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Category: Trust

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.

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.

Something for Dads, Something for You

(Note: this is a sales pitch. Kinda. There is a lesson at the end if you keep reading.)

Twice a month I sit down at the hospital with new expectant daddies. While their pregnant wives watch videos of breast feeding, perineum care, and post-birth issues, I take the guys out in the hallway (yes, relegated to the hallway like the second-class citizens we are) and sit around a table to talk about the stuff the pre-natal classes don’t cover.

We talk about their role in all of this having-a-baby stuff. We talk about becoming invisible, about winning the Super Bowl, about earning triple brownie points, about protecting their wives’ sleep, and about all their fears and concerns.

Did you know that one of the top ten concerns of expectant fathers is whether or not they will get the time they want with their baby? (according to the Father’s Forum)

These guys share with me funny stories about the crazy food cravings like one guy getting out of bed to go to Meijer’s at 2am just to appease his wife’s hormone-driven diet. They tell me about wild mood swings like the time one daddy found his wife crying at a Budweiser commercial – and not one of those Clydesdale tear-jerkers, either, one of the funny ads.  They tell me about the lost keys one wife had left in the refrigerator for three days.

In return, I show them how to change a diaper, swaddle (the daddy way), and deal with a crying baby. I prepare them for their role in taking care of wife and child. I teach them how to communicate better and how to get the help they need.

The class is a full two hours.

Take out all the parts where they do the talking (and the changing, and the swaddling) and there is about an hours’ worth of solid advice (medically accurate, too, according to Jenny Wren, who asked me to teach this class).

And the only way you could get it was in the class.

Until now…

A friend of mine, who lives out of town, wanted the info from the class for her husband. I wrote it down. She loved it! More importantly, he did, too. In fact, I get a ton of positive feedback from the guys in the class and their wives. One wife called me the day after the class to ask me what I did to her husband, who was now far more interested and excited in the arrival of the new baby. One dad came out of the dishroom at a local restaurant to thank me for the advice he got from the class three years earlier.

Getting feedback from written content was a bonus. So I kept writing until I had a book. It was easy. It is simply what I say in the class. All the stories. All the jokes. All the advice. All in 108 pages that you can read in about an hour.

Now I’m sharing that book with the world.

The book came out in January and within two weeks I had convinced 21 stores across the country to sell it for me. One gal reported that she sold one before they had even put it on display. Another store owner said she will be using it as part of the Daddy Workshop her store is hosting. It is also available online here. If you know someone who is expecting, this book is a valuable resource that the dads will actually read.

I’m telling you all this for two purposes. First, I want to sell more books (and if you are a bookseller or baby products or toy store and want to sell this book, contact me for wholesale info). Second, I want to show you the power of stories.

This is a long blog post. You’re still reading. Somewhere along the way I hooked you with an emotional story that touched a nerve enough to keep you reading. Emotional stories don’t have to always end in tears or laughter. Simple smiles, a chuckle or two, and nostalgic memories are just as powerful.

My book tells stories. Readers love it. Your business should tell stories, too. Your customers will love it.

There ya go. Two-for-one today.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Go back and read this post and count how many small anecdotes I shared. Some are so subtle you may have to count twice. Stories sell.

PPS Did you find seven? How about eight or nine? Anyone find ten or more?

The Five Drivers of Traffic – Trust

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.

TRUST

Trust is earned. You don’t get it automatically. Trust is earned one transaction at a time.  Trust is fragile, too. Trust earned over a period of years or even decades can be blown up by one single encounter.

How do you earn Trust? Through consistency and honesty. Do what you say you are going to do time and time and time again. Yes, it is that simple. 

Fast food restaurants are built around the model of consistency. A McDonald’s Big Mac tastes the same all over the world so that you know what to expect and get what you expect every single time. Franchises and chain stores in general are designed to offer consistency. Time and time again, the same experience (at least that’s what they hope).

More importantly than discussing how to build trust, it might be better to look at how easily you can break that trust.

