Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on August 13, 2010 under Connecting Moments, Honest Moments, Listening | 
Sherre DeMao
Last evening I had the opportunity to participate in a radio show – Reader’s Entertainment Radio - hosted by Sheila English. Sheila interviewed myself and Sherre DeMao – founder of SLD Unlimted Marketing/PR, Inc.
Sheila led us through a series of questions which uncovered our philosophies of effective marketing and communication with our prospects and customers. At the end of the day – although Sherre and I had never met or talked – we had the same focus: open honest communication.
The customer must come first. Sherre hones in on the psycographics of the customer – “getting into the minds of their customers.”
She also talked about a strategy she employs for marketing to customers that doesn’t involve advertising – it is called C.R.I.S.P.
1. Customer relations
2. Referral relations
3. Internet presence
4. Strategic involvements
5. Public relations
Each involve communication and connection with customers. To listen to the 30 minute radio show click on this link: Honest Communication Builds Customer Relationships.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on July 16, 2010 under Customer Moments, Loyalty, making a difference |
Lifelong Relationships
Here’s a great observational comment that Norma Rist made to someone she was coaching:
“You are treating your customers as transactions but you need to think of them as lifelong relationships.”
Have you ever been in sales? Or operations? It is the 16th and you are fast approaching the end of the month. Will you make your quota? Will the proposals that are outstanding come in before the 31st?
Do your potential customers become dollar signs or lines on your P&L as you think through your finances? Sometimes it is hard to avoid that trap, isn’t it? You have financial obligations and if you could get just one more customer before the end of the month you’d hit your break even. It is when we think like that, that our conversation changes with prospects.
We move from recommendations to sales pitches. How do we avoid treating our customers or potential customers as transactions and think about the opportunity for a lifelong relationship?
What would that mean in terms of our conversations. Might that mean that we walk away from a “sure thing” sale today and settle for planting seeds for the future? Customers are smart. They know when we are SELLING versus making recommendations based on need.
Frances Sharpe has written an article offering tips for Retaining Customers. In the article she talks about the value of the customer relationship and actually suggests a mathematical formula for calculating the financial value of a lifelong customer relationship. Good stuff!
If you were to ask your customers; would they say they felt like a transaction or a lifelong friend?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on June 15, 2010 under Connecting Moments, Customer Moments, Listening |
My son has his first sales job; selling Cutco knives. It is quite an experience. He went through 16 hours of unpaid training and had to purchase the sales kit prior to making any money so he is invested in the process. At least financially.
He’s too new in the sales game to have learned the trick many sales people adopt – focusing their sales efforts on the items that bring the biggest commission. He’s just following the sales pitch; thrilled when anyone makes a purchase.
Watching him go through this process I’m reminded of other sales training and commission structures from my past lives in which the measurement was on selling the products with the highest margin. What the customer wanted was irrelevant.
As a new store manager at Pearle Vision, I was familiar with that selling tactic and didn’t approve, however, I did believe in rewarding my associates. So each month I created a contest – the person selling the most of the “product of the month” received dinner for two on me.
The difference? The “product of the month” was a mystery – sealed in an envelope in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnalls porch since the first of the month until the month ended and the sales results were calculated. The envelope would be opened to reveal the product and who ever had sold the most BASED ON CUSTOMER’S NEEDS, won the prize.
Today I received the monthly newsletter from the local Sandler Sales franchise: The Ruby Group. The main article is entitled How to Avoid Price Objections, but really covers several sales techniques. Number Four caught my eye:
4. You are attempting to sell what you want to sell or what you think prospects need; not what prospects want to buy.
People buy what they want, not necessarily what they need or what you believe they need. If you enter selling situations with preconceived notions about what you are going to sell, you will miss the opportunity to sell what prospects are ready to buy. Price may be the objection voiced by prospects, but the real obstacle may well be your own rigidity. When you make sales calls, leave your preconceptions in the car.
