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Category: Customer Service

Managing Expectations

Have you ever done something for a customer and been disappointed by her reaction?

I mean, something really nice, quite special and unexpected, yet she didn’t respond in kind? She didn’t say thank you or decide to buy more, or promise to bring all her friends back to shop with you?

She didn’t even acknowledge that you did something nice for her.

Now you’re pissed. Now you’re in the back room bitching and moaning about the ungrateful customer. Now you’re griping and complaining about how customers don’t care and are rude and don’t get what you have to sacrifice to be there for them and don’t understand how slanted the playing field is against you and don’t realize what it costs for you to be in business and have no idea what you have done for the community and…

Whew. Working up a sweat back there.

I would hate to be the next customer through the door.

The problem here is one of managing expectations. We need to realizes that unless we tell the customers up front how we expect them to behave, we cannot get upset when they don’t behave the way we expect.

I am not actually suggesting that you tell them how to behave. I’m suggesting you give up your expectations. I’m suggesting you continue to do nice things, special things, unexpected things for your customers every single time but without any expectations in return. I’m suggesting you continue delighting customers whether they acknowledge it, whether they tell you, whether they even seem to care.

Give up the expectation. Just do the right thing. Time and time again.

We all know that customers who have a bad time likely won’t tell you, but they will tell their friends. Why would you think that customers who have a great time might be any different? That customer you bent over backwards for might not tell you how grateful she is, but she’ll tell her friends.

It’s all about managing expectations.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, this even applies to showrooming. I’ll talk more about that in future posts.

How Well Do You Know Your Product?

My wife sent me into one of the big hardware stores to look at a product for refinishing cabinets. Rust-Oleum has a simple 4-step process that restores, changes, or simply transforms your wooden cabinets without having to strip and sand and labor for weeks.

Sounds good to me.

Our only concern was that our cabinet doors are recessed. They close inside the frame, not on top, and it’s a tight fit already. Would this product work on such a tight fit?

The guy at the hardware store said yes. Reggie said no.

My wife wasn’t convinced by the guy at the hardware store. She sent an email directly to Rust-Oleum. And in less than 24 hours she got the following reply…

Shannon,

Thank you for contacting Rust-Oleum Product Support.

Thank you for your interest in Rust-Oleum’s products.  Unfortunately, we do not recommend using this product on this type of frame.  The paint will chip or rub off.

Thanks,
Reggie

Whew! That saved me a few hundred bucks and a lost weekend… and lost cabinets, and another lost week or two fixing the problem, and another few hundred (thousand?) bucks replacing the cabinets, and a few choice words my boys don’t need to hear, and a bunch of times telling people how much that hardware store sucks, and…

You get the point.

But do you get the lesson? Your sales staff needs to know the products just as well as the company (if not better). You need to know when to say no to the sale. You need to be comfortable enough to realize when your product won’t solve the customer’s problem.

I have far more faith in Rust-Oleum now because of their honesty in saying no, their product won’t help me. I won’t forget that, either.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The only thing they could have done better is recommend a product that would help me – even if it wasn’t one of theirs. Your first goal in delighting a customer is to solve her problem. Do that and you earn the chance for another transaction.

A Full Day of Customer Service Training

In a couple of weeks I’m going to Manistee, MI, a beautiful small town on Lake Michigan with an active Main Street DDA program and some lovely shops.

They’ve hired me to spend a few days working with them on Customer Service. When I get to town, I’m going to visit a few stores and ask them about their hopes and dreams, ask them about their challenges, ask them how they define Customer Service.

The following day I’m going to present them all of this…

CORE VALUES
This session will be a workshop where each participant will be led through a process of uncovering the 3-4 Core Values that drive both them and their business.  We will use three different techniques for helping each participant create his or her own Character Diamond.  Depending on time, we will have each person share his/her diamond with the entire class.  We will at least have a few people share so that others can learn from the examples.

Purpose: To create a framework around which every element of Shareworthy Customer Service (SCS) is derived. (thanks, Tim Miles, for the word Shareworthy).

WORD OF MOUTH
This session will illustrate the different ways in which a business can generate Word of Mouth – including Over-the-Top Design, Over-the-Top Service, and Over-the-Top Generosity, Secrets and Surprise.  Participants will be given a number of examples of each, then asked to come up with one form of Generosity/Design and one method of Sharing Secrets that they can easily incorporate into their business.

Purpose: To show what it takes to get customers to actually Share their experiences.

PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST
This session will explore a variety of interactions a customer has with a typical (retail) business and talk through the various levels of Customer Service from Weak to WOW

Purpose: To show what it really means to put the customer first, how to delight her, and how to make the experience memorable and share-worthy

TEACHING YOUR STAFF
This session will teach the participants how to plan a training program for teaching their staff everything they are learning today.  The seminar will show them the basics for planning meetings and trainings that the staff will look forward to attending, how to make the information stick, how to prep the staff for meetings/trainings, and how to follow-up after the meeting/training is over.

Purpose: It is one thing to learn it yourself.  It is completely different to be able to teach it to others.  Since most participants will have a staff, this session is to show them how to create staff meetings and trainings that will help them teach this to their frontline workers.

CREATE A TRAINING WORKSHOP
This session will be a hands-on workshop where the participants will split into teams and be given different elements of Customer Service around which they will plan a meeting/training (based on the method learned in the previous session)

Purpose: To put into practice what they have learned both on creating a staff training session and on SCS.  To create camaraderie and bonding.  To have fun.

HIRING AND TRAINING A MASTERPIECE
This session will show the participants how the steps a potter uses to create a work of art can be applied to the hiring and training process, turning your staff into a masterpiece.  The session will include creating a non-teachable traits list for a variety of positions in your company, including some interview questions to help draw out those traits.

Purpose: To illustrate the point that all the training in the world won’t help if you don’t have the right people in place.  To show how to consistently find the right people.  To give the participants a blueprint they can follow for hiring and training.

SHARING YOUR PLANS
After creating their trainings, each group will share their plan with the rest.  After presentations, the plans will be copied/shared for everyone to use with their own teams.

Purpose: To help each participant have a developed plan for teaching SCS to their staff.  To make sure we have taught our points well.  To give a review of everything discussed throughout the day.

Results:  At the end of the day each participant will have…

  • Created a Character Diamond
  • Learned how to generate Word of Mouth
  • Thought up at least two ways to generate Word of Mouth with their business
  • Learned a new definition and way of looking at Customer Service
  • Learned a method for planning Staff Meetings/Trainings That Everyone Wants to Attend
  • Created a training session for one particular element of SCS
  • Received a complete portfolio of training sessions for all elements of SCS
  • Learned a method for consistently hiring and training the right people to implement higher levels of SCS

Yeah, it is going to be a fun, packed day of learning. And when we’re done, Manistee will never be the same.

Would your town be interested in a program like this?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you’re anywhere near the west side of northern, lower peninsula Michigan and want to attend, contact Travis Alden. If they have space available, he might just let you in.

Travis Alden
Director, Manistee Main Street
Downtown Development Authority
231-398-3262
www.manisteedowntown.com

Delight People, and Solve Their Interesting Problems

I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. His blog is one of the first I read every day. (He posts Every. Single. Day. and it is usually something quite thought-provoking.)

I’m stealing this from Seth, via the good Doctor Rick Wilson, who writes it this way.

  1. Delight people
  2. Solve their (interesting) problems

The more interesting the problem, the better.

Reading this, however, I am stunned at the simplicity and beauty of it all. This is the core of giving WOW/Shareworthy Customer Service.

DELIGHT PEOPLE

Do the unexpected. Go above and beyond what any customer saw coming. That’s how you delight. Surprise them with an extraordinary level of kindness and professionalism. Do things they never thought possible.

SOLVE THEIR (INTERESTING) PROBLEMS

Customers choose to visit you for a reason. Most often that reason is to solve a problem. Mistakenly, we too often think they came to buy a product, but the reality is the product is simply their idea of a solution to the problem. When you know the problem, then you – the expert – can offer the best possible solution.

A person in a camera store isn’t buying a camera, he is buying a picture, a memory. Don’t sell the camera until you know the picture he really wants.

A person in a toy store isn’t buying a toy, she’s buying a tool or a gift. Don’t sell the toy until you know how the tool or gift will be used.

A person in a shoe store isn’t buying a shoe, she’s buying a lifestyle. Don’t sell a shoe until you know what lifestyle she needs.

There is a lot of fun in solving problems. When you look at sales that way, you will find your staff enjoys it far more than just “selling”. Teach them how to ask the right questions to find the true problem needing to be solved. Teach them how to look beyond the product into what the customer truly wants and needs. Teach your staff how to connect in meaningful ways to be partners in your customers’ solutions.

