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Category: Customer Expectations

Be Special at Your Specialty

I was sitting in a new restaurant last night and it dawned on me that sometimes as business owners we get so caught up in cash flow, marketing, inventory management, competition, staff training, worrying about the Internet, etc. that we forget to be special at our specialty.

If you are a toy store you better have absolutely wonderful toys.

If you are a baby store you better have the most sensible or fantastic products available.

If you are a jewelry store you better have sparkle.

If you are a brewpub you better have wonderful beers.

If you are a clothing retailer you better have the right fashions.

Yeah, maybe that goes without saying. But sometimes we get so caught up in the trees that we do not see the forest.

Your customers will not care that a vendor does not have a Minimum Ad Price.

Your customers will not care that the sales rep screwed up the order.

Your customers will not care that you have to pay more in property taxes or income taxes or business taxes.

Your customers will not care that shipping costs have gone up, health care costs have gone up, utilities have gone up.

Your customer will not care that you did everything else right.

Their first and foremost concern is that you are special at your specialty. Make it so and the other stuff is much easier to accomplish or work around.

-Phil Wrzesinski

http://www.philsforum.com/

Is Self-Serve Checkout a Good Option?

Rick Segal posted a blog talking about the pros of self-serve checkouts. The cost for them is coming down. They never have a lousy attitude. They are cheaper to maintain than paying an employee. Rick even goes so far as to say that all retailers should be utilizing every option that saves them money.

Do you agree?

I don’t.

As a specialty independent retailer the one advantage you have over the competition is service. Incredible, over-the-top, WOW service. Sometimes that costs money.

The checkout is the final memory your customer has of your store. It is the takeaway, the lasting image they will have. Are you willing to give that over to a machine?

Sure, I get Rick’s premise that a bad attitude at checkout can be harmful. Equally so, an awesome experience at checkout can cement a customer for life. A machine cannot give an awesome experience.

At its best, self-serve checkout is neutral. It didn’t piss off the customer. But you and I have had plenty of experiences where self-serve checkout has been less than its best.

My wife has learned not to send me to Kroger. I will not go. I have had such horrible experiences with their scanners that I cannot stand the thought of shopping there. Yet almost every time I have gone the only lane open is self-serve. Apparently other people are complaining, too. Kroger is taking out their self-serve lanes in Texas as an experiment.

Albertson’s grocery is also removing their self-serve lanes. They have seen average transactions drop at their stores since they put those lanes in. I would venture to guess it is because people would rather buy less than have to scan so many items themselves.

To give WOW service to your customers you just need to train your cashiers the same way you train your sales staff. Get everyone on the same page with the same goal. Give the customer an experience so wonderful she has to tell her friends.

You cannot get that from a cold, impersonal video screen.

-Phil Wrzesinski

http://www.philsforum.com/

PS I outline exactly how to give WOW Customer Service at the checkout in my free eBook Customer Service: From Weak to WOW!



PPS I hate the Kroger experience so much that I have been begging my local grocery store to carry the three items we eat regularly that we can currently only find at Kroger. I know they can get those items for me. But they don’t. Hmmm… Might be another blog post in there.

Is This Happening In Your Business?

My friend, Chris, had an interesting experience with a specialty retailer the other day. I’ll let him tell you in his own words…

I went for a long bike ride the other day and stopped at a bike shop I’d never been to before to buy a mirror. Asked a question, got an adequate (if cursory) answer, bought the mirror, and left to assemble it in their parking lot.

And as I did I thought: I am a new customer with a new bike, with more gear to buy, and they made ZERO effort to get to know me. No questions about my bike, or where I was going on it, where I was from, nothing.

Yet, I heard a radio ad for them yesterday. …they will invest money in an ad but will not invest two or three minutes getting to know me. It makes no sense, and speaks to an enormous lack of curiosity, a laziness, that plagues our age.

And here’s the thing: they sell commodities. Even their nicest bikes and gear can be found elsewhere, in other shops or online. The only thing they can do to become something more than commodity brokers is, as Seth put it, to be more human.

Why won’t they do that?



Chris tried to answer his own question with the thought that maybe they didn’t want to put forth the effort for somebody they didn’t believe would ever be back in the store. Or maybe they didn’t want to put the effort into educating the customer only to have that customer take the info and go online to save a few bucks.

Are our customers training us to give poor customer service for fear if they get good information they might never come back?

My response to Chris was that education is the bond that brings customers back because they will have more questions. If you answer their questions well the first time they will be back the next time.

