I just got back from six days in Vegas over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Wish I could tell you details, but you know what they say, “whatever happens in Vegas….”
But I can share some thoughts on customer-focused performances based on the four shows I attended:
The Fabulous Four (A Beatles Tribute Band at the V Theatre at the Miracle Mall)
Ticket prices ranged from $30 for two (the Mentalist – we had to buy one drink each) to almost $200 each for Cher and we weren’t in the front row. In all fairness we had terrific seats for all of the performances however we were in the very front for Donny and Marie and I got to hold his hands TWO TIMES during the performance. If it weren’t for the Swine Flu, I probably wouldn’t wash my hands!
The theatre staff for all of the performances was top notch – no complaints, personable, informative, helpful – all of the stuff of great customer service.
However, if I had to rate the performances for customer connections – I would rank Donny and Marie first (and not because he touched me) and the Mentalist second. Here’s why:
Customer interaction – both shows involved the audience – answering questions, responding to shouts, bringing people up on stage or coming out into the audience to make a connection.
In Marie’s portion of the show she explained the reason they chose the Flamingo for their show although many other larger venues wanted their act. She said – and I’m paraphrasing:
We chose the Flamingo because it was a small enough theatre that we could actually see all of you and really connect.
They learned audience member names, they acknowledged the crazy fans waving a host of albums from the 60s and 70s, they kidded with those that shouted their love (nope that wasn’t me… however, my Mom…well, once again, whatever happens in Vegas). They picked a place to perform that allowed them a PERSONAL CONNECTION with their customer. And then they took full advantage.
The Mentalist – Gerry McCambridge did the same thing, but then that is the nature of his act. He is totally involved with the audience and once again, that included me. It was the interaction that made his humor and amazing mental capabilities all the more enjoyable.
That’s not to say the Fab Four and CHER weren’t incredible performances. They were terrific. But when you think about the money you spend and the feeling you get at the end of the night – we walked away saying “That was good.”
When we left Donny and Marie we said “That was the best show we’ve ever attended” and no amount of money for that kind of a connection would have been too much money. The perception of our value as audience members to the stars was higher the more interaction there was.
In fact, Cher actually insulted her audience in her opening chat. She flies across the stage in a cage which hovers for a few moments over the crowd while she sings. Don’t get me wrong – she LOOKED amazing and she sounds INCREDIBLE and not for a woman of her age – she was fantastic no matter what her age. However in her chat she talks about her fear of the cage falling in on the audience.
“The newspaper would say Cher dies at Caesars in freak accident and then in a related article “Several unknown tourists die at Caesars.”
It was joke but it also let us know there is the Star and then there are the rest of us. No connection. The perception of our value to her? None. Our desire to pay $40 for a program of her show? None.
Bottom line – the customer connection is what sets us apart from our competition – whether it is Cher, Donny and Marie or you. We all have a customer to connect with. The question is – do you take the extra step to make the connection?
I recently read an article called Don’t Give Customers What They Think They Want in which the writer, Steve Towers reminds us of Henry Ford’s great quote ““if we ask customers what they want they’ll ask for faster horses.” Customers are not always able to think outside the box and articulate what they want, but they all know what they want to happen as a result of what they bought or the service they received.
I talk a lot about talking with your customer to understand what is valuable to them – what can you do or provide that will set you apart from the competition. But Steve is right – if we ask the question wrong – i.e. expect the customer to understand what we need to do or provide to help them achieve their goals, then we could travel down a wrong path.
I’m reminded of a great cartoon that depicts every department’s view on a customer request. You can see what is budgeted, what is designed, what is marketed and then delivered – none of which are what the customer actually wanted.
Paul Cherry wrote an article offering ways to ask some tough questions of customers considering the difficult economic times. What is the first thing you need to do? BUILD RAPPORT. It’s all about building relationships. Gee – where have I heard that before?
What ways have you separated what the customer thinks he/she wants versus what their ultimate goal is?
Happy Thanksgiving. So what are you thankful for today?