When we put customers first – we take the time to listen and ask questions to determine what they want and need and then we make recommendations based on that information. Tying our products and services back to needs the customer has shared shows that you are listening, you care and you are interested in building a customer relationship – not just making a sale.
If we sell to the customer’s needs rather than to the commission structure or margin percentages, we build relationships that lead to repeat business and referrals. Isn’t that what really counts at the end of the day?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on June 9, 2010 under Customer Moments, First Impressions, Honest Moments, Loyalty |
I just bought a new chair. It was time. The last time I bought a chair I was pregnant with my first born. That’s him sitting in the new chair. He’s 19.
I went to Levin because they had a 50% off sale and if you purchased on the weekend, it was free delivery. I’ve bought furniture there before – a dining room set, some end tables, and I’ve been happy with the purchase.
So I’m returning because I:
- Liked my past experiences
- Felt good about the value
- Liked the quality of the product
Did you hear me mention price? Me neither. I will say that the current offer was what brought me to the store but other furniture places have offers every week.
Chuck helped me. I told him what I wanted and he showed me some choices. I was on my way to dinner so I left but went back on the weekend to take advantage of the free shipping. I asked for Chuck and he remembered me. I had made up my mind before entering the store so we quickly went to the purchase portion of our relationship.
He and I hadn’t talked price. No reason to – the price was on the chair. The full price and the sale price. I was pleased with the price. So much so that I also planned to buy the ottoman.
He enters the information in the computer and informs me that he’s further reduced the price of the chair by $35 and the ottoman by $30. $65! That I didn’t ask for.
He also reduced the price of the scotch protection plan by more than 25%.
Why?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m thrilled with the unexpected cash that remains in my checking account but why reduce the price if price was never an issue?
Chuck didn’t know me from Adam. I was a pretty easy going customer. I did say that I wanted to remain within a budget but there were lots of chairs to choose from in that price point. I have to believe he cut his commission or else the margins are unbelievable.
His generous price discounting has served to bring questions to my mind rather than create loyalty.
- Just what are the margins?
- Is the quality poor – have I bought something inferior?
- Did he lose personal income on my transaction?
- Was the chair last year’s model and he’s happy to get rid of it?
Why do we believe we have to be the cheapest to win friends and influence people? I don’t have any answers here – I’m looking for a discussion from you. Has this happened that you go to make a purchase – fully aware of the price – and all of a sudden find out that the price is even less? How did it make you feel?
Lucky. Happy. Sure, me too. But didn’t it also make you feel a little curious? Did it build loyalty?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on June 2, 2010 under Listening, Missed Moments, social media |
Just saw this link on a tweet The Biggest Shift Since the Industrial Revolution.
If your customer is between the ages of 18-35 – you need to learn to master the art of social media – or at the very least – be listening real close and often to what is being said. Of all of the stats in the article, here is the most valuable one:
“80% of Twitter users tweet using their mobile device.” The author goes on to say “Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?”
Eighty percent of what, you ask? Maybe it isn’t that many people. Well, here’s another stat for you – “As of this year there are an average of 30 MILLION tweets a day.” And 75 MILLION users. That’s a big chunk of your customers.
So how do you listen on Twitter? Visit Search.Twitter. Click on the Advanced Search button. Enter your company name, your products, your industry key words and see what is being said. You’ll see that you can subscribe to the feed for those key words and be notified the next time someone mentions your company or products.
Take it a step further. Scroll down the Advance Search page and click the sad face and/or the “?” and see the negative reviews and questions being asked within Twitter.
You may not like it – but bottom line – social media, in some form or fashion, is here to stay and we need to jump in this afternoon and get connected.
For those of you in the NE Ohio region – I’ll be conducting a new series of hands-on workshops, once a week for four weeks on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Creating a Strategy starting next week.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on March 17, 2010 under Communication, Employee Moments, Listening |
I am always focused on the customer and our relationship with them but the other key component to successfully building a reputationfor putting customers first is how your employees feel about the whole thing. Happy employees equal happy customers. “If mamma hate happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
In the book 30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers by Bruce Katcher I found that a number of the reasons employees hate their boss has to do with communication.
