4PCX Blog
24th August 2023
Last week, I included the following stats in my blog:
60% of Baby Boomers want excellent customer service
71% of Gen X want excellent customer service
77% of Millennials require excellent customer service.....!!!!!!!
I added that Millennials are the worst at giving great customer service even with all the competition out there whereas Boomers who grew up with no competition - a sort of 'you'll get what you're given' range of options and are the best.
It got me thinking (and I have blogged about this before, but I do feel very strongly about this and this stat might prove that we should discount the competition) forget about the competition (the Millennial sales assistants do with their lack of help in shops) and focus on your products.
I mentioned last week, that I would include one of the world biggest brands on this point: Amazon.
Ever since they started, Amazon have been customer focused. There mission is to be Earths Most Customer Centric Company and they certainly do that.
Jeff Bezos has been fixated on the customer over competition since day one of Amazon when it started to sell books. I am a big believer of focusing on the customer over the competitor and focus on your strengths to drive this message home which you can control rather than an obsessive focus on the competition which you cannot control.
As I mentioned last week, I was doing a presentation for work on customer service and found this video of Jeff Bezos talking in the late 1990s about his focus of customer over competitor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbENtDIPl3U
So the world's most influential companies have one thing in common:
1 - They disrupted their industries by being customer-centric, rather than competitor-centric.
2 - By focusing on customers needs, they highlight their competitors' shortfalls and gain market share.
3 - By taking the time to truly understand the needs of customers and think creatively about how to meet them, these leading companies set themselves up to win.
By focusing on creating a strong customer experience, instead of being overly concerned with competitors; companies can experience higher levels of growth.
Great experiences drives more traffic to a business through word of mouth. More traffic leads to more sales, which ultimately gives you more resources to create an even better customer experience.
I do understand that someone in your company needs to understand the marketplace: who your competition is, what other products are on the market, and how they are doing, at a basic level. But there’s a point at which paying attention to other companies and what they’re doing interferes with your team’s ability to immerse itself in the world of your consumer.
So why are so many companies focusing on the competition over the customer?
I feel it's because a company does not have strong products or services and therefore produces copycat products and services to alleviate this weakness. However this is not innovative or customer focused.
It could be weak / safe leadership driven to follow rather than be innovative and take risks, which is what forward thinking companies and businesses are all about.
So I say this:
Focus on the customer + Your Strengths = Growth
17th August 2023
I was working on a customer service presentation for work today and I was looking at customer service videos and images and I was surprised to learn the following information:
60% of Baby Boomers want excellent customer service
71% of Gen X want excellent customer service
77% of Millennials require excellent customer service.....!!!!!!!
Well I was shocked by the statistic!
Because, they way I see it, why are many more young people / millennials than more mature staff so bad at customer service if they expect it more than their previous generations?
Whenever I go into a shop to buy something, it's always the more mature people I head to from previous experience. Why, I hear you say? Well, most of the time young people are more interested in catching up with what happened at the weekend or talking about plans of the weekend, or the latest video on TikTok rather than greeting me and asking if I need help. Not only that - but now I really am entering grumpy old person territory - but I can never quite work out what they have said as they generally don't speak clearly or audibly.
I thought about the statistic some more and realized I totally get Boomers want less of a customer experience, because they grew up in a time when there was little choice and you got what you were given. Businesses did not have to compete for customers then as there was little competition; businesses were small shops and everyone worked with everyone else. With the rise of supermarkets and large national brands and mail order .... and now the internet, that has changed.
With businesses competing with each other for market share, of course Millennials are sued to shopping around for the best deals and sticking with a brand that gives them a great experience for their hard earned money and especially at the moment with the cost of living crisis. Not only that, we know Millennials love experiences in their lives and this includes customer experience or they will move to another brand that does that. And customer experience need not be the interaction with a person, it can also be brand values too that keep Millennials with a brand or moving to another brand.
Next week, revisit this site to look at the importance or not in this case of the competition and why the worlds biggest brand agrees!
10th August 2023
Today at work, a customer experienced a great experience all through team work.
I tried out our new online chat function today which was amazing, working to help the team with the many queries we have coming in.
One query, I could not answer and so I emailed my colleague who told me to send her two bits of data and she could sort the query. I went back to the customer and apologised for the delay and said to wait five minutes and she would have what she needed.
She responded with a positive thank you and I thanked her for her patience.
It was great to see that team work really does make the dream work.
Organisations whose staff work together and help each other, succeed. It's a given as it is all for the benefit of the customer who will speak positively about their experience to others... who will come to you for the same great experience.
Organisational culture is the key aspect of ensuring your customers have an experience that keeps them as customers while making them brand advocates.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best systems or the best head of customer experience. First and foremost, you need the correct cultural orientation toward customer service. That, of course, stems from the top.
The CEO has to talk customer. He or she has to be accountable for customer experience in some respects. The customer has to be front and centre so that everyone is thinking customer, whether they have a direct or indirect interface with them and as shown in my previous blogs, leaders see customer experience as more important than price and product which speaks volumes about its importance to organisations.
It is teamwork in the end between the leadership and staff, between departments, within departments and ultimately between the organisation and the customer which both help to grow each other!
3rd August 2023
I love this image I found recently. It says it all. It is about The Customer. Nothing else.
Focus on The Customer and you will always have a positive outcome. Companies who focus on customer centricity (really just another phrase for 'The Customer') really do have the edge. Look at Amazon.
Focusing on the customer is a game changer now. I have always said that customer experience is the new marketing battleground but here are a few stats to show this that Salesforce have put out:
1 - 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.
2 - 80% of service decision makes say emerging technology is transforming customers' expectations of their service organisation
3 - 82% of decision makers say their company's customer service must transform in order to stay competitive
This comes on the back of a statistic that in 2020 nearly 50% leaders said that customer experience was now more important for their company's growth than product or price.
When you read /hear these statistics it is mind blowing on two levels: one for many of us in the customer experience business, it is great to finally see this recognised, and two, how come it has taken so long to realise!?
I have been in the education sector for over 12 years, and I have seen how great customer experience, both before and during a sale / purchase of the product / service (prospective customer and current customer) really does help an organisations growth. Just by changing a few small things and ensuring a great experience for the customer, actually gives the sales team a great experience too (read last weeks blog!).
In the end it boils down to
- the right people in the right jobs wanting to help and
- the organisation ensuring customer service / experience training for all so everyone is on board with it and most importantly
- support from the top down; a customer centric focus can only happen if led from the top.
So, consider these stats when you read this and then consider how you cannot afford not to ensure The Customer is the focus.
27th July 2023
Right from my first job as a babysitter as a 16 year old where I prided myself on turning up on time, listening to the needs of the parents, ensuring the 'baby's' had what they needed and getting them to bed on time to giving the parents a warm and reassuring welcome back to working at Harrods, then in fundraising roles and latterly school / college marketing and admissions roles, I have enjoyed helping people and making people feel happy.
For me it is the most natural activity in the world and I love the fun of any challenging journeys and smoothing them out because it does feel good when someone goes away happy.
There have been so many occasions in my career when this has happened: the babysitting role, to looking after customers at Harrods and giving them a personal experience - even one an actual personal shop (although I was not a personal shopper) organising dress, handbag, tights, shoes and a shawl for a surprise visit to the opera by her partner, to looking after donors and spending 1000s of hours chatting with all kinds of people and listening to their needs and how they wanted to support the organisation I was working for at the time to now, looking after parents and learners.
One family at one of the schools I was working for wanted to switch schools but were concerned at the double fees and we worked something out to ensure a win- win situation. Within weeks their boys were shining at school and the parents were so happy.
Another school could not accommodate a boy from abroad at the last minute for various reasons and the agent rang to see if the school I worked for could. Within 24 hours the family had travelled to us and the student was happily ensconced in his new educational home and family within a matter of days.
One of my schools I managed to work with a well known TV series to come in and film. We worked closely with them and gave them everyone they needed and red carpet customer service on the day they came to see if it would work. They especially likes the car parking sign and home made cakes and biscuits and then returned to film!
More recently, just listening to learners and hearing them has been key to creating an amazing experience for them. I do believe kids just want our attention and time - the most precious of gifts. If only we could spend all our time doing this.
Former colleagues thought spending a good few hours on a visit / sale was a waste of time. I never felt this at all. I always thought time spent with a customer was the best use of time and my sales record showed this.
It really is the little things that matter in customer experience too and these don't cost anything.
These are just some of the examples of customer experience although I have never seen them as part of the job - they have always seemed very natural activities and not part of my job, but something that seemed the right thing to do at that time.
I love it more than anything (well AGAs and my family in joint place!).
What I am trying to say is, that if you are in the business of customer experience you should love it and want to help and feel it the most natural thing on the planet - like breathing actually.
I did some customer service training recently and I love doing this. I especially love the difficult questions colleagues ask and there are always these. Its not natural for everyone and you have to be passionate to convince them.
I will be doing more training - as well as for the learners - in the new academic year which I am so looking forward to doing.
If I can spread the word on the importance of customer service to colleagues, learners - anyone who will listen (and read in fact!) - with the knowledge that anyone can grow their organisation through a focus on customer experience (the new marketing battleground) because I have seen it happen three times now, then my work is done!
20th July 2023
This week, we have been enjoying a walking holiday in the South of the UK of just over 100 miles. I love these holidays, as not only does it give me the chance to really switch off by walking through amazing countryside and have a chance to breath and be mindful as well as enjoying our wonderful history and heritage and meeting like-minded people, but I also get to experience the best and worst of customer experience in the various hotels, BnBs, hostels and cafes along the routes.
My poor husband is a saint in this regard, although this holiday he finally realised what I had been banging on about for years with an incident in one of the accommodation providers that we stayed with! I will get onto that later.
Throughout the week, I realise that when you are tired from walking (along with carrying our own stuff over the walk which we still like to - stupidly! – do) you want a kind, warm and welcoming end to the day and also during the day when it is raining non-stop like we experienced this week. Not only that, you don’t want to be told no or have unhelpful information given to you when you are tired and wet through!
One waitress in a very helpful place on the rainiest day ever, after I asked for the biggest coffee possible, gave me a coffee in her large pint mug she uses. Wow! Talk about customer delight. We ordered some food and they found a table for us too even though they were full. The food was amazing. Another café gave us amazingly warm service as we trudged in during a 19 mile day for a break and the waitress was so kind and attentive. Many BnBs offered us a pot of tea on arrival – with one offering cookies too! One offered evening meals which was amazing at the end of one of our longest days and the best walkers packed lunch ever! Just amazing little touches that made our day.
The one incident where my husband realised I was right all along…about customer service…. was the monologue we received at one breakfast. We were informed of the process in the same tone and ramble… as was everyone else. It was said with little breaks, kindness or intonation and totally devoid of care. I could barely hear what the member of staff said and it was repeated exactly the same to all new breakfast diners. There was no, “Good morning, did you sleep well”, or “how are you today,”… just the breakfast monologue! It did not make it better that the day before, we arrived an hour before check in and were told we could not check in for an hour – although another member of staff gave us the key to our room just over 30 minutes later! The first member of staff could have said something along the lines of, “ we don’t usually check people in until 3pm when the rooms are ready, but pop back in about 30 minutes and we will see what we can do.” How easy is that!
So, if you want more information on customer service, check out my reviews on TripAdvisor!
13th July 2023
So in last weeks blog I mentioned three reasons for poor customer service with the first one focused on lack of customer service training given by the organisation. This was after a week of doing customer service training to staff in various conferences digitally and face to face too.
