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Category: Customer Service

Insurance Agents Don’t Understand Customer Service

I was in a company store to make a few changes to my cellphone plan (got a new phone for my 12 year old son, which is a whole ‘nuther topic). Got there about thirty minutes before they closed. They were busy. At least six sets of customers in the store at this time. I had to wait about ten minutes to be helped.

My helper was extremely helpful. Friendly and engaged, he understood everything I wanted to do, He did it all flawlessly with good humor. It was a painless transaction, even for one that lasted about thirty minutes past their closing time.

The pain was in watching the woman in tears right outside the door.

Her crime? She showed up one minute late.

This store has a company policy dictated by the insurance company. Lock the doors at closing time. Let no one else in. No one. Not even a woman who had driven six hours in a frantic hurry to get there on time only to find out she was sent to the wrong store and had to cross town in early evening traffic only to arrive one minute too late.

One minute late.

There were still five of us customers in the store.

No…

Wait…

Now there are only four. One guy, after watching the way they treated this poor lady, put down his iPad purchase and walked out before they swiped his card.

My helper explained that he would lose his job if he tried to help her. Insurance company said it was a liability issue they wouldn’t cover. With cameras everywhere, the employees feared losing their jobs more than helping a sobbing lady pick up a phone they were holding for her.

I hope the cameras picked up the fact that this one lady will cause them to lose more business and more money than any liability issue for delighting a customer one minute too late ever could.

Don’t let your insurance company dictate your levels of customer service. Delight your customers. The only crying should be tears of joy.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS My apologies to all the insurance AGENTS out there. The title really should have read “Insurance Companies”. But I wanted to get you to read this. Maybe you can talk to the principles at your agency to make sure you don’t do this to your clients.

PPS Want to create a culture that consistently puts the needs of the customer first and relishes in delighting them? Start by reading Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! (free download).

How Much Are You Investing in Your Business?

The Jackson County Chamber and I are teaming up to offer the best segments from the Jackson Retail Success Academy for all Jackson area businesses (and anyone willing to make the drive).

Three classes. Three four-hour days. $250 investment in your business (or $99 per class if you cannot make all three or are not a retailer.)

Inventory Management and Financial Health for Retailers
Thursday, June 27 (9am to 1pm) 

Every retailer knows that Cash is King. But do you know how to get more cash in your business to grow your kingdom?

This Business Boot Camp is designed strictly to help retailers understand how to manage inventory and expenses and, most importantly, your cash. You will learn simple formulas that the smart retailers use to keep the checkbook fat and happy. You will learn the Do’s and Don’t’s for keeping your inventory fresh and moving. You will find out where your cash is hiding and how to get more of it.

We will discuss things like Open-To-Buy programs, financial statements, the proper numbers to measure, how to price your products for profit, and the simplest way to get the most out of the inventory you sell.

Yes, there will be math. The important math. The kind of math you have to do if you want to be successful. What will surprise you is how quickly and easily you will learn the math and see the results.

(Note: to get the most out of this Business Boot Camp bring your previous fiscal year’s Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss statement. You will not be asked to share, but it will help you do your own math.)

Shareworthy Customer Service for Small Businesses
Thursday, July 11 (9am to 1pm)

We all know Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. But do you know how to get people to talk about your company?

This Business Boot Camp will teach you the fundamentals behind generating Word-of-Mouth from your customer base. You will learn how to exceed customer expectations in such a way that they have to tell someone else. You will learn how to create a culture in your business that wants to delight your customers at every turn and raise the bar of Customer Service so high that you turn clients into evangelists.

Whether you are a retailer, a service provider, or any type of business, you will walk away with four ways to generate word-of-mouth, a new approach to hiring and training, at least one planned staff training, and a better understanding of what it takes to offer Customer Service that makes people want to talk.

Word-of-Mouth is still the most powerful form of advertising. This Business Boot Camp will be one you will be talking about for a long time.

Branding and Advertising: Reaching New Customers in Today’s Market
Thursday, August 8 (9am to 1pm)

The advertising that got you results yesterday isn’t working today. Today’s market just can’t be reached. Or can it?

