Be Different or be dead

October 5, 2014

28 reasons customers are sometimes enormous trouble

Source: Pexels

28 reasons customers are sometimes enormous trouble.

Customers are a pain; here are 28 reasons why customers are too bothersome to deal with.

1. They come late and expect us to stay open.
2. They come early and expect us to be opened.
3. They don’t appreciate some of our staff; they have unrealistic expectations.

4. They always change their mind.
5. They are too sensitive about getting their needs met.
6. They tell their friends how bad we are when we make a mistake or don’t meet their customer service expectations.

7. They feel entitled to get a deal; they never want to pay the regular price.
8. They are inflexible; they won’t accept a substitute when we don’t have exactly what they want.
9. They demand we check the back of the store if the item they are looking for isn’t on the shelf; this takes time.

10. They are quick to criticize but rarely praise us when we do a good job.
11. They complain about our prices being too high.
12. They hate standing in line or in a call center queue to pay for their merchandise.
13. They hate being told to go to another cash register when we take our break.

14. They expect us to be able to answer any question on any of our products; they don’t appreciate that it is impossible for us to know everything about each product we offer.
15. They don’t like our merchandise cluttering the aisles because of our limited space for inventory.
16. They expect to be served by friendly staff even if we are having a bad day.
17. They expect staff to be available to help them; they get very angry if they have to hunt for a store clerk.

18. They never seem to be satisfied; give them a little and they want more.
19. They ask for a manager if we can’t satisfy them.
20. They think they are the only ones we have to serve; they don’t care if we have other customers in the store.
21. They stress-out our staff by being so demanding.

22. They shop around for better deals; we can’t count on their loyalty.
23. They don’t understand our policies; they keep asking for things that our rules don’t permit.
24. They don’t get that if we break the rules and do something special for them, we would have to do the same for others.

25. If your delivery is late, they don’t understand that it was a problem with our courier service not with us.
26. They hate voice recording systems and would rather talk to a real person. They don’t understand we are trying to increase our productivity.
27. They are impatient and don’t like waiting 10 minutes on the phone for the next available representative.
28. They like to re-invent our menu. They always fight with us to add food items that they like.

Some days you think another line of work would be preferable.

The problem is you can’t avoid customers and their complications.

Gotta figure out how to live with these unpredictable and demanding folks since we can’t live without ‘em.

What’s your gotta live with ‘em strategy?

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

• Posted 10.5.14 at 02:38 am by Roy Osing
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September 15, 2014

Why under-promising and over-delivering is a dishonest sales scam

Source: Pexels

Why under-promising and over-delivering is a dishonest sales scam.

The “under-promise and over-deliver” sales tactic reeks of dishonesty and utter disregard for human decency

What it really says is “We will force you to lower your expectations and then we will deliver a little bit more”.

Lower the bar and walk over it rather than set the bar at the level you expect and then leap over it.

The result is that you finally get what you want (but no more) but were manipulated to get it.

Forcing someone to accept less and then surprising them by delivering what they originally wanted is not a good formula for long term success.

It’s short sighted and sleazy.

The right thing to do is promise what the customer wants and then surprise them by over-delivering

The end game in the business of serving people is the unforgettable moment; the moment when someone is dazzled by the way they have been treated; by the delightful unexpected experience they had.

Forgettable moments are created when someone is subjected to underhanded tactics.

Create them at your peril.

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

• Posted 9.15.14 at 04:58 am by Roy Osing
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August 25, 2014

Why being different is urgent for survival and success

Source: Unsplash

Why being different is urgent for survival and success.

Never has it been more important to carve out a distinctive and unique place for your organization in the market than it is today

The economy is unpredictable.

Competition is intense as new competitors are entering the market at a blistering rate.

New technology disrupts organizations relentlessly.

Markets are cluttered with sameness; products and services are undifferentiated and competitive claims are lost in the crowd.

Customers are more empowered than ever before, establishing relationships with suppliers that deliver distinctive solutions and ignoring those that don’t.

Which organizations are successful and survive this challenging business environment, and what separates them from the others that struggle, hang on and eventually fail?

Those that are able to win this battle are different from their competitors. They survive the scrutiny of the discriminating customer by providing relevant, compelling and unmatched value.

Those that have no distinctive identity simply don’t make it.

They die.

How can organizations stand-out from the herd and distance themselves from it?

Business plan — It starts with reinventing how strategy is developed. The emphasis is shifted from strategic direction to execution. Many plans look good on paper but can’t be executed. They are theoretically pristine but worthless as they fall short of delivering results.

The strategic game plan — business plan —  in common lexicon, is designed for execution and is created by answering 3 questions:

1. HOW BIG do you want to be? - growth goals;
2. WHO do you want to SERVE - target customers to achieve growth;
3. HOW do you intend to compete and WIN - the value proposition that gives the WHO reasons to buy ONLY from you. Being the best of the best is ignored; being the ONLY ones that do what you do is coveted.

Marketing — Marketing is focused on creating experiences rather than flogging products. Investing in current loyal fans is given priority over providing special promotions and deals to acquire new customers.

Mass markets are ignored in favour of concentrating on the individual and discovering their secrets that will unlock economic value. The world of ME gains momentum.

Customers are looked at holistically; experiential packages are designed for each of them to satisfy their broad life desires. Creating happiness is the marketer’s end game.

Customer Service — Customer service the way it has been traditionally practiced is out; SERVING customers is in with the end game to dazzle the customer and take their breath away. Internal rules and policies are re-vectored to make customer engagement a friendly process.

The customer is brought in to the organization to get their fingerprints on how they want to be treated.

Leadership —  Leadership is practised by serving around is the new culture. “How can I help you?” are the words leaving leaders’ lips not “Do this.”

To Stand-out from the Herd you need to provide VALUE that people CARE about and that is UNIQUE. Failure to deliver and you’ll be IgNORED, InVISIBLE, CoMMON and DeAD (sooner or later).

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

• Posted 8.25.14 at 02:36 am by Roy Osing
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July 7, 2014

Why ‘serving’ customers is way better than ‘servicing’ them

Source: Pexels

Why ‘serving’ customers is way better than ‘servicing’ them.

What promise do you have in your service strategy?

“I promise to service you.” or “I promise to serve you.”

Which sounds more appealing? Which sounds more sensitive to your wants, desires and expectations?

Do you really want to be ‘serviced’?

Customer service in most organizations involves the application of the company’s service structure to people. It subjects them to the rules, policies and practices the company has created to control the customer engagement process.

It boils down to a set of policies being applied to everyone regardless of circumstance.

How often have you heard: (even though we all know it’s ridiculous) ’I’m sorry you can’t do that because it’s company policy.’

And yes, control.

Policies for the most part are intended to minimize risk (for the company), increase efficiency (for the company), maintain or reduce operating costs (for the company) and create consistency (for the company).

What’s missing?

Service is all about the company yet it implies that it is all for the customer. Nonsense!

If you REALLY want the customer to come first, you need to subordinate the company to a serving role. And you need to start talking about ‘serving customers’ not providing customer ‘service’

What it means to serve:

▪️ The customer is engaged to determine what the company’s rules, policies and procedures look like;

▪️ Employees try to find a way to say yes to every customer request whether it satisfies a policy or not;

▪️ Frontline conversations with customers always include the question “How can I help you?”;

▪️ The measure of the customer engagement is whether or not they were dazzled by the service experience they had, not how proficiently the rules were applied.

Do you service or do you serve?

Should you be trying to improve your customer service, or should you be trying to serve customers in a more warm and caring manner?

What do you think is the winning approach?

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

• Posted 7.7.14 at 03:01 am by Roy Osing
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