Do all that and everyone (you included) will be delighted.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Sometimes the solution is to send the customer to a competitor. That’s okay. Solve their problem anyway. Call the competitor and make sure they have what your customer needs. Have your competitor hold the item. Get directions if necessary. They will remember that and they will talk about you to someone who has a problem you can solve. Remember that every transaction is about one thing… earning the right for another transaction down the road.

The Five Drivers of Traffic – Delight

I posted that JC Penney was struggling because it was losing in all five of the main drivers of traffic… Price, Product, Convenience, Trust and Delight.  Let’s look at each one of them separately.

DELIGHT

Delight is probably both the easiest and most difficult of all the drivers to own. 

Easy because so few companies even try to own it. Sure, they give it lip-service, but outside of a handful of retailers (Apple? Zappos?) and companies (Disney?), few major chains or national businesses really even try to delight anyone other than the shareholders and owners.

Difficult because the bar of expectation is constantly shifting and changing. What delights the customers of today might seem ordinary tomorrow.

You can increase your Delight Factor a number of ways…

  • Sell things that make people happy. The more whimsy and uniqueness you bring to the table, the higher the delight factor in the customers’ minds. The more fun and interesting your product selection, the more you will delight customers.
  • Sell things that solve problems. Customers buy items to solve a problem. Identify the problem and you can delight the customer by solving it.
  • Host Events. Bring in authors, experts, and celebrities. Teach classes. Host parties. Play games. Show movies. Serve food and beverages. 
  • Bend over backwards to help. When you put the customer’s needs above your own, you raise the delight factor exponentially. The easiest way to do this is to say “Yes!” every time a customer asks, “Can you…?” and then go figure out how to do it.
  • Exceed expectations. This may seem simple enough, yet once you consistently exceed the expectations of today, you raise the bar for the expectations of tomorrow. Keep raising the bar, though, and you’ll continue delighting your customers in new and exciting ways.
  • Do something no one else would even think of doing. How about a downtown toy store offering Valet Parking at Christmas? How about a clothing store offering free dry cleaning for a year? How about a bookstore that gets you a signed copy every time you buy a book from a living author?

The advantages of delighting your customers are numerous.

  • They become more loyal.
  • They bring you more customers like them.
  • They do your advertising for you.
  • They make your job more fun.

You can do Delight. In fact, you need to do Delight! It is the one driver you can consistently do better than any of your competitors. It is the one driver you are expected to do better than the chains and online stores. It is the one driver you can most easily own all to yourself.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Want to know which driver (if any) you already own? Check out this free download – How to Measure the Strength of Your Brand. When you do your survey, be sure to use the five drivers as part of your word association. You’ll know exactly which of your competitors owns which driver and what you need to work on.

Why JC Penney’s is Struggling

We all know about JC Penney’s decision last year to change their pricing strategy from one of Coupons, Discounts and Sales to one of Everyday Low Prices.  Ron Johnson, the CEO they hired away from Apple, warned everyone it would take some time for the transformation to take hold.

Unfortunately, the train wreck seems to be getting worse as JCP just announced a plummet of 32% in sales! I know that is a number none of us indie’s could probably withstand. Many in the world of retail are wondering if JCP will be able to withstand it.

But before everyone rushes off to blame the pricing strategy and see this as an indictment of the Everyday Low Prices scheme as being unable to work in today’s retail market, there were some other forces at work.

At the end of the day there are five primary drivers of traffic into retail stores.

  • Price
  • Product
  • Convenience
  • Trust
  • Delight

No, they do not all have equal weight. And for every customer, different factors play out in different categories. But you have to be winning in the minds of customers in at least one of those categories if you want to see traffic.

JCP was losing in all five.

Price – Their Everyday Low Prices scheme might have worked… if they had done it. They really didn’t. Their prices seemed to be changing almost as rapidly as they had before, and in ways far more confusing despite the millions they spent in advertising. No one really knew if their prices were low or not.

Product – Some say their offerings were getting worse, not better. Even if their product stayed the same, no one was going to JCP for high-quality goods or exclusive-can’t-find-anything-like-it-anywhere-else merchandise. They had given up that ground years ago.

Convenience – If JCP had any leg to stand on, this could have been it. But they did nothing to beef up or significantly increase the convenience factor. In my own experience, their checkout lines got longer (even with fewer sales – now that’s a real trick).

