Be Different or be dead

July 30, 2018

6 common customer service mistakes that will make you sick

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6 common service mistakes that will make you sick.

Most organizations are trying to use service as a key component of their competitive strategy yet my observation is that few actually deliver what I would call out-of-the-ordinary service.

Quite frankly, service generally is abysmal despite the rhetoric provided by leadership — it’s a dream with no practical way to make it come true.

These mistakes are at the root of the problem that, for most, the words and the music don’t match.

1. Putting cost before care

The only purpose of ‘customer service’… is to change feelings. – Seth Godin

After the aspiration — “our goal is to deliver service beyond expectations” — fades, reality sets in and the monthly income statement dictated the agenda.
What does the business case look like to deliver service goals? What will it cost to delight our customers, and how do we translate this into additional revenue?
At the end of the day, a proposal to outsource the service call center to a remote location with lower wages (and questionable English language skills) gets approved — the care factor is ignored.

Don’t talk about service excellence when you’re not prepared to invest to deliver it. You can’t creature memorable moments when costs are the primary concern.

2. Treating the frontline as bottom dwellers

Who in the organization delivers the service brand? It sure the hell isn’t the CEO or the Executive Leadership Team.
The irony is that the people who own the brand are relegated to the bottom of the chart. These are people who are “only” receptionists, service reps, credit reps and sales assistants. People who perform “junior” roles but who breathe life — or not — into the aspirational goal of superlative customer service.
It’s about time organizations honour the people who wear the badge of service every moment of every day.

3. Focusing on the abuser

Policies and procedures are typically used as mechanisms of control. They control the customer engagement process. They control the criteria for treating customers who have been wronged by the organization.
They are constructed to deal with the person who wants to ”abuse” standard protocol.

The customer who is assumed to be dishonest — “Before I serve you a drink I need your credit card (because others who came before you took off without paying and I assume you will do the same).
Here’s a novel idea: why not create rules and policies to make it easy for people to do business with you rather than punish them for what a minority number of people in the crowd has been known to do in the past?

4. Not saying “I’m sorry”

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates

Mistakes happen because organizations have two resources that go wrong from time to time — people and technology. As it turns out, however, mistakes that are handled the right way actually build stronger customer loyalty than if the OOPS! never happened at all.

A successful service recovery is fix it fast + do the unexpected. To have an amazing service outcome, the mistake must be quickly remedied — after 24 hours you have lost any possibility of building loyalty — AND a surprise element must be added — something the customer doesn’t expect.

And it begins with the apology. “I’m sorry” opens the gates for a delightful service finale when things get screwed up regardless of whose fault you think it is. Quote company policy at your peril, because people don’t give a damn about your rules and policies.

5. Getting it right the first time

The essence of service quality teaching is to conform to customer requirements the first time. To avoid mistakes that will require you to redo your work to get it right, thus increasing the costs of supply. Repeat work = higher costs.

So the majority of attention and investment goes into this purpose with little acknowledgement that it MIGHT not get done right the first time. That mistakes might rear their ugly head and present an opportunity to actually come out of it all in a stronger position — read last point again.

Successful organizations plan for screw ups — how do we intend to deal with situations where we DON’T get it right the first time? Don’t fall into the trap of relying on achieving perfection with every customer engagement. Big mistake; it won’t happen.

6. Meeting expectations

The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways. – Richard Branson

Doing what the customer expects is merely part of the answer to delivering brilliant service. It’s the basic action that must be taken in order to “play the service game” — you’re in the game if you do it but you don’t excel at it if that’s all you do.

Standout organizations try to anticipate what could be provided beyond what is expected; they set their sights at delivering more. They look for opportunities to add something extra to the customer engagement process — a bit of fun, some unique advice, a number to call for help if needed — small things that leave a memorable impression.

Stopping at what people expect defines you as a member of the service herd, indistinguishable from everyone else. Big mistake; limiting move.

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000. –  Jeff Bezos

The cost of a service mistake is HUGE yet the rhetoric in many organizations continues with insufficient action to make any significant difference.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 7.30.18 at 04:13 am by Roy Osing
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July 23, 2018

The traditional sales model is dead for these 6 simple reasons

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The traditional sales model is dead for these 6 simple reasons.

