Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on September 2, 2010 under Customer Moments, making a difference | 
Do you delight your customers? I found an article written by Alain Thys that was published in 2007 that says it best:
It’s funny that when discussing Customer Delight, most people start talking about customer service. While this nicely fits our managerial illusion of control, it also completely misses the point. Customer service is what companies do to their customers. Customer delight is what the customer feels when he has been dealt with in the right way. One may be related to the other, yet more delight doesn’t always come from more service (in fact, as Ryanair and Aldi have proven, the inverse might even be the case). Customer delight is not about giving more customer service, it’s about giving the service that matters.
Building relationships with our customers is the same as delighting them but over a sustained period of time. We confuse offering customer service with really engaging with our customers.
In fact, “customer service” is actually more closely associated with the stress and frustration of trying to resolve an issue with a company and receiving anything BUT service. Being a customer-focused company isn’t a quick fix. It doesn’t involve offering a special discount or creating a loyalty program that requires the customer to keep track of a “frequent purchase” card.
Being customer-focused involves really getting into the thick of things with your customer. Think about the relationships you have in your life. Personal, professional, casual, life-long. Did they involve a single experience?
We have to start changing our mindset when it comes to the customer and think more along the lines of DELIGHTING them. And you know you know what that looks like. It is a win for both the associate and the customer because at the end of the day – both walk away feeling great!
So what are you doing today to DELIGHT your customers?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on August 9, 2010 under Customer Moments, making a difference |
Friday, August 6, 2010, I lost a dear friend, Bekah Facemire. We didn’t grow up together. Our kids weren’t in soccer together. We didn’t work at the same place.
Bekah was the friendly, neighborhood cashier at Drug Mart. That’s where we met – at register 5.
Bekah greeted every customer with more than just a smile and a warm hello – she KNEW her customers. We were part of her family. Oh, management might have felt she talked to customers too long, but it was her friendship and genuine interest that kept us coming back between 8-4pm Monday-Friday. Week after week.
Drug Mart is a quality store, has lots of great stuff at affordable prices. But so does Walgreens and CVS and Wal-Mart.
It was Bekah’s personality that brought me back – sometimes daily – for one thing and another and a friendly conversation.
Bekah was diagnosed with lung cancer just six short weeks ago and as a community we began praying for her recovery. Customers came in to ask of her progress. When I learned of the diagnosis I went straight from the store to the hospital to give her a hug. I was surprised and overwhelmed by my feelings but that is the kind of relationship she fostered with her customers.
I just came back from a regular shopping excursion to Drug Mart and although they still have the same great products and the rest of the staff knew my name and greeted me warmly – it just wasn’t the same.
I left realizing that I probably won’t go out of my way to shop there any more. A new CVS is opening closer to my home. It wasn’t the products or the prices or the location – it was Bekah that brought me back time and time again – often to buy things I didn’t need but found myself putting in the cart while we chatted.
She remembered her customers – knew what they liked. She hollered out one day a couple months ago “Deb – the hoola hoops that you wanted just came in – they are on aisle two.” I had mentioned wanting to purchase a bunch of hoola hoops for another friend of mine LAST FALL and yet she remembered.
People make the company. It isn’t the name over the door. It isn’t the products or the prices or the special sales. Oh – maybe for a one off shopping experience you’ll be influenced by a sale – but it is the RELATIONSHIP each employee makes with each customers that creates a loyalty no special coupon offer can match.
I will miss Bekah very much. Loving mother, sister, aunt and friend. She had an impact on all she encountered. She knew the meaning of building customer relationships. I’m lifting a margarita in toast to you, my friend.
Question for you: do your employees foster that kind of relationship with each customer?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on July 19, 2010 under Expectations, First Impressions, Perceptions, making a difference |
I decided that I needed to hire a virtual assistant. I am at a point where there are some things I just can’t do anymore and a friend of mine once told me “delegate everything but your genius.” So – I was off to find a virtual assistant.
The first project – transcribe a one hour speech from an audio file. I’m familiar with Elance but a colleague who had a similar project told me that she’d had great success with oDesk - so that’s where I started.
It was simple to set up the account and post the job and before long I had 40 people apply for the job. Each had a resume, test scores of the tests they’d volunteered to take to show their abilities and each provided a cover letter and their hourly rate.
Hourly rates ranged from $2 and change to over $46. Candidates were from around the world. So throwing out the high and the low, I started to look for people to interview. Here’s what I discovered:
- Some had experience and testimonials – that was a bonus. However, I kept thinking, how can they get experience if someone doesn’t hire them so I didn’t eliminate all without experience on oDesk….at first.
- I thought I would prefer someone from the United States and Canada but I soon learned that they were the highest cost and not all had experience.
