If your customer's can't get a hold of you, how can they buy from you? If you are not responsive to their needs, you can be pretty sure there is someone else waiting in the wings that will be....
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Being in the service industry myself I know all too well how difficult it can be to satisfy every customer, every time. When consumers are loyal to a company’s brand they are voting with their heart not just with their head. They feel strongly enough that the company will take care of them if something happens that they often will stay loyal to the brand even at a higher price. The consumer these days has a plethora of options at their disposal that it’s even more important than ever for companies to ensure to continue to focus on building brand loyalty each and every day. Studies show the total cost of securing a new customer is far more expensive than having a repeat customer so companies that build brand loyalty also often have an advantage to their bottom line. Another advantage of brand loyalty is the consumer will usually be more than willing to give referrals to their friends and family which helps these companies continue to expand their customer base.
As a consumer though, it’s not which company will never make a mistake but rather how the company responds to the mistake that makes all the difference for me. I recently was in the position of needing to buy a new set of tires for my car and given how insanely expensive tires are these days, you can imagine that I did my due diligence on getting price quotes from different tire centers. Truth be told I have been a loyal Les Schwab for many years and in the back of my mind, I knew I would probably purchase from them this time. However, they are not the lowest cost so I wanted to keep them honest by checking out their competitors. Even more importantly I have always had good service with Les Schwab and didn’t know what kind of service or lack thereof I may receive from their competitors. I decided to go with my gut and go with brand that I have been loyal to over the years. I received a competitive price and sat down in their waiting room to get some work done while I waited. I was glad to see the serviceman approach me in anticipation of telling me my vehicle was all ready to go. However, instead what I heard was the following “I apologize Mr. Schneider we have a new employee working today and he accidentally put the wrong size tires on your car. I will get “all hands on deck” and have it done for you in the next 20 minutes and again I am sorry about the mix up.” As I was paying the cashier, he had heard about the little snafu and told me not to worry, he would take care of me. It really wasn’t that big of an inconvenience as I was not running late but I appreciated the fact that he wanted to make sure I was completely satisfied and would return again. He did just that by giving me an additional discount of $60 to make up for this error. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect but all I know is that not only did I feel satisfied but I realized that I received another confirmation of why I am loyal to the Les Schwab brand. What are you doing today to build brand loyalty with your customers? It may be surprising to those who still think Social Media is all fun and games but Social Media is revolutionizing both the business world and the world in general. Naysayers continually look at Social Media as a fad and only for the younger generation but they are ignoring its ability to make the world smaller by connecting with other people, companies, and brands. If you need further proof, look no further than the following great story about how a company connected with its customer in an extraordinary way:
http://shankman.com/the-best-customer-service-story-ever-told-starring-mortons-steakhouse/ There are many other great stories that are being told on a daily basis on how companies are using Social Media to connect with their current and future customer base and also to help drive top line revenues. However, as mentioned earlier Social Media is also changing the world as we know it. There are many stories about how people have reconnected with long lost friends and family they have never met. In other words it makes this world we live in a much smaller place. Just recently a story made national news of a young man that went missing in Asia while on a trip with a group of people. His family and friends used Facebook and Twitter as a way to communicate with anyone who might have seen or heard from him. This is just one of a growing number of stories of how Social Media has revolutionized our current culture. The question then is how are you harnessing the power of Social Media in your business? If your customers were to give you a report card after each transaction, would you be anxious to see it or cringe at what grades they might give you? A customer survey is very similar to the report card you use to receive in school. It is a real time snapshot of the value you brought to your customers and the potential areas you need to improve upon. The question then is how easy do you make it for your customers to provide you with feedback and when do you ask them for their feedback? If you wait too long after the sale not only with you most likely not get an accurate representation of your service, but chances are most people will not take the time to complete it. If you want the most impact and the most accurate info, you need to ask for feedback right after a sale is complete.
