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 February 23, 2010 under First Impressions, Perceptions, making a difference |
I was visiting Custom Auto Body in North Canton last week for a meeting with Lance Runion, VP and General Manager. We are working on a project together and it was the first time I’d visited his shop. Expecting a typical auto repair store with worn carpet, car and truck magazines and ugly metal chairs I was pleased to walk into an inviting waiting area; warm, clean, comfortable.
Even better – the magazines were more to my liking with a recent copy of People Magazine. But before I could pick it up and delve into the latest Tiger Woods, Bragelina, Brittany scandal, my eyes fell upon a scrapbook/photo album.
I opened it to find page after page of before and after pictures of the cars they had repaired. Accompanying each picture was a handwritten thank you note from the customer.
If I was there for an estimate or to have my car repaired – what a wonderful validation that I had selected the right place to have my car fixed. The before and after pictures were a powerful marketing message that clearly showed their ability. The testimonials added to their credibility.
Sometimes we just need a little validation that the vendor we’ve selected is the right one. What simple visual tool can you put together to help your customers know the value you provide?
Do you ask for testimonials? Think about your best customers – would they be willing to say something positive about your business? Follow these simple steps:
- Give them a call and ask if they’ll provide a quote.
- Offer to write it for them. (have them approve before you publish)
- Think of one specific thing you’d like the quote to be about and write the sentence with that focus (responsive, quality, knowledgeable, great listener, experienced)
- Amass a library of quotes; each one focused on a different aspect of your abilities
- Use the quotes in your email signature (rotate a different one each week/month)
- Put quotes on each of your website pages
- Include a quote in your e-newsletter
Make it easy for your prospects to decide to be your customer by giving them visual proof that others have been pleased. Do you have a creative way you use customer testimonials? Share it with us here!
For more ways to use your testimonials – read this article from Copyblogger offering ten ways to use your testimonials.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on February 22, 2010 under Employee Moments, Expectations, making a difference |
I’m a member of the Customer 1st LinkedIn group and about three months ago Teri Yanovitch posted this discussion starter:
Attitude of indifference by employees
Being treated with the attitude of indifference is as bad if not worse than being treated with rudeness.
Now usually someone will post a discussion point and there will be comments for a few days and then people move on to the next topic but this discussion has been continuing as one of the top items in the group for the entire three months. Everyone agrees that indifference is just as bad as outright rudeness. The discussions have talked more about the root of the problem. Some blame the economy or a lack of training or a lack of motivation or hiring the wrong people or bottom line management but the general consensus is that there is a growing problem with the attitude of our nation’s employees and how they treat customers.
My take? It is a culture thing. If the company culture is one that focuses on sales and profitability before customers – then sooner or later the customer becomes a distraction or an interruption in the day rather than our reason for being.
However, if everyone is dedicated to uncovering and resolving the customer’s needs then the sales and profitablity will take care of itself. Customers remember when they’ve truly been seen as important rather than cash in the register.
So I ask you – what do you think? Is it just this younger generation that doesn’t understand the value of the customer? Is it a lack of training and focus? Are we hiring indifferent people?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on February 16, 2010 under Customer Moments, making a difference |
If you are a parent, you’ll be able to relate.
“Mom, did I tell you I need to bring a copy of Treasure Island to school tomorrow?”
Okay, let me set the stage. It is snowing in blizzard proportions, it is 6pm on President’s Day and we’ve had all weekend to shop for the book. NOW she tells me? I was just starting supper. I was thinking about a glass of wine and maybe a fire in the fireplace. NOW?
I start by scouring the shelves of books we have and realize that the copy I am SURE WE HAVE SOMEWHERE can’t be found. So I call the local bookstore, The Learned Owl. As the phone is ringing, I tell my daughter – it is after 6pm on a holiday – they aren’t open.
“Good evening, thank you for calling the Learned Owl.”
YOU ARE OPEN??? Do you have Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson?
“For Mr. Standley’s 7th grade English class? Yes we do. We’ll be here until 8pm.”
Now I wish I could say that this is the first time this has happened, but sadly – it is apparently the only way both of my children operate because I’ve lived this same event at least 10 times in the last six years. And EVERY SINGLE TIME The Learned Owl has been there for me.
They partner with the teachers in our school system and have all of the books at great prices. Sure they are small. Perhaps they don’t have all of the books you’ll find at the mega-book stores. They don’t sell coffee and you won’t find a guitar player performing on a Friday night.
But they serve their community BEAUTIFULLY.
Not only do they partner with the English teachers to stock the latest required reading, they also work with the music/drama department and carry tickets to all of the school events at a pre-order rate. They sponsor book signings for local authors as well as nationally acclaimed authors.
They are first in line for community actitives to lead, sponsor and/or participate. Our town boasted the biggest Harry Potter celebrations thanks to Liz Murphy, the owner of the Learned Owl and her leadership of bringing together all of the other local businesses to make it a town event.
In this economy, so many small businesses are saying they can’t compete with the big box stores or Wal-Mart and yet here is a local shop that serves its community brilliantly.