- “I’m afraid to speak up”
- “Management doesn’t listen to us”
- “They don’t tell me what I need to know to do my job”
I love the irony of the first two – you are afraid to speak up, but if you conquer your fears and speak up it doesn’t matter because they aren’t listening anyway.
Today’s quote in my Leadership widget that provides a quote to my iGoogle page each morning said this:
Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. ~ George S. Patton
Imagine if we did four things differently:
- Provided the whys and wherefores of the task at hand with all of the information necessary or information about who they need to go to for more clarification
- Asked employees for their thoughts
- Listened with interest
- Then let them have at it!
I wonder what impact that would have on our success and on the morale of our staff?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on March 12, 2010 under Customer Moments, Listening, making a difference |
I recently received an email bringing my attention to an article focusing on 12 customer service lessons from the best customer service companies. Although I don’t believe there were any huge new “ah ha” moments, the list is a good one that focuses on the importance and value of building relationships with customers.
- Keep it personal
- Don’t make the customer work
- Foster Relationships
- Go Above and Beyond
- Be enthusiastic
- Be helpful without being annoying (good one!)
- Even online retailers need phone support (there’s nothing worse than going to a website and having to unravel the great mystery of figuring out how to contact them beyond the FAQ list!)
- Out-serve competitors (don’t bash them – just be better!)
- Be prompt
- Train employees
- Innovate
- Create a desire to belong (this is a great one – it is all about building communities – taking the customer relationship to the next level)
I would add LISTEN. Active listening should be the first key to successfully building relationships with our customers. Ask questions and get them talking! It is the only way to truly uncover what our customers need and how we can best help them.
Great list – thanks to Trevor Usken from Focus for bringing it to my attention.
If you were going to add to the list – what would you add?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 20, 2010 under Listening, Missed Moments, Resolving Conflict |
Have you ever lost a customer and didn’t know why?
I was talking with Business Coach and Professional Speaker Leslie Ungar of Electric Impulse Communications about customers. She shared a story with me that really helped put things in perspective.
As the economy takes its good old time recovering, the trickle down effect of lower revenues is hitting some of the smaller companies and as such, companies are cutting back some of their vendor/freelance relationships. Each time we loose a customer we have to access the situation.
Is there something I could have done differently?
Was it price?
Was it attitude?
Should I have said something different?
Should I have kissed him?
(That’s what Elizabeth Kitt – recent participant who was eliminated from ABC’s The Batchelor is asking herself today.)
Leslie used to show horses. She told me that at the end of a competition participants could approach the judges and ask for advice on what they could do differently next time to place or win in their category.
“I was always the first in line to ask a question,” Leslie told me. “I wanted to know why I didn’t win and what the judges thought I should have done differently.” Sometimes they would remember, or after refreshing their notes they might have a specific comment, but often it was a general bit of advice that they would share. She listened carefully each time to what they had to say.
“If one person told me something, I would listen but I might not make a change. I was listening for patterns that I couldn’t ignore. If I heard the same comment from different judges or multiple times then I knew that was an area I needed to address.”
She was looking for patterns.
We need to do the same thing with our customers. Of course that means we have to engage them in conversation – exit interviews – follow up surveys or phone calls to ask about the service and experience and then listen for patterns.
Customer complaints are another great place to look for patterns. Some times you just have a complainer – but often, if you listen closely enough, you’ll find out about an area of service you need to address because it impacts the customer’s experience.
Have you lost a customer lately? Do you know why? Has it been the first time you’ve heard the reason or has a pattern begun to emerge?
Listen carefully to those patterns you can’t ignore and then start to make some changes!
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on December 10, 2009 under Connecting Moments, Listening |
We did a book swap at Boardroom this morning and I picked up the book 5 Minutes with the VITO - a Sandler Sales book. VITO stands for Very Important Top Officer and is the one person in the company that can say YES. The prospect every sales person longs to meet and build a relationship with.