Trust – this is supposed to be the hallmark of the Everyday Low Prices scheme. You can trust us because we aren’t jacking you around with yo-yo pricing. Except they didn’t do that. They still yo-yo’d their prices. They made things more confusing and less trustworthy. They didn’t re-train their staff to develop trust either. They spent money on advertising their new scheme but doesn’t look like they spent a dime on training the staff.

Delight – Once again, very little done here, before, during or after. When was the last time you were actually delighted in a JCP store? Yeah, I thought so.

The cool thing is that we can all learn a lesson from this. Pick one of those five and own it. Own it with every ounce of your existence. Own it in your category so strongly that when that topic is mentioned, everyone immediately thinks of you.

The cooler thing is that you probably noticed that it wouldn’t be all that hard to own two or three of those criteria. Do that and you won’t suffer the same fate as JCP.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS We’ll talk about all five and how to own them in upcoming posts. Stay tuned.

Two Types of Customers (and Other Generalities)

(Warning: there are enough bullets in this post for the Zombie Apocalypse. You may want to save it in your favorites just in case…)

I sat through a webinar today on advertising. The hosts (whose names shall be withheld to protect the ignorant innocent) said there are three types of customers:

  • Frequent (loyal)
  • Infrequent (fickle)
  • New (not yet a customer)

Now I like There-are lists as much as the next person. My current favorite is…

There are three types of people in this world. Those who are good at math and those who aren’t.

Those of you who know me, however, know I believe there are only two types of customers:

  • Transactional
  • Relational.

But this webinar did get me thinking… You could also say there are only these two types of customers:

  • Those who shop with you
  • Those who do not shop with you

And you can break that second group down into three subgroups:

  • Those who do not shop with you because they know you
  • Those who do not shop with you because they think they know you (but don’t)
  • Those who do not shop with you because they don’t know you

And while we’re on this list kick, your customers come from three primary sources:

  • Repeat Traffic
  • Referral Traffic
  • Advertising-driven Traffic

What percentage of each do you think is in your store today?

That last one – Advertising-Driven Traffic – is really only aimed at two people – Those who think they know you and those who don’t know you. What can you tell those people that will change their minds? Go write that ad.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Repeat and Referral business come from Shareworthy Customer Service. If they aren’t the bulk of your business right now, forget about advertising. You got a bigger leak in your boat that needs serious fixing. Start training your staff to delight and WOW your customers. Otherwise the money you spend on advertising will only hasten your demise.

Are You Playing Your Best Card?

All through the 80’s, 90’s and even the early 00’s specialty independent retailers had the misfortune of competing with the big box stores like Home Depot, Toys R Us, Michael’s, etc. These Category Killers and the discounters like Wal-Mart, Target and K-Mart forced a dramatic shift in the marketplace.

No longer could we afford to carry much of the product that these guys carried. They used their size to bully vendors into better pricing, and used their centralized administrative functions to keep overhead down so that they could work on lower margins and sell that stuff much cheaper than we could.

We could still compete, though, because there was enough product those big boxes didn’t carry. And they never could match our knowledge. Yes, in many industries we went from being big stores like them to smaller boutiques and smaller stores. But there was still plenty to be done by playing the differentiation card.

Today we are facing another dramatic shift in the marketplace.  The Internet.

The Internet has taken away the differentiation card. Almost everything you sell can now be found and purchased online. Usually at a lower price than what you are offering. And with a convenience that you cannot touch – being able to shop at midnight in your pajamas in the comfort of your home with all of the information, product data, specs, and reviews just a mouse click away.

That’s a pretty big card.

Sure there are some hold-outs. There are some wonderful companies like Trek Bikes and Stihl Yard Equipment that are supporting the independents fully 100%. But those are now the exceptions, not the rule.

The old model of product differentiation is dead. It isn’t coming back any time soon.

The new reality is that we have fewer and fewer cards left in our deck to play. We still have the desire of the customer being able to touch and feel the product before she buys. We have the immediate, take-it-with-you convenience that Amazon is trying to copy with their same-day delivery model (that I believe will bankrupt them, but that’s a discussion for another day).

And we still have Customer Delight.

That’s the best card in our deck. That’s the one card that will be difficult for our competitors to be able to take away. We have the ability to make a connection with her that resonates deep in her heart and makes her want to come back and bring her friends, too.