About 50% of the retail customers in any category shop based on trust first, then price and all that other stuff next. The other 50% shop first on price. And every person has categories where trust is our number one decision maker and categories where price is our number one factor.

People talk about the Internet as being this vast wealth of information. And it is. What people need, however, is a guide to sort through that info and pull out only what is relevant.

In retail that relates to not just knowing your product info (features & benefits) but understanding your customers so well that you consistently find the benefit that makes the most sense to them. That is how you earn their trust.

Sure, some of your customers will be price-first. But some will be trust-first. And you never know which is which. So try to earn trust with ALL of your customers and consider that 50% of them will simply be training fodder to help you be better so that you can win the hearts (and pocketbooks) of the other 50%.

-Phil Wrzesinski

http://www.philsforum.com/

PS To understand more about how Trust and Price play a role in customer buying habits, read this post.

What if They Stay?

Most retailers know that we have to train our staff. The question is often how much should we invest in this process?

The answer is Everything You Can!

You can have the best product selection in the world at the best prices, but if your staff cannot lead the customer to those products and match the customer to the right product, all you have are full shelves (for which you don’t have the money to pay).

You can have the most fun displays and activities in your store, but if your staff is a real downer no one will be having a good time.

You can be the highest-tech, energy-savingest, greenest store on the planet but if your staff is texting their friends instead of greeting the customers, you’re still just wasting valuable space and resources.

Your staff is the make-or-break difference in the profitability of your store. They either point customers to products and get out of the way or they create meaningful, lasting relationships that make your customers bring you more customers.

Roy Williams was once asked “But what if I train them so well they leave?” His response was, “What if you don’t train them and they stay?”

The fourth quarter is right around the corner. Now is the time to start training, and training, and training, and training.

Rule of thumb… If you can do more training, then you haven’t done enough.

-Phil Wrzesinski

http://www.philsforum.com/

PS Don’t know how to train? I laid it all out in an easy-to-understand format in the eBook Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend. Be sure to also download the one-page worksheet I use for planning fun, informative and effective meetings.

PPS Don’t know what to train? Check out my latest eBook Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! If that doesn’t at least spur on some interesting conversations, I’ll be surprised.

Complete, Compliment, and Suggest

Closing a sale is a lot easier than all the books make it out to be.

It starts with asking a whole bunch of questions before you make the sale to make sure the product you recommend is the perfect fit (or at least really good).

And it ends with three simple tasks – Complete, Compliment and Suggest

Complete the Sale
“Ya want fries with that?” Although that has become the iconic symbol of poor add-on sales technique, the premise behind it is dead-on. You need to make sure that with every purchase the customer has everything she needs to complete the purchase.

If she is buying a blouse, does she need a sweater, jacket, pants, skirt, shawl, necklace to complete the look?

If she is buying a toy for her child does she need batteries, accessories, a play mat?

If she is buying a necklace does she need the bracelet, watch and earrings to complete the set?

If she is buying a new grill for the deck does she need grilling tools, a grilling cookbook, a conversion to natural gas kit, delivery and installation?

It isn’t just the obvious, either. Look at the whole picture. Why is she buying this item? Who is it for? What else will they need? Make sure you have shown all the possible items needed to make the sale complete so that she will not have to make another trip to the store later (which will not be to your store because she’s mad about not having everything she needs.)

Compliment Her Purchases
This may seem weird, but if you have done your job and helped her pick the perfect item, you need to then compliment her on her selection. It reassures her that she is making the right purchase. It helps her feel better about buying, and it opens the door for more relationship-building conversation.

Tell her why she will be happy with the item. Remind her why you believe it is a good fit to her needs. It is even okay to point out the flaws, if only to let her know that while not perfect, it is still a good fit. If you have used the product, tell her why you like it or why other customers who have purchased it have liked it. Be honest, though. She will smell a phony compliment instantly.

(Note: if you cannot sincerely compliment her on the purchase then you did not get her the right item. Sometimes you win in the long run when you simply say you are sorry but you do not have what she really needs. Show her something you know she will be happy to own.)

Suggest Better Ways to Use Her Purchase
One more way to make her feel good about what she is choosing to buy is to give her tips and suggestions that make the use of her new product easier.

We use this with strollers by showing customers how to clean the wheels, why to use a silicone lubricant rather than WD-40 (silicone is better for plastics than WD-40). Not only do we arm her with more product knowledge, we also eliminate the unhappy customer coming back because the wheels squeak. She knew they would eventually squeak and knew how to solve that problem.