- The cover letters were of varying degrees – some addressed me as Sir/Madam or To Whom It May Concern while some called me by name.
- Most cover letters stated that English was their first language or that they had experience with transcribing English
- Some listed their experience in audio transcription
I narrowed it down to a few – prices ranging from just under $4/hour to $16/hour. I started to look at their test scores.
- Some took more tests than others
- Some did better on the tests than others
I now had it narrowed down to a gentleman from India and a woman from Bolivia. I sent emailed interview questions. Shriram responded within minutes. His record had the most experience and the highest number of testimonials and the highest test scores for English grammar and vocabulary (higher than the United States candidates).
His responses anticipated my questions – he offered a website, an easy way to upload my audio file and a clear cut amount of time I could expect the job would take.
He has a Mac and I have a PC – he sent me a Word document as a test so I could be assured that I’d be able to open his files.
Shriram joined my team.
Within an hour of his receiving the audio file – he sent me an email with the first four minutes transcribed and saved in FOUR DIFFERENT FORMATS. He gave me options.
At the end of the day he sent me an updated email – he kept me in the loop.
The following day – I discovered that he’d subscribed to my blog and commented here on my award receipt. Within 48 hours 1/2 of the project was complete.
He has kept me informed, showed that he wants to know more about my business and be actively involved, the quality of his work is impeccable and as a customer, I feel valued and supported.
Wow!
Needless to say he will be receiving more work from me going forward.
I set out with an expectation that I only wanted to hire someone from a country I was familiar with and yet it was someone from a different country that has more closely met my needs and treated me like a valued customer – even before he secured the job.
How do you set yourself apart from the competition? If your services were stacked up against the competition, like the candidates at oDesk, how would you compare? Have you taken the extra step of additional testing or certifications or memberships? Do you have testimonials? Do you take the time to address the prospect by name rather than a generic form letter? Do you anticipate their needs and offer them options?
And oDesk has been a great resource. They provide reports that show hours worked and random screen shots of Shriram’s computer so that I can see he’s working on my project during the hours he says he is. Cool beans.
So how do you set yourself apart?
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 July 9, 2010 under making a difference |
One of my customers, CCS Business Solutions, Inc. is celebrating their 35th year in business.
Maybe that doesn’t seem like a lot of years for some businesses but they are a computer company. Think back 35 years – what did computers look like? Big main frame machines that took up an entire room in a company, cost millions of dollars and required special cooling so they didn’t over heat. Meanwhile the regular employees still wrote their correspondence on electric typewriters, using liquid paper and carbon paper. Trust me – I know where of I speak – I kept Liquid Paper in business because of all the typing mistakes I’d make.
Jim Rutledge, Sr. saw an opportunity to help business owners by purchasing and maintaining the mainframe and allowing businesses to have Jim’s business do the computer work. In those days computer work was primary composed of accounting processing on hand entered data punch cards.
Think for a moment about how far we have come with computers. They no longer require a full room but can be stored in your pocket.
So what does it take to be a computer business and stay a vibrant and valuable resource for 35 years in an industry that has had more changes than “Carter has liver pills?”
Putting himself in the shoes of his customers.
Listening to how their needs have changed.
Reinventing how he can meet those needs.
It has been that reinvention that has helped to evolve CCS Business Solutions, Inc. over the last three plus decades and taken them from a local company to one that serves many states and Mexico.
How has your business evolved over the years? Have you looked at the possibility of reinventing what you offer your customers?
I guarantee your customers needs have changed – have you?
Apple is another example that Harvard Business Review wrote about in their article Reinventing your Business Model.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on June 28, 2010 under Connecting Moments, Trust, making a difference |
I love pretzel rods. When I was a kid I would pretend they were cigarettes (hey it was before the Surgeon General). They are a great snack.
I recently bought a tub of pretzel rods and was reminded of how a similar tub of pretzels once made my career!
Several years ago I was a field manager with Pearle Vision in New England. I had about 50 franchise locations that I assisted. I’d been with the company about 12 years and loved my job. However, there is always that desire to be promoted and have more opportunities to make a difference. My opportunity came in 1999 when I was promoted to Director of Corporate Stores and moved to Ohio to work in the home office.
In my interview with the vice president of stores, Peggy Deal, I asked “how will you know you’ve selected the right person for the job?”
“When they start coming to you for the answers instead of me.”
I remembered that and was sad to realize that during my first few weeks, people walked past my door to her corner office. How could I get people to come to me? They didn’t know me. They didn’t trust me. They had no way of knowing if I could help them. Conversely – how would I ever develop relationships with the other associates to learn about them, if they never came in my office?
So one day while at Sam’s Club I bought the biggest tub of pretzels I could find. I put the tub on my side table and let a few people know that they were welcome to stop by for a pretzel if they needed a mid-day pick me up.