My other two points after this were these:
2 - the staff may have had training but should not be on the front line in a sales position; it's just a job to them.... they actually really don't care about the customer (harsh but fair I am afraid!)
3 - the staff member in question may be having a bad day.
So what happens if your member of staff just does not care? Well - difficult. I am a big believer in Disney's approach to recruitment in that you have to hire people that can do this and they hire purely on personality and fitting the 'cast member' criteria. But what if you are unable to be as picky as Disney. What if you don't have the right person for the role? I believe in recruit for attitude, train for skill and you will get the right person for the role in time so don't give up. Hold out for the vest person even if that is going through another round. Having the right staff in place is key.
I once made the mistake of hiring someone because of the workload in a department. That person was not right for the role in the end and I gave myself more work in the end not just saying no to the first person and waiting for the right person who eventually came along.
What if the person is having a bad day as in point 3? Well if they really are having a bad day... and it can happen, send them home to help them with what they are going through. If it is that bad they should not be at work and they might bounce back if they have a chance to unwind and solve the issue in front of them. Wellbeing and being mindful of everyone's wellbeing is crucial to ensuring a happy team.
However, if this happens all the time, then you need to bring in the 'adjust your attitude' training. I present this in my first impressions training slide.
What I am about to say is harsh... but fair. You may be having issues at home, having a bad day and someone has really annoyed you, but the customer does not know and nor do they care. They are there to get their purchase of your product or service done in as efficient and easy way as possible and if you are focused on you and not them, this makes for a slower purchase journey. So you have to adjust your attitude and be positive, upbeat and focused on them and forget your troubles at home in that moment. Because lets be real... your company or organisation is paying you to do this at this precise point in time and you owe it to them to focus... or go home.
A great customer experience will have people returning time and time again so don't jeopardise this because of an off day or because you need anyone to fill a role! You are in this for long game so focus!
6th July 2023
Customer experience cannot be learned sitting behind a computer.
I have been presenting this week on customer experience to staff in my workplace both digitally and face to face.
I know that it is important for everyone to be able to deal with a customer whether via a phone, email or face to face and the same basic actions apply.
Not least because even the person in the organisation who does not even deal with an external customer, still have to deal with internal customers - and these are just as important to the organisation as external customers. If we don't treat each other right and support each other with great service internally, how can we expect to be able to do even better for external customers? One to consider....
But back to the point, so many companies don't invest in this important training like the organisation I work for does which I think is very forward thinking of them and very customer centric.
When you see poor customer service, there are a number of reasons why it is poor generally
1 - no training have been given to staff by the organisation
2 - the staff may have had training but should not be on the front line in a sales position; it's just a job to them.... they actually really don't care about the customer (harsh but fair I am afraid!)
3 - the staff member in question may be having a bad day.
I will deal with points 2 and 3 in next weeks blog so don't forget to visit this page next week.
Point one is something every organisation should invest in. Customer experience is the new marketing battleground and in 2020, 45% of business leads said they were going to focus their organisation towards customer experience over product and price strategies. This is a monumental turnaround considering these are two of the key parts of the 4 Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion and place.
Consider the last time Amazon really changed the look and feel of its website? You can't can you! So what do they focus on... the user experience! How annoyed do you get when supermarkets move products around? Not a great user experience!
So some stats to back all this up: did you also know that 86% of people would pay more for a better quality of service and that 46% spent more money (recent survey in specific sector) after a more personal and bespoke service?
So why would you not invest in your staff and customer service training knowing this information about your customers?
Don't forget to check in next week about points 2 and 3.... the employee side!
29th June 2023
I think we always underestimate what poor customer experience does to a brand.
When you read the words in the image you realise the importance of a great customer experience. And this applies to me too!
I have switched companies because of a poor customer experience and I have not returned to a business because of poor customer experience.
So why is it so important to give a great experience?
Not only does a great experience ensure a customer tells everyone else what that experience was like and give you free publicity but it also retains that customer.
It is seven times more expensive to recruit customers than it is to retain them. How do I work that out? Well, the marketing cost is a additional budget to get customers. In a business, staff are already in post to support the customer experience and salary is included generally for current customers and then new customers.
So consider the fact that you need to put that effort into giving a great customer experience to ensure that they purchase the product or service and then return and bring others too. Why therefore would you not want to ensure you give a great customer experience to your customers.
Customers also want to feel good about a product and the purchase process. They want to feel their hard-earned money is being spent wisely and actually would like that member of staff to be helpful and listen and support them with a smooth and efficient purchase process.
They want to feel positive about the process and the outcome of the experience so make them feel valued and they will return.
22nd June 2023
Soft skills are crucial to life and are the bed rock of great customer service. It is soft skills that the CBI continually says school leavers do not have and employers are desperate to see in new recruits and in their workforce.
I thought about this today as I supported an event at work focusing on the Rotherham Children's University in which I was privileged to see young people aged between 7 and 11 receive certificates for completing a certain number of hours involved with some extra curricular activity or learning. These extra curricular activities help to gain the soft skills that employers need and people themselves need to get on an function well in the world.
Soft skills includes a variety of character traits that are needed by employers in their staff and at the same time soft skills can really ensure that people can get ahead personally too with personal relationships and personal and professional success.
These character traits include aspects such as communication, team work, resilience, confidence, hard working, enthusiastic and positive to name a few.
These are all traits that are needed also to thrive in the world of customer service.
You need to be able to communicate clearly to the customer, have resilience when facing a number of 'no's'. work hard throughout the purchase process to get it right and to listen actively, be enthusiastic and positive with customers as well as be confident with your advice and support of the customer and in helping them to get their end desired result.
I always say to young people that what you learn in the classroom is just as important as what you learn outside and it is these soft skills that will help you get on better in your career journey.
There is a saying... "Recruit for attitude, train for skill"... and I am a firm believer in this maxim. Disney recruits people based on personality to be a part of their 'cast'. They want people to perform and create an amazing customer experience for their customers to continue to grow the Disney empire and retain customers.
Of course you need a certain level of academic qualification for many careers - we know Maths and English GCSE is crucial - but soft skills learned and developed through extra curricular activities and especially in sales roles where relationship building with both internal and external customers is key, is something that is crucial for people to learn.
Thank God for organisations like the Children's University which aims to make the most of the 91% of time spent outside the classroom and gives children and young people the necessary skills they need to live fulfilled and happy lives personally and professionally. And lets hope many of these move into the customer experience business!
15th June 2023
I saw this on Pinterest recently and thought how clever it was. If we all considered this phrase a little more, the world would certainly be a much nicer place.
Consider this phrase when it comes to customer service:
1 - Always tell the truth to help create trust between you and the customer.
2 - Always be helpful - and in fact this is something I always talk about - being proactive and listening well allows you to be helpful and get the purchase process and experience right quicker.
3 - Be inspiring with your help and customer service - go the extra mile - that's always inspiring to watch and be on the receiving end of.
4 - Ensure the information you give over is necessary. Don't waffle! People are time poor so ensure your information gives the bare necessities and answers the question. I am dealing with someone at the moment in a personal capacity who answers with 1000 words and skirts around a short answer - like a politician - when 10 will do! Again you build up trust.
5 - Be kind with your customer service. There are some people/ customers who may talk too much, or go on, or return time and time again before a purchase, so be kind and give them your time. It is worth it and time is the greatest gift you can give anyone! I was on a wellbeing day last week - given by work - (yes, I know - amazing isn't it!) and I was enjoying some quiet time painting a pot when this woman started talking to me. Now I wanted to enjoy the quiet and the creativity and the rare chance to paint. but I also realised that she may not have talked to anyone for a while or lived alone so just struck up a conversation. It may not always be what you want to do, but kindness is the greatest gift. (Those of you who have not read 'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse' should do so and if you have.... you will know what I am talking about!)
So THINK before you speak in future!
8th June 2023
I tend to notice that customers engage more when you ask questions about them and get to know them rather than just talking shop. Your shop.
Have you also noticed that people are more comfortable talking about themselves than they are about things they are not as knowledgeable about?
So with these two statements in mind, why not talk to the customer and ask questions about them (not personal information!) to find out a little bit about them, help them to relax and then get them in the frame of mind to discuss your product or service.
I followed through on this advice this week to amazing results and the customer visibly relaxed.
I also notice how brilliant general chit chat and listening to the customer is when gaining their trust for you to talk about your product or service.
I have already spoken in previous blogs about how important listening is - and I mean active listening. Neither listening with the intent to respond, listening whilst all the while formulating a response, nor listening whilst looking at who else is around and what others are doing in the vicinity. This is not active listening. Active listening is totally focusing on the customer, their words, their tone and their body language, above anything else.
The only thing more important than the four P's (being positive, proactive, professional and passionate about your product or service) is listening. We have two ears and one mouth, don't forget!
Listening makes us all feel valued and that what we are saying is important. It allows us to build rapport and trust. Trust is important in building a relationship with a customer who will in turn listen to you and your knowledge on the product to make the purchase.
Top tip of the week: 'Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” Bernard Baruch, US Philanthropist.
1st June 2023
I read a book a few years ago that totally wowed me with regard to customer service. The book is by Donna Cutting and it is called 'Insider Secrets to delivering Red Carpet Customer Service' - The Celebrity Experience. The Pizza story will really make you understand what amazing customer service is and take it to a whole new level.
People like to feel special and the red carpet treatment makes people feel special.
You must have had that experience in a shop or in a hotel, where the member of staff goes the extra mile and makes you feel valued and special with their manner (professional and polite) and help. If not, I suggest you hop on a flight to Dubai, a country where they really know all about customer service!
The red carpet treatment always resonates with me and this week in particular as we gear up for the final half of term at the Group and the support we will need to give learners in choosing their next educational steps. Not only that, a situation this week made me realise that everyone deserves care and attention whoever they are. Using their name, being kind and supportive, listening and being friendly.
I say this every week, but if people are spending money on your product or service then you need to treat them well, well actually the best, so they will come back and spend more money (and this is the case if people are not spending money with you too). Because, again, repeat customers are much less expensive to your business in the long run compared to constantly finding and bringing in new ones with expensive marketing and advertising campaigns.
So, when you deal with that next customer, think how you can give that person red carpet customer service and therefore help to retain a customer and bring customer loyalty to your organisation and support in its growth!
25th May 2023
When it comes to customer service, there's a lot of talk about customer journey and customer experience. While the two concepts are closely related, they are actually quite different. Understanding the distinctions between customer journey and customer experience can help businesses provide better service and create a lasting connection with customers.
This week I experienced a bit of both in my workplace. I had a great customer experience along my customer journey with my new place of work. My customer (employee) journey is a fantastic one and it gets better every day due to the many experiences that happen!
A customer journey is the entire path a customer takes from discovering a product to making a purchase. It includes all the steps a customer takes to research, evaluate, and purchase a product or service, including visiting the website, reading reviews, talking to customer service reps, and so on. The customer journey is the framework that guides the customer’s experience.
Customer experience, on the other hand, is a more holistic concept that encompasses the entire customer journey. It includes not only the customer’s interactions with the company, but also their overall impression of the company and its products or services. It’s about creating a positive emotional connection with customers, making them feel valued and appreciated. This is done through providing excellent customer service, building trust, and offering a personalized experience.
In other words, the customer journey is the path the customer takes to purchase a product, while the customer experience is the overall feeling the customer has as they go through that journey. Both are important, but the focus should be on providing an exceptional customer experience that will build loyalty and keep customers coming back.