Thanks to the Learned Owl – it was just a short 20 minutes before I was back to my dinner and glass of wine and my daughter had a brand new copy of Treasure Island in her backpack!
Do you serve your local community as well? So often we try to reach the global community (be bigger than our britches, my grandma would say) when we can do so much more within our own backyard.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 29, 2010 under Connecting Moments, making a difference, social media |
Yesterday morning I attended the monthly ABC meeting: Akron Bloggers Connect and we had a wonderful turnout w ith some friendly, familiar faces and a few that were new to the group.
Chris Brown of Branding and Marketing (Marketing Resources and Results) led us through a packed agenda. But first we went around the table and introduced ourselves. It is an electic group of bloggers and blogger-newbies:
Ivana Taylor of DIY Marketers
Ron McDaniel of Buzzoodle
Norma Rist of Small Biz Coach
Donna Zabel of Dream Maker Destinations
Tom Crain of Going Green Guy
Patti Renner of The Landing Page Lady
and Jill McCauslin and Mary Helscl who are just getting started.
We talked about creating FAST content for the web that is a constant task master wanting more and more words of wisdom. We talked about using Market Samurai to research key words and the value of finding the right niche product to connect with targeted prospects. We shared resources and websites/blogs that we’d found of value like Nathan Kievman with Link Strategies Group and Frank Kern’s videos.
In the end,we all commented about the wealth of information that had been shared and in particular, how some so experienced, were willing to share what they knew with those just starting out.
It was a make or break moment in my mind.
We’ve been taught to hold our cards close to our vest. If we find out something new and exciting – we should keep it a secret so that we have a leg up on our competition. Yet isn’t there some value in sharing what we’ve learned so that we can all become better in business, better using social media, better with our customer relationships?
So do you hold knowledge as a closely guarded secret or do you share the wealth?
Are you local? Consider joining us for our lively discussions. We meet monthly at the Mocha Joe’s in Stow - last Thursday of every month from 9:30-11am. Hope to see you there.
Photo courtesy of Chris Brown and her amazing camera!
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 25, 2010 under Employee Moments, Significant Other Moments, empathy, making a difference |
I normally focus on the customer at Make or Break Moments, but today I’d like to shine the spotlight on our NUMBER ONE ASSET – our employees.
How we treat our employees and how we make them feel directly impacts how they treat our customers.
I remember a store visit I once conducted with Pearle Vision. The franchisee owned three stores but worked primarily out of one of them. This store visit was to a store he rarely visited. It was a small store in size and sales volume and only had three employees. On this particular day there were two associates working. As was my practice during my visit, I kept an open ear to the customer conversations to see how the customers were treated and to critique the sales conversation.
- Were they asking questions about lifestyle?
- Were they making recommendations based on those facts?
- Were they suggesting a second pair purchase?
- Did they recommend lens treatments like scratch protection, tinting and ultraviolet ray protection?
During a lull in the afternoon, I mentioned the fact that they really just filled out order forms. They didn’t ask any questions and they made no recommendations. For me it was an “ah – ha” moment. This is why sales are so low in this store. The opportunities were incredible. Until I heard the associates response.
“Oh sure, we know what we could be doing to improve sales but why should we bother? The owner clearly doesn’t care about this store or these customers. He certainly doesn’t care about us – he never visits or calls or asks us questions or allows us to attend training. If he doesn’t care – why should we? We get paid either way.”
Talk about the real “ah – ha” moment in this store visit.
Yesterday during the sermon, our minister, Rev. Dr. Peter Wiley, shared a letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians in which he likened our body to that of the Body of Christ – each part has a role, each role no more important than any other but without the whole – we don’t function. As part of the sermon he talks about how people each carry a bucket. And we can respond to each other’s bucket in one of two ways:
1. We can fill each other’s bucket with words of praise, recognition and encouragement.
2. We can drain their bucket with criticism, negativity and judgemental comments.
That really hit home for me. At the end of the day, Peter asked, can we look back and say we spent more time filling buckets or emptying them? On any given day, for me, it could go either way. I find that the people I am closest too, the ones who mean the most, I spend more time being critical. I assume they know their value and how important they are to me and how proud I am of their accomplishments.
Do we do the same with our employees? Do we assume they know their value and therefore, we spend the most time finding things wrong that they could be doing better/differently? Or do we ignore them entirely which is another way of emptying their bucket?
How our employees feel is directly related to how they treat our customers. If they were asked – would they say you spend more time FILLING their bucket or EMPTYING it?
p.s. we need to ask the same question of ourselves with all our relationships.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 16, 2010 under Customer Moments, making a difference |
Just got back from a wonderful night at Marcelita’s Mexican restaurant in Hudson. I have to be honest, I don’t go for the food. I only go when The Reunion Band is playing. One of the band members, Jim Gray, is a family friend and the band plays all the classic rock songs you love to sing.
So I am sitting there sipping my drink after last call when the waitress brings the bill. My companion doesn’t have his reading glasses and leans over the bar and asks the waitress for a pair of glasses. Steve is a regular customer and is aware that Marcelita’s UNDERSTANDS THEIR CUSTOMERS sometimes need helping reading the bill!
