Sounds like a nice slogan. But it isn’t easy. Glenn Ross at All Business published a post called How to Lose Customers and Fail at Business which consists of a 20 question true/false quiz.
The quiz is divided into three sections: Employees, Online Presence and Customer Interaction.
I’ll let you in on a little secret – the correct answer should be FALSE. But ask yourself truthfully, would you answer “false” to some of the following:
If we have customer service training, we do not show the link between customer service and reaching our business goals.
We hire on the basis of how well we think the prospective employee can do the job, not how well he or she can interact with and assist customers.
We have not measured how user-friendly our Web site is in the past two years.
Our monitoring of incoming customer emails is delegated to low level employees.
We do not track customer complaints in order to identify trends.
Our senior managers seldom interact with customers.
Our policies and procedures were designed with the organization’s needs in mind, not the customer’s.
We like to think we put the customer first in all we do, but the need for sales and profitability tends to get in the way.
So how do you ensure that every department and manager put the customers first when hiring, marketing and measuring?
Constantly ask the question – is this for the benefit of the customer or my bottom line?
Listen carefully to customer complaints – is there a trend that needs to be addressed – an employee or a process that isn’t customer -focused?
If I were the customer – how would I feel about the sales process and the experience?
Do managers and executives regularly interact with customers? with front line employees? with customers in the call center?
You can have the best, well-intentioned front line employees that want nothing more than to serve and care for their customers but if the managers are out of touch with what the customers want in an exceptional experience, then eventually that will make it difficult for the employees to put customers first.
Take Glenn’s quiz and then pick ONE of the 20 questions and truly analyze how your business approaches that one item. Is there a way for you to change that one item and make it more customer focused?
If the customers are happy – they return, they refer and they bring the profits you need. Which came firsts, the profits or the customer? The CUSTOMER, every time.
A favorite customer of mine called last week and asked if we could meet for an hour. It seems that she has a customer who asked her to do something that she isn’t comfortable doing. But her motto is to “just say yes and figure it out later.”
What a great attitude.
We talk about saying yes to our customers but when faced with a request that we just don’t have the answers for, we fall back on “gosh, I’m sorry, I wish I could help you but I don’t carry that product, don’t offer that service, don’t know how to do that process, don’t want to do something I’m not good at.”
Rather than look for a partner to enrich the customer’s experience and give them what they need – we leave them without a resource.
Think about the last time someone said “no” to you. How did that make you feel? The conversation is going along just dandy and then you ask a question – they say nope can’t help you – and you are left with this awkward silence. How do you pick up the conversation from there? You might ask “well, do you know someone who can say yes?”
Why not be that person?
In Alan Alda’s book “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed….and other things I’ve learned,”he talks about saying yes no matter what just to keep active in your industry. His example is saying yes to keep food on the table. He tells of a time when he said he knew a significant part in a play when in fact he didn’t – he learned quickly – but said yes first and learned how later.
As new business owners/sales professionals – we start by saying yes and taking every job that comes our way. Later we become more discriminating – but even so – we should still say yes.
To the customer we don’t want: “Yes, I understand exactly when you are looking for and ABC Company is a perfect resource for your needs.”
To our loyal customer: “Yes, I can provide that service.” And then, like my customer – quickly find a vendor partner that you can collaborate with to make it happen.
Yes is a great word. See how many times you can use it today!
I’ve said it before, I’m a sucker for those love reality shows; the Bachelor and the Bachelorette have my undivided attention. Why?
It is fun television. The most dramatic rose ceremony evermay be a little hokie but it is what it sets out to be. 25 people looking for love on national television and one single dude or dudette weighing and measuring their options, whittling down the competition until the last person is standing.
However, recently there have been incidents where the contestants have had hidden agendas. Loved ones keeping the home fires burning while Rated R or Rozlan seek fame and fortune rather than love.
Here’s what I have to say: Your hidden agendas aren’t so hidden. You just aren’t that great of an actor.
The same is true with our customers. If we make recommendations because the margins are better not because it is the right thing for the cusotmer – they will catch on. They will realize that we are SELLING them rather than making recommendations. They will see through our thinly veiled agenda to the truth:
We are in it for ourselves – not to build a relationship with a potential customer for life.
We may think we are being clever, like Justin/Rated R hobbling up the mountain road to see Ali and declare his love, but we see the “cat ate the mouse” grin that means something different. Your lips say yes, yes, yes but your actions say gimme, gimme, gimme.
This happened just recently. My mom and I were shopping at a craft store and the employee was helping another customer select a frame for her finished needlework. The customer wasn’t sure which frame was the best and asked my Mom’s opinion. Mom immediately rejected two frame samples the employee had put out. The customer said “yes, I wasn’t so sure I liked those either.”
The employee’s answer was classic: “Oh I agree but my boss told me to push those two styles because they are priced well.”
Probably they were discontinued or had a nice profit margin. The employee didn’t realize the impact of her words but the customer and my Mom sure did.
Do you have a hidden agenda with your customers? Do you press hidden sales agendas on your employees? You may want to rethink that strategy.
A customer who believes we are SELLING will find someone else willing to match the right product to their specific needs.