So how do you create a great customer experience? Start by focusing on the customer and their needs. Make sure you have a solid understanding of your target market and put yourself in their shoes. Deliver on your promises and exceed expectations. Make it easy for customers to do business with you by offering clear information and simple processes. Offer personalized, helpful customer service and respond quickly to customer inquiries. And always follow up with customers after the sale to make sure they’re satisfied with their purchase.
By taking the time to understand the differences between customer journey and customer experience, businesses can create a truly exceptional service experience for their customers. This will help to build strong relationships and loyalty over the long term.
18th May 2023
I was recently considering what makes a good team both for the internal and external customer. This thought has been on mind mind since I climbed Kilimanjaro in 2019. Why? I went with a group of 12 who all successfully summited but had not ever met each other as a full group before that 6 day trek. How is it that 12 strangers worked together to all achieve the summit of Africa's highest mountain?
Over the years, successfully creating and developing teams has been a huge part of my work. If the team is not right then the customer and ultimately the business suffers so what makes for a good team to ensure both an awesome internal and external customer experience?
Reflecting on the summit experience and the teams I have been in during the past and present here are some attributes that make teams successful:
1 - Relationship builders - every member of the team on Kili were keen to learn about each other, listen and converse. We had no wifi and no email; it was all done face to face. We had a creative two hours the first night to really get to know each other and this quickly bonded the team. Relationship building face to face is key.
2 - Participation - the people who generally take on an adventure of this sort get stuck into the job in hand. The help and support each other and work hard for the team to ensure success as a team. Active participation is crucial to teams to ensure fairness and equality which ensures people are motivated and valued. Teams should be equitable. There is always a leader but in the end the team needs to work together. Our guides and the people carrying our bags were also part of that team. Everyone did their job to ensure success. Everyone worked hard and got on with it. Nothing was too little or too much. We all looked out for each other and played to each others strengths.
3 - Honesty - we had some members of the team who were ill during the trip. We had all paid a significant amount to do this and so we did suggest the ill people kept to one side of the table and away from the team for the illness not to spread. We always said how we felt alongside being mindful of each others needs. Some people did not always want to play the games, some people went to bed earlier as they were tired. No one judged the honesty and the need to be individuals as well as be part of a team.
4 - Accountability - we were all accountable for our shortfalls or if someone did not do something they should - for instance walking off too fast! (pole pole!) then the team would talk about this and the person would be accountable.
5 - Listening skills - crucial part of any team. Listening to each other. One member of the team said she loved Sound of Music early on and on ascent night struggled near the top so I started to sing 'Climb Every Mountain' and she laughed and found the strength to go on. We also equally and respectfully listened and conversed and did exactly what we were told by the guides who were the experienced mountain trekkers for the good of ourselves and the team.
Teams should consider these five key skills when working as a team both to support internal happiness and a great employee experience as well as then ensuring a fantastic customer experience.
11th May 2023
This week I have been doing some customer service training and especially focusing on interviewing. In Schools and Colleges up and down the country, prospective learners are interviewed but no one really gives anyone any coaching or training on how to do this ever do they?
Curriculum teams and business support staff alike do interviews but most have never had interview training.
It is heartening to go into schools to support them with interview training for learners whether they are potential candidates or not. To support schools - and most importantly their young people - and to help them with content and first impressions is crucial. They can be quite daunting, can't they?
I was lucky enough to have interview training at my school. In 1995 (how long ago is that!) we all sat in a classroom with an external adult and videoed so we could watch it back after. I remember I was given some great feedback because I answered the question by linking it to something I was happy to talk about and knew about which I knew would relax me.
Now, I try to ensure I ask questions of learners - and anyone I interview - that will help them to relax and treat it more like a conversation than an interview. When people feel comfortable they then give the best of themselves and when they do this they leave the situation feeling happy having achieved and wanting to come back for more. This is what we want customers to feel - not just after and interview - but after an experience with us. Interviews are all part of the customer experience.
It is important to make people feel at ease. Sometimes humour helps, but you do have to be careful with this because not everyone has the same sense of humour and could be offended. It is not also a good idea to be negative - these do not support a great experience. Mentioning to the candidate whilst informing them of the course that they will have ten exams during the interview will put them off immediately.... and saying that they are nothing to worry about won't ease the situation.
The most important thing to remember is to listen. As the interviewer, you are not there to talk about yourself, you know about yourself! You don't know anything about the interviewee so make it your mission to listen and find out lots of amazing things about the person in front of you because if you listen you will be able to find these out.
Remember, interviews should always have a positive outcome even if the outcome is unsuccessful because word of mouth about how someone was treated will do the rounds.
Finally, you may be the interviewer, but you are also being interviewed yourself!
4th May 2023
LORIC is my new favourite thing. LORIC stands for: leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative and communication.
Schools are teaching this to students to support skills for employment and ensuring learners are work ready.
I think this can be used in customer service to create an excellent customer experience as as adults we can translate this into our working lives and develop our employability skills.
Employers are crying out for these skills so lets get learning them or developing them.
So how do they relate to customer experience?
Leadership - we can lead by example in customer service as customers ourselves we should treat customers as we would want to be treated. Leadership in the organisation should have a customer centric focus to ensure employees focus on the customer with every decision made.
Organisation - be efficient with the customers time and each others time within an organisation or company. We are in a time poor society so ensure your actions consider others. I have had to talk to a group recently outside work about time being precious and to ask each person to consider spending one or two more minutes before acting to ensure the person dealing with the actions does not spend more time sorting out the aftermath. No ones time is more precious than another, so be organised. [Also people who say they are too buy are actually saying their time is more precious than yours - not the case!]
Resilience - my favourite one here. We have lost so much resilience in recent years. Our ability to keep on until we succeed, to push on through - potentially with customers in the face of lots of 'no's'. Where has it gone? Why don't we persist? The best things come to those who wait!
Initiative - make sure you are constantly trying new things. Businesses who let employees be innovative will succeed. Innovation is key - look at Apple! Try and fail and try again - customers will respond to you trying on their behalf!
And finally - communication! Without good communication, how does anyone know what you are doing for them - even if it is a holding email to say you are working on their request. Communication is important. Don't rely just on emails... pick up the phone or go and see the person. We have lost the real art of relationship building through face to face conversation. I make sure I pick up the phone and go and see someone once a day to build relationships. So much more personal than an email... and the jobs get done faster too!
So, lets bring LORIC into our lives, and customer service!
27th April 2023
Volunteering is a great way to help others. Time is the most important thing you can give people in our 'Cash Rich, Time Poor' society.
#TheBigHelpOut is the start of that so happy volunteering this weekend!
20th April 2023
Have you ever noticed that people talk about their experiences with brands in two very different ways?
If the customer experience was awful they talk in mainly negative adjectives. I have had a very bad experience on holiday recently which does not equate to the money spent. At the moment, not even the few good things that occurred can make me speak positively about the experience. This proves that customers want a great all round experience and even one or two negative aspects that outweigh any good... it all depends on how the company rectifies the negative experience. I will keep you posted!
However if the customer experience was outstanding, they rave about it. My previous two holidays with the company mentioned above were faultless and i raved about the company.
It is easy to see how companies either sink or swim!
Nobody really mentions average. I have not mentioned average in either of the examples above! It's one or the other, and I can imagine which end of the scale you and your business would want ... no need... to be.
There are so many online opportunities for people to be negative or rave about your business or product, or rate it: social media, TripAdvisor, amazon ... the list goes on.
Bad customer service can jeopardise a company's reputation.
Businesses today cannot afford this. Competition for customers is strong so you need your customers - ambassadors for your brand - to rave about your customer service. You need to create customer delight (the ultimate goal) every time.
For example, I have been back to a few hotels and B&Bs along my travels that I rave about (usually on TripAdvisor because I believe in feedback), because every time I stay, the customer experience does not diminish. It is usually the small touches that make me rave about a place. But most importantly it is a great all-round experience and being valued as a customer. After all I could have gone somewhere else.
Examples include: dessert treat time in a hotel because the hotel recognised that I could have chosen any number of other hotels to stay at and wanted to thank me, using my name on arrival and throughout my stay, upgrading me because this was the third time I had returned, extending my check out because my flight was much later on, presenting me with my packages on arrival and leaving further packages in my room during my stay without me having to ask for them, being positive and helpful with all my questions and suggesting alternatives and options, giving me a quiet room because the member of staff could see I was a business traveller, organising last minute breakfast refreshments for a group gathering without any issues, offering to call a taxi rather than me going outside to flag one down... and this is just a small list of amazing examples of customer experience.
It is the little things that help a rave review, as well as the solution and support to make a situation good... no excellent.
Because nobody raves about average and your business needs to do better than average to beat the competition and create customer loyalty and ultimately growth.
6th April 2023
Taking a break from work is essential to prevent burnout, boost productivity, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. I have been told by colleagues in the sector that bosses have expected them (actually told them or emailed them in response to their 'planned ahead' email update before leaving to go on holiday) to be available during their holidays and to periodically check their emails, especially those in leadership positions! How does this help wellbeing and productivity in the long run... or setting an example of even motivation for that matter!
How does it help the customer if you are tired, demotivated and not functioning properly because you have not had a proper break? It doesn't and that is why good planning can help you ensure you get the break you deserve.
Plan Ahead
Before you go on annual leave, it’s important to plan ahead and make sure that everything is taken care of while you’re away. So here are a few things you should do before you leave:
- Inform your colleagues and clients about your leave: Give your colleagues and clients plenty of notice about your holiday, so they can plan accordingly. Inform them about the dates you will be away and who they should contact in case of any urgent matters.
- Set up an out-of-office message: Set up an automatic reply for your emails and phone calls. Your out-of-office message should include your return date, the name and contact information of the person to contact in your absence, and a brief message about when you will be available again. It is important people are able to contact other members of your team without having to have to search for the relevant number in a haystack... so to speak!
- Prioritize your tasks: Before you go on leave, prioritize your tasks and delegate any urgent matters to your colleagues. This will ensure that nothing falls through the cracks while you’re away.
- Complete pending tasks: Try to complete all your pending tasks before you go on leave, so you don’t have to worry about them while you’re away.
Unplug and Disconnect
Going on holiday is not just about physically leaving your workplace, it’s also about mentally disconnecting from work. Here are a few suggestions:
- Turn off work notifications: Turn off notifications for work-related apps and emails on your phone. This will prevent work-related interruptions during your holiday.
- Avoid checking emails: Try to avoid checking work emails while you’re away. If you must check your emails, set aside a specific time each day to do so.
- Set boundaries: Let your colleagues and clients know that you will not be available during your vacation. This will set boundaries and prevent work-related interruptions.
Enjoy Your Holiday
Now that you’ve planned ahead, delegated tasks, and set boundaries, it’s time to enjoy your holiday! Here are a few things you can do to make the most of your time off:
- Disconnect from technology: Try to disconnect from technology as much as possible during your vacation. Instead, spend time with your loved ones, explore new places, and engage in activities that you enjoy.
- Practice self-care: Take care of your physical and mental health during your vacation. Get enough sleep, eat healthy, and engage in activities that help you relax and unwind.
- Reflect on your goals: Use your vacation as an opportunity to reflect on your personal and professional goals. This will help you gain clarity and focus when you return to work.
When you return to work, you’ll be refreshed, energized, and ready to tackle new challenges as well as look after your customers with renewed energy and positivity!
30th March 2023
I am about to spend some much needed time in the wilderness over the Easter holidays and it got me thinking about how time is so precious.