Adapt or die —we have seen this consequence play out for centuries.

Particularly now, in this post COVID-19 era, it’s a matter of survival for sales to pay attention to the changes in the environment that demand a change in the way sales has been practiced prior to the pandemic; many of current sales fundamentals are not sustainable in the new normal.

If sales is to maintain relevance in today’s world, a transformation of the way it is practiced is required. Not just incremental change, but a completely new approach. Blowing up the old model; building a new discipline.

This is why traditional sales practices are no longer relevant:

1. Customer choice

People have virtually unlimited choice today from a variety of suppliers whose numbers that grow daily. In particular, COVID-19 has caused a completely unexpected increase in the online business.

During lockdowns and in an effort to maintain physical distancing, consumers are turning to the internet to buy what they need. And businesses have literally stopped buying as their customer base is drying up while everyone is forced or stay as close to home as possible and governments try to figure out how to open up the economy safely.

The expansion of the selling market to include more players — including DIY — increases the competitive pressures on traditional sales to attract and keep customers.

Customers wield much more power now than they did mere months ago and traditional sales will have to discover how to successfully play in this much different world.

And with the proliferation of competitors comes the need for sales to be much clearer on why people should buy from their organization as opposed to the competition; unique selling propositions in the old sales world have been woefully inadequate and confusing to potential customers.

And they need to talk to value and not continue to flog the “buy from me because our prices are cheaper than anyone else” message which is tiring and quite frankly untrue in the majority of instances.

Reasons to buy must be much clearer and specific otherwise sales will falter and die.

2. Individuals not crowds

Personal markets where the wants and desires of the individual are taking a dominant place in the demand for goods and services, replacing products which are positioned for mass markets based on the average common needs of people in a crowded market segment.

People want their cravings taken care of; they are turned off by the assumption that they are like the crowd in any way.

Crowd-based mass market messaging is therefore becoming less effective and is returning less as a communications investment. Targeted personalized sales communication to individuals is required to ensure customers get the precise value they want.

3. Switching suppliers

Customers are becoming more fickle and are able to switch suppliers with ease. Barriers that once existed are disappearing as switching costs approach zero.
Customers use this opportunity to hop from one organization to another much more frequently than in the past.

The only defence against this is for sales to create strong barriers to customer exit, an imperative that has never been given a high sales priority in the past. This involves paying more attention to loyalty considerations in the sales process than simply trying to push product.

And because of high market churn, acquiring new customers relies more than ever on obtaining referrals from the existing customer base, again stressing the need to build strong customer relationships.

4. Teamwork

Sales is less of an island in the organization. It is only one element an organization has to deliver as part of the organization’s value proposition. The sales identity is rapidly blending with marketing and customer service to respond to the holistic needs of a customer.
Customers are forcing sales itself to provide better customer service.

Customer loyalty has to be earned at every touch point be it personal contact, an organization’s web site, communications media and social media.
All customer interfaces must work together seamlessly and synergistically and must carry the same message and engage the customer in the same way.

Sales will be challenged to give up their traditional narcissistic view and adopt more of a team view of what they must contribute.
Sales gunslingers which were saluted in the past will be admonished in the future.

5. Customer ideals

People are buying more and more from organizations that align with their values and belief system — social responsibilities, environmental-friendliness, philanthropic intent and so on.

If sales can’t (or won’t) take the time to discover the ideals held by each and every one of their clients, they will seriously damage the relationships they have with their customers and jeopardize future sales opportunities.

6. Flogging is passé

No longer is it acceptable for the salesperson to flog products and services at people; people hate the process and simply won’t buy.
Sales must move from this approach and rely on creating an engagement approach that people actually enjoy and not feel pressured into a purchase.

People are buying experiences now rather than product functionality and technology. They take for granted that the technology is state of the art and that the product will deliver what it says it will. What makes someone buy from one salesperson and not another is how they feel about the sales individual as a person — are they likeable? — and the sales process they are being put through.

The product flogger is obsolete as will be the organization that continues to try and use it as the sales role.

The insightful ones are quickly moving to a world flogging fan relationships and customer intimacy is the new normal for sales.