If you Complete, Compliment and Suggest you will give your customer the ultimate confidence in her purchase and the same confidence in your store. Not only will you close this sale, you will have already begun closing future sales. Yeah, it is that WOWerful!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For more examples of how to WOW your customers, download my FREE eBook Customer Service: From Weak to WOW!

Customer Service: From Weak to WOW!

Every business thinks they offer great customer service. Yet every one of you reading this has experienced lousy customer service, probably within the last week!

I think the problem is that we don’t have a definitive guide of what great customer service looks like.

Until now…

I also think great customer service isn’t enough. Just being great merely gets you a thanks from the customer (if that). It doesn’t move the needle towards referrals or word-of-mouth advertising. It doesn’t grow your business.

You give great customer service. She says Thanks. Transaction over.

We need to WOW her to get her to talk and get her to bring others to our store.

Check out my new eBook, Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! Like all of my eBooks, this download is FREE. The eBook takes you through 8 different interactions a customer has with your store and ranks the type of service she gets from Weak to WOW! so that you can see where you fit on the scale and where you need to improve.

Customer service in this country has been devalued because it has been so weak. We need to reverse that trend. Please download the eBook. Share it with your staff. Share it with your fellow business owners. Share it with your Chamber of Commerce, your DDA, your Shop Local program.

If we collectively raise the bar on what WOW customer service looks like, we make customer service an important element in the shopping equation once again.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you would like me to come to your town to do a one-hour presentation on this topic (or any other topic), send me an email. While I think the info looks good on paper, those who have seen the live presentation will tell you it is much more powerful in person.

Design for the Many, Not for the One

Too often we design policies for the wrong reason. We design them because somebody tried to take advantage of us. And in the process we restrict the many to protect us from the one.

Yet, no matter where we draw the line, there is still someone out there who will try to skirt around the edges and push past our boundaries. It never fails. Draw a line in the sand and someone will dare to cross it.

Solution?

Quit drawing lines in the sand.

For instance…

We offer layaway. Most stores that have layaway have fairly strict limitations. K-Mart’s policy was 25% down, 25% in 15 days, paid off and taken home in 30 days. Period.

We offer a 6-month layaway with only 10% down and one payment of any size per month. And we are pretty lax in enforcing it.

Now ours may seem like a more generous policy, but the truth is, the vast majority of our layaway customers use it less than 30 days and would fit easily into K-Mart’s model. In fact, only a small handful of layaways each year pass the 60 day mark, and maybe one per year hits 6 months.

But by offering 6 months, I look so much more generous and customer-friendly than K-Mart.

Here’s another example…

We just launched our Birthday Club. The postcard $10 gift certificate we send out has NO expiration date. Some stores give you only 14 days to come in. They want the gift certificate used right away or it expires.

They are afraid that someone will hold their birthday gift certificate and not use it until Christmas or some other time.

But how many kids are really going to do that? And even if they did, wouldn’t that be encouraging that the kids were learning how to save?

The reality is that the vast majority will be in right away to spend that $10 gift certificate. Only a small handful will not – regardless of the expiration date. And those who come in after 14 days will be pretty upset with you for not honoring it 4 weeks later.

Is it worth ticking them off? No.

Once again, our policy looks more generous and customer-friendly than the other, although both get roughly the same results.

The key here is to draw up your policies to allow for those customers who push the boundaries to push all they want. The vast majority won’t push. Make your policies look generous and in the favor of your customers. You give the appearance that you are putting the customers’ needs ahead of your own.

Sure, someone will try to take advantage of you. Someone always tries to take advantage of you. But the vast majority of your customers will not.

Look at all of your policies and see where you can make them more generous. The vast majority of your customers will still comply with what you expect, and you eliminate the nasty confrontations with the one or two customers who try to push beyond your boundaries.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS My newest eBook “Customer Service: From Weak to WOW!” will be coming out next week. Look for an annoucement soon.

Customers Can Be Frustrating

She loves to tell you how your prices are high, how she can get everything cheaper somewhere else. She does everything but call you a price gouger and cheat to your face.

You feel your blood pressure start to rise. You know she doesn’t know the truth.

She doesn’t know that you check prices at your competitors a couple times a month so you know you are at the right price.
She doesn’t know that 70% of your product mix isn’t even available in any of your local competitors.
She doesn’t know that all those 40% OFF signs she saw in the other store were off some inflated price no one would ever spend on that product.
She doesn’t know that your competitor bullied the vendor into a better deal on that product.
She doesn’t know that you pay more for your staff, pay more for your property, pay more in taxes, and offer more services than your competitor.
She doesn’t know the research you did into finding the best products that make the most sense (unlike your competitors that only research which products make the most dollars).