Time is precious in many different ways. We talk about being time poor even now post Covid when the rise of hybrid working has allowed us to work remotely and regain 'time' from the commute. This has happened after years of the increasing focus of on time at work over home after the introduction of the mobile phone which for many means you can take work anywhere.
Yet we still fill our 'time' with things, activities, trips, friends etc. When will we have time?
It is an interesting phenomenon. I believe if you really, really, really want to do something you make time. For instance, I love my allotment and I always make time, even in the rain, even when I have to weed. If I want to go and have cocktails with the girls... that happens too. If I want AGA time, painting time, camper van time, I make time! But cleaning... much harder to get done! See what I mean!
For customers, time is important. Time makes a person feel valued. Time ensures you give the best customer service and allows you the chance to listen. I used to organise visits in schools where in some cases these would take up 3-4 hours of my time. Some of my colleagues would look at me horrified at the time it would take out of their day and say that they were too busy to devote this kind of time. I knew that it was important and would ensure a customer for life. Giving of your time shows the value you place on the other person...and their business or friendship.
A meeting finished early recently, and it was ended with the organiser saying I can give you the gift of 17 minutes time! Wow - it is a gift when you think about it.
As I make my way to the Middle East for my trek through the desert, I am reminded of the time of year by my neighbours both for Christians and Muslims. Indeed, I will experience time in a different culture during an important time in the calendar. I will enjoy quiet time trekking, a chance to enjoy some wilderness time, and some head space time...all very important to recharging.
One of the most amazing adverts I have listened to recently is from Viking Travel on 'Time' narrated by the Chairman for their 25th anniversary. If you need inspiration, listen to this. Forget they are selling travel, and just listen to the message.
You can see the importance of time. It is precious...priceless in fact. Use it wisely.
30th March 2023
I am about to spend some much needed time in the wilderness over the Easter holidays and it got me thinking about how time is so precious.
Time is precious in many different ways. We talk about being time poor even now post Covid when the rise of hybrid working has allowed us to work remotely and regain 'time' from the commute. This has happened after years of the increasing focus of on time at work over home after the introduction of the mobile phone which for many means you can take work anywhere.
Yet we still fill our 'time' with things, activities, trips, friends etc. When will we have time?
It is an interesting phenomenon. I believe if you really, really, really want to do something you make time. For instance, I love my allotment and I always make time, even in the rain, even when I have to weed. If I want to go and have cocktails with the girls... that happens too. If I want AGA time, painting time, camper van time, I make time! But cleaning... much harder to get done! See what I mean!
For customers, time is important. Time makes a person feel valued. Time ensures you give the best customer service and allows you the chance to listen. I used to organise visits in schools where in some cases these would take up 3-4 hours of my time. Some of my colleagues would look at me horrified at the time it would take out of their day and say that they were too busy to devote this kind of time. I knew that it was important and would ensure a customer for life. Giving of your time shows the value you place on the other person...and their business or friendship.
A meeting finished early recently, and it was ended with the organiser saying I can give you the gift of 17 minutes time! Wow - it is a gift when you think about it.
As I make my way to the Middle East for my trek through the desert, I am reminded of the time of year by my neighbours both for Christians and Muslims. Indeed, I will experience time in a different culture during an important time in the calendar. I will enjoy quiet time trekking, a chance to enjoy some wilderness time, and some head space time...all very important to recharging.
One of the most amazing adverts I have listened to recently is from Viking Travel on 'Time' narrated by the Chairman for their 25th anniversary. If you need inspiration, listen to this. Forget they are selling travel, and just listen to the message.
You can see the importance of time. It is precious...priceless in fact. Use it wisely.
23rd March 2023
Most people do not believe me when I quote this statistic to them. I use it as part of my customer service training - as the first bit of audience participation - citing other options such as new competition, word of mouth and dis-satisfaction with the product. Most people invariably go for word of mouth. People never think individual people are the issue.
But then I get people talking to me about their worst customer service experiences and it usually involves a person being rude, not helpful, not listening, not addressing the issue, passing the issue over to another department.... and another.... and another! Then, the light bulb moment happens!
Every single member of staff make up the team supporting our customers, so each and every one of them needs to be on board with giving red carpet customer service.
And it is the indifference of one employee that could mess it all up.
I always try to focus on what is possible to control with regard to growing a business. For example, it is impossible to control what the competitors are doing, so focusing on your company and its strengths is more proactive.
It is possible to control dissatisfaction with the product, word of mouth and indifferent employees.
The first, can easily be rectified with focus groups and research through questionnaires with recent buyers and non buyers for instance, and then looking at ways to make your product or service better.
The second is is based on both a great product and great customer service.
Great customer service, comes from ensuring the third aspect is focused on.
One of Richard Branson's popular quotes is "If you look after your staff, they will look after your customers," and to an extent, this is true. What it fails to say is that you need the right staff in a customer facing position in the first place. You can ensure all the support, benefits and remuneration, but if the person is not in the right role, then the business and the member of staff will suffer.
So for this blog, let us assume you have a great recruitment process with a clearly defined role and people specification in your job descriptions for your front of house staff. They need to be trained in the processes and company's customer service requirements. Do not think that it is right or fair to let any new member of staff just get on with it. Training is key.
In one organisation I worked in, I will never forget a person (front of house too) thanking me for some customer service training. She said to me, "no-one has ever trained us before so we have never known what to do and it is nice to have had the training to help us do our job better."
Therefore, do not assume people have had training in this area or that they know the key areas of great customer service, aspects of a great first impressions or how to turn everything into a positive / easy transaction for a customer.
It is surprising how many companies do not invest in this area given the statistic attached to this blog to reverse this 68%.
People are key to your business growth and sustainability, and to end with another Branson quote: "Train people well enough so that they can leave, but treat them well enough so that they do not want to".
16th March 2023
I was reminded of this quote yesterday as I started helping at the first of a number of open days over the next few weeks.
I remember when I read this a few years ago on Pinterest it struck me as being so obvious, so why don't we all practise it?
It's like that other wonderful sales quote, "Sell an experience, not a product".
But what does it all mean?
Customers go online or to shop to find a product in response to a need. Sometimes that product need is easy to fix, but not always.
For instance, you want to find an implement for eating soup - well a soup spoon is pretty much the tool for the job.
But what if you need to buy a television, a car, an oven or a house? There are more variables that go into the search for these items. This is when helping the customer to find what they are looking for and listening to their requirements and needs really helps to sell your product and organisation. Reeling off information on the latest and most expensive television or car in the range just because you know the patter or you have been told to upsell usually ends in the customer running for the nearest exit!
By listening to the customer, finding out what they need and helping to solve their problem, will gain you a new customer, or a more loyal customer. And why is this important? I am sure you have competitors who would love to take your customers, but most importantly, authentic and honest sales help a business in the key goal of customer acquisition: a customer for life.
Why is this important? Because acquiring customers costs seven times more than retaining customers!
An example of helpful sales to the importance of life time value is shown here: my father buying his first German car, one that he had been wanting and looking at for a long time: his dream car. He spent months visiting the sales house, going over all the options until he finally bought it. I thought at the time the staff had the patience of a saint, but their patience won out. I remember someone saying at the time that the they would see my father as a potential life time customer, and that it was not just about one sale. The help they gave him over the months was important for them to see this. They were right: he has since bought a number of German cars (the same brand) - only from them - over the years.
So it is important to help the customer find the perfect product or answer to their problem however long it takes. It is not a sale. it is providing help or an experience. People love helpful people. People warm to help to solve their issues and queries. It stands to reason that helping someone with their query, solving a problem, all the while creating a relationship and an experience, will end up in a sale.
9th March 2023
I saw this image on the internet a few years ago whilst pondering customer service, as I do, and saw it again recently as I have been thinking about how we can measure great customer service.
The image made me realise that we can measure this in the product itself: how focused on the customer is the product? Does the product meet the needs of the customer versus the needs of the organisation?
I had come across this situation recently when working with a supplier. I tried to explain that for me, and ultimately for the organisation, it was key that the overriding aim should be – with the product they were pitching – to give a better service to the customer, first and foremost. I said that the sales pitch should not be focused on how easy it would make my life but how it will allow me to spend more time with the customer. However, if the supplier meant that by easy, it would free up more of my time to communicate and support the customer, through their journey in a more personal and bespoke way, because this new service allows me more time for that, then great!
I think businesses – like many (not all) leaders – are all about ego. Brand first and reputation of the brand, and whilst this is important, brand reputation is actually best gained through looking after the customer. After all, sales only happen if the customer likes your product and more importantly enhances their time-poor life as the image above shows!
How many times have you gone for the old Tommy K and it takes forever to get the sauce out? I know their adverts used to be about the ‘best things come to those who wait’ but with the advent of social media and our need for a speedy results and outcomes, this does not cut it in this customer-focused age. Hence, the new tube, in which gravity is the secret ingredient! Much more customer focused and gravity does not cost anything either! The other, however, costs customers... and therefore is not ideal.
Additionally, their brand name is higher up the bottle and larger. Who knows which shelf this will end up on, but I can tell you that when we shop, anything close to eye level is best.
It’s interesting that this is not always considered, for instance, by organisations when promoting their products at a show, especially in my sector. You see these pop up banners at shows, usually behind a table, with the contact details - including email and website - right at the bottom! Brand centric again!
So always begin with the end in mind – the customer and their purchase requirements – because in the end they grow your business and enhance your brand, which is win-win!
2nd March 2023
This week at work, we had induction day for new staff and I presented on marketing within the organisation. I reiterated the importance of customer experience not just with our external customers but with each other including the importance of communicating with each other in a timely and supportive way, working to build relationships with each other to support the organisation and its objectives.
Much of the online customer experience focuses on the external customer but as Shep Hyken says so succinctly, 'It is the internal Customer Experience that determines the external Customer Experience’. Shep, who is the author of one of my favourite customer service books - Amaze Every Customer, Every Time - means if you do not get the internal functions working together then it is more difficult for the frontline staff to deliver excellent customer experience. Yet all too often it is overlooked with resource and energy focused externally or predominantly on frontline staff only.
Customer experience is about everything. If key information does not get back to frontline staff efficiently enough, a customer has to wait; if the accounts department don't pay a bill on time, then this gives a negative impression.
Then on top of this, if internal customers don't talk to each other (relying on emails only which I am sorry to have to say the millennials and Alpha generations favour because they think it is quicker and less waste and ultimately they think phone calls are rude and intrusive) then how do we build meaningful relationships? How do we query and question in a diplomatic manner to support each other if not face to face. I say in those myriad of emails which we all have, ensure you take time out to send that email via a face to face discussion. You may well have to follow it up with an action email but the bulk of the typing is done!
Not only that, emails can be intimidating when a member a staff copies in the whole leadership team with a success and then asking for your help. Does this build a strong relationship do you think? Or when a member of staff includes the 'well, the leadership want this' in their email? Does that help? Do capital letters help? Does underlining certain words help? Does bold lettering help? No, none of these help but only serves as a negative in the relationship building process as it gets peoples backs up!
We are paid to do a job, and that includes working with our colleagues to support the organisation to ensure growth / productivity etc. We need to work hardest on overcoming issues internally and build mutual respect. Working within our departments is easy since we work and communicate with these people daily, well hourly actually. Other departments less so and therefore without that constant engagement we need to work harder at communications. If we do the cogs will turn smoothly and the jigsaw pieces will fit!
I have been in the workforce for 25 years now and internal communication and culture has always been the biggest challenge and even with the increase of ways to communicate, it has not made it any easier.