Instead of going blue in the face complaining about Amazon, Gilt, Zullily or any other online seller… Instead of complaining about which vendor is now selling the mass… Instead of complaining about the government and how its actions or inactions are hurting you… spend your energies bending over backwards to delight your customers. Spend your time anticipating her needs, meeting those needs, then exceeding them beyond her wildest dreams. Win her heart, you win the hand. The one that reaches for her wallet.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS To win her heart, you have to surprise and delight her. To surprise and delight her, you have to know what she is expecting and then exceed that. The easiest way to do this is to quit thinking like a retailer and think like a customer. What do you want when you shop? How do you want to be treated? What do you expect when you enter a store to make a purchase? That is the bar. Now go over it!

Measure and Reward

I’ve often used some form of the quote, “What gets measured, gets managed.”  If you don’t measure what you’re doing, you don’t know if it is improving or getting worse.

Last week, I was reminded of a simple change in that statement that raises it to brand new heights.

What gets measured and rewarded, gets improved.

Measuring is only the first step. Rewarding the behavior you seek will lead to you getting more of that behavior. Rewarding the behavior shows your staff what is important to you. Rewards in the workplace are the scorecards by which your staff rate themselves.

Do this. Get a reward.
Do more of this. Get more rewards.

That is simple enough for everyone to understand.

Rewards don’t have to be huge. They don’t even have to be monetary. Praise is a reward. The more public the praise, the bigger the reward. Recognition is a reward. Recognize those who have done well at your next meeting. Honors are a reward. Whenever we had no groups signed up for our Saturday morning flag-raising ceremony, I would honor one staff person by picking that person to raise the flag and telling everyone else why I chose them. The pride they beamed was worth far more than a gift card to a local restaurant or an extra vacation day (although those do make good monetary rewards that are far more memorable than cash).

Measure and reward the behaviors you want improved. You’ll get more of what you want.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS You’ll also get less of what you don’t want. It won’t take long under this kind of system for you to find out who doesn’t want to put in the effort and doesn’t fit in to your system. Although it is never fun to fire anyone, the best way to get the staff you want is to get the right people in the right jobs.

PPS Tim Miles and Roy H Williams both brought this concept of Rewards to light during our Shareworthy Customer Service workshop last week. Yeah, I like to work with really smart people.

Sit in the Hot Seat for a Bit if You Want to Improve

I made Ernie sit in the Hot Seat.

Ernie knows a lot about sitting in comfortable seats. His company makes the best, custom-built, ergonomically correct office chairs you’ll ever take for a spin. You just haven’t heard of him. Yet.

Ernie knows that his product is amazing. He wants his customer service to be amazing, too. So he spent two days with Tim Miles and me at Wizard Academy. He jumped at the chance to sit in the Hot Seat.

Ernie and I broke down all of the touch points, all of the interactions his company has with his customers. We identified seven steps…

  1. Sales Rep Calls Customer
  2. Sales Rep Makes Appointment for Demonstration
  3. Sales Rep Does Demonstration
  4. Sales Rep Asks for Sale
  5. Company Confirms Sale
  6. Company Delivers Product
  7. Sales Rep Follows Up

We then went through each of those steps and scrutinized what his company was doing and where they could improve. We looked at it from different perspectives.

  • What are you currently doing?
  • What would the customer prefer you to be doing?
  • What would be above and beyond the customer’s expectations?
That middle question is the key. The biggest breakdown that gets in the way of offering amazing, shareworthy (Tim’s really cool word) customer service is when your sales staff does what they want instead of what the customer wants.
First you have to figure out what the customer expects. Then you have to meet it. Then you have to exceed it. Ernie squirmed a little when we found a few areas needing attention. But now he knows how to exceed customer expectations on a consistent basis.
I have no doubt Ernie’s company is gonna catch his competitors. No, check that. He’s gonna blow right by them. You’ll probably be sitting in one of Ernie’s chairs long before you claim your gold watch.
Are you willing to sit in the Hot Seat first to see where you need to improve?
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS Ernie, if you’re reading this, I had another thought about Step #3. When your rep shows up, have him or her bring food. If it’s a morning demonstration, bring doughnuts from the LOCAL bakery that everyone loves. If it’s an afternoon demo, bring pizza from the hottest pizza spot in town. Don’t tell them you’re bringing it, just do it. Covers that Over-the-Top Generosity thing we discussed. Also covers the “above-and-beyond”. Just make sure you have the right brand of doughnuts or pizza. It says a lot about you when you get that right.
PPS Most of you reading this just imagined what it would be like if your sales rep showed up with your favorite food, didn’t you? Bet you would be thinking… Yeah, this rep gets me. He knows my business. I bet you end up doing more business with him, too.