Have you ever set out to do the right thing, the professional thing and your inner child just took over?
That happened to me yesterday.
I was shooting a series of one minute commercials for different aspects of my business. One of the commercials was actually the introduction for a series of customer relationship building tips.
I’ve written 78 ways to Put Your Customer First and plan to share them, one or two at a time on YouTube. I call it Make or Break Moments TV: Tips to Build Customer Relationships.
It is all still a work in progress, but here’s me, trying to be professional and my inner giggle just wouldn’t quit….
Here’s the deal: when we give in to our inner child, we become more approachable – a person people want to do business with. That is provided you can avoid the dreaded laughing snort.
Okay – look for a more professional kick off to this new resource coming soon. If I could just stop laughing….
Seth Godinis at it again. On June 14, 2010 at 8pm est – Linchpins around the globe will unite to share, network, connect and collaborate. All inspired by Seth Godin.
Ever since his book Tribescame out and he invited the hale and hearty to purchase his book sight unseen two months before publication and join his TRIIIBES ning and band together – I have been a fan.
So when Seth raised the call for people to host/sponsor/attend this Linchpin event I jumped in with both feet and selected a location in Hudson, OH.
A linchpin, as Seth describes it, is somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced—her role is just far too unique and valuable. And then he goes on to say, well, seriously folks, you need to be one of these people, you really do. To not be one is economic and career suicide.
Seth describes linchpins as artists – people who bring an undeniable passion to their work.
In a quote from the Amazon description:
Work that you put your heart and soul into. Work that matters. Work that you gladly sacrifice all other alternatives for. As a working artist and cartoonist myself, I know exactly what he means. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it.
The only people who have a hope of becoming linchpins in any organization, who have any hope of changing anything for the better in real terms, are those who have the capacity to do “emotional work” at a high level—to be true artists at whatever they set their minds on doing. The guys who just plod around the office corridors, just turning up for their paycheck…. Well, those guys don’t have a prayer, poor things. The world is just too interesting and competitive now.
When I worked for Pearle Vision, I would often work six days a week; starting before 7am and often working late into the night or returning to the office after putting my children to bed. My father would say “Why are you working so hard – it doesn’t say Debbie Vision over the door?”
I would reply, “It is just how I have to work. It doesn’t matter if no one care…I care and to me, it does say “Debbie Vision.”
He would shake his head and mutter something about working myself sick and to some extent he was right. But I had a passion for making a difference and it is that same passion I bring to my own customers. For although the name of my company still isn’t my own – the stamp on my work has my name written all over it. Just like yours does.
I look forward to meeting other such passionate individuals at the up coming Linchpin event and I would encourage you to find an event or host one yourself this coming June 14th.
Sharing our passion for what we do is a great way to learn new ways to make the customer experience better, to market ourselves better, to learn from each other to be more effective.
I used to have a little cartoon from the paper that said “Shrug off Apathy.” How ironic, I’d chuckled, as I snipped it from the paper, and yet so many of today’s workers in the retail and food service environments have an attitude that is just this side of apathetic. Some would call it “indifference.” My dad would have quipped, “You seem to have mistaken me for someone who cares.”
In reading a recent post by Steve Curtin, I am reminded of the impression an indifferent or apathetic employee leaves with customers. Steve tells the tale of taking his young family to Dairy Queen for a much anticipated special treat. The employee’s face, in constrast to that of his young children, is serious to the point of sour.
After we placed our order, my son Cole (age 9) and I waited off to the side for our order while the rest of the family found a place for us to sit on the patio.
I asked Cole, “On a zero to ten scale with zero being rude and ten being very friendly, how would you rate the girl who took our order?”
He said, “Six.”
I asked him why he rated her a six and he said, “Because she didn’t smile.”
I then asked him, “Was there anything else?”
And he said, “Yes, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
What Cole couldn’t put his finger on (because he’s only in third grade) is the leading cause of customer dissatisfaction: indifference.
People buy from those they like and trust – not those who sneer or seem to reject them with their lack of interest. How can we ever hope to build relationships with our customers if our front-line employees shower them with a full dose of indifference?
Steve goes on to say:
In one survey, 68 percent of customers said they quit doing business with a company because of perceived indifference towards them as customers.
And here’s what is really scary: Most customer service providers are blissfully unaware of their own indifference. From their perspectives, they are efficiently executing customer transactions.
So what’s a business to do? Three things immediately come to mind:
Listen. Listen. Listen.
Listen to your customers. Listen to your employees. Listen to your gut instinct. Conduct random customer calls to see how they’d rate the service. Really listen to what they have to say. When a customer complains – don’t assume they were in the wrong – really listen to what they have to say. Like Steve’s son Cole, they might not be able to articulate the problem but they just know that your company won’t be able to meet their needs based on the fact that they didn’t feel cared for or valued or even visible!
Do your employees have an attitude of indifference?
I love conversations with Leslie Ungar. You know her. I talk about her often. That’s because she always has some interesting little tidbit to share that speaks volumes. Today it was the retelling of something Bruce Nordstrom (Grandson of Nordstrom’s founder) had to say when visiting Northeast Ohio a while back.