However, if we consider some old fashioned options that in my opinion stand the test of time whether on email, text, whats app, platform chats, face to face chats etc then we might be able to work towards good internal communication:
If we all considered timely, efficient, effective, positive, supportive and clear communications using the right mode of communication both from the top down and bottom up creating respect, integrity, value and inclusivity, it will develop a strong internal culture that will do amazing things for your external customer experience.
23rd February 2023
The power of thank you is incredible. In fact the power of words like, 'please', 'sorry', 'hello', 'goodbye' is amazing. So hello to you this week!
I noticed this on a walk this weekend. I stepped off the path to let some people use the path as it was single track and there was a nice little bit for me to get in to, and not one of the group said thank you which balanced with an earlier similar event where all of the walkers thanked me for doing the same thing.
(Another time, I moved over and the walkers coming towards me continue to walk three abreast and not even acknowledging me at all by trying to walk two or single file which shows to me that people are aware, consider others in our green spaces and most importantly are not entitled enough to presume everyone should get out of the way for them! Grrrrh!!!!!!)
But back to the point...how did I feel after each encounter? How would a customer feel with an acknowledgment of their presence in a store, a 'hello' and a 'thank you' after they have purchased something. Probably how I felt, positive to the store (me to the people) as opposed to the people who said nothing.
So, by giving the customer some little positive words, you are more likely going to get them returning to you to purchase more. With no words of encouragement, what's the point? It is the little things in life that make the difference and in customer service and in creating an amazing customer experience this is definitely true.
On a deeper note, I have been out to dinner a few times recently and I noticed that the waiters and waitresses who were most confident gave the best customer experience and also could engage better - crucial for front facing roles. This sounds like a given, but great customer experience requires confidence, the ability to talk, to listen to the customer and give them your time and most importantly to have great manners by saying please and thank you and hello and goodbye and sorry when it is warranted too.
Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you will please read my blog next week! Goodbye!
16th February 2023
I have always said that you can never reply on what people say, only what they do. This absolutely applies to focus groups and surveys because in the end people will do something different when they have to actually do. Saying what you want to do is so easy; we can all say anything. But when you have to put your money into something, we all 'do' differently.
Neuromarketing is a field that applies brain-based research to everyday advertisements and marketing messages. It is market research of a type using processes such as neuroimaging and eye tracking in order to analyse the way in which a consumer's brain responds to particular products, advertisements, brands.
"The holy grail of neuromarketing is to predict which ads will lead to the most sales before they've been released."
Wading through the sea of choices to make a logical purchase is more than difficult; it’s impossible. This rule can be applied to almost any product. As a result, consumers make almost all of their decisions subconsciously, far from conscious reasoning. If we accept that consumers can’t consciously express why they make purchase decisions, why would we rely on what they say to inform our marketing and advertising efforts. Simply put, neuromarketing is the only way to gather information directly from the source of human decision making: the subconscious.
So you can now get adverts that track eye movement: pupil gaze and pupil enlargement to register likes with their advert for a product. Stores have this technology to to find out what signage is being read, what kind of viewing patterns do consumers show when browsing a product category for instance. In short, eye tracking offers a great way to find out things that are hard to discover using traditional marketing research. Marketers measure heart beats and heat radiation to a product which generally is more useful and subconscious - like a lie detector test in a way. What is the point though?
Neuromarketing helps the organization to built brand positioning and loyalty. Emotions lead to the attention of the people and this may lead to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the customers. The phenomenon leading to satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the customers exists for the short term as there are many surveys conducted that resulted that even the consumers who are satisfied are walked away and those who are satisfied may be returned after some time.
In the end, it all aims to being more attuned to the customer needs through subconscious behaviour. That can only create a more smooth and efficient customer experience and organisational growth. Win win!
9th February 2023
You need commitment within customer experience. If you cannot stick something until the end and ensure the experience plays out how it should do, then you're in the wrong business.
Excellent customer experience requires commitment, calm and a customer focus.
The other night I was at an event with a sit down dinner that was supposed to be for 70 people. For various reasons, when guests sat down for dinner, there was more than seventy. So what did the restaurant manager do? Set up a table for another seven, and served a two course dinner with all allergies and intolerances catered for, to 77 people.
This showed real commitment in the face of adversity. I could hear 'the show must go on' in my head rocking out from Queen as the situation was overcome with flawless calm, commitment and a focus on the customers. These additional seven were made to feel special and not an inconvenience.
So many times do I see around me when I experience new issues or situations, the people at the cold face of the customer unable to maintain the calm and collectiveness and commitment to ensuring a top class service for everyone there no matter what issues come along.
I have managed, helped and co-ordinated a number of events and situations in my so far 25 year career (cannot believe it's been that long but then I love what I do -working on customer experience every day, not marketing or fundraising (previous career) because customer experience is the new marketing/sales battleground if you weren't aware!). Anyway, every event comes with numerous ways it can go wrong and you have to account for / consider these in the brief so it goes right. This is where the commitment lies.
So many people are unable to take any form of negativity, and customers can do this. You need resilience and to be calm, collected and committed to supporting that customer there and then because word of mouth is the biggest and best marketing tool in the world.
You have to love it. Want to make a difference. Care about the customer and making them happy. This is going the extra mile. This is commitment.
2nd February 2023
I have just read an incredible article on Customer Experience that I am going to share with you. Everyone in the business of business (and by that I mean charities, colleges, schools, third sector organizations too) need to read it.
The shocking - but uplifting for those in the business of customer experience - is that in a recent survey of 1,920 business professionals, guess what they listed as their number one priority for the next 5 years?
Customer Experience... and it beat product and pricing for the third time in a row with 45% of professionals putting this at the front! (This is not a surprise to me, as I have worked in organisations where I put customer experience first - three times - and both leads and purchasers/customers grew!
It is important because
- it improves cross selling and up selling
- it improves customer satisfaction
- it improves customer retention!
and all of these impact on revenue.
Remember, customer experience is your customers’ perception of how your company treats them. These perceptions affect their behaviours, and build memories and feelings to drive their loyalty. Remember that it is your customers' perception and not what you think they think, or what you think.
So here is the article from SuperOffice which has some tips to creating a positive experience for 2023 too: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-statistics/
26th January 2023
Customer experience is the new marketing. I have been reading about neuromarketing today in the recent edition of Catalyst, the magazine for marketers which I will talk about next week, but for this week... how about we focus on employee experience.
The importance of HR and Marketing's relationship cannot be stressed enough. I have written articles before about the importance of the relationship between marketing and finance, but this is equally important.
Marketing and HR should be talking with each other all the time. Why? Because between the two of them they are responsible for people - external to the organisation and internal to the organisation. Staff are crucial, as are customers to buy the product. But without happy and productive staff who are behind your vision and values then how can you market a product for them to sell successfully? Without happy customers - who have had a great experience (marketing journey) and stay with you and tell others about your great product - then staff are at risk of not having a job.
Marketing and HR need to work together to encourage this relationship development. Companies that have marketing and HR working in tandem will be successful. Where I work, marketing and HR come under the same staff lead and that is fantastic in terms of ensuring that relationship development between two areas that look after everyone's journey.
Looking after staff is pretty easy - but not all company's get it right most of the time. I know that it is easy to write this but looking after staff really is easy. It's like management, it's pretty simple but again most people don't get it - although you won't get it right all the time because that's not possible and you cannot please everyone. Remember this when dealing with any large audience / group of stakeholders otherwise you will beat yourself up!
In terms of looking after people in an organisation, the one key thing to consider to when looking after your staff the most is good communication. This is not something every company gets right but if you ensure the following three Ps (and this works with external customers too!), you cannot go wrong.
Prompt, Proactive and Purposeful Communication
Communicate in a timely, clear and concise way from the top down and in between is crucial to ensure employees feel included and valued. Information should not come out before disseminated correctly to all parties. This means that no one hears if third hand. People hear it at the same time and hear the full and accurate message. This stops muddling of information which does not help with motivation and belonging. I cannot underestimate the importance of this at all times. People feel included and part of a larger purpose when this happens. This then has a direct correlation to customer growth which in turn fuels company growth and even more happy staff.
I am not saying a company can get it right all the time. No-one is perfect. To err is to be human after all. However, create a plan with some goals and try to enact it faithfully. All your customers will be winners then.
19th January 2023
So every year, I do dry January. Why on earth do you put yourself through this misery during January, the dullest time of the year and of all months, I hear you ask?
Well, after the excesses of the Christmas period, I always feel my body (well my kidneys and liver especially) needs the chance to reset. I always feel I have more energy from doing this and I also tend to lose the weight I put on at Christmas.
This year, dry January is a lot easier. It used to be hard, but not anymore! There are really very good options to replace my usual fizz on a Friday and G&T whilst cooking talking over the week just gone. Non alcoholic equivalents are really very good and there is a raft of good mocktails to try during the dull January months. So all in all, this year my experience of Dry January is not that painful.
It made me realise, why not consider this in customer experience? What other options can we can consider in parallel to ensure a similar customer experience for our customers in the purchase process. Why not use this time to rest our customer experience plans for the rest of the year? Why don't we consider different ways of looking after the customer at each touchpoint? For instance if you have always sent an email to a customer thanking them, why not send them a personalised postcard of thanks and buck the digital fatigue we all have. Of the other way around!
Why not add value to the purchase process and send out a survey to find out more in depth questions about your customer and their purchase with you?
Why not look at new ways to apologise to the customer when something goes wrong and faster ways to solve it and put it right?
Use this time to reset your thinking on ways you can make yours customer experience better. I can guarantee the remainder of January for them - and the months beyond into 2023 - will be full of delight and definitely not dull!
12th January 2023
On occasion, I encounter a disappointing experience. I had one yesterday in one of my favourite brunch spots in the locality that I live in. The food and coffee was not up to the usual standards, with the bread looking a little stale and the coffee not as bountiful as usual, and to top it all off the room was really cold. I am afraid - although it may be quirky and charming - that is not enough for me to return considering also, that the price is above the usual.
So if I were to post a negative review. how should a business respond?
There are three things that the business can do to turn this around:
1. They should ask for the customer to directly message them to obtain contact details privately to discuss the experience and rectify it with a discount if helpful.
2. They should employ a mystery shopper to test the experience annually and ensure the levels of customer care and the experience is always five star.
3. They should ensure that all staff are trained in great customer experience to ensure the same high standards through change.
People are willing to try something again and see if changes have been made, especially if they hear good things from friends and neighbours.
This has happened to me actually when in 2009 I visited a local pub in a neighbouring village and the food was a rubbish. A few years ago, we were walking past the said pub and the outdoor seating was incredibly inviting just post the first Covid lockdown and we tried some beverages. They were right up our street, so we went back for food... and it was amazing. It's now our favourite pub in the area. Why? Amazing traditional food with a contemporary twist with some changes throughout the year to keep it fresh and new (although their core staples remain the same), excellent wine list, a warm welcome and roaring fire. Best of all the customer service is excellent. Overall customer experience... five star!
So it is possible to turn things around, with great customer service alongside a great product.
5th January 2023
Happy New Year to everyone!
As I start my fifth year of blogging (I know and I still love it!) I thought about 2023 and what it will bring. I thought I ought to start the year on a lighter note!
‘Tis the season to make lots of resolutions for the year about health and wellbeing, life and relationships, work and goals. If you have not come up with any yet, how about you use some of these… to aid your customer experience goals!