This Business Boot Camp will teach you the fundamentals of marketing that work in any day and age and how to apply those to this day and age. You will learn what moves the needle in advertising and how to craft a message that gets your potential clients to take action. You will learn the biggest myths of advertising and how even the largest companies throw good money away every single day. You will learn how to get the most out of your advertising budget (even if it close to zero).

Advertising cannot fix your business, but if you have a good business model, you will learn techniques that will grow your business the right way and keep it growing for years, no matter what kind of business you run.

Contact the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce to sign up. It will be the best twelve hours you spend on your business this summer!

Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you are struggling in any one of these areas, you should sign up for that one class Ninety-nine dollars for four hours of top-level, hands-on instruction is the kind of no-brainer investment you know you should make for your business.

PPS If you don’t think you need any of these classes then you should definitely sign up for all three. Last night as I did a presentation for the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, one of the organizers lamented that it was only the businesses who were already doing well that showed up. I reminded her that was why they were doing well. They kept showing up.

What Makes Them Drive to See You?

I plopped down in the back seat next to a newborn baby. Cute little thing. Eyes still closed to the world.

The new mama sat on the other side of the seat and asked, “Do we have the straps on right?”

They had been in last week to get help installing the seat in their car. Now they have the baby. Even though the car seat owner’s manual clearly states how tight the straps should be, this couple drove to our store, parked while daddy came in to get me, and listened carefully as I explained how tight the harness should be and how to check it themselves.

Some of you might be thinking, wow, what a waste of your precious time. I didn’t sell them anything. There was no transaction. Heck, the car seat didn’t even come from my store. It was a shower gift. I got nothing out of the transaction.

Or did I?

They drove to my store.

Twice.

In one week.

While having a baby.

To make sure their new baby is safe.

What is the chance they will be back?

What is your store known for to the point that customers will seek you out even though there may be an easier solution? What do you do that is so trustworthy customers will make a special trip just to see you? What do you do that connects to the core values of your customer base? What do you do that might seem costly to an outsider but you know will reap you great rewards in the long run?

Answer those questions. Then do more of that. They’ll be back.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS There are many ways to build trust with your customers. I detail some of them in my latest FREE eBook Selling in a Showrooming World. If you aren’t one of the 273 people who downloaded it last week, you might want to see what all the fuss is about.

How to Handle the Crowd

I was at a trade show for the baby industry last week. One of those smaller shows with limited vendors and limited hours. My agenda was packed. One of my main vendors went out of business earlier this year and I was searching for a replacement. I had to budget most of my time for one product category while I skimmed through the others.

You know exactly what I’m talking about.

One of those skimmed booths had a bunch of new introductions. I needed a new price list and catalog. I slowed down my pace to take in all the new stuff before I reached the table where the lone person was staffing the booth.

She was sitting behind a table conversing with another person, presumably a customer.

I was about to interrupt to ask for information and be on my way, but someone else stepped in front of me and asked the same question. And then I heard it. A response that stopped me dead in my tracks. I shook my head, hoping I had heard wrong.

“Can’t you see I’m talking to someone right now?!”

Yes, that is exactly what I heard. Not only did the guy who asked the question walk away, I walked away, too. Emailed my rep the next day for the information I needed.

This is a multi-million dollar subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar company and all they could send to the show was one person who did not know how to handle a crowd.

Other crowded booths got it. Either they brought in enough people or they knew how to handle a crowd.

They said, “Will you excuse me, while I go greet that other person? I will be right back.” They asked my permission to leave (which I granted), went over to the other person and said, “Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m working with Phil right now. Will you give me a couple minutes to finish up with him?” to which they also granted him permission and promised to wait for his return.

If you’re running your business the right way you will have moments where the customers needing help outnumber the employees available to help them. How you handle those moments will go a long way towards how many more of those moments you will get.

Ask permission to leave the first customer to greet the second customer. You will always get it.
Ask permission from the second customer to finish with the first customer. You will always get it.
Always be polite and gracious.

The better you handle the crowd, the more crowds you will get.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS This is an easy skill to train your staff. Make a game out of it by having them all ask each other’s permission to do crazy and goofy things. Get them in the habit of always asking customers’ permission. It puts the customer in control, gets the customer to buy-in and often will get the customer to wait for your return.

