My phone just rang. The caller introduced himself as Dave Somebody.
“Hi Dave, how can I help you?” I asked.
Well, I represent a company that compiles memorabila for your loved ones.” -pause – HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER.
I am racking my brain. Is this a prank? Is this my brother? I’m thinking back over his name – did I recognize it? Nope. He continues.
“We compile photos and stories into a book that you can present to your aging loved one, kind of a ‘this is your life’ keepsake. We find they like it a lot.”
HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER.
pause.
I said “okaaaaaay.”
HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER. “I always love to hear how people respond to our product. I’ve been in sales a long time and this is a very different product for me to sell.” HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER.
“So do you think this is a product you’d be interested in?”
This whole time I am waiting to see if this is a prank but I don’t think so. This is the guy’s sales pitch. Now he can’t know that my neighbor died unexpected yesterday or that I have a very close friend just diagnosed with stage four cancer. And yet the product he is selling is geared towards those wanting to provide a retrospective of someone’s life- perhaps a gift you give toward the end of someone’s life. A sensitive product. A product that would be filled with love and memories and yes, perhaps laughter but not the HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER this guy was giving me shortly after he said hello.
“So is this a product you’d be interested in?” he asked.
“No.”
“Oh.” He sounds very surprised.
“And frankly,” I continued. “Your sales approach is offensive given the sensitive nature of your product.”
“Oh.”
I am still not sure if this was a prank. Or his first day on the job. Or just his approach. It is like the guy in the bar that comes up and says “haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” And you are like – really? That really works for you?
This isn’t a sales blog but certainly that sales conversation is all about make or break moments. Moments when you begin to develop a lifelong relationship with your customer.
HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER over a product that encompasses the gift of memories isn’t going to win friends or influence people.
I just had to share because if you know someone who thinks this approach works…..it sure doesn’t with me.
Guess we won’t be seeing Lebron in this uniform again. Let me start by saying that I’m not a basketball fan. If I had to pick a sport and lawn bowling wasn’t an option then baseball would be my pick. There is something so boring about watching a bunch of guys in shorts run to one end of the room and then back over and over and over.
But as a resident of Northeast Ohio, even I would have to be living under a rock to not be aware of the drama being played out with the Cavaliers and Lebron James.
Last week after an hour long (longest hour in the history of television?) special on ESPN he made the announcement that he’d be leaving Ohio and headed for sunny Florida.
A lot had to have weighed into his decision. The color of the uniform. Plenty of oranges. Sunshine rather than the midwest clouds. Who knows – but for sure it was a make or break moment for Lebron and his relationship with his customers – the fans of basketball.
The question from the customer’s perspective is this: did Lebron put himself in the shoes of his customers or was the decision based solely on his needs and his goals. You may say that as a professional sports celebrity – he should have only considered himself. If that is the case, I wonder – what will be the long term affect with the fans? Will people forget that his ego seemed to shine brighter than his gifts to the industry?
Make or break moments are those times when we have the opportunity to build a relationship with our customers or times when we do something that harms that relationship forever.
Which has happened with Lebron? Time will tell but as a resident from Ohio, the buzz around here says it will be long time before people forget this particular make or break moment.
Just recieved confirmation that this blog, Make or Break Moments, is available as a monthly subscription for you Kindle lovers. Reading your favorite blogs on Kindle? Hopefully this is one of them. For $1.99 per month subscription you can now receive the updates on your handheld reader.
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?
I just finished writing a short document that relates seven customer service concepts to familar fairy tales. We all strive to provide superior customer service and several companies (i.e. most) claim they provide an excellent customer experience and yet few deliver on a consistent basis.
So that’s why I thought I’d take the concepts of customer service and apply them to tales we are all familar with. Stories that, had they been more customer focused, might have turned out completely different.
I used Animoto to create a short video and have been “tweeting” about each of the seven points. The goal? Get the word out about how to build customer relationships.
In this economy we need to re-evaluate how we view our customers. Their needs have to come first. But even more important than offering a friendly greeting – we have to take the time to get to know them. We have to strive to develop a relationship with our customers so that they remember us the next time they are in the market for our products/services and that they refer us to their friends and family.
Before I even start my story, you know it will be wildly wonderful. Why? Because it happened at Trader Joe’s. Can you imagine having your name so closely associated with great customer service that all people have to hear is your name and know right away that it will be great? Like Jell-o is synonymous with gelatin; some companies have so closely tied themselves to superior customer service that it is assumed.
I was chatting with Mary Perlmutter of Twinsburg Eye Associates (locally associated with great customer service) about marketing and business and service and she told me a great little story that just happened to her yesterday.
She lives near the Trader Joe’s in Beachwood and frequently shops there. She loves the layout of the store, the products and of course, the service. Yesterday she had a list of four specialty items that she needed. She walked into the store and upon being greeted by an associate made her request:
“I shop her frequently but I’m not sure if you carry these items. I wonder if you could save me some time by looking at my list and telling me if you stock these things.”
The associate said, “Not a problem. Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll go get them for you.”
She sat down near the front door and away he went, her list in his hand, and proceeded to do her shopping for her. Moments later he returned, all four items in his arms. He placed them in her basket, returned the list and left her with a smile and a great story to share.
You should know that my friend is not old, or infirm or physically challenged in anyway. It never occurred to her that he’d go and get the items, she just figured he would know by looking at the list if the items were in stock.
Here’s how the same circumstance might have played out elsewhere and how we’d respond.
We enter the store, we aren’t greeted by anyone and we fend for ourselves. We wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
We are greeted and the person says- oh, I don’t know if we have those things. I haven’t worked here that long. We say thank you and fend for ourselves, never thinking twice about it.
We are greeted and the person says you can find those items in aisle 3 on the left and aisle 5 on the right. We say thank you and marvel that the associate would know their stock so well as to know which side of the aisle the product is on.
We are greeted and the person says – yes we have those things – let me take to you to them. We say thank you and think to ourselves – WOW that’s really nice!
So where on the thermometer of customer service measurements does Mary’s experience at Trader Joe’s rank? Off the charts?
Why is that? Why is extra special service so rare? This associate exceeded Mary’s expectations and I’m sure it took no time at all and yet great customer service is so out-of-the-ordinary that we hold it up as if it were the Hope Diamond of experiences.
Make or Break Moments happen everyday and most of the time they are so basic and so simple, we totally miss them. Look around. Is there a moment in which you could be making a difference for someone that you’ve missed?
You are talking with someone (customer, parent, spouse, boss, vendor) and you just know that the next words out of your mouth are either going to make the relationship or break it for all time.
What do you do?
It may be a new customer walking in the door or an existing customer breathing fire.
It could be your boss with a project you just know is going to send you over the edge or a team member who you counted on to provide facts that looks like they are going to bale.
It could be your teen with a fresh dent in your precious car or your Mom with the family silver you just know she wants you to polish.
What do you say? Does emotion take over?
Fact is, we have make or break moments multiple times during the day however, many times we just don’t know it. Those are the missed moments, the times when the ocean came up on the sand, taking with it a once in a life time chance to make a difference.
Here at Make or Break Moments we are going to talk about those time, those instances of opportunity. I’ll share observations I’ve made (good and bad) and hope you will too. We will talk together about how we can face those Make or Break Moments with confidence.
I welcome your comments and look forward to learning together.
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