Resolution 1 – Listen to your customers – internal and external – more. Listening is the most powerful tool in the customer experience arsenal. By listening, we quickly get to the nub of what the customer wants and can action their need more efficiently and effectively.
Resolution 2 – Say ‘Thank you’ more. This is something I am going to do more to everyone I meet. It is such an underused word and has such power to elicit support and engagement from people wherever you go. Don’t forget also the other key words: ‘please’, ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.
Resolution 3 – Be proactive and positive with all your interactions. Don’t let the mud swallow you in wallowing. I know customers can be trying but if you are in the business of customer service you should be seeing these ‘trying’ moments as opportunities to succeed and find solutions not challenges.
Resolution 4 – Be passionate and professional. Customers want to deal with people who love what they do but are still professional in all that they do! Don’t cross the line when looking after a customer. They are not your BFF. They are a partner in helping the organisation - you work within – grow. Professional friendliness is key!
And one more… look after you! Personally, I have never been more behind looking after your health and wellbeing than now and have been beating the drum for this for nearly two years now since I realised how important this was in 2021. I am a constant advocate for working hard and doing your best, but equally important is ensuring you have down time – balance is key to good health and wellbeing in our lives.
My wellbeing spaces are in the outdoors, in the allotment growing vegetables and being with our chickens or in our freedom wagon (camper van) exploring the world around us and watching the world go by or painting … and of course time in front of my AGA cooking!
Take time to find your spaces and places to be mindful. Time is priceless!
15th December 2022
Tis the season to be … out of office and enjoy some well earned family time and relax.
I have had an epiphany in recent years about switching off and ensuring I have time to recharge.
My well-being and mindfulness is much more important to me now, than it has ever been. In my youth and to my discredit, only a few years ago, I did not see resting and recharging as important. I wish I had come to this knowledge sooner sometimes!
My new work place is incredible for this and I feel very blessed to be part of an organisation that does look after staff and their well-being, ensuring staff take time off to fully recharge. Support staff have been given the full two weeks off from Monday 19th to enjoy some time away from work after a very full on term.
This does not mean that customers email should be met with nothing whilst you are recharging. It is important to set your out of office on even if no-one is available for two weeks. It means the customer knows what the situation is and can have their expectations managed with regard to a response.
It’s not good enough to just say, “I am away from the office.” (I have seen this before, I kid you not!) You need to say when you are away and include dates of leaving and returning and when you intend to respond if a colleague cannot (especially if everyone is off).
So for your peace of mind, and to support the customer remember to ensure a good OOO!
Happy Christmas and all good wishes for 2023, when I will be back with my next blog.
8th December 2022
Since it is Christmas and the ever popular twelve days of Christmas rings out everywhere, I thought I would do a blog on the top twelve skills a person going into customer service needs.
So here they are (in my order of important to least important):
1) Passionate and enthusiastic about the product / service and helping customers - as I mentioned in a previous blog, Disney only recruits a certain type of person to be a cast member and they want naturally enthusiastic and helpful people. It's probably a given that if you are not helpful or an enthusiastic person then customer service roles are not for you!
2) Good listening skills: I rate this joint first in key skills. You have one mouth and two ears so when you are with a customer, use these in proportion. It will ensure a smoother and faster customer experience.
3) Good communication skills - this is a mixture of listening to the customer and engaging with them through chatting and being...
4) Positive-ity: again, don't go into customer service roles if you are not a glass half full person. Customers can spot this a mile off.
5) Putting the Customer First: if you in a customer service role, you need to put the customer first over discussing your latest dating saga over the tills or planned night out over Christmas. I used to work at Harrods many moons ago and you had to acknowledge the customer within one minute of them entering the shop / room. If you are chatting, you can't really do this!
6) Empathy / emotional intelligence: you need to be able to put yourself in the position of the customer to ensure that you understand their needs and solve their problems efficiently and effectively.
7) Resilience under pressure: if things go wrong, you have to be able to think on your feet and be calm under pressure as the customer wants a smooth and easy experience. If you are out of a product, then you need to be able to solve their problems and make it easy for them. ie: you ring them to let them know when it is in and organise a purchase over the phone rather than them having to ring you.
8) Proactive problem solver: you have to be able to solve problems under pressure (and your company has to give you the freedom to do this too). if something is not available and the person is not in town again, do you offer them a good alternative and cross sell for instance. Consider all options to ensure the customer leaves happy!
9) Friendliness: be chatty and engaging but remember to be professional. Friendliness can always work alongside professionalism.
10) Good at relationship building / follow up: people want us to care about their purchase and when they spend money and we need to follow up and ensure that customers are happy before, during and after the purchase process. We want life- time customers to support our businesses and you can only do this through follow up and care.
11) Going above and beyond whilst still being a team player: when I was at Harrods, one of the departments I worked in had a group commission yet, we all knew our individual efforts would increase this at the end of the month. We would all work hard to sell to ensure we could maximise this and each would help the other to support in customer service if needed knowing it was a group outcome.
12) Be sincere generally and especially when apologising there is nothing worse than being insincere and inauthentic in the sales process and when apologising. Don't bother if you don't mean it.
So, there you have it - rather than the 12 days of Christmas, you have the 12 tips to great customer service skills!
1st December 2022
So, I am sure you are wondering why I have decided to use two burgers for this week's blog!
This weekend, we decided to go to Lincoln Christmas Market. During the week, I had popped into Sheffield for a work event and saw the Sheffield Market for a short while and 'Yorkshire Pudding Wraps' caught my eye in the food area. I thought at the time, what a clever idea (sorry if you already know about these!) as they do form the basis of my blog.
When my husband and I got to the market, I saw a Yorkshire Pudding Wrap van and knew that was going to be lunch. Even the lure of bratwurst and sauerkraut could not make me change my mind. Now if you don't know me well there are two things I am particular about (excluding amazing Customer Experience) : 1, good, healthy food is important to me cooked from scratch and 2, you will probably guess from this that I don't eat fast food. I am one of those people who have never been in a MacDonalds (I am only 45 too!) and the last time I was in my preferred Burger King was in 2011 - and i vowed after eating it.... never again! I occasionally venture into Subway but I know I can choose my own ingredients there.
So around lunchtime, we headed over to the Wrap Van.... to discover a very long queue which we joined as I was determined to try one. Another thing you may not know about me, is that expectation is generally more exciting for me than realisation (except for my AGA which has outdone all expectations!).
We then saw the price of these wraps - £14!!!!!! My Yorkshire husband nearly fell over at this crying out, "'Ow Much!". I persuaded him to stay the course to try out this new 'roast dinner in a wrap'.
We queued... and queued and finally got to the front. By this point, I had watched the wrap being fully filled with beef, roasties, vegetables, stuffing and gravy .... and then I thankfully saw the bowl of horseradish. I was not going to be disappointed when they chucked a load of this on too, all placed in a secure wrap bag.
So, what is the point of this story?
1 - people will disregard a bad experience (like queuing, in the cold and rain and being shoved by loads of people around you) if the promise of a product is good (word of mouth, similar to a favourite etc)
2 - Price means nothing if your product is that good
3 - Expectation is key ... don't build people up and then hand over a sub poor product or service - they will talk about it.
Conclusion: the wrap was amazing. A roast dinner in a wrap and I could not ask for more. It was so filling and worth the £14 that I had to skip an earlier idea to have a waffle aswell! Reality superseded expectation!
24th November 2022
Smile and the whole world smiles with you... someone said, and maybe you can find this in a song too.
This week I have attended a few open events at my place of work. One thing I know, is that a smile, a greeting and a positive welcome certainly gives people a boost. You can literally see people change their whole demeanour and posture when you speak to them and smile and welcome them. Why cannot people always be passionate about their product?
Enthusiasm and positivity cannot be trained. You either have it or not. I will have mentioned in previous blogs that Disney recruits a specific type of person to be a 'cast member' as they call it. The person has to have the right attitude, be positive and enthusiastic. Recruit for attitude, train for skill is key to Disney's staff recruitment programme.
But when you are front of house, enthusiasm and a smile is key in whatever business you are in. A lot of people do not want to welcome people or say hello in case they look stupid, or the person does not respond and they feel both stupid and aggrieved. In customer service, you need to take the 'you' out of it and focus on the customer. Many people I said hello to at the open days were shy or nervous or may not have heard me. I did not take this to heart. I kept on welcoming people and being positive because I know those who did clock it would feel welcomed to the event and would go away knowing they had a great first impression.
People want to engage with positive and passionate people. They want an experience in their decision making and purchase process and all these touchpoints and how they are treated are key to this overall experience. I never understand how people can be front of house if they are not happy with their job or the company they work for as they are just a detriment to that organisation and its growth. It's all about adjusting your attitude and smiling and being positive as ... to be blunt, the customer does not know what is going on in your life and does not care. They are there for a great experience and so we as staff need to adjust our attitude and be welcoming and positive, listen and support.
So remember... a smile travels around the world; so does passion and positivity!
17th November 2022
A one team approach to customer service is vital in an organisation. I often refer to this statistic but not a lot of people believe it so here it is:
Which of the following is the biggest single reason a business loses customers:
a) competition
b) indifference of one employee
c) word of mouth
d) Dissatisfaction with the product
... well, its 'b', the indifference of one employee!!! I know what you are all thinking... how can it be? Well, I wondered this myself until it happened to me, and I resolutely did not return to the business in question after one employee and their manner. Competition is always there in the background and people don't want to move unless they have to. People thankfully aren't all sheep and so don't follow others and to a degree people will cope with a bad product for a few times. However, rudeness and an uncaring attitude at any point instantly turns people away.
This rudeness and uncaring always stretches internally within a team and create friction. Most excellent customer service people will not let this get to them and will put on a face after having a rude word spoken to them by a colleague, but others cannot and the adjusting of attitude does not happen when in the front facing role. So, rude internal customers can also create a stampede of customers moving to another product or service.
I have witnessed this time and time again in my career and my colleagues in the sector mention this too when an internal team do not act as one team.
It is vital that everyone is on the same hymn sheet whatever department within an industry you are in. Take mine for example - education - where the departments include marketing, curriculum, IT, domestic support, facilities and estates, finance, student support etc etc. Everyone on an open day - as an example - needs to be supportive of each other and no one department is more important than another. We all have the same result in mind, to ensure a successful organisation and that means working together. The cogs in a clock all need to work together to make the clock run and chime, and every person rowing a boat needs to row and work together to make it to the end and win. No one cog is more important than another and neither the cox nor the oarsman could win without each other. Teams need to work together which is why this blog is all about the 'we' and not the 'I'.
10th November 2022
I always love writing about this topic at this time of year. Why? Because the John Lewis Christmas ad totally proves the importance of customer experience with the marketing of their company. And it came out today!
Every year, they sell us a story through their highly anticipated advert and we all get drawn into the story. We experience what the heros and heroines are going through and feel their experience of the situation they are in through the clever marketing advert.
But it's just clever marketing ... right? Well, it's more than that. Its people in marketing knowing their brand and then upping that that in terms of experience, because customer experience is the new marketing battleground as I always say.
This is why 87 % of people say that exceptional customer experience is very or extremely important to them. Notice the word exceptional, not just customer experience on its own which by definition should be amazing, but companies demand this of their own.
So this year, John Lewis has upped the ante in terms of customer experience - exceptionally - by having great marketing: they sock their values through their adverts with huge punches: do right, all or nothing (I always feel that they give this in this annual advert), give more than you take, be yourself always and finally we, not me), a great experience for the watcher and they have added a third aspect... a cause that especially around Christmas will melt your heart. Talk about we not me and give more than you take!