The word spread and pretty soon people were coming to my office. People from the mail room up to and including the president, would stop by for a snack and a chat. We started to learn about each other. And soon people came to my office for a pretzel and to let me know about a new project they were working on.
They came to vent.
They came for my opinion.
They came because they needed a sounding board.
They came for my ideas.
They came for my answers.
Sometimes they just came for a pretzel.
However, in less than six months the stream of people going to my boss’ office took a detour – allowing her to work on the bigger picture items.
All on a count of a tub of pretzel rods.
What tool have you used to help build relationships with those you work with?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on June 21, 2010 under Connecting Moments, making a difference |
It is the first day of summer. The longest day of the year. As the long, warm days of summer lay before you – what will you do differently this year; in business and at home?
When my children were little, I worked in corporate America and so needed to rely on summer camps as a way of keeping my children off the streets. Each year in February we’d start looking at the options and with a nod to those camps loved from years past, the kids would plan their summer.
At the end of each summer camp week the kids had to rate the week – 1-10. 1 = camp was close to child abuse and 10 = they wanted to live there for the rest of their lives.
They used that information to CHANGE what they did from year to year. But guess what? I never changed my own behavior or experiences.
I realized that this past weekend as I was driving home from taking my daughter for a week of girl scout camp (receives a rating of 10 each year!). I drove home a different way – the long way – which took me past a lovely lake with camping.
I thought “how peaceful.” I want to be there! I realized that although the kids do something different each year – I always do the same thing – pretty much treat each week as if it were any other time of the year. I do spend as much time at the Chautauqua Institute as possible but I don’t do anything else.
This morning I decided – why not do something different? The possibilities are endless.
It is all a matter of looking at things with fresh eyes and a renewed spirit.
The same is true for our business and our relationship with our customers. How can we do things differently to make it more valuable and more interesting for everyone involved?
- Can we start a blog?
- Attend a new networking event?
- Add a new service or product?
- Change our hours?
- Reach out to a new audience?
If there isn’t anything you would DO differently – is there a new way to LOOK at your business or your customers that might make a difference?
Enjoy the extra minutes of sun today on this summer solstice and perhaps use them to think of one thing you might do differently in your life this summer.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on June 14, 2010 under Books, Connecting Moments, making a difference |
Dan Wrona and Deborah Chaddock Brown
Seth Godin wrote the book and this evening at 8pm est over 6,000 people gathered in local coffee shops, libraries and restaurants in 90 countries around the world. The purpose? To talk about Seth’s book Linchpins and what it means to make yourself an artist in your field and consequently indispensible.
Talk about a make or break moment. I hosted the local meet up in my community and eight people signed up. Eight pm is a tough time for a meeting. You are home from the office, have kicked off your shoes and as the time approaches for the meeting you have a make or break moment:
Do I leave the comfort of my recliner and reruns of 2-1/2 Men to meet a bunch of people and talk about a book I haven’t finished reading?
Two of us made the trek and I’m so glad we did. Dan Wrona of Rise Partnerships had read the book and I cheated and listened to a recap at Polar Unlimited.
What is a Linchpin? A person who holds the operation together. Someone who uses their creativity, power and knowledge to become indispensible or if not indispensible, then incredibly difficult to replace. Someone who is impossibly good at their job.
An artisan.
We talked about what holds us back. Distractors. Resistors. Then we talked about our business and our ideal customers and what we love about our work and how we plan to grow.
Soon names came to mind and you heard phrases like:
“You need to meet….”
“Do you know….?”
“Would you like me to connect you with…”
“How can I help you?”
By the end of the meeting we both said – too bad for the other six – they missed out on a great 90 minutes.
We shared a make or break moment. Two Linchpins in Northeast Ohio.
While we were only two strong in our Panera, we knew that we were part of a much larger group worldwide sharing the same thoughts and networking moments. It felt really cool to be part of!
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on June 4, 2010 under Attitude, Books, making a difference |
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.
So what is a linchpin?
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.
So are you indispensable?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on May 24, 2010 under making a difference |
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. – Mark Twain
Mr. Twain had it right. You would think “doing it right” would be a no-brainer, the least we can be expected to do and what comes naturally and yet even as long ago as the 1800s – “doing it right” was astonishing.
So who is gratified by our doing right?
- Customers! Absolutely. They want it right the first time and if we mess us – they want us to make it right.
- Employees! Without a doubt. If we communicate effectively, train appropriately, encourage and praise regularly it helps them do right for the customer.
- Vendors! We mustn’t forget those that make it possible for us to do right. If we treat them like partners – communicating with regularly and recognizing and thanking when appropriate – they are sure to do right by us!
Who would be astonished?
- Our competitors. Tee hee.
So let’s set about making our customers happy and annoying our competitors!