PPS If you find yourself getting too many crowds, time to hire more staff. As my grandfather always said, “Plan for Success”.

Selling in a Showrooming World

Information wants to be free.
Everyone has a smartphone.
Much of what you sell can be purchased online – often for less.
It has never been easier for a customer to do all the research herself, scan a barcode, and get the best possible price.

How are you going to compete?

By doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway – meeting the customer where she is, and giving her exactly what she wants when she wants it.

Yeah, we call that selling.

I spoke to a roomful of baby product sellers last week about this topic and spelled out a few simple ways to help you close the sale. My notes from that talk are now available in the Freebies section of my website.

Check out my latest ebook – Selling in a Showrooming World. Yes, it is FREE (see the opening statement above). Share it with all your retail friends and start selling (again).

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS After you read Selling in a Showrooming World, go back and read Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! and Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend.  Then, if you don’t think you can train your staff to close the sale, you might want to consider buying the book Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel and get yourself a staff that is a work of art.

Information Gotta Be Free, A Good Salesperson is Priceless

What did we do twenty years ago when we wanted information on a certain product we were considering?

Anyone remember?

There was Consumer Reports. There were other magazines that might have done a review or two. There were your friends and family – a much smaller circle before Facebook helped us all reconnect.

And there was the salesperson. The gatekeeper. The controller of knowledge.

A Good Salesperson knew all there was to know about everything she sold and quite a lot about the stuff she didn’t sell. A Good Salesperson knew all about you, too. What you liked and didn’t like. What worked well for you. Your preferences. Your desires. A good salesperson let you through the gate, showed you what you needed to know, and found you the perfect fit.

When you found a good salesperson, you kept her. You went back to that store for the information, the suggestions and the personal touch. Oh sure, sometimes you got the information and bought elsewhere cheaper because of a deal too good to pass up. But you understood there was a price to that kind of knowledge and more often you were willing to pay for it.

The Internet changed all that.

Information is FREE. Wikipedia said so. Jeeves said so. Yahoo said so. Google said so. Information is free and plentiful. Not always accurate, but always out there.

Today we can pull up dozens of review sites, complete spec sheets and instructions, hordes of testimonials both good and bad all in a matter of seconds. Today we can walk into almost any store in America and know just as much or more about the product than the gum-chewing clerk waiting on us.

The Internet brought the level of available information up. But at the same time,the level of professionalism of the salesperson went down. I partly blame Albert Einstein who said, “Never memorize anything you can easily look up.” It is so easy to look things up now that salespeople stopped knowing.

Except what does that tell the customer when your salespeople are looking up the same information the customer looked up last night at home?

The other thing we’ve lost has nothing to do with the Internet. Our salespeople have lost the ability to connect.

Information gotta be free. And it is. The difference now between “selling” and “clerking” is the connection. Go back up and read that paragraph about the Good Salesperson. Those last six sentences are why showrooming is such a big deal. Salespeople have forgotten about connecting. Customers feel no connection so they gather up all the free information they can and shop wherever they please.

Want to combat showrooming in your store? Spend your money hiring good salespeople who want to connect. Spend your money teaching them how to connect. Spend your money, your time, your effort getting to know your customers better.

The Internet will never be able to compete with that.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS In a few days I’m going to be showing a bunch of juvenile product store owners how to connect and sell. Shortly after that I’m going to post my latest Freebie – Selling in a Showrooming World. If you can’t make it to Vegas, be sure to look for the new eBook. Just like all the information I’ve posted… It’s FREE!

I Did Some Showrooming

Showrooming (verb): The act of going into a store to see a product and collect information, then buying it from a different source cheaper.

It is the new bad thing that will be the demise of brick & mortar stores trying to compete with Internet warehouses with low overhead in tax-friendly states with minimum wage order pickers. It is the new approach by Amazon to steal your customers away.

Except it is not all that new.

People have been shopping around for a better price for years. Customers have been going into stores to see items, get information, and get advice only to turn around and buy the item somewhere else cheaper ever since the day the second caveman opened a competing spear store. Grog undercut Brug’s prices and showrooming began.