Well, I was in bits actually, although it does not take much as I age for that to happen!
Adding a cause has really set them apart, especially at this time of year. I like the fact that for a moment, we can reflect on something and someone else, other than the cost of living as one example.
They make you feel like they are listening to what is important and that gives me a good feeling and a great experience so that when i walk into their store, I know I will feel the same.
So if you don't think that exceptional customer experience is very or really important, then watch the John Lewis Christmas advert!
3rd November 2022
Following on from last week's blog, the same definitely applies to staff. Communication is key. People need to know the key elements that are happening in advance to be consistent.
And then there are times when collaboration and communication need to move into getting the job done for the organisation.
Just like your customers externally, your staff need to see the fruits of the listening and communication and leaders need to make decisions and get the job done once communicated in advance.
Staff want to be part of the change but not acting on their feedback and communication when you have asked for it is not going to win friends and influence people in your organisation.
I am a firm believer in working together and collaborating but also getting the job done. Sometimes over collaboration equals procrastination and ultimately not making a decision. As Steve Jobs famous quote says, "if you want to make people happy, don't be a leader, go and sell ice cream."
I firmly believe in this because you will not please everyone. Even if you sit and listen to all the options and communicate why a decision has to be made in advance of the decision being implemented, someone is not going to be happy with the outcome.
Communication is important but remember it is not easy as with customers. If you try to focus on doing this from the top down as a start, you can really make head way and lead by example.
So as long as you communicate proactively and responsively to your staff as you do your external customers then everyone is a winner!
27th October 2022
I realised this week that you should not assume that your customers have had communications you thought they should have received or indeed that other people whose role it might be, have sent such helpful and useful communications.
Part of this issue is that we focus on the functional elements of our roles - because this is easier and safer than actually dealing with a customer. What do I mean by this?
Well, it is much easier to sit in front of a screen and deal with your work - databasing, replying to emails, doing reports, creating spreadsheets and documents (all very static and predictable) - than it is to deal with a customer who is dynamic and not predictable. But this is a functional way of thinking. You won't be able to do your spreadsheets and documents and databasing and replying to emails if you did not have customers in the first place... if you know what mean. To spell it out - customers pay your wages to interact with them!
People hide behind their computers rather than get out on the shop floor and speak to people or in many cases rely on email rather than going to visit someone and creating a rapport and building a relationship with a base of face-to-face interaction.
I always like to meet people and visit new suppliers face to face and create a relationship built on a strong first impression built through being in front of someone rather than hiding behind an email or computer. It's like those people who do interviews and go to meetings and write notes on a laptop - it's such a barrier.... to communication, relationship building and just another aspect of hiding in my opinion.
Email is better than nothing though. Don't assume your customers know relevant details. Communicate with them and in fact create a plan for communication throughout the process or project so they feel included and know what's going on.
Focus on the communication with the customers - they pay your wages - over the administration and behind the scenes work - that can be done another time! Don't hide behind your computer - get out and talk to your customers. You will solve problems and issues faster and your customers will love this and feel valued.
Communication is crucial so ensure it is not just done via email - make the effort to get out from behind your computer and talk too!
20th October 2022
We don't like negativity and we don't like complaining if we are receiving it... although we are more than happy to dish it out!
Think about customer complaints as a good thing. If people are not taking the trouble to let you know how they feel then you should be worried.
When customers do make that effort, be grateful that they have not just jumped ship or moved into the 'churn' area but actually want to stay with you so give you feedback in the hope you will make the change and they can remain with you.
Customers are time poor. They don't want to switch and have to make time to find another company to buy the product or service from. People also don't like change in the main so to switch to another organisation is a big deal.
So be grateful for the feedback but worry about those that are not giving you feedback as they are most likely voting with their feet. What business can afford to have their customers vote with their feet in this climate?
How do you remedy this -? Three ways:
1 - Ensure you have a customer centric focused approach in your business and give a great customer experience
2 - Seek continual feedback from your customers
3 - Act on the feedback to ensure you show you are listening to your customers and are making the changes to keep them and make them feel valued.
Feedback, and acting on feedback, is crucial. Listening to your customers allows you to keep and recruit new ones... because of work of mouth!
So remember, feedback is good!
13th October 2022
Customer service is really not rocket science. I know there are articles that dispute this that focus on customer experience being harder and I think that is because people - who are all different and have different needs - are involved, but we are all people in the end and we all have very similar needs.
There are two types of people - those that naturally understand customer experience (and these are the types that Disney snap up!) and there are those that don't.
My husband has had a nightmare this week with a company that he has ordered a shed from. He ordered it over a month ago and the company promised delivery within 1-2 weeks. One of the staff members - every time we pop into the shop - always says that it's not their fault but the company that they deal with. We have never had the company contact details to pursue this but today after another day of not receiving the shed when promised, my husband decided to explain to this staff member the ramifications of the lack of delivery including organising someone to build it for us which we now had to cover part of a lost day as well as the fact that my husband had to work remotely to deal with the delivery. He asked the staff member whether she could work remotely, and she said no... and then realised the issue. Light bulb moment!
So, when you relate it to the person, they get it. We are all customers, and we all have difficulties. Put the person in the situation and they understand. Not only, this my husband explained that he had paid the staff members company for the shed and that means the contract is with her company and him and not the other company and thus the staff member had a duty to deal with and resolve the situation as it was the staff members company's reputation under scrutiny. The staff member became very apologetic as they understood the situation.
Explanations and adding them to the explanation - really do help to get people to understand a situation.
Then there are people who naturally get it because they put themselves in the place of the customer who ultimately wants to be listened to and have a smooth purchase process. Listening really helps this... as well as listening when something goes wrong - to understand!
So, if we consider putting ourselves in the position of the customer we can ensure we do what we would want in that situation! Simples..... it really is not rocket science!
6th October 2022
Retention of your customers is crucial. Why? Because you have spent all your money on these customers, and they should be your advocates.
It costs seven times more to recruit customers than it does to retain customers. With this cost in mind, why are you not focusing on the customer experience from the day they sign up / purchase? Because from this point on they should be advocates for your brand. They have bought from you, so you now need to ensure they gain customer delight each and every day they are with you. Whether that is to purchase more of the same or indeed new products.
Additionally, if you make an error, solve it to their satisfaction because this is customer experience gold. Why? Well, everyone makes mistakes - we are all human - but don't focus on the error, focus on the solution and solve it well. Your customer will be impressed because we all love a happy ending after a bit of drama and this makes for uber good customer experience and actual brand elevation when they talk up your ability to handle an issue well.
So, if it costs less to keep customers, who will help elevate your brand with feedback on their purchase process and any excellent customer experience after an error, why are you not creating customer retention champions in your organisation to focus on this important set of people?
Shep Hyken always says that the goal of an organisation is to recruit and keep customers. I would say customer retention through an excellent customer experience is key and I know that as soon as my purchase process goes out of kilter, as soon as I feel I am not valued as a customer and as soon as I feel that an error has not been handled correctly, I find someone else.
I know this is hard to do (although I don't feel that this is the case), but many brands manage to do it because they put a value on the customer; in fact they are just customer centric organisations.
Customer service and customer experience in my opinion are not rocket science. It really is easy to focus on putting the customer first. Listening to them and then responding proactively whether they are a first-time customer or a repeat customer. And that's how you will retain customers.
29th September 2022
I have created a number of Service Level Agreements (SLA) throughout my career and I find them to be invaluable.
They allow everyone to know exactly what is expected of them internally when dealing with a customer as well as a customer knowing what they should expect of an organisation and if they are not happy what they can do to gain redress.
What should an SLA include?
It should include a statement of objectives for the SLA as well as the scope of services that are to be covered. Additionally, it should include a list of service provider responsibility and response times/performance metrics and finally what to do if the contract / SLA is breached.
It is worth knowing at this point that these can really help organisations meet customer expectations.
Did you know for example that 43% of people expect a response to an email within a day.
It is also worth noting that when it comes to social media, customers expect brands to get back to them within four hours, but the average brand time response is 10 hours!
SLAs can help organisations to achieve and realise customer expectations and ensure they are responsive and proactive to all forms of communication.
If customer experience is the new marketing, you cannot afford not to have an SLA in place!
22nd September 2022
Recently, I have heard a lot about what the competitors are doing from various directions both in my working life and online, and I ask myself should our focus not be on our strengths and what we do best rather than watching what the competitors do and do that?
Competition is all about being different and focusing on your strengths. After all, customers want to see choice and differences to see what is right for them. Also, if you focus on what the competitor does and emulate this are you not diluting / ignoring your brand values and what you stand for?
Because is it not true that truly good brands focus on what they do best, focus on promoting their values and strengths and vision and do what is right for them?
And also because we are in the age where Millennials hold the buying power and want authentic brands to buy from and these super savvy people can see a knock off and copy cat from the moon. Surely brands should be authentic and focus on what they do well like Patagonia have done recently? I don't think they looked at a competitor and decided to do what they have done have they now? That's because they have focused on what makes them authentic and believable and because the focus on the customer and their brand and not on the competition because in the end you should listen to your customer and not the competition.
I saw this a lot with the response on social media to the death of her Majesty the Queen. Rather than consider what was right for the organisation and brand or take advice and guidance from key organisations, people checked on what the competition were doing to get it right. Now is this brave or authentic no? For many they were tone deaf too in what they thought was right rather than following their gut instincts (crucial in marketing to knowing your customers).
I have never been one of those marketers that worries what the competition does. The more you worry about your competition, the more likely you are to fail. You will end up focusing your attention on what other people are doing and not on delivering impact for your clients and customers. You will start to base your decisions on what other people are doing, not on what you do and on what your clients and customers need.
At the end of the day, YOU are the main person you should be competing with, not your competition.
It matters how fast you grow against your goals, not how fast your competitors grow. So as long as you can see that you are progressing, growing, learning, increasing your income, building your brand and making an impact, that is what matters.
Shifting your mindset to this and away from constantly comparing yourself to other organisations and looking at what they do will make a huge shift in how you deal with competition.
You also need to switch your focus to what makes YOU unique. To stand out, you need to worry about your own voice and your own brand. To grow in a competitive market, make sure you are focused on who you are and who you want to be in your chosen market.
Stop comparing yourself to others – the one thing your competition cannot do is to be you. So embrace how you are, your power and message and embrace the unique impact only you can make.
As Oscar Wilde said, 'Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken.'
15th September 2022
For years I have heard the busy phrase used. When I hear the word busy, it makes me quite cross, in fact more then cross actually. It’s up there for me with that horrid phrase ‘we’ve always done it this way’.
I believe people who use the word busy are busy fools, trying to show the world they are busy and masking a - what is really - less than busy existence.
People need to validate their life or work and busy covers it. They can never tell you a list of what they are busy doing, just that they are busy.
People who say they are busy to meet are also saying that their time is more important than yours and no one’s time is more important than another as life is short whatever rung on the ladder you are.
Time is crucial, and for customers giving of your time shows to them how valuable they are. I remember working in Harrods a lady would come in at the start of each season to buy a suit and would spend hours looking at the price, colours, new attire before trying items on and then spending time after looking at any imperfection. I believe she wanted to feel valued as a customer and t for us to give that time before spending what was a large sum of money on the suit. And why not.
Some customers could be lonely and this interaction is crucial for them in their week. Make time for people.
If someone is busy it means they think they are more important and you are not a priority because if they wanted to do something they would meet and take you up on the offer to talk.