You can break trust in any of the following ways…

  • Play games with your pricing. Mark it up to mark it down. Hide the real price through some fine print. Change your prices all the time. Dicker and deal on price.
  • Don’t deliver. Don’t do what you say you will do. Make promises to get the sale that you know you won’t keep.
  • Lie. Be dishonest about mistakes you have made or things you have done that you don’t want customers to know about.
  • Change your policies. Making up policies that favor the company over the customer on the spot are quick trust slayers.
  • Be rude or apathetic. If you don’t treat your customers well, they won’t trust that you do anything well.
  • Load up on Fine Print. Sure, there always seems to be fine print. There always is an asterisk, an exception. Of course, the more fine print, the more exceptions, the less trustworthy you become. Just sayin’.

Here are some simple things to help you maintain trust with your customers.

  • Admit your mistakes. We all make them. Be honest and up front when you make a mistake and say, “I’m sorry. We screwed up. What can I do to make it better?”
  • Fulfill your promises. if you promise something, you better move mountains to make it happen. Period.
  • Be Professional and Kind. As my friend Tim Miles says, these are the two cornerstones of Shareworthy Customer Service. Do both and your customers will notice. Your customers will trust you. Your customers will tell others about you.

If you want to drive traffic on the basis of Trust you need to be honest and consistent. You need to do the right thing all the time, regardless of how much it hurts you. In fact, the more pain you are willing to suffer to maintain that trust, the more believable you will be.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS To grow Trust as an indie retailer you need two key elements; a trustworthy staff and credible marketing. Here are two books to help you do both better…

Read those books, do what they teach. If you don’t get far more back than you invested, I’ll buy the books from you. Yes, I trust them that much.

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.

Bacon and Eggs for Breakfast

This morning for my staff meeting I served my staff bacon and eggs. Brought in an electric frying pan, started up the bacon about 30 minutes before they arrived. Had some coffee, orange juice and bagels ready, too.

Not a bad way to start the day post-Super Bowl. A couple of the more hungover staff truly appreciated it.

I got the idea from Jeff Sexton. He wrote a killer blog breaking down one of my favorite ads from the Super Bowl – the Audi ad where the kid was going alone to the senior prom. If you don’t follow the link to his blog (you should – in fact, if you do all your own advertising, you should be following his blog), the basic premise is that it is storytelling at its finest through a series of rituals. There are twenty “rituals” shown in one minute.

Rituals are powerful. Summer camps know this. Summer camps are full of silly, goofy rituals. And those rituals are what make campers want to return. Rituals make kids feel like insiders because they know what to expect, they know what to do, they feel important and special.

Rituals are comfortable. We love rituals. We have so many rituals in our everyday lives, many of which we aren’t even aware. Your morning routine is a ritual. You do it the same way almost every day. And if something throws you off your ritual it can set you back for part or even all of the day.

In the past I have served my staff crazy breakfasts like ice cream. I did it to make a point that there are no rules on what you can and can’t have for breakfast. It felt uncomfortable. But they got the point. Too often we limit ourselves to the norms and are afraid to break the rules.

This morning I served them bacon and eggs because those are the comfort foods. Just the smell of bacon was a reminder of the ritual of breakfast. It was comfortable and comforting and felt right. Only a handful of staff had ice cream. They all had bacon. They all knew the ritual.

As I type this, the bacon aroma is still wafting through my office door. And the discussions of the rituals we have here at Toy House (free gift-wrapping, the birthday bell, the flag-raising ceremonies, the way we interact with customers) and how we can make them more memorable and consistent, continues to reach my ears.

Your business has rituals that remind your customers of you, that make your customers comfortable, that make your customers feel like insiders. Identify those rituals. Make them more consistent and memorable. You’ll create more loyal customers in the process.

I’m off to go test drive that Audi.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Which Super Bowl ad made you actually interested in the product?

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.

The Preferred Way

I hire a lot of new people for the Christmas season. Then I turn much of their training over to the current staff.  Every now and then we run into a problem. One staff person teaches the newbie one way, another teaches them a completely different way to do the same exact thing.

The poor newcomer isn’t sure which way to turn. Do it the way she was taught or the way she was being told to do it at that instant?

In our mid-season evaluation one of my newbies asked me what to do when that situation arises.