Someone asked him if people took advantage of Nordstrom’s famous return policy. You’ll all heard the story about the customer who returned a tire to Nordstroms and they didn’t even sell tires. But the associate smiled and happily gave the customer a refund.
Well, first off, my Dad - another person who always had great stories to tell, said that there was a Nordstroms location that did in fact sell tires, but the point of the story is that Nordstroms takes their customer at face value and does whatever it takes to make them happy. (p.s. the tire return took place in an acquired store that had sold tires before being owned by Nordstroms)
So how did the founder’s grandson reply? “Yes. There are some people that take advantage.”
He went on to say that only about ten percent of their customers took advantage of Nordstroms policy to make customers happy. “You don’t make policy based on ten percent,” he was quoted as saying. “You make policies based on the 90%.”
I’ve often heard of the 80/20 rule. You know – the rule that says 20% of your customers bring in 80% of your revenue. That 20% of your employees generate 80% of the work. That 20% of the whiners take up 80% of your time.
But here, the rule is even stiffer. Make policies based on 90% of your customer’s needs. Nordstroms has been in business over 100 years and their customer philosophy has remained the same – regardless of the change in economics:
The company’s philosophy has remained unchanged for more than 100 years since its establishment by John W. Nordstrom in 1901: offer the customer the best possible service, selection, quality and value.
What else has remained the same for over 100 years?
Okay – let’s get back to your company policies. Do you make your policies based on the few that try to take advantage or the many that build your business? I can remember in school there would be obscure rules and the teacher would say “It is because of the actions of a few that we’ve had to change the rules.” Didn’t you want to punch “the few” in the nose for making it more difficult or less enjoyable for you?
Our customers feel the same way. Imagine a world where companies created a culture around the many. So look at your customer service policies. Are they based on the few that try to ruin it for the rest of us? Or have you positioned yourself like Nordstroms and created policies around the 90% of your customers who just want a good quality product/service at an affordable price?
For several years Chris Brogan has started each year with a focus on three words. Last year I selected three words, which were Bite, Charge and Follow-Up.
This year Chris has selected Eco-systems, Owners and Kings to focus on for 2010. Using the three word system forces you to narrow your resolutions or goals for the year down to one word a piece -something you can remember, like a mantra. If you can remember it, you will do it. Each day as you set your agenda you can balance the list of tasks, networking events and busy work against your three words to see if you are remaining focused.
I am still working on my three words for 2010 but my first word is NARROW. Just like the Italian alleyway pictured above, I need to ensure that my focus is narrow, razor sharp, niched to a specific client/a specific service.
What will your three words be? How will you manage the resolutions you’ve established for this new year? If customer communication or social media is on your list, I hope you’ll give me a call. I can help. 330-414-8792.
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 status quo doesn’t cut it anymore. More than ever the definition of insanity rings true: doing the same thing every day and expecting different results.
To stay a viable option in the market place we must reevaluate, reassess, and revamp our offerings to meet the changing needs of our customers.
As I reread through past issues of Entrepreneur articles I found a similar theme.
In May, 2009, Age Against the Machine, we learn that the Baby boomer has changed traditional advertiser focus from the 18-49 year old to include the over 50 set. At the end of the article, author Matt Thornhill cautions:
Ignoring (Baby Boomers) and they WILL take their money elsewhere.
Have you reassessed your target audience? Are they aging? Have their needs changed? Have you changed to meet those needs?
Not only do we need to evaluate WHO we serve and WHAT they need but also what they VALUE.
Just as the Boomer has switched from a desire to gather a collection of material things to a need for experiential options – so must our offerings to our customer. Chris offers a list of Dos and Don’ts and at the top of the Do list is:
Talk to your customer about what they need today.
Have you asked your customer how you can better serve their needs? Do you have an effective method for communication with (not at) your customer?
In July, the sales article by Neale Martin focused on change; both with customer habits and our own. He says “pay attention to customer feedback.”
If we listen. We will learn. But we have to be open to what they have to say.
One way we can listen is through Social Media. Omgili buzz page is place people share and learn information. Want advice about shopping for shoes – people share their thoughts. Listen in and see what they are saying about your industry.
Make sure you sign up for Google alerts – not just for your company name but for key industry words. Listen to what people are saying. Used LinkedIn or Facebook to ask questions that might help transform your business offerings to match the changing needs of your customer. Take advantage of Survey Monkey to ask questions of your customers.
Bottom line – we have to continually hold the mirror up to our business and see if it matches our customer’s changing needs. And then DO SOMETHING about it.
What have you changed recently in your business because your customers demanded it of you?
Be the First to Comment 
Sounds like a nice slogan. But it isn’t easy. Glenn Ross at All Business published a post called How to Lose Customers and Fail at Business which consists of a 20 question true/false quiz.
In Alan Alda’s book 
I used to have a little cartoon from the paper that said “Shrug off Apathy.” How ironic, I’d chuckled, as I snipped it from the paper, and yet so many of today’s workers in the retail and food service environments have an attitude that is just this side of apathetic. Some would call it “indifference.” My dad would have quipped, “You seem to have mistaken me for someone who cares.”