I recently had a new furnace and water heater installed in my house and the heating company (Bel Red Energy Solutions) has a great policy of asking for customer feedback prior to the technicians leaving the house. When the installation was done, the technician handed me a customer survey and took the time to explain the importance of why they are asking for the feedback and how they use it to provide the very best service they can, each and every time. By the technician taking just a few moments to explain the survey (instead of just handing it to me and asking me to complete) it diffused any feeling of being put on the spot to provide instant feedback. They could have just as easier sent a survey in the mail or emailed one to me. However by doing it before they left, this insured that I not only completed the survey (which many people never complete) but allowed them the opportunity to receive instant feedback on the service they provided. This type of immediate feedback is beneficial for both the company and the customer. For instance, if the customer receives less than stellar service, it provides the company the ability to either resolve the issue on the spot or follow up quickly after the sale. For the customer, it gives them another way to thank them for their good service and leaves them with a good feeling about the service they just received. What kind of grades are you receiving from your customers? If you are waiting for your report cards to arrive in the mail, it may already be too late or they may never arrive at all. Many companies state or at least it’s implied they want their customer’s feedback, but you have to wonder how serious they really are. Starbucks left no doubt where they stood on the subject in March of 2008. You see they were facing a true crossroads and there was strong doubt by their shareholders, customers and the general public as to whether their success had perked (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Howard Schultz had just return to the CEO post after a 7 year hiatus and was ready to leave no stone unturned in his desire to bring the passion, culture and love for the Starbucks brand back to where it once stood. One of his immediate goals and initiatives was to strengthen the Starbucks Brand. To do this he launched a website (mystarbucksidea.com) to give their customers a venue to offer suggestions of how to make the company better. What kind of impact did this have with their customers you ask? 7,000 ideas were posted to this site within 24 hours by their customers and they received a total of 41,000 ideas the first two months! Not only did Starbucks receive some great new ideas that were eventually implemented to help turn the company around but more importantly, this simple act showed their customers how much they valued their input. This is turned made an already strong brand, even stronger.
How easy do you make it for your customers to provide feedback? What do you do with the feedback you receive? How connected are your customers to your brand? In this highly digital world we live and do business in, it can seem like the telephone and its primary function have become archaic. Some say that texting, instant messages and emails are easier and more productive. While you can maintain and expand your brand to some degree through these channels, you miss the personal interaction that a conversation over the phone can offer. A customer calling into your customer service department is not just an opportunity to answer a concern or respond to a concern. Rather it’s an opportunity to expand your brand by having a captive conversation with your customer for a short block of time. Instead of looking at this as simply a time answer their questions or hear their concern, it’s a great opportunity to execute and build a stronger brand. Remember, you have your customer’s undivided attention for 5-10 minutes. You can choose to merely satisfy their request or use this time to create a loyal customer and even more importantly, a future referral.
Many customer service departments utilize a customized script for when a customer calls in with a request, complaint or simply a question. These are great tools for new employees and specifically for new and recurrent training purposes. I wonder though how often the company brand is mentioned in these customized scripts? What better way to reinforce your brand that with your front line employees. These are the folks in the trenches that often deal with the emotional customers who are not usually calling to tell you how much they love your company or your products. They are not meant to be just a firefighter putting out the random hot spots but rather a vehicle to delivery your brand to every customer they come into contact with. Zappos is a great example of a company that totally gets this concept and has been extremely successful due in large part to the fact that their employees not only understand but live out their brand every day. They use the interactions with their customers over the phone as an opportunity to “Wow” them with superior service. They actually want their customer to call them because they understand that each time is an opportunity to strengthen the brand and win the customer for life. One way they motivate their customers to call is by putting their customer service phone number on the top of each web page. Are you using your telephone to merely interact with your customers or to build a stronger brand? If you peruse the Business section of your local bookstore and/or your favorite online bookstore you will find no shortage of books written on the subject of getting more business or winning more customers. Yet in today’s business environment the one quality that seems so often to be missing with many companies, is good service. There is nothing more frustrating when you are a consumer than when you receive poor service or you get the feeling that a company could care less whether you continue to buy their products or not. What companies seem to forget is how willing and likely consumers are to share their bad news or tell their friends and co-workers about who not to do business with.
