Roy's Blog: Customer Service
April 6, 2014
How your customers can become addicted to you in 5 simple ways
Source: Unsplash
How your customers can become addicted to you in 5 simple ways.
Addiction isn’t a casual interest or a take-it-or-leave it attitude.
When customers are addicted to a particular organization they are “all in”. They have a habit of dealing with the organization through thick and thin. It is that tough to kick. It’s like looking both ways before crossing the street. They just do it without consciously thinking about doing business with someone else.
Every organization covets the customer who will habitually buy from them.
The issue is, they aren’t just out there to be taken. There isn’t a tribe of addicts for the taking.
They have to be created.
And the problem today is that most organizations are so driven to make the sale, they don’t focus on doing what is necessary to turn the casual buyer into the raving fan with the habit.
Here are 5 things you can do to help your customers develop the habit for you:
1. Don’t focus on the sale.
If you do things right you will not only make the immediate transaction, you will earn a revenue stream for a long time to come.
This is all about changing the culture of the organization away from short term gratification to building the capability to earn in the long term. As long as quarterly earnings drive behaviour, the need to create addicts will take the back seat.
2. Recruit relationship-building sales people.
Look for demonstrated accomplishments of this competency. If you don’t have frontline folks leaning the right way, habits will not be formed.
3. Look at your front end systems.
Is it easy for a customer to enter your realm and get what they want? Is your web site easy to navigate? Can they reach a human being if they need to?
Do you force people through an IVR with a dozen questions to answer? Simplify your processes. Make them human friendly. People don’t give a damn about your internal issues!
4. Have a strategy when you screw a customer over (and you will).
Recovering from a service OOPS! has amazing implications when it comes to creating addictive behaviour from your customers. Fix it + SURPRISE ‘em is the formula that will turn a postal customer into an addict.
If you do it right they will forget that you screwed them over in the first place.
5. Declare a policy: we don’t care about our competitors! We care about our customers and believe that if we do a great job at serving them, we won’t have to worry about the hordes at our door.
The fact is, when you are worrying about what “the bad guys” are up to, you are nor concentrating on the experiences you have to create for your customers to turn them into addicts.
Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
- Posted 4.6.14 at 03:10 am by Roy Osing
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January 27, 2014
Why unforgettable moments are the way to be amazingly successful
Source: Unsplash
All organizations seem to be coveting the amazing customer experience, but in order to deliver one, you have to break the experience down into the moments that comprise it.
How will you know when your organization has finally matured in this regard?
How will you know when you are building long term sustainability in an unpredictable and chaotic world?
How will you know when your fan base will carry you forward to where you need to go?
You will know when everything you do is focused on creating unforgettable moments for the people you serve.
Unforgettable means…
▪️Lasts in your mind forever
▪️Powerful emotional experience
▪️Can’t get it out of your mind
▪️Impossible to stop talking about
▪️The topic of your story-telling
▪️Gives you goosebumps when you describe the moment
Measure whether or not you are doing it. Ask your customers if the have had an unforgettable moment with you. What did it look like?
Measure the extent to which unforgettable moments are delivered internally among employee groups. Does marketing deliver them to sales? If it’s not happening on the inside, it won’t likely happen on the outside.
Make it THE major component of employee compensation plans. If 80% of their bonus pay isn’t related to delivering unforgettable moments it won’t happen.
As a leader, catch people doing it. Recognize them. Honor them among their peers. Make them heroes.
Talk it up. Make it matter by declaring the unforgettable moment story THE vital fabric of internal AND external communications.
Publicize unforgettable moments to your employees. Describe what made them irresistible. Get a customer quote to reinforce how they FELT about it and how important it was to them.
Change the conversation among your employees: you no longer supply products and services; you now supply unforgettable moments.
Be The ONLY one that delivers unforgettable moments the way you do.
Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
- Posted 1.27.14 at 05:43 am by Roy Osing
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November 11, 2013
What happens when you WOW! someone?
If your strategy is to WOW! customers, you have to look for the right people.
Yes, it’s important to have people with intellectual competency. But it doesn’t guarantee DAZZLING customer service.
Too much emphasis is placed on how smart someone is.
Recruit people that “love” humans.
It’s not about what they know.
It’s about how they feel.
WOW! doesn’t happen when you show ‘em what you’ve got mentally.
WOW! happens when you show ‘em what you’ve got emotionally.
You can teach people the content of your business but you can’t teach them to care for others.
Either they have it or they don’t.
Find those that do.
Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
- Posted 11.11.13 at 05:51 am by Roy Osing
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August 26, 2013
Why ‘the little things’ that happen make poor customer service
Source: Unsplash
Why ‘the little things’ that happen make poor customer service.
Customer service is all about the little things we notice and get annoyed about
— The dust ball remaining in the corner after the professional cleaners ‘finished’ their job;
— The grease on the steering wheel after they have finished servicing your SUV;
— The soiled seats on the aircraft;
— The lipstick residue on the wine glass;
— The dirty marks on your cupboard door after the hinges have been replaced;
— That the serviceperson didn’t remove their shoes when entering your home;
— The lack of free wifi on the cruise you spent $10,000 on;
— The $1.00 adding error on the restaurant bill;
— The indifferent attitude of the restaurant server.
The reality is that these are the things we do notice.
These are the things that we expect not to happen.
These are the things that indicate the serving organization is not concerned with the details that finish the job completely for us.
These are the things that reflect the culture of the organization and the values of leadership.
“They notice everything” posters should be plastered about the workplace
So if organizations want to create amazing customer experiences, their leaders should monitor every nook and cranny of the organization to pick up on and change “maybe they won’t notice” attitudes and behavior.
Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
- Posted 8.26.13 at 06:16 am by Roy Osing
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