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Category: Customer Expectations

A Reason to Belong

For those of you who have read the new book Pendulum about the shifting outlook of society, you will remember that we are ten years into a “We” cycle. We still have another 30 years to go.

For those who haven’t read the book (and I believe it may be the single most important book you can read for business), the general concept is that there is a 80 year swing in society between two prevailing outlooks – Me and We – each taking about 40 years of that swing.

A “We” cycle has “community” and “collaboration” as two of the main themes. People want to belong and be a part of something.

One way to use this understanding is to help people feel like they belong to your store. You probably already have a FB page and have a bunch of “likes”. But how do you transfer that into a “community”? How do you turn those casual likers into loyal insiders?

Make them feel special.

Two ways you can do this…

  1. Insider information
  2. Shared unique experiences

Insider Information

People love little secrets. Men, especially, love secrets because men speak vertically – did what I say make you think higher of me or lower of me? Knowing little tidbits of information that most people don’t know gives men a chance to say something that will make you think higher of them (at least that’s how we perceive it, ladies, bear with us on this).

Ladies also like secrets. Unlike men, ladies speak more horizontally – did what I say draw me in closer or push me away? Ladies want to be in the inner circle. They feel special when they know the secret handshake. Little tidbits of information make them feel like they belong and also give them something to share with others and draw others into their inner circle.

Sharing personal stories, fun facts, and insider information with your fan base builds a level of loyalty among those who are in the know. Just keep it positive and interesting (i.e. did you know that the same man – Tom Murdough Jr – invented both Little Tikes and Step2? Yes, he went into business a second time just to compete with the first business he created!) Two examples of entities that have created a loyal band of followers… Lady Gaga & her Little Monsters and Jimmy Buffet & his Parrotheads. When your fans give themselves a name, you’ve done your job well.

Shared Unique Experiences

We have a special kindred spirit when we share a unique experience with other people. Those strangers become less strange. There is a nod of understanding between the people who have had those moments, a nod of “I-know-you-know-exactly-what-I’m-thinking”.

When you do something completely and uniquely different than any other retailer out there, you’ll get your customers giving those nods to other customers.  They will feel like they belong to something special. The best thing is that they will want to bring their friends into this inner circle.

The key is that the experience has to be unique and special and unadvertised. For example, when I was in the world of rock climbing, there was a gal in Colorado who was the best at resoling rock climbing shoes. Many climbers I knew sent their shoes to her. And she sent them back, resoled. The unique experience, simple as it may sound, was that in the box she included a Jolly Rancher candy. If you saw a guy with newly resoled shoes, all you had to do was ask, “What flavor?” If he had sent his shoes to Jules, he knew exactly what you meant and responded right away.

In a “We” cycle people want to belong to something special. Give them something special with your business and they’ll be naming themselves soon enough.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Once you get your fans to become so loyal they name themselves, you can stop spending money on regular advertising. They’ll do all the advertising for you.

Trust is Broken

Does it frost you that people shopping online are significantly more willing to trust an anonymous customer “review” than what your well-trained sales staff might say about a particular product?

According to Nielsen, although 92% of people surveyed will trust word-of-mouth from friends and relatives, online reviews are close behind at 70%. No form of advertising from the store could even break 50%.

Yet, according to research, 10% of all online reviews are fake.

Still the customer is more willing to trust anonymous customers online than they will trust the store. And it is easy to see why.  Just look at this picture.

This was the sign outside of an Eddie Bauer store at Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor. We all know “Exclusions Apply”. In fact, if the sign hadn’t said that at the bottom, we all would have still thought it anyway because exclusions always seem to apply. All the claims made by stores these days are outrageous to get your attention and then filled with so many exclusions and fine print disclaimers that the original deal isn’t any deal at all. Heck, every time a radio ad comes on with some special offer, almost half of the ad is filled with some guy speaking the legalese terms and conditions so fast you couldn’t understand them anyway.

Even if you haven’t personally done this in your store, you are the benefactor of a culture where exclusions always apply and every deal is far less than it is advertised. Nothing is what it seems and there is always some loophole hidden somewhere. In other words, you have to reap what a whole bunch of sloppy, lazy marketers have sown.