Family
Health
Friends
A Job – any job that pays
Talents
Opportunities
Imagination
The ability to give back
Building relationships
Making a difference
Today as you gather around the table and share a meal with those you hold most dear, take a moment and reflect on all your many blessings. I count you, dear reader, as one of mine.
Many blessings to you and yours on this Thanksgiving day.
We say it all the time, but how often do we ask our customers what they want, what they value, what experience they desire?
I remember IN THE OLD DAYS when I worked for Pearle Vision, we’d hire a company to conduct exit interviews. People would stand outside the store and ask customers a series of questions. Or customers would be called and asked a series of questions. The responses were interesting but it took forever to gain enough of a sampling to provide real value.
Now thanks to the Internet, there are a variety of ways you can connect with customers and ask for their feedback:
Survey Monkey. There is a basic free service that allows you to create a survey to send via a link to your customers or prospects. It is easy to use and allows you to create questions that are multiple choice with one answer or more than one; questions that required the reader rank their responses and options for a blank comment section for people to share their views. It tabulates and provides reporting to help you easily analyse the data. Gotta love FREE.
Facebook now has pay per click ads that allow you to target your message to specific people within your fan base. You can select criteria from anything in the fan’s profile; age, interests, location, etc. Much more targeted than any other pay-per-click option.
LinkedIn Questions. Ask a question of the professionals in your network. Questions are categorized by subject, industry, corporate title – you have the opportunity to target who the question in sent to and the responses provide valuable information. Just check out the Answerstab on your LinkedIn account to see what people are asking and answering.
What is it they say….”You’ll never know if you don’t ask.”
Or how about this: “The answer is always NO unless you ask the question.”
As we close out another year and set our sites on 2010; consider asking your customers/prospects about your business and how you might meet their needs even better in the coming year.
So will you get up at the crack of dawn to stand in line for amazing savings on the first official day of Holiday shopping, or will you get up to wait on those in line? Arguably the busiest shopping day of the year, customers and sales associates are so busy completing the sale, they rarely have time to look up and make eye contact let alone build relationships. But that’s not to say it’s impossible. Here are a few tips to help you be remembered this Black Friday:
Paste that smile on and keep it on all day – if you smile, people will be more likely to smile back and that simple gesture may help calm down an over-tired, stressed out shopper.
Make eye contact. It really doesn’t take that much time or effort to lift your head from the cash register or scanner to make eye contact with the customer. It will go a long way toward making the customer feel more than just one more sale on a very busy day.
Say thank you. We should never be too busy to remember this simple and yet valuable phrase. Remember – without that customer and their sale, you just might not have a job. It is the old adage – the customer signs our paycheck. Too true.
You may not have the time or energy for more – but just making eye contact, smiling and saying thank you will probably be more than your competitor is doing on this busy shopping day. Make the experience a positive one so that the customers return on a day when you aren’t offering 50% off everything or opening before the sun comes up.
If you have more time to prepare – consider my book It’s a Party: Planning a successful retail sales event. It may be too late for this Black Friday, but consider purchasing the e-version to help you with your Inventory Clearance sale in January.
The Plain Dealer in Cleveland is running a series of articles spotlighting local jewelry stores who have been in business more than 50 years. You figure if they’ve been in business that long, they must be doing something right. Not only are they building relationships, the relationships are continuing down through the generations.
The spotlight in yesterday’s paper was on Kolick Jewelers in Westlake.
That’s customer loyalty. That’s building a relationship with your customers. For people to like doing business with you that much that they HUNT YOU DOWN.
Something similar happened to me yesterday. I received a call from Russ of the Akron Board of Trade Council asking me to present my Make the Most of Your Online Presence at a luncheon in January. He said one of his members heard me speak but he didn’t remember where, didn’t remember my name and didn’t know my company name. However, WHAT I said and HOW I said it had impacted him so much he felt the message was perfect to kick off the new year with the Trade Council. So Russ proceeded to hunt me down. He said it took several calls to multiple chambers and organizations before he found my name. Either he likes a good mystery or something I said inspired that dedication. I’m grateful. BTW, the luncheon in January 6, 2010 at the Stonehedge Family Fun center at 11:30am – come on by.