The book talks about walking and talking the same way a VITO does so that you are peers – co-conspirators, if you will on a journey to achieve the goals the customer has set.
Part of this sales process is understanding the “pain” the customer has. Not a new concept; I often talk about understand the customer’s expectations and needs so that you can find the solutions that will make their life easier, better, faster, more profitable.
But this book divides the “pain” into three parts:
- The problem itself
- The reasons for the problem
- The impact of the problem
I’ve always just thought of the problem and the solution. However, adding the impact allows you to attach a dollar amount to the pain. Understanding the reasons behind the problem gives you an opportunity to point out different alternatives/solutions.
When you divide the problem/pain up like this what becomes clear is the GAP between what they currently have and what they long for.
Someone in Boardroom talked about a presenter who spoke at a luncheon and they referred to the entrepreneur’s sweet spot as “owning the gap.” If you can understand what separates the customer’s pain from their goal – the gap – and can offer a service or product that removes that gap; you have the opportunity to be the hero in the eyes of the customer. Or the VITO – the person who can truly appreciate the value you bring.
So how do you identify the gap?
You have to ask questions. You have to learn about your prospect – their customer – their industry – their operational process so that you can uncover the opportunities (gap) and find a way to insert yourself.
Matt Alderton offers suggestions on how to gather that information in his article Finding Out what your Customer Wants.
Last month I wrote a post on understanding customer needs.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on December 3, 2009 under Loyalty |
I feel strongly about developing relationships with customers which I believe, in turn, develops loyalty; customers who remember, refer and return.
So I’m often on the look out for other’s opinions on the topic. This morning I read a post by Susan Abbott entitled Loyalty or Loyalty Programs: There is a Difference. She gives a great example that shows how a customer’s use of a loyalty program could APPEAR to mean that customer is loyal when in fact that isn’t the case.
If you need loyalty points to get repeat purchase you may have a great loyalty program, but you might not have much true loyalty…It’s a mistake to confuse consumer commitment to your loyalty program with the true preference for your service offering. We just love the points.
Developing a loyal fan base of customers requires more attention to the relaltionship than just a good deal or accumulating points against a future purchase. It involves understanding your customer’s needs and expectations and then working hard to make it easy to do business with.
Valerie Maltoni talks about the importance of our reputation as it relates to customers referring us to their friends and family in her post entitled The Value of Reputation. She offers up a study that shows the seven key areas that relate, in the customer’s mind, to our reputation:
product/service
innovation
workplace
governance
citizenship
leadership
performance
Valerie goes on to explain that “according to the Institute’s research, if you improve reputation by 5 points, support goes up by 6.75%.” 
Her article explains the importance of every department – even those traditionally not connected with the customer – needing to focus on the customer in order to positively impact the corporate reputation.
In my last corporate job I spent most of my years on the operations side – directly connected to the customer, but in my final two years as Director of Communication – I was in the “shared services” department of the company. You know – those departments that never talk to customers; HR, finance, real estate, and IT. I found that the employees felt no connection to the company performance on a day to day basis because it didn’t mean anything to them. They had blinders on to their tasks at hand. There wasn’t any connection between what they did and how it impacted the customer.
I wonder how many companies operate that way – assuming that only the operational folks need to worry about how the customer views the company reputation. If every person in every department understood their value in making it easier to do business with, I wonder what impact that would have on reputation and thus recommendations and ultimately loyalty.
Valerie asks the question
How many of you are actively working on communicating with the people and communities that contribute to influencing your brand’s reputation across these seven dimensions? Customers, employees, partners, investors, and so on.
You know that reputation has an impact on the perceived value of your company and brand.
Are you actively working to improve your company reputation in the eyes of your customer or do you rely on loyalty programs to keep them coming back. As Susan stated – if it is just for the points – then what happens if you take away the program or reduce the point value? Wouldn’t you rather have customers coming back because they know you understand them, you care about their needs and you strive to make life easier for them?
How are you building loyalty? Through a points program or through customer relationships?