There is a way to counter this. There is a way to build back the trust that has been broken for so long.

Tell the truth.

If there is a disclaimer, don’t make the claim. If there is an exception, tell it right up front.  Imagine how much more believable and how much more excitement that same sign might have generated if it said…

“150 different items marked 40% off original price!”  

The original way, you walked in already defeated, just knowing the item you wanted would be part of the exclusion. This new way you walked in with excitement wondering which one of the 150 items would be something you wanted. Two signs that basically say the same thing. One creates disillusionment, one creates excitement. Why do so many stores get it wrong? Sloppy, lazy marketers. Don’t be one.

The formula is simple… No disclaimer, no exclusions = truth and honesty = more believable = more trustworthy = more excitement = more sales.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS This is just the first measure toward building trust. Be truthful and honest in your advertising and marketing. Then teach your sales staff to be truthful and honest in their presentations. You’ll stand out in the crowd of exclusions and disclaimers.

Asking the Right Question

Seth Godin writes one of my favorite blogs. His post for today was so short and sweet and thought-provoking that I want to share it with you…

Question the question
The best creative solutions don’t come from finding good answers to the questions that are presented.
They come from inventing new questions.
-Seth Godin

Here are my thoughts…

The question most retailers ask is…

How can I get more traffic, more customers, more sales?

Here is a new question worth considering…

How can I create an experience so incredible that people want to come back time and again and bring their friends with them?

Here is another question…

What did I not do to the best of my ability last year?

Here is yet one more question…

How can I make the customer experience not only better, but more consistently better?

I bet if you answer any one of those last three questions, you’ll find the answer to the first question.

Merry Christmas!
-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I ask those questions every year for my business. Yes, I will be giving you the answers at the class Tim Miles and I are teaching at Wizard Academy January 29-30. Yes, you will learn enough to make a huge difference in your business – a double-digit difference if history is any indicator.

How Late Are You Open?

This is our number one request from phone callers.

How late are you open?

Most people don’t know our hours in the first place. Plus, they expect that we will have longer hours for the holidays.

How late are you open?

It is an easy question to answer when you are open and already answering the phone. But what about when you are not?

We have extended hours for the holidays so we post our hours on a big banner we hang on the side of the building. Easy to read for anyone who drives by.

We also have an answering machine. A simple, cheap, $20 answering machine that I bought at Radio Shack. It gets the job done for people who call when we are not open. Surprisingly, many indie retailers in my town do not have an answering machine.

Last night my wife called a number of stores in our downtown just to get their hours. None of them had an answering machine.

If she doesn’t know your hours, she cannot plan you into her shopping trips.

Even if your hours haven’t changed for decades, do not assume that every customer knows them.  Unless you are open 24/7, make sure you give your potential customers every opportunity to find out when you are open.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I have a complex phone system, five lines, sixteen phones, etc. There are plenty of expensive phone answering systems out there that include phone trees and customized messages. Since I’m not a fan of phone trees and I don’t have the budget for those systems, the $20 cheap-o answering machine accomplishes my main goal of telling people our hours without breaking the bank. You cannot afford to NOT have one.

PPS Wanna know how I made our message also consistent with our Character Diamond? Call us after 9pm Eastern Time (or before 9:30am Eastern time) (517) 787-4500. I promise it will make you smile.

Head Cheerleader (re-posted from Dec, 2010)

(This was first posted Monday, December 20, 2010, but worth repeating)

(Nine) shopping days until Christmas. In the home stretch. You’re tired, run down and stressed, just counting the days. Your friends and family are encouraging you to “Hang in there, it’s almost over.” 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you need to do more than just hang in there.

Of the hundreds (thousands) of customers who come through your door this week, many are entering your store for the first time.

Now is the time to WOW them so they become lifelong customers.

So no matter how tired you and your staff are feeling, no matter how many hours you’ve worked, how many sleepless nights you’ve had fretting about the business, you have to find that reserve inside you that makes this week the most special experience your customers have ever had!

And you need to fire up the staff, too. Your new role for the next 5 days is Head Cheerleader. Here are three things you can do to keep your staff going strong until the end.