My answer surprised her, see if it surprises you. I told her…

Do it the way the other employee is telling you right at that moment – even if it is different than how you have been taught.

The issue here is that too many times we look at policies and procedures as black & white. Do it this one way, every other way is wrong. Yet, many times there are multiple right ways to do something. For instance, you can count back change from a cash sale a number of different ways. One way is better than others, but the others still work.

Do it the way you were just told is the only correct answer because of one thing and one thing only… The customer is standing right in front of you.

If someone who seems to have authority tells a new employee how to do it, you do it that way for the sake of transferring confidence to the customer. It may not be my preferred way, but if I have trained my staff well enough, it is still an acceptable way, which for the moment is good enough. The customer is happy, confident and still trusts us.

I then told her that the next time something like that happens, come tell me which two methods you have been taught. I’ll tell you which is my preferred method and why.

Two benefits from doing this… First, they rarely ever do it any way other than the preferred way after that. Second, when they are unsure of how to do something they can more often fake their way through it, keeping the customer’s confidence in the process, until they find out how to do it better.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS It makes evaluations easier, too. If you lead off with everything they’ve done wrong, it makes them defensive. Instead tell them they did it right, but there is a better way to do it, and you will see them grow faster and stronger in skills and confidence.

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!

Get in the Paper or On the Air

Rarely does a month go by that I don’t have my store mentioned in the local newspaper, on local radio, or local TV. Heck, rarely does a week go by, especially during the holidays, that I don’t get some complimentary coverage for something we are doing.

I don’t think it is because I am more newsworthy than anyone else. I think it is because I do a few things most retailers don’t.

Here are my top three secrets for getting into your local media.

  1. Make friends with the reporters
  2. Help them out for free
  3. Show them why/how what you’re doing is newsworthy to everyone else

Make Friends

You can find local reporters at business meetings, at city council meetings, or simply by reading the bylines of your local paper. Those of you who still have print papers will find that those reporters list their email with every story.

Make it a point to attend those meetings and sit next to the reporters. Ask them questions. Find out their take and their opinion on the topics at hand. Listen. Strike up conversations every single time you see them, whether at a meeting or not. Call them by their first name. Comment positively on things they have written.

When you become their friend, they will learn to trust you as an easy source for information when they are on a tight deadline.

Help Them Out

Read all of what they write. Send them an email with your thoughts. If you agree with them, tell them so. If you don’t agree with them, give them facts and sources for information why you might politely disagree. In fact, help them out. Send them information related to articles they have already written – information that has nothing to do with your business. Send them links to articles you have read and liked. Give them content totally unrelated to your store but in the same vein as what they typically report.

Most importantly, expect nothing in return.

If you think of the reporter as a friend, you are just trying to help your friend do a better job. Do this enough and they will help you in return when the time is right.

Show Why/How it is Newsworthy

The editor gets the final say as to what stories get run. The number one thing an editor wants to know is, why is this important to my readers? If the answer to that is because it will make you money, they will tell you to buy an ad. If it is only important to you and your business and your customers, it isn’t newsworthy. You have to find the angle that makes it newsworthy to everyone.

When you finally get around to sending your press releases to all your friends in the media, you need to find that angle or your friends won’t get it past the editor.

I had a chance to interview a local newspaper editor a few years ago about this topic. She gave a classic example. Having the president of Rotary International coming to your next Rotary Club meeting is only important to you. Having five hundred people drive from up to four hours away and stay in local hotels and eat at local restaurants to hear him speak is newsworthy to everyone.

Find the slant in your story that is newsworthy to everyone including people who would never be a customer of yours. That is the story to tell. (If you don’t have one, tweak your event until you do have a newsworthy angle.)

Yes, all of this takes time. That time, however, pays off quite well. You are in this for the long run, aren’t you?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS It might seem like I am only talking about newspapers (print & online). The same applies to bloggers – flattery and complimenting information gets you far. The same applies to TV and radio – find out who the program directors and news directors are. They are your ticket in. The same works with networking – get to know the movers and shakers without expecting anything in return. Take the time. It is well worth your investment.