When asked the secret of their success, Donald Kolick, son of the founder Joseph Kolick said this:
“If you take care of people, people will take care of you.”
That says it all. Think about your customers – do you put them first? Ask yourself – if you moved or changed your name – would they find you? If they couldn’t remember your name – would you have left them with an impression so powerful that they would hunt you down no matter what?
Coke wants to know what consumers find interesting; when they drink, what they mix, how often. By bringing the machine out to the streets, they will capture valuable consumer data which will help them in configuring their next great Coca-Cola combination. As a kid we called that the “suicide.” We’d take our cup to the soda fountain and put a little of each choice in the cup and ooh and ahh over its unique and wonderful flavor. I’m not so sure I’d do that now, but the options do set your imagination reeling.
Tomorrow, Wednestday night at 9est. there is a special called The Real Story: Behind the Real Thing in which viewers will have the opportunity for the first time to enter Coke’s innovative lab.
As I researched this post I took a trip out to Coca-Cola and discovered a webland of fun. I had no idea you could accommulate points to win stuff - not just a hat or t-shirt but game stations. The website offers Coke Worldwide - the chance to connect with the product at charity functions, to see how coke can be used in recipes. They’ve done a great job of taking a simple product – the beverage I personally can’t live without – and turned it into an entire entertainment for the whole family.
Impressive. Coke makes an effort to connect with customers.
How are you connecting with customers?
Do you make it easy to try?
Do you help them give back to the community?
Do you invite suggestions?
In what ways do you connect with customers to grow your business? If you made a freestyle machine of your products and services so customers could mix and match – what might they select that would surprise you? hmmm.
I have company coming for Thanksgiving and as I make a list of all that needs to be done before they arrive, I realize the carpets need to be cleaned.
The cleaner I used to use is no longer in business so it was back to the Yellow Pages to make a few calls. I called the standard choices and explained the same thing:
I need two rooms, stairs and a hallway and two pieces of furniture cleaned.
My company has an allergy to cats and so I wanted to make sure that the bedrooms and furniture were free from cat dander.
Each of the traditional companies (Service Master, Stanley Steemer and Sears) had similar pricing. They didn’t tell me what I would receive, they just quoted a price. The prices were comparable within $15. Nothing set them apart.
I’ve used each of them at one time or another over the years and remember that often on the actual day of cleaning, additional options would be made available like scotch guard for an additional price.
She asked drill down questions about the rooms and the furniture
She priced each room and item (very competitive rates)
She informed me that it would include moving furniture and scotch-guarding the carpets and furniture
She asked what day would be convenient
She asked if I had a time preference
She told me that I would need to vacumn before they came and move any small or breakable items and they would take care of the rest
It was a thorough conversation after which I felt confident that her company knew what they were doing and would take care of all of the aspects of the job for me without incident.
I booked an appointment right away. Then she asked when I was doing the general cleaning of the house before my company arrived. She suggested that we schedule the carpet cleaning for the day AFTER I cleaned as cleaning would send dust particles into the carpet. And she suggested the visit occur the day BEFORE my company arrives to allow for plenty of drying time. She said they had different cleaning methods but since my biggest concern was cat dander – she recommended the steam process. All of this great and helpful information for the same price as the competition – actually a little less.
Great Value! Great customer connection. She listened to what was important to me and made recommendations based on those needs. Color me one happy customer and they haven’t even come to clean the carpets!
It’s hard to set ourselves apart when prospect are comparing prices over the phone. But if we take the time to ask additional questions we often learn valuable information that we can respond to, thus setting ourselves apart from the competition.
I just saw a video from Stockholm that tested the theory of added fun to the mundane.
People, when given a choice of the stairs or escalators – chose the escalators. The Fun Theory, by Volkswagen, wanted to see if they added FUN to walking up the stairs if there would be a difference in behavior.
Check out the video. The results? 66% more people took the stairs than normal. People like a little FUN!
What are you doing or what can you do to make it FUN for your customers?
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I just got back from six days in Vegas over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Wish I could tell you details, but you know what they say, “whatever happens in Vegas….”
Happy Thanksgiving. So what are you thankful for today?