  1. Praise them. Tell them specific things you have seen them do right in the last few days. Share their praise with everyone. 
  2. Cater lunch. Not just some sandwiches and chips but a real sit-down meal with silverware.
  3. Hire a masseuse. Give the staff 20-minute breaks to get table massages.

These next few days are not only critical to your holiday sales, they are critical to your future because you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Get your store ready, get your staff ready and get busy!

You can do it. Rah rah rah, Sis boom bah!! I’m pulling for you!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Regardless of whether your business is doing well or not, you need to adopt the attitude right now that this is the best Christmas ever. Fake it until you make it? Sure! The better your attitude now, the better your results later.

Handling Multiple Customers at Once

This is the time of year when the customers outnumber the staff. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because extra traffic means extra sales. Bad because you cannot give each customer the time they need to maximize those extra sales and you often lose a customer while you’re working with another customer.

Years ago I read a tip in a book for how to handle multiple customers at once. I hated the book and have long ago forgotten the title and author, but that one tip has remained with me.

Understand that just like multi-tasking where you actually do not do two things at once, you cannot (or should not) try to sell two people at once -unless they want the same product for the same reasons. So if you have two customers who need help, an easy way to handle that is to ask the first customer permission to greet the second customer.

“Excuse me, but would you mind if I go greet that other customer and let them know that I will help them after we are done here?”

Your first customer will agree, which accomplishes two things. First, they have given you permission to talk to the other customer. Second, they have given implicit acknowledgment that they will stay until you return.

When you get to the second customer, say…

“Hello, thanks for coming in. My name is Phil. I am working with another customer at the moment. As soon as I am done, I will be right over to help you. Is that okay?”

That last question is the kicker. When customer #2 says yes, they have now given you explicit permission to go finish up with customer #1 and also acknowledged that they will stay until you are back. Sometimes, however, they will say no because they have a simple request that only takes a second or they are in a big rush. If that is the case and you believe you should serve them ahead of the first customer, simply ask their permission to go back to customer #1 to explain.

When you ask your customer’s permission, you get them to commit to getting your assistance. Everyone gets helped and everyone leaves the store happy. Win-Win.

Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Tips like these are easy. Setting up a culture where shareworthy customer service happens every day all the time takes a little bit more work. The payoffs for that work, however, will show up in big ways on your bottom line. Want to learn how to set up the right culture and the right systems for delighting customers enough that they brag about it to others? Come to Austin, Texas in late January.

Snapshots in Time

One thing that used to drive me crazy in retail was when we had just finished with a huge rush of customers, finally got a moment to breathe, and at that exact moment my father would walk out, see us standing around and yell at us to get busy since we were obviously loafing.

Had he walked out two minutes earlier, he would have seen poetry in motion as the staff expertly handled all the customers, the giftwrapping, the phone calls, and the interruptions with grace and ease. But no, he caught us two minutes later taking a deep breath.

I made a pledge that when I was boss I would never make snap judgments on the snapshot in time.

One brush stroke does not make a masterpiece painting. One snapshot does not make a complete album.

Let’s play a little math game (feel free to skip the next paragraph if you’re not up to math today).

Yesterday we had a decent day serving 256 customers. I had 97 employee hours scheduled which breaks down to 2.6 customers per hour per employee.  The average actual interaction with a customer is around ten minutes of their time in the store, or 26 minutes out of each hour.  That means each employee had more non-interactive time than interactive time. The likelihood of me walking out of my office and catching them not engaged with a customer was greater than catching them engaged.

(Okay, math over)

The key for me is to walk out enough to catch them when they are engaged and observe how they handle that engagement.

There are ebbs and flows of customers in any retail business. If all you ever do is catch your employees goofing off, before you yell at them, realize that the real problem might be that you aren’t leaving your office enough.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I reminded one of my new hires today that we are not just creating sales today, we are creating sales a generation from now when the kids in the store today have kids of their own.  Kinda changes the engagement when think like that, don’t you think?

PPS Remember also that there is a fine line between goofing off and having fun. Since Having Fun is part of our Character Diamond, it is almost impossible for me to catch them goofing off. Such is life in a toy store:-)

Why You Should Go to Austin, Part 2

Yesterday I told you my three answers to Wizard Academy Vice Chancellor Michele Miller’s questions about the Shareworthy Customer Service class I am teaching with Tim Miles January 29-30.