They offer a variety of readers in different colors and strengths just for the purpose of customers who need a little help reading the bill. I love it! What a great, simple, inexpensive way to help your customers do business with you!
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What simple service can you provide, like a pair of reading glasses, to make it easy to do business with you?
By the way – if you have a chance to hear The Reunion Band – I highly recommend them. They can play for hours without repeating a song and each one is better than the one before. And you don’t need reading glasses to enjoy them!
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 7, 2010 under Connecting Moments, Customer Moments, making a difference |
What is the cost of a lost customer?
I have often theorized the importance of building relationships with customers and now a recent survey puts dollars to the sense of that theory. I learned today from CustServ that the cost of lost customers equals 338.5 BILLION a year! Further investigation from CustServ’s blog led me to the article from Genesys that shares the details of the customer service survey of 16 countries. The article details the survey particulars (about 500 people per country surveyed), the worst hit industries, what ticked customers off and what set businesses apart.
My eye zeroed in on the key misses by companies. What causes customers to walk and take their business to the competition?
Consumers feel the most significant root causes of poor service are:
- Being trapped in automated self-service
- Being forced to wait too long for service
- Repeating themselves
- Representatives that lack the skills to answer their inquiry
If we look at that list we see consumers who want to interact with another human being but more importantly – the interaction should be one in which the consumer feels like they have been HEARD and are being helped by someone who UNDERSTANDS THEIR NEEDS and has the skills and knowledge to MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Further, the survey participants listed what improvements they would like to see in customer service:
When asked what they would most like to see companies deploy to improve service, 40% chose human service, but more than half of consumers chose at least one new communication channel among their top choices. In other words, “Treat my interactions as a conversation.”
Again, we are back to human interaction and BUILDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS. Forty percent wanted to deal with another person rather than an automated system.
So what do customers value?
According to the data, consumer satisfaction increases when companies meet four key needs:
- Competency
- Convenience
- Proactive engagement
- Personalization
Proactive outreach emerged as an area in which consumers want greater engagement. More than 86 per cent of consumers defined proactive engagement as a “strong benefit” or would “welcome proactive assistance” when stuck on the Web or in some form of self-service.
Three out of four of those items involve the RELATIONSHIP between the consumer and the sales associate or customer service representative.
If the prospects that leave your business without purchasing were surveyed, what would be the reason they walked? How much is that costing you? What can you do to turn prospects into customers.
It all starts with the relationship!
For a complete copy of “The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic Impact of the Customer Experience and Engagement” survey, please send a request to: press@genesyslab.com
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 5, 2010 under Customer Moments, Missed Moments, making a difference |
It is snowing here.
My backyard is buried in the white stuff.
Yesterday as my daughter and I drove down the snow-covered road she had an interesting observation.
“Sure it looks pretty but it is amazing how quickly it turns ugly.”
It is so true. As I watch the flakes fall I remember that no two flakes are exactly alike and that made me think of our customers.
No two customers are alike.
If we treat them as if they are alike, we run the risk of missing an important piece of information which could lead to:
- The prospect not turning into a customer
- A customer with a challenge turning irate
- A missed opportunity to make a difference
Having policies and procedures are a good thing but only if we realize that they are merely guidelines and shouldn’t supersede our customer’s INDIVIDUAL situation.
Like snowflakes, each customer’s needs are different and we have to be open and aware by using our active listening skills to learn about their unique circumstance.
If we don’t, that individual customer, like freshly fallen snow, might turn ugly before our eyes.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on December 16, 2009 under Customer Moments, Missed Moments, making a difference |
I was reading Leslie Ungar’s monthly newsletter from Electric Impulse Communications - always a great read but one of her Lessons this month really hit home:
Retail – In Person and Email
This particular boutique emails to me their monthly newsletter and sales announcements. I assume the purpose of Internet marketing is to create sales. I walked into the small store. One person was behind the desk, I was no more than five feet away and talking to her when she picked up the phone and called a vendor, totally ignoring my presence.
Lesson Learned: One way to create sales is to get people into the store. The marketing worked, I was there in person. Yet, a phone call appeared to be more important than engaging me in even trivial conversation. All the marketing in the world will not succeed if people do not transform prospects into buyers. It is not the job of the prospect to buy it is the job of the seller to sell. Are you taking advantage of face to face time to engage prospects and clients?
Here is a perfect example of marketing driving the traffic and a sales person dropping the ball. I used to have a franchisee who said to me “you bring them to the door and I’ll close them.”
That’s fine and good, but if the sales associates don’t understand the importance of those first 30 seconds, then you’ve missed the opportunity to make a difference. We only get one chance at a first impression and Leslie’s first impression clearly isn’t positive in this example.
Do your associates understand the value of a smile, eye contact and a quick hello.
In this case, the associate could have done both: greeted Leslie warmly and answered the phone. It isn’t an either/or proposition.
Does your marketing drive traffic?
How well do your associates handle that first make or break moment with the customer?