New sales muscle is required to address these new realities.

Are you re-inventing your sales machine?

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 7.23.18 at 04:33 am by Roy Osing
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July 16, 2018

Why a customer should never hear the two words ‘You should’

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Why a customer should never hear the two words ‘You should’.

A brilliant customer service strategy isn’t just about these factors:

Aspirations

It’s not just about what you aspire to be.

Yes, it’s critical that you have a service strategy that clearly differentiates your organization from others. It must address not only the element of service that your customers treat as their top priority, but also the one that your organization uniquely provides.

If what you do in a service sense mirrors what your closest competitor does, you really don’t provide a compelling incentive for people to choose you over others.

Technology

It’s not just about cool technology employed to facilitate customer transactions.

Employing the latest technology to maximize the efficiency of your service operations is essential — as long as it doesn’t detract from the experience your customers have when they do business with you.

And as long as its sole reason for implementing the technology is not to drive service costs down, as this end game will surely negatively impact service quality. Technology applied to enhance the customer experience and improve the use of internal resources must be the desired outcome.

Awards and Recognition

It’s not just about the awards you win for “providing the best customer service”.

This recognition is often provided by so-called experts in the customer service business who claim to have their fingers on the pulse of customers and who conduct surveys to determine the leaders in the service area.

Because they apply their own criteria on what superlative customer satisfaction looks like, your organization could be praised for achieving high marks in an element of service your specific customers don’t value as their highest priority — your award is therefore meaningless to your business.

Serving Leadership

It’s not just about serving leadership that places the emphasis on helping service employees do their job.

Serving leaders are critical to developing a successful culture based on delivering mind blowing customer experiences.

A critical component of this culture is a leadership philosophy based on helping and enabling people do their jobs — removing the roadblocks and “grunge” that get in their way.
Serving leaders are a critical ingredient to service culture, but more is required to sustain it in a highly changing and competitive world.

It’s about words

A brilliant customer service strategy IS about what is said and not said during the customer engagement process; the Moment of truth when the customer and company are connected for the purpose of satisfying what the customer wants and desires.

The organization’s service strategy comes alive in that Moment, whether it’s a real time conversation with an employee, a web page view, an advertising message or an audio response from your call answer device.

In that Moment, your service strategy is no longer a strategic intent; no longer a piece of paper with words expressed on it. It’s an experience that either renders your intent alive or dead; the truth or a lie — your strategy in that moment degenerates into reality.

Words can hurt, anger and amaze

Many words characterize the Moment; words that either leave the customer feeling heard, honoured and cared for or feeing berated, belittled and angry.

This is where most organizations fail. They don’t treat words used in the Moment as a critical element of their strategy that needs as much or even more attention than the service end game intent.

It’s one thing to say “When a mistake is made, recovery will be our #1 priority” and quite another to have service personnel equipped with the right words to manage the recovery Moment when the customer has been screwed over by their organization.

If the wrong words are chosen, the the recovery element of your service strategy dies — and your customer trots off to one of your competitors. If the right words are chosen (with the promised action of course) the customer is surprised, delighted and more loyal than if the OOPS! never occurred in the first place.

Service training must include what to say and what not to say, starting with the latter because the trash words must be expunged and replaced with the words that will support and enable your service end game.

”You should”

Start with “You should”; the one single phrase with so much implied meaning that it can singlehandedly scupper a Moment.
“You should”:
— follow the instructions (you dummy)
— upgrade your software (can’t you read?)
— call the billing department (and don’t bother me)
— have reported the problem when you were covered by your warranty (don’t expect any help now)
— be more understanding (leave me alone!)
— have known our policy (WE control YOU remember?)
— make your choice (can’t you make up your mind?)

‘You should’ explicitly says that your behaviour should be governed by my expectations of you, not by your reality.

How can that ever lead to amazing customer service and Moments that leave the customer breathless?

It can’t.

Mind your words.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 7.16.18 at 04:39 am by Roy Osing
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July 9, 2018

Why a marketing bundle really sucks like a dirty martini

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Why a marketing bundle really sucks like a dirty martini.

Many like a dirty martini; I don’t.