It just hasn’t been as brazen until now. We all have experienced the customer who asked us questions, picked our brains, then snapped a pic of the barcode and left. That customer is no different than the catalog shopper of the last century, no different than Brug’s brother-in-law who went to Grog’s store first.

Those customers are simply Transactional Customers. They look at each shopping event as a singular activity. They do all the research they can on the product, then they go off on a hunt to find the best price. If you don’t have the best price, you don’t make the sale.

I’ve done it. You have, too. You have looked at an item in a store then bought it elsewhere cheaper. We all have a Transactional side in our shopping habits on certain categories.

I think where the frustration lies is that we believe that just because she entered our store, she is our customer. No she isn’t! She isn’t your customer until she decides to make a purchase from you. It is up to you to get her to that point. And even when she makes that purchase, she still isn’t your customer. You have to earn it over and over and over again.

So if we want to combat this new (old) threat, the first step is to recognize that she is not your customer until the transaction is completed. She never was and won’t be unless you get her to buy. It is called closing the sale and it is something we all need to improve.

Of course, closing the sale has changed since Grog’s day. Let’s quit complaining about showrooming and start learning new ways to close the sale. Okay?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I talk a little about closing the sale in my free download Customer Service: From Weak to WOW!  I am doing a presentation on Selling in a Showrooming World at the ABC Spring Educational Conference in a couple weeks.  Look for the free eBook to land sometime after that.

What Does Your Customer Want to Know?

How much product knowledge is enough product knowledge? Simple. Ask yourself…

What does the customer what to know?

Then make a list for each product.

The customer wants to know (in no particular order)…

  • How much does it cost?
  • Where was it made?
  • What materials is it made out of?
  • Why it will solve her problem?
  • What makes it different from all the others in its category?
  • How long will it last?
  • What other options and accessories are available?
  • How soon can she have it?
  • Will she have to put it together?
  • Why should she buy it from you?

Make a sheet that answers all those questions for everything you sell and your staff will have the product knowledge they need.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The hard part is getting to know the customer well enough to be able to answer the right unspoken question. Which one of those questions is the most important to her? Answer that one first and you have a far better shot at making the sale.

Tim’s Thing

Tim Miles is a smart guy. Funny, too. Oh, and quite tall. He makes up words like Shareworthy.

He makes up other things, too, like this thing…

It is really cool.

Most of you instinctively see it for what it is.

You have to first figure out the Goals and Values of your business before you do anything else.

Then you can start making some Strategic Plans for reaching your goals. From there you can decide how to shape and control the Customer Experience. Once you know that, then you know what your Marketing Message should be. And finally you can decide which Media to use to share that message with the world.

It is really, really cool!

Now it needs a name. Tim is asking people to give him suggestions for names. You could win an iPad or better yet, bacon!

What would you call it?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I suggested “The Order of Business” because so many businesses get the order wrong. They pick a media, then create a message without ever knowing their goals and values.

Everything I Possibly Can

I went to Manistee, MI and did a full day workshop on Shareworthy Customer Service (thanks, Tim, for that wonderful word). Part of my contract was to visit stores the day before and the day after the event to get a feel for the town and give them some one-on-one time after the workshop.

One of the stores I visited was a shoe store called Snyder’s (you can see the co-owner “Shoe Man Dan” in the video in the link up above). Even though it was off-season for this primarily summer resort kind of town, Snyder’s was hopping. The store was busy. The staff was engaged. The displays were fresh and brightly lit.

This was a store that got it. This was a store that understood the importance of building relationships, keeping the store updated, doing retail the way it needs to be done. For a store doing this well, I was curious what they were hoping to learn in my workshop.

I asked Jill, the manager, what she hoped to learn. She said…

“Everything I possibly can.”

Here was the best retailer on River Street, the shining star of retail in Manistee, and they were sending one owner and two managers to a day-long customer service workshop. In an interview after the workshop, Dan was asked if he planned to implement any of the strategies I talked about. His answer?

“Everything I possibly can.”

Now you know why they are the shining star. They are always striving to be better.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I bought a pair of shoes from them.