How to Leverage Customer Service to Avoid Negative Business Reviews

Later this week I will be attending a luncheon hosted by our local Chamber of Commerce.  The guest speaker is my personal friend and social media celebrity Dave Carroll.  Dave’s a musician who has used his talents to raise awareness of customer service in this country.  For anyone who hasn’t heard of him, you can visit his website at www.davecarrollmusic.com for the full story.

So since we’re only 3 weeks away from Christmas I thought this would be a fitting time to talk about the most important thing to a business… customers!  One of the most important parts of the marketing plan is your personal selling activities.  The customer experience is what people talk about when they talk about your business.  Do you want people giving rave reviews about your business or do you want people telling their friends to never shop in your store?

This is the time of year where you need to put aside your ego and pride, just buckle down and do whatever needs to be done.  Whatever the customer wants, you make it happen.  I would hope that you’re doing that all year long, but at this time of the year, when you have 10 times more people in your store than usual, it really is a challenge to stay on top of every customer.  But I can guarantee you that if you can just focus on providing exceptional service to each and every customer they will remember and appreciate it.

For many years I was a retail sales manager, first for a telecommunications company, then for a clothing retailer.  Each store that I managed achieved sales results that surpassed the competition and the other store locations within the company.  And I truly believe it was primarily because our customers felt appreciated in our store and kept coming back… and bringing their friends with them.

Here are some tips to help you provide the best possible customer experience.

·         Treat your customers like they are guests in your home.

·         Brace yourself for the craziness.  You know it’s going to be crazy busy so just go with the flow.  No point in stressing out over it.  Customers are already stressed out as it is trying to complete their shopping.  They don’t need you to be all frazzled too.

·         Anticipate your customers’ needs and order enough product to have on hand.  Not having enough product leaves you with unhappy customers and lost sales.

·         Train your staff well.  Staff need to be trained in customer service and they need to know how to multi-task.

·         Drop everything when a customer enters your store.  Stop chatting with your co-workers, put down the new shipment of product you just received, tell the Purolator guy he’ll have to wait a second, and make your customer your number one focus.

·         Conversations that are private in nature need to held in a staff room where customers can’t hear you.  I once walked into a store where a manager was reprimanding an employee for being late, completely oblivious that a customer had just walked into the store.  That just makes the whole shopping experience very uncomfortable.

So, unless you want to end up like United Air Lines as the subject of a viral YouTube video bringing their terrible customer service to light, give your customers everything they want and you just might be the subject of a viral YouTube video praising your amazing company instead.

Happy selling!!

Make Your Brand Story Resonate With Your Customers

Everyone has a story.  Every company, every product, every community, every industry has a story.  Think about your own story for a moment.  If you were to write your biography, how would it go?  What would it say about you?  Everyone, no matter how young or old, has gone through experiences both good and bad.  These experiences may have been experiences that others have also lived through.  But everyone views these experiences differently.  What might have seemed to be traumatic and life-altering to one person can seem like just a bump in the road of life to someone else.  Now, in writing your personal story, remember that not everyone really cares to hear it.  But some people, the key people in your life, will want to know every juicy detail.

What's your story?

Now relate that to your business.  Your business also has a story to tell.  Whether your business has only been in operation for 3 months or for 25 years it still has a history.  And, just like your personal story, not everyone cares to hear about your business.  Only a few key people really want to know who you are.  Your story is the basis of your brand.  You can’t develop a brand until you know the whole story.  So, think about what you want people to know about you.  Being authentic is the key to developing trust with people.  Be upfront about your shortcomings.  Let people in.  We’ve all made mistakes.  We’ve all done things we wish we could go back and change.  But life moves on and going back to change something that’s already happened isn’t possible.  The bigger your company gets, the more you are under the microscope.  I hate to say it, but there are people out there who want to see you fail.  Most people genuinely want to see you succeed, but some don’t.  But those aren’t the people you need to be concerned with.  When you remain authentic and conduct your business with professionalism and respect, and handle mistakes swiftly and with dignity, you will make a name for yourself that people remember in a positive way.  Those naysayers who want to bring you down won’t be able to. 