Here are 10 easy steps you can follow to ensure you drive your customers away: 1. Don’t call your customers back when you promise them you will 2. Spend more time telling your customers what you can’t do instead of what you can do 3. Ignore your customers by not staying in contact with them 4. Provide poor after sale service 5. Have a staff full of unhelpful or rude employees 6. Make your customers wait either in line or over the phone because of poorly trained staff 7. Have your customer’s phone calls be placed on hold by an automated voice 8. Have a staff full of employees with an “I can’t be bothered” attitude 9. Provide a complicated process for your customers to file a complaint 10. Have a very difficult return process In a meeting with a customer this week I reminded of a great way to lose your customer’s business. It is not a new way but should be a wake-up call to those in sales or who interface with customers in one form or another. This customer was in the process of explaining to me more about his business when the question of why he uses certain vendors came up. His response was short and simple but yet spoke volumes. He stated that for whatever reason, the vendors he had been using just stopped calling him and staying in touch so he had no choice but to look elsewhere. Committing this cardinal sin in sales is bad enough but hearing that it has happened a few times to the same customer was even more alarming. Finding and getting business is not easy and takes hard consistent work but what is the point of going through all that work only to have the business slip out the back door. It has been well documented that you will spend far more money and time trying to get a customer back that you lost, than you will in acquiring them in the first place. Unfortunately, I wish I could say that this story was unique but I am afraid it happens far more than we would like to admit.
This story also emphasizes the three phases to every sales cycle: finding the business, getting the business and keeping the business. If you ignore any one of these phases the results can and most likely will be disastrous. One of the ways you will keep your customers business is by having a good relationship with them. Staying in touch with your customers is good, building trust with them is better and being considered a trusted business partner is best. All three of these levels require both communication and consistency. Eliminate either one of these and you will be working hard to try to win the business back from your competition. Here are some effective ways of communicating with your customers to ensure you keep their business: 1. If you sell over the phone, set up a call cycle to talk to your customers on a regular basis. 2. If you sell face to face, make sure every time you meet with your customers you bring someone of value that will impact their business. 3. Send your customers emails with information that would be pertinent to their business or industry. 4. If you have an entertainment budget, get your customers out of the office on a regular basis for a meal. This allows you to not only connect with them on a more personal basis but will give you a chance to talk without the constant interruptions that you have in the office setting. 5. Send your customers a hand written Thank You card for being you customer. Show them that you truly value their business and are so glad you have them as a customer. The words thank you are two little words that are often said but I wonder how often we really mean them? It is commonplace for us to use these words as a response to a transaction a purchase or when someone does something for us. However, it seems as though we use them so often that I wonder if they have lost their true impact? It seems many times giving thanks is strictly out of common courtesy more than the fact that we are truly thankful for the service or product that the person or company provided. Of course, there is nothing wrong with respect and courtesy and one could easily argue that our society needs much more of this. Maybe we just will feel guilty or somehow jinxed if we don’t say these two words to someone, even if we don’t mean them. However, the more we say them without really meaning them the less value they hold in our eyes.
When was the last time you contacted your customers with the sole purpose of saying thank you? Not to ask them for more business or to try to sell them another product, but to just say thanks! They are use to vendors or suppliers calling them or calling on them and trying to sell them another product or service. However, I would say that it is far more infrequent for them to hear an out-of-the-blue thank you. This is such a powerful tool to keep in your sales tool bag but is often overlooked. This is also a great way to differentiate yourself and your company from your competition. This shows your customers that you truly value them and their support. Here are some creative ways you can show gratitude to your customers: 1. Send a hand written Thank You card in the mail- Since most of what people receive in the mail these days are bills or ad’s, your card will stand out. 2. Place an out-of-the-blue Thank You phone call- Simply tell them how much you appreciate their support and how much you love having them as a customer. Don’t however leave a voice mail as it will not have the same effect. 3. How much do you know about your customers? Get to know their interests and hobbies- a great example of this when a vendor went to lunch with one of his customers and found out that his customer loved soup. The vendor out of the blue sent his customer a thermos with the customer’s name on it. The total gift cost only $1.59 but you can bet that every time this person sees it, he thinks of this vendor. How much is that worth? 4. Send a bouquet of flowers or balloons- an inexpensive way to show your customers that you appreciate them. It will most likely be the topic of discussion and will be remembered for a long time. These two simple words can have a powerful effect on your customers and your success. When is the last time you told your customers thank you and are you sure they truly know how thankful you are? |
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