I love martinis but please keep them clean and uncontaminated by dirty fluids that violate the clear pristine gin and vermouth mixture. I don’t mind if you put 4 symmetrically organized olives on a skewer in it because they are gone before any real contamination can occur — I love olives but hate the juice.

I feel the same way about bundling and the way it is practised in the marketing world today.

Bundling — add a number of products together and give the customer a discount.
Combine two products and get 10% off the total price for both; take 3 products and the discount goes up to 15%. The more you buy, the more you save. A pretty simple idea.

To me, however, bundling practised in this manner is like mixing a dirty martini.

It contaminates and dilutes the basic marketing tenet that says price should be a direct function of value; the greater the value, the higher the price.
And, conversely, the lower the value, the lower the price.

I’m not aware of any marketing principle that advocates increasing the value of an offering and then reducing the price.
Even if economies of scale and scope were in play, the right thing to do would be to maintain price levels and reflect the benefits of the lower costs in increased margins.

But rarely does merely selling two products together materially drive cost down; bundling isn’t physical integration.
Combine long distance service and internet service on a customer’s bill, and the telecom company doesn’t realize any measurable cost savings as a result of the combination yet the customer gets a discount for signing up to two communications products.

It’s an illusion

And it’s a pipe dream to believe that lower bundle prices stimulate long term demand and increase revenues. Combined billing for long distance plus internet service doesn’t stimulate usage of either.
I’ve had home phone, long distance, internet and TV services bundled together for years, but still treat each one separate and distinct from a consumption point of view — my usage hasn’t changed for any one of them.

The customer loves getting the discounts but no real value is created for the organization. In my former CMO days, I was skeptical to the point of a non-believer of bundling activity — I viewed it as lazy marketing and slight of hand.

Bundling drives marketing creativity to zero

It’s a no brainer — it doesn’t take a marketing graduate — to add and bill two services together and apply a discount.
What talent does it take to do that? What value proposition does the addition produce other than a lower price?
When long distance and internet service are sold together, what unique communications value is created by the synergy between the two services other than a price discount? Right. Nada.

Marketing professionals should be motivated to create new packaged solutions that seamlessly integrate a number of product elements and apply premium — not discounted — prices that reflect the added value created by the package.

Bundling ignores basic pricing principles

The function of price is to value the exchange between an individual and an organization that satisfies each party to the transaction. A successful value exchange leaves the customer happy with the money they have spent for the benefits they have received ; the company is better off because they realize an acceptable margin.

It’s easy to offer volume discounts but it completely ignores the impact it has on profitability. You can’t sell a martini if it doesn’t make money.
Do you really think a discount should be offered if you buy two drinks? Never seen a two-fer on martinis.

Bundling gains no competitive advantage

All marketing teams think by offering bundles they create customer loyalty; that by offering reduced prices for volume, customers will decide to stay with the organization forever.
Not true. People are fickle when it comes to price and will go wherever the lowest price is offered.

The reality is that most competitors offer bundles and therefore competitive advantage is conferred on no one. All the banks use bundling, all the telecom companies offer them — every sector is represented in the bundling dysfunction.

Bundling gives customers the wrong message

Increase the number of products provided and get a price savings is exactly the wrong message that should be given to the market.
In life the more value you receive the higher price you expect to pay. In martinis, the better the gin, the higher price for the martini — bar stock gin is sold at a lower price than Brockmans.

Bundling screws them over

Customers deserve more value that satisfies their overall wants and desires and we should be doing it at prices that reflect the value they perceive they’re receiving.
This preoccupation with discount bundling is a distraction to the marketing profession from what they should be practising.

Bundling is a red herring; it’s the olive juice that screws up a perfectly good martini.

What people really want are integrated packages that satisfy a broad range of what they covet. Packages that reflect their lifestyle, for example, that might seamlessly integrate elements like a vacation, meal, wine, snuba and a car rental or if it’s a business, elements like sales training, CRM apps and logistics assistance.

Bundling is marketing’s dirty martini; it muddies the waters of good marketing

Let’s get back to the basics — create more value for customers and charge premium prices that reflect it.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 7.9.18 at 03:43 am by Roy Osing
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