Who are the people you most want to attract?  You may very well have more than one target market, but don’t try to be everything to everybody.  Like I said, some people are not people you need to be targeting to.  So, think about how your target market wants to communicate with you.  What do they want and why do they want it.  People want to feel a sense of belonging, a connection, a feeling of being understood.  Last year, Shania Twain published her autobiography.  I went through an experience very similar to one she had gone through and as I was reading her feelings about it, I felt like, “she gets it”, she’s someone I could totally sit down with and talk about this and we could totally relate to each other.  She is one person who automatically comes to mind when I say “personal brand”.  Like Madonna or Cher, Shania only needs one word for people to know who she is and what she’s about.

Company brands are no different from personal brands in that they create an image in the minds of their customers.  That brand is developed through trust, by being true to who they are and marketing to like-minded consumers.  People develop a loyalty to a brand because of the feeling of understanding and connection.

So, whether you are developing a brand for your company or a personal brand for yourself, keep these tips in mind.

·         Stay true to who you are

·         Don’t apologize for who you are

·         Own up to past mistakes but don’t dwell on them.

·         Market your message to the right market

You’ll know when your brand story has resonated with the right market.  Your ideal customers will become repeat customers and become the biggest ambassadors for your brand.  So, what is your story? 

The State of Customer Service in this Country

My personal opinion about customer service in this country is that it has been going downhill for years.   This past weekend was no exception.  My husband I decided to take our kids to the movie theatre.  We very rarely go to the theatre since it’s a little pricey for all 5 of us to go regularly.  Anyhow, I was flabbergasted at the complete lack of service, in fact lack of respect for the customers.  With this kind of service, I don’t plan on going back anytime soon.  In fact, According to American Express, 85% of customers have decided to never do business with a company because of poor customer service in the past.  That’s a lot of people!! 

Now of course when you go anywhere on a weekend, it’s going to be busy and you’re going to encounter teenage sales associates.  I get that.  After all, I was a manager for 10 years and some of my best employees were my students.  However, when we got to the movie theatre, there was line up a mile long.  We got in line, but the line didn’t seem to be moving very quickly.  After standing there for a very long time, the line suddenly split off.  I guess they had decided to open another cash window.  Maybe it’s just me, but really… on a weekend matinee with 5 movies playing that everyone wants to see, you’re only going to open one cash window with a slow moving teenager??  By the time we got to the cash, the teenager did not even look at us, he just told us the total and that was it.  No apology for the wait, no “Thank you for coming”, no acknowledgement what so ever.  Next we headed to the lineup for the popcorn.  Once again we stood there forever.  Once we got to the front, the teenager working this cash was taking his sweet old time, oblivious to the fact that there were 50 people still standing behind me.  Once again, no acknowledgement what so ever.  He just took our order, proceeded to have a conversation with another teenager working the counter, took my money and that was it. 

Now I’m not bashing teenagers (I have a 15 year old son), but what is with the level of customer service lately?  I’m not blaming the teenagers.  After all it’s likely their first job, so they have never had any training on how to be courteous.  (Don’t get me wrong, some of that is common sense and should have been instilled in them at home by now)  When I was a manager, the absolute number one priority in my store was customer service.  The stores I managed were number one in the district and the company for a reason… because we had repeat customers who wouldn’t think to shop anywhere else.

So, how have things changed in terms of customer service training?  Do you have a thorough training plan in place?  Do you have high expectations for your staff (teenagers or not)?  Remember, 85% of your customers won’t come back because of poor service.  Taking the time to adequately train your staff, follow up regularly with them and instill a sense of pride to be working for your company is well worth the time it takes to do that.  Remember that customer retention is so much easier and cheaper than customer acquisition. 

What's in it for me?