Here are Tim’s answers…

Michele: How did you two come up with the idea of teaching this class?
Tim: About a year ago, two things happened in the same week.

One – one of my clients said to me, “Tim, I’m a liar.” He was becoming aware that his employees weren’t living up the promises we were making in his ad campaign. Since then, his customer service scores (measured by the same Net Promoter Score system used by Amazon, Apple, Trader Joe’s, and countless others) have risen to twenty points higher than Apple’s.

Two – Best Buy made my mom cry. Well, the CEO didn’t make her cry, but one of their Geek Squad members was so rude and condescending to my 76-year-old-non-cryer mother that I couldn’t sit idly by. I did what lots of people do: I took to the Internet and blogged about it to a couple thousand people, and I put it on all my social media outlets. Now, Best Buy’s stock is tanking. Is Trish the reason? Not specifically, but it got me wondering if something systemic was causing companies like Best Buy to miss the proverbial boat.

Michele: We see lots of workshops on creating good customer service. Your course description looks intriguing – what is one thing that sets this course apart from others out there?
Tim: Is our course different? I think so.

For one thing, it’s not just about “being nicer to people,” but rather it’s about building a system that measures and rewards customer delight. It’s about budgeting for it. It’s about where that budget comes from and how to implement it and how to build a culture of ownership among your employees.

Additionally, we went through hundreds of accounts of delightful customer experiences from the very best companies – large and small – in the world, and we deconstructed what made them great. Turns out there are only fourteen different defining characteristics to customer delight, and you can tune them to suit your business.

Michele: What is the most important thing students will walk away with?
Tim: They’ll have a customized plan to build and implement a program that’s currently working for every one of our clients that began using it this year. They’ll begin to spend less in advertising. They’ll create a culture where employees love coming to work BUT aren’t working longer hours or particularly harder while they’re working. They’ll be the one company in town where the best specialists in their business category WANT to work.

Not a bad way to spend two days, huh? Come join us in Austin.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

Why You Should Go to Austin in January

You should go to Austin, Texas at the end of January. Really, you should. It will be more than worth your while.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, January 29th and 30th, I’m teaching a new class about Shareworthy Customer Service at the 21st Century Business School known as Wizard Academy with a fellow named Tim Miles. It’s a magical place in the hill country just southwest of Austin, Texas. This week, Vice Chancellor Michele Miller asked me three questions about the class so she could promote it in the newsletter that goes out to thousands of alumni. Here are my answers. (Tomorrow, I’ll share Tim’s answers.)

Michele: How did you come up with the idea of teaching this class?
Me: Tim asked me:-)

(I believe Tim asked me because Tim reads this blog, follows the work I have been doing to teach multiple aspects of customer service to retail businesses, knows that I know what Wizard Academy is all about, and because Tim’s expertise, while far greater than mine, leans more heavily on service-based businesses. Remind me, and I’ll ask him when we get there if this is true.)

Michele: We see lots of workshops on creating good customer service. Your course description looks intriguing – what is one thing that sets this course apart from others out there?
Phil: I see two problems with most customer service training programs…

First, there is no standard definition for what is Great Customer Service. Everyone seems to have their own opinion ranging from “slightly better than what my competitors do” at the low end to “WOW-ing my customers beyond their wildest expectations” at the upper end. And most businesses have an unrealistic idea of their own level of customer service.  Without a definition, it is hard to objectively see where you stand. Without a definition it is hard to measure results. Without a definition it is hard to create consistency. What drew me to Tim’s teachings and made me want to partner with him is that he and I share the same definition of great customer service – so good, the customer has to share it with others. We both teach from that upper end and show businesses how that level of service is within their grasp once they identify it.

The second problem with most customer service training programs is that they often focus solely on the interaction between employee and customer, creating scripted interactions that eliminate the worst elements of customer service but don’t really delight customers in a Shareworthy way. Although employee/customer interaction is one of the most important elements of customer service, it is not the only one. You can improve your employee/customer interactions exponentially and still be undone by a poor website, a confusing policy, a complicated form, or even a dirty restroom. Tim and I both recognize that to reach the pinnacle of customer service, it takes more than just employee/customer interactions, and it takes more than just scripted role plays. We’ll address all of those elements and show businesses how to make sure everything is aimed at delighting the customer.

