Manage My Employees

Archive for the ‘Customer Service’ Category

Article #50

Admittedly, I’m addicted to great customer service. I like to get it. I like to give it.

Whenever I don’t get great service, I’m disappointed. At times, it makes me boiling mad. Take the experience I had the other day around nine in the morning….

My Customer Service Experience Was Terrible

I stopped at a national chain drug store for a bottle of over-priced, filtered water—the kind that’s supposed to make you “smarter”—at least that’s what the label says. I could have gone to a convenience store, but in this case I knew they had what I wanted and it was handy.

Several bottles of the water were lodged at the back of the slotted holder, and it happened to be, of course, at the upper most shelf of the refrigerated unit. Since I couldn’t reach them without climbing on top of the unit myself, I turned to the rather tall, thirty-something-old employee (looked like he could be a manager) and made him aware of the problem (opportunity actually).

He looked at me briefly, and without smiling or saying anything he immediately stopped stocking the shelf he was working on and walked over. Still, without saying a word to me, he pulled some bottles from the back of the slot and started handing them to me, one… then a second… then a third bottle. “Whoa, wait I only wanted one,” I said. He took two bottles and put them back, turned and walked back to the shelf he was stocking just a few feet away.

The man never smiled, never made a comment in my direction, never apologized for the inconvenience, nor did he make any attempt to thank me for my business.

Impersonal. Indifferent. He made me feel like he could care less about my business.

To make matters worse, when I walked to the front to pay, the employee (a young lady maybe in her late twenties) was leaning on the counter with both elbows, scowling.

She was gloomy, indifferent, and uninterested in me, her customer. She was just going through the motions of ringing up my merchandise and going back to being mad at the world, or feeling sorry for herself. Who knows?

What I do know is that she didn’t greet me, didn’t smile. She didn’t say thank you—she did nothing to make me feel like she could give a rip about my business. I even had to ask for a bag.***

There Were 5 Vital Points These Employees Had Not Bought Into:

• The most important activity that can ever go on in any business is when the customer calls or comes in to buy something. Contrary to popular belief, this trumps “real” job duties like stocking or straightening shelves, sweeping, doing paperwork, filing, typing, looking something up on the computer… or TEXTING. Heaven forbid!

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Article #47

Guest Blogger: Jaclyn Boatright

What makes a customer choose one business over another? How can a business create a positive experience for its customers in a way that compels customers to return—over other options?

For the past five years I have conducted over 500 shopping experiences as a secret shopper. I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of quick-food restaurants, automotive services, and retail.

When you have a positive experience with a company that company sticks out to you, and you think about them whenever you need that particular service again. It creates customer loyalty.

Based on my 500+ experiences, there were six things the best employees did:

• Show customers that you enjoy your job by smiling and having an energetic tone in your voice. Happiness is catching and people like to be around happy people. It makes the customer feel good when they are walking away from the interaction. Also, it makes the customer associate the business with that positive feeling.

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Article #45

During these uncertain times, is it possible that some of your customer’s are less likely to switch loyalties to another supplier, even if that supplier ‘might’ offer some advantages?

Do you see customer loyalty on the rise? Some of my clients do and have expressed this view to me recently.

One client recently passed this story along: when his sales force blitzes a new territory for their product line, out of 300+ contacts they now only yield 1 or 2% new customers! In the past this was apparently much higher. And get this, he wasn’t referring to a direct-mail blitz, but rather, personal contacts in the field. His company has earned a stellar reputation in the marketplace, and has among the highest quality as well as lowest price points, but still finds receptivity to doing business with a new supplier much more difficult to achieve.

What factors may be driving increased customer loyalty today? Well, according to some studies (Harvard Business Review, July-Aug 2009) trust in business is running much lower than in previous years.

So, if decision-makers trust other businesses less, doesn’t it seem possible that they might be less likely to consider switching to new vendors? While resistance to changing suppliers has always been evident in competitive B2B markets, it may just be on the rise.

Fortunately, there are some ways you can ride this wave of mistrust and come out ahead.

7 Ways to Keep Existing Customers and/or Land New Ones:

• Find ways to build and earn more trust in the initial phase of your sales cycle with prospects. Offer to do lunch and learns, provide case studies of your results, provide a steady stream of customer testimonials.
• Give the sales cycle longer intervals than in the past. If your sales cycle is six months, give it nine or twelve when soliciting a prospect who has never done business with your company before now.

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Adapt your business to the changes for 2010. Mainly I’m referring to:

• Uncertain economies (we ‘hope’ the recession is giving way to better times… but we don’t know yet).
• Cautious consumers + cautious business owners and executives means more hesitancy to spend or invest.
• Customer power. Customers, have more suppliers pursuing their business than ever before and consequently enjoy more leverage.

To me, this establishes the need for revamped customer care strategies in 2010. Here are three pertinent strategies that have immediate merit:

Reassess the steps your customers must customarily take to purchase from your business. Honestly assess whether those steps are designed to make it easier or more efficient for your operation, versus make it more pleasant and time efficient for your customer. There’s a delicate balance between the two—make sure you’ve taken this into account in 2010.

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Employees give the level of service that leaders demand and reward.

With these economic tough times you’d think businesses would be incentivizing, hammering on, or at least training employees to go out of their way to give out-of-the-way service.

But, where’s the service? I rarely see extraordinary service. 

Have you noticed just how little follow-up after the sale service occurs? How little employees and owners care?

My furniture store doesn’t follow-up after the sale. We spent $$ recently on furniture. The salesman didn’t follow up to see how we liked it. We followed up when a flaw in one chair was uncovered. We called the salesman. He called the distribution and service center, they called us. He said he’d follow-up with the distribution folks. I don’t know if he did or not, because he never called.

My mechanic follows up, though. Every time. The new car dealer we’ve purchased from for years follows up every single visit, whatever the reason. Repair the wiper blades, they call!

Normally, I might be tempted to complain to the dealership that “enough is enough already” … but kudos to them for doing something that takes a little extra time, but shows a lot of CARE!

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Most managers think they provide crystal clear standards to their employees, when they haven’t.

Ask an employee what his/her job is and chances are they can tell you. Ask them to define the standards or values at their workplace and chances are you’ll get varied answers across the department.

Implicit standards don’t cut it either. Saying “I expect you to do what’s right” or “We expect you to give good service” or “You need to reply promptly” fails to be clear enough.

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I’m still hot about a recent experience at a jewelry store. My wife and I are celebrating thirty years and an anniversary ring was on the buy list.

The sales clerk was awful! After dismissing my wife’s interest in a right-handed ring with “Oh we don’t have much of that,” she then explained that there were options all over the store. Huh?

She suggested we look around, and then turned away from us. I’m ready to walk but my wife starts admiring the rings. Thirty years of marriage to this woman taught me, stay put for now!

As we shopped not one employee (12 to 1 ratio/customers) made eye contact or spoke. When we walked by our clerk, ten minutes later, without any further offer to help she said, “Getting cross-eyed yet!?” I could think of a thousand better things to say.

She blew an opportunity. The jeweler lost out. We left and bought a competitor’s ring.

Now here’s my point—high unemployment and economic turbulence brings reduced customer opportunity for virtually everything. Here are some ways to maximize customer opportunities:

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