As I said in my previous blog, listening to your customers is an extremely important step to customer retention, but there is no way you’re going to remember everything about every customer especially what they’ve all purchased, how often and how much they spend.  That’s why having an accurate, detailed database is vital.  But, database marketing only works to build retention if the customer benefits from the retention strategies.  Which means that you can have all the information possible about your customer but if your marketing retention strategy doesn’t interest them, there’s no point in doing it.  So, really pay very close attention to the information you have and strategically design your marketing strategies from the customer’s point of view. 

So, what kinds of strategies work?  Well, that depends on your industry and your clients’ preferences, but here are some commonly used things that work well.

·         Membership cards

·         Welcome and thank you communications

·         Satisfaction surveys

·         Enhanced technical support with follow up satisfaction calls

·         Frequent Buyer Programs

Most importantly, as I’ve said before, listen to what the customers want.  Do they want free stuff?  A Frequent Buyer Program might be a great option.  Do they want to share their input on your products, services and company?  Having their voices heard might mean they’d take the time to complete a satisfaction survey.  But, get creative.  Personally, I use a referral program.  When one of my clients refers another client to me, the referring client gets 15% off their next purchase.  As most of my clients are owners of very small businesses, they are more than happy to save some money on professional services.

The key to customer retention is to ensure that you have developed a very comprehensive Integrated Marketing Communications plan aimed specifically at your existing customers, designed to build loyalty.  Have fun with it.  Get creative.  Better yet, ask your customers what they want and give them exactly that.

LISTEN! PLEASE JUST LISTEN!!

Customer retention is so much cheaper and easier that customer acquisition.  But I see it time and time again, where small business owners work their butts off to try and get customers to come to their place of business and buy their products, but fail to build a relationship with their customers.  As a marketer, I know how absolutely vital it is to generate awareness of a company.  But, where advertising creates an image for your company, your relationship building skills (or unfortunately as we’ve all seen, lack thereof) solidifies that image in the eyes of the consumer.

Your primary focus is to listen to your customers.  You’ve gotten them interested enough to come to your store/office/etc.  Now ask questions and really (I mean REALLY) listen to what they have to say. 

So, what questions do I ask?  Don’t get so wrapped up in a conversation about your business and what you can do for your customer.  Your goal is to dig a little deeper, find out stuff about the person.  People like to talk about themselves and the things they tell you can be incredibly enlightening.  You can learn so much from your customers.  And by taking the time to listen to them, you are creating an atmosphere of trust.  That trust goes a long way in developing a long-term relationship with your customers. 

Years ago, when I was a manager of cellular phone store, I had a gentleman come into my store to find out some stuff about phones.  He was an older guy, maybe in his 60’s and knew nothing about cell phones, but his kids were telling him he should get one for emergencies.  He must have spent about 45 minutes in the store that day.  We had quite a conversation about his kids, his grandkids and his love of motorcycles.  He left the store that day without a phone, but he came back about 2 weeks later with his son to get himself a phone.  When he arrived, I had just stepped out of the store for a minute, so he told my co-worker that he would wait for me because he told her, “She knows me”.  Based on all of the information I had gathered from him, I got him exactly what he needed… nothing fancy or expensive, but something that was useful for him.  The one thing he hadn't mentioned in our conversations was that his son was a business owner.  A month after I made the sale to the father, the son came in and wanted to switch ALL of his company’s current cellular business lines to us.  He said that he was so impressed with how I treated his dad, that he wanted to be sure his company and his employees would get that same service.  They became long-time customers of ours all because I took the time to listen to his dad.

So, take the time to engage in a 2-way conversation with your customers.  Don’t just go off on some rehearsed sales pitch about what you can do for them. Of course you can’t please everybody all the time, but your goal here is to let the customer know that you sincerely want to hear what they have to say.  Let’s face it, we all want to be heard, understood and appreciated from time to time.  Let your customers know that you are genuinely interested in what they have to say. You never know where that relationship can lead to.