TRUST the associate you are dealing with.
How do you measure a successful customer interaction?
When I was working in a Pearle Vision store selling glasses – I knew that the experience was positive if the customer said “wow you made that painless.” Buying glasses is no picnic and if I could tell the customer had a good time, learned something about the latest products and left seeing and feeling better than when they entered: it was a good day!
What signs do you receive from customers when you’ve hit the ball out of the “customer service” park?
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That quote reminded me of a story I heard about a month ago. I was chatting with a member of the audience after a Make or Break Customer Relations workshop and he told me of a great restaurant experience he had. The evening was so enjoyable that he sought out the manager to say thank you for the helpful, friendly staff that made the evening so special.
It is Christmas Eve. A time of tradition, family, music, great food and gift giving. As a crafter, I begin in the summer thinking of gifts I might make to give. A small cross-stitched ornament, a crocheted blanket in college colors, a stuffed bear decked out in queenly attire or the Sleepy Santa pictured above. My favorite part of Christmas is watching the faces of those I’ve made or selected gifts for as they open the wrapping to reveal the surprize inside. 