And frankly, she doesn’t care about most of that.

She is a Transactional Customer who is driven by one fear – paying too much.

She will drive to four or five stores (well, maybe three or four with these gas prices) to find the best deals, oblivious to the costs of time and gas.
She will do all the research she can to find the best deal.
She will only buy from you the stuff that offers her the best savings.
She loves watching Extreme Couponing.

She will not make you profitable in the long run.

Treat her well. You treat everyone well, don’t you? But don’t lose a minute of sleep over her comments or attitude.

For every one of her there is a Relational Customer who wants the expertise you have, who wants the knowledge you share, the services you offer.

As frustrating as the former can be, the latter is why we are independent retailers.

They are the customers who bring us the most joy because they get all that stuff above.
They know we want to steer them into the products that make the most sense.
They know we offer competitive prices, convenient services, and expert advice.
They understand the impact of shopping local.

You can’t win them all. And some customers you’ll never win. So don’t fret the losses. Just celebrate the victories and move on.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I learned about Transactional and Relational Customers from Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads. Want your socks blown off? Sign up for any one of his programs. Want to know more about Transactional & Relational Customers? Download his free eBook.

I Couldn’t Have Said it Better

I stole this…

Bob Phibbs wrote this on his blog yesterday and it is worth repeating.

So many “retail brand experts” and C-level executives have bought into the belief “our customers just want to get in and get out.”

Do you know why?

Because their customer experience sucks wind, blows chunks, is one step up from the necessary evil of a root canal by a guy in a clown mask.

Your store will not succeed if you take this approach. The one true advantage every independent store holds over the big box discounters, the vast majority of chain stores, and the Internet is the Customer Experience.

You can give your customers an experience like none other.
You can make customers have so much fun they do not want to leave your store.
You can make customers so happy they have no choice but to tell others about you.

In fact, you have to do those things. You and me both. That’s our calling card.

Thanks, Bob, for the reminder! (If you’re not following Bob’s blog like I am, you should! You can find the link in my sidebar.)

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS It starts with you and your attitude. And it continues with the type of employees you hire. If you don’t get the right raw ingredients in your frontline staff, no amount of training will make them better.
PPS (Not sure what I mean by “raw ingredients”? You need to read the book Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art. It will change the way you do your hiring and training forever.)

How Many Customers Can You Afford to Anger?

I’ve been following a handful of private conversations in my industries about how to treat customers who really aren’t our customers.

You know these people.

Bleeding You Blind
They find every loophole to get the most out of every transaction with you. They rarely shop at your store unless there is a discount or special going on. They always want more, trying to squeeze every penny out of your turnip. Rarely do you even know their names because they never come in until they need a donation or want to complain. They always want to use a coupon after it has expired, get a discount because the corner of the box is crushed, or complain about how they are a regular shopper at your store (even though no one on the staff has ever seen them) and should get a better deal.

These customers cost you money. They bleed your profit margins, take up your staff’s time, and keep you away from more profitable customers. They frustrate and anger you and bring down the entire store’s morale.

Best Buy took the approach years ago to fire these customers, send them to Circuit City.

What do you do?

Better yet, what should you do? Can you really afford to anger somebody in this economy? Are you big enough to take a PR hit because you wouldn’t put up with an unreasonable customer?

What I Do
I’m not Best Buy. I don’t believe I have the capital to purposefully anger any customers – even the customers I don’t like. Oh, I’ve done it a couple times. We all have. But more often than not I look at it this way… I get to choose whether I am nice to someone or not. And it doesn’t matter whether they are nice to me.

  • If I let someone use a coupon after it has expired, I am showing generosity.

  • If I give an extra discount because an item is crushed or the customer makes a fuss, I am being compassionate.

  • If I allow a customer to return an unopened item 10 months later, I am being helpful.

  • If I apologize to a customer for our failings even when she made the mistake, I am being understanding.

Generous, Compassionate, Helpful, Understanding. Yeah, I’d like to own those words in my customers’ eyes. Wouldn’t you?

The essence of Branding is simply…

Every single interaction a customer has with your business plus how they feel about it.


You cannot always control the interactions, but you can control the feelings by how you treat others. And don’t ever believe that your best customers are not watching. Fair or not, they will measure you not at your best, but at your worst.

So make your worst pretty darn good by treating even your worst customers pretty darn good. You might just turn one of them into your best customer.

-Phil Wrzesinski
http://www.philsforum.com/

PS Even if you do have to fire a customer, do it with kindness and respect. At the end of the day the one thing you always have left is your character.