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 November 23, 2009 under Connecting Moments, Listening, Perceptions |
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.
