Make Sure Customers Know ALL Your Services
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on March 19, 2009 under Communication, Customer Moments, First Impressions | 
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I have bushy eyebrows. Always have. Before Brook Shields made them popular, my one big eyebrow was the reason for many tearful, middle school nights. I wore long bangs to cover my hairy forehead.
And then some brilliant person invented eyebrow waxing! Gotta love it. A little pain and it looks like I’ve had a facelift for under $20!
At the Tallmadge Chamber lunch today I met Carol Martin who owns Carol Martin Salon Day Spa. Having checked my eyebrows in the mirror this morning, I knew I was over due for a waxing.
“Sure – we can get you in after the luncheon,” Carol told me. So I zipped across the street to her location. I was cheerfully greeted, asked to sign in and then MAGIC happened.
I have to back up for just a minute.
A friend of mine, who is a professional coach, told the sad tale of a conversation she had with a prior customer. She likes to take her customers out for a thank you lunch once a year with no hidden agenda, just a nice opportunity to sit and chat about business and life. It was on one such occasion that she learned a hard lesson.
“He was talking about a recent challenge he’d had with his business,” she told me. “He needed a speech writer for a corporate function and he didn’t have anyone on staff who could adequately complete the task.” She shook her head sadly as she continued the story.
“He moaned about going from one writer to another and the struggle he’d endured to find someone who could not only write a satisfactory speech but who would quickly learn enough about the business to sound authentic.”
The reason the story is so sad for my friend? She is a professional speech writer. She’d known the customer for over five years and understands his business, the company’s goals and objectives and enough of the corporate culture to have written a brilliant speech in a relatively short period of time.
“I asked him why did just didn’t call me? I worried that he’d been secretly dissatisfied with my work thus far but his answer was much more disturbing to me,” she said.
“He had no idea I wrote speeches.”
My friend had successfully created a brand for herself in the professional coaching arena but never bothered to effectively communicate the other products and services she offered to her customers.
Do customer know ALL you offer?
How often does it happen that a customer thinks of you in association with one product or service and doesn’t have a clue all of the services you offer?
Now back to Carol Martin’s Salon and Day Spa.
Before being led to the room for the surgery to separate my eyebrow into two reasonably sized brows, I was given a complete tour.
“Here’s where we offer pedicures and manicures, and we have two rooms for body services like body wraps, massages and facials. Here’s the room with the shampoo bowls and the make up area where we can do make up for prom parties and wedding parties.”
In less than two minutes, I had the opportunity to clearly see all of the services offered at Carol Martin’s.
It was a great exercise in helping a new customer understand the full scope of solutions available. I walked out a short while later – freshly waxed and feeling great!
Do your customers know about all of your products and services? How can you quickly and concisely let knew customers know all you offer?