What sets our program apart is that we break down the whole concept of customer service – every single element – into understandable and measurable parts. We help each business create a definition by which success can be measured. Then we teach those attending how to create a culture that reaches that level of success consistently and in every aspect of their business.

Michele: What is the most important thing students will walk away with?
Me: There are so many walk-aways that it would be hard to name just one. The segments I will be teaching include four topics that stand alone on their own merit. Add in what Tim will teach and there will be more walk-aways than most people can fit in their luggage. The cool thing is that much of what the attendees will learn can be implemented right away and will start showing a return right away. Instant ROI!

At the end of the two days, what will really take place is an understanding of this whole new definition of customer service, of where the bar can and should be raised. After that, the businesses will have a tool box full of ways to consistently hit and exceed those standards.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I forgot to add… Not only will you make back your investment many times over, you’ll make new friends, eat great food, and have more fun learning than you ever thought possible!

Non-Mystery Shoppers (Group Therapy)

I was asked recently for my take on the Mystery Shopper program – hiring anonymous people to be shoppers in stores and rate those stores on their appearance, helpfulness, and all other aspects of retail.

The idea behind these is that often what a shopkeeper thinks is great customer service is not perceived that way by the customer. This is true. As Roy H. Williams has often said, it is hard to read the label from inside the bottle. It is hard for a shopkeeper to be objective about the customer service his shop offers.

What I see as inherently tough about the Mystery Shopper program is getting the buy-in from the retailer.

Because of the aforementioned problem, many of the retailers who could benefit from a Mystery Shopper program won’t partake because they don’t believe anything is wrong. Denial is a river in Egypt.

Other retailers, those not on the river, will be afraid to partake because they don’t want to be judged. We know we have faults. We don’t need someone else to expose them. Those retailers fear the results more than they fear the lost customers from not improving.

Still other retailers will sign up, be shopped, and then explain away all the criticism. We were short-handed. They got our newest employee who was still in training. The store got really swamped. The shopper didn’t know what she was doing. The shopper wasn’t fair. No one does it that way…

So although a Mystery Shopper program might have value, at the end of the day, few retailers will take advantage of that value and fewer still will make significant changes.

What if there was another way?

GROUP THERAPY

I am working on a different way for local independent retailers to help improve customer service – Group Therapy.

The concept is simple… A group of other shop owners goes together into a local business who has signed up for this critique. Using a simple checklist worksheet, the group of owners critiques the store from the front door on. For instance, they may be instructed to…

Look at the front door. What catches your eye? Are the hours clearly posted? Does the front door/window/signage tell the potential customer what to expect on the inside?

Walk through the door. Note the odors. Note the lighting. Is it appropriate for the type of store? Note what catches the eye first. How deep can you see into the store?

Walk around the store. How easy is it to navigate? How good is the signage? How easy is it to find an employee if you have a question? How logical is the arrangement? How tidy are the displays? How enticing are the displays?

By having a group of peers doing this, they will be better able to communicate any criticism in a way the business owner will be more receptive to hearing. And by knowing that the business owner will get his turn to critique, he will be less defensive and more open to discuss ways to improve the overall shopping experience.

What do you think? Would you allow your store to be critiqued by a group of your peers? Would you trust what they have to say more or less than a Mystery Shopper? If you were given the opportunity to critique, would you be able to be constructive? Would it be helpful if there was a checklist of things customers might notice that you could use to do your own self-evaluation?

I plan to have the checklist finished by the end of January. I will let you know when it is posted.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you don’t want to wait until the end of January, I can tell you right now that the checklist would follow many of the same concepts or thoughts found in my free eBook Customer Service: From Weak to WOW. You can use that as a way to see where you can make improvements right away.

PPS Some of you may have already noticed the other benefits of Group Therapy. Think of the camaraderie that will be built by a group of shop owners working together like this. It will become the start of a great referral program better than any networking event might offer. Plus, you will all become invested in each other’s success.

PPPS Thanks, Travis, for asking the question about Mystery Shopper programs. It helped me clarify my own thoughts and was just the push I needed to pursue this idea.