Customers should never feel that you are too busy for them. I was only 19 when I had a mystery shop done on me at Harrods during the summer sale. The shopper said that I showed great calm and focus at clearly a busy and frantic time and was not made to feel rushed or that I was busy.
We need to make time for people and listen to their needs to make the purchase process easy. This is lost sometimes in those periods where there is a lot on, but don’t forget customers talk and don’t care whether it is a frantic time for you.
Remember, never be too busy for a customer whether they are an internal customer or an external customer.
8th September 2022
Thank you.
1st September 2022
As the start of the new academic year comes upon us, and this is my 13th new academic year, I am reminded of the importance of the fact that we all learn differently.
When our students, pupils, young people, learners all start back, we must remember - like with customers - we all learn differently.
I am reminded of this from my husband as we both have very different learning styles: he likes talking to learn and I like to do / have pictures / read information. Sometimes challenging!
I was in a meeting yesterday to look at new marketing requirements for a part of the Group and we talked about the importance of both video (images and talking) and text (for those who like to read). We must remember to ensure that our learning have both, that our messaging and communications have both and our promotion has both.
Our learners need all styles too. It cannot be just about talking to students, it's also important to learn to get students to do things and offer opportunities to read too. All styles will include everyone and inclusion is important when dealing with students .... as with customers. But then students are our customers.
So remember, don't judge people by your standards and learning style. We are all different and have different needs - as do our customers - so we all need to remember this when dealing with both!
25th August 2022
This week, I have been delivering Teaching and Development Day presentations across the Group to staff explaining about marketing, customer experience and strategy and ways staff can work together more.
I love doing these types of presentations because I love talking and explaining about marketing, what we do, the differences between personal and business usage of social media. I also love presenting about strategy and actions.
The presentation included information on interview technique and customer experience. Both of these had a central tenet of ….. you’ve guessed it… listening!
I presented on interviewing technique and how important it is to engage the prospective learner with the college and subject. I also advised that even though we conduct interviews as interviewers, we are also interviewees. We are being judged by the customer. We need to be engaging and inspiring but we need to listen. Listening … properly and actively … allows us to ensure we find out what the customer wants and more smoothly solve their issue.
So many people really don’t listen. The problem is that we are more confident when talking about ourselves in general. We are now in a generation when people are all about ‘me’ and ‘others’ are not as important as we are and we get bored easily because we want to tell others about us solely. It’s why social media platforms are loved, because you can post solely about yourself. Apart from this one where I get to post all about customer experience….!
People listen to respond, listen whilst composing shopping lists, listen whilst considering a story or an anecdote to share, or switch off and just pretend. Active listening takes real concentration. When responding, it is all about responding by repeating what was said back to the person to show that you really listened… and then get on and do it!
So consider this phrase: two ears and one mouth, why not use them in proportion!?
18th August 2022
A customer's experience with an organization is only as good as an employee's experience. This is just like saying, your brand on the outside is only as good as your brand on the inside.
Business leaders should know that empathy is key to employee and customer success.
When employees suffer, customers suffer, and so does a company’s ROI.
So many companies struggle with employee engagement because creating an employee-centric culture requires more than just a great HR department.
It depends on more than just compensation and even office perks and holidays.
It’s about culture and investment In culture and change management if change happens. It requires an investment in each individual's personal and professional development alongside investment in the business as a whole. Companies that do this well make each employee feel valued, trusted and respected – for the work they do, as well as for the people they are.
It is led from the top down too. Leading by example is key.
Richard Branson is a huge proponent of this with his famous quote ‘Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.’
I also feel if you create a great CX experience that everyone feels a part of, then staff feel engaged and part of something. And we all like to feel part of something.
Not only that, consumers want to buy from brands that celebrate the human experience. Brands with a human “heartbeat,” so to speak, are in tune with the short-term and long-term emotional impact products and purchasable experiences have on consumers and the major part of the heartbeat includes a great staff experience. We all know this post Covid too as we change our work patterns and want something more. Although our millennial / Gen Z generation are already on top of this, us boomers / Gen Xers are way behind the curve.
There is something to be said for both CX and EX I working in harmony to grow your organisation.
11th August 2022
This is a play on one of my favourite quotes from Sam Walton who founded Walmart.
So why is the customer the new boss?
1. They can spend their money elsewhere.
2. They can tell others about how good ‘elsewhere is’
3. They can tell others how the experience with you was not great.
4. Not only can they tell people but add it publicly on social media to millions …. And on reviews on websites (should a company choose to publish it)
5. They can keep shopping somewhere else.
If the goal of a business is to get customers, then starting considering who the real boss is.
4th August 2022
This is my third week talking about detail. I have realised that detail is so key to the customer experience when looking at customer journey mapping in recent months.
Mapping prospective, current and key stakeholder journeys has given me further insight into the importance of making every aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.
Amazon have been doing this throughout their existence and progressing their customer experience and journey mapping every year. Their vision statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online."
I have to say that I have never had a bad experience with Amazon. It has always been smooth and if a delivery has been delayed they let you know and then keep communicating until it has been delivered.
Some people are quite negative on Amazon, but we were grateful to have them throughout the pandemic and we still got things delivered speedily.
For me important aspects of customer service are
- listening to get the product right (well on Amazon you can search for exactly what you want and filter)
- I want an easy and smooth purchase experience (2 clicks and I have bought what I want)
- I want to know when my item will be delivered (tick - delivery details are always given)
- I want to know if it is going to be late, why and when it might be delivered (tick again when recently I ordered an item and Amazon let me know it was delayed, why and when they said it would be delivered).
- It I like the item and want to buy it again there is an area where you can reorder items easily!
This is why Amazon is so good and because it is intuitive (the new function of ordering something and setting up regular orders of specific items at a discount - even more amazing - is a very intuitive function!)
I don't have to speak to someone who lacks knowledge, does not listen, wants to speed through the process and not follow up!
I want to deal with companies that care about customer experience and Amazon does. Think about this when it comes to your business or the company you work for. I am sure your customers want the same!
28th July 2022
Details are key as I mentioned in my blog last week.
I am very focused on details when it comes to customer interaction whether
at work or as the customer.
It is always the details that matter to me when it comes to customer service. Whether that is a smile, being told 'Good Morning or Hello'. being given a sweet treat in a hotel because the hotel recognised that I could have chosen any number of competitors to stay with, to having the hotel receptionist give me a quiet room in Berlin as per my story from last weeks blog.
I am a big believer in customer experience and customer journey's and ensuring these are five star as this is what I would expect as the customer.
If you have not considered mapping out your customer journey and seeing what you should be doing - for the customer - then how do you get better?
Customer journey mapping should look at what you do and ultimately map what you should be doing to make the experience the best for the customer at each touchpoint in their journey. This is everything from emails, phone, website interactions, texts, visits in fact anything that the customer interacts with when it comes to your business.
You need to be considering the details of your customer experience and how you can get better because this is game changing stuff when it comes to growing a business.
Have you considered mystery shops to find out the pinch points? Have you considered mapping your journey or getting an external company in to look at this?
Have you considered pretending to be a buyer and going through the process yourself?
These are all key to ensuring you know what the issues are and where you need to get better with regard to your customer experience.
As I keep saying, customer experience is the new marketing battleground so have to got your arsenal of information / research and data in place above to make it a win?
21st July 2022
How many people do you know that always say that it's the small things that matter most in life?
How important is it to receive a smile or acknowledgement when you walk into a store and have a hello, please, thank you and goodbye during the sales process.
Every interaction counts with a customer and that is both the small and the big things.
Big things include getting the right payment and delivery date as scheduled. Small things include the 'Thank you'.
They are all relevant and all important. In fact I have thought about all the amazing interactions I have had during a purchase, and it has always been the small things that make the difference for me. The eye contact, the use of my name, and the thank you.
It is in those first few seconds that an impression is made and this is usually the tiny things that support your decision to continue with making a purchase.
This seven seconds - which is how long we take to make a decision and about someone or something and create a first impression about that someone or something - is key.
As an example, a few years ago I walked into a hotel in Berlin and I was tired. I was carrying my laptop case and wheeling my bag. I needed to get a lot of work done too. The member of staff behind the reception greeted me with a warm smile, asked how I was and my name to get my room sorted. Without me having to say anything, he said that he would book me a quiet room to help with work as he noticed my laptop bag. This was incredible and I instantly felt less tired by this small piece of thoughtfulness.
Make every interaction count!
14th July 2022
It is important that we start to consider our customers as partners in our success and not just people who buy our products or sell our products.
Our customers (internal and external) help us to grow, but we want to keep them and get them to tell others about our business or organisation to continue to grow. Therefore ensuring a constant dialogue with our partners is key to ensure they continue to engage with us and our business is so important.
I recently had to switch energy suppliers as the the company I was with was bought out by another supplier. I had chosen the old supplier for renewable reasons. Not once did the new supplier engage me with information about the organisation - it was a straight switch. I rang up to query the move and asked about the green initiatives and the customer adviser just told me to look at the website! I did and was happy with what I read, but I felt this was a wasted opportunity not to communicate with me throughout the switch about the organisation's mission and values.
For some organisations, it is just business and this is old fashioned. With so many ways to communicate and millennials wanting to have experiences and do the right thing, businesses need to reach out and treat customers as partners in their mission.
John Lewis is an example of treating its internal customers and partners and many other organisations to this too. innocent Smoothie is one of my favourite brands in the way it communicates so honestly and with ease to its customers. It is so important to bring people with you on your organisation journey and communicate changes. I know that in every organisation I have ever worked in, key feedback is better communication. Why don't we consider this internally and externally?
By treating all of our customers as partners in our mission, we will gain advocates and ambassadors for our brand. This is the goal as Shep always says - to grow your customers.
Great brands recognise that communicating, partnering and listening are key activities when dealing with customers internally and externally and it does not cost much either!
7th July 2022
Shep Hyken says the aim of any business is to grow customers which in turn grows revenue.
How do you grow customers? Marketing plays a part, but marketing just gets your customers to the door. It is good … no excellent customer service and a fist class experience which encourages them to purchase and then tell others about you. This is the aim of any marketing… good word of mouth which can only be got by great customer service.
So when I say that customer service / experience is the new marketing battleground, you now know why!
Back in the old days, there was no choice and organisations had it easy in he beginning. But then, those same organisations had to compete with other organisations and it they did not move with the times, they would disappear. With great competition for customers, people look for an experience in the sales process.
Companies need to provide this. If you do it right, you see a jump in your customers and sales.
By giving excellent customer service … and this does not have to be expensive, then you can achieve growth.
What are three top inexpensive tips for achieving better customer service?
1 Training your staff to five great service
2 ensuring your staff listen to customers to give the right information and help the customer in a more timely manner
3 give your customers time.
Additionally, smiling, using a customers name, saying thank you, hello and goodbye, saying please and paying attention do not cost anything either.
So next time you think you have to blow the budget on growing your organisation, think again!
30th June 2022
In follow up to last week, I have expanded on the image - which was all about experience, value and journey - the following:
- experience - designing it with metrics that matter that the front line have training in;
- journey - continuous feedback whilst empowering the front line to make the journey and experience the best;
- value - through understanding your customers and what they want alongside a leadership that supports this and all the work because they are focused on the customer too, because they understand this means business growth!
Customer Centricity means ensuring every decision made within an organisation is directly related to ensuring the best outcomes for the customer and this is their experience and journey.
Customer centric leadership focuses on this at every meeting. Rather than considering cost or ease, decisions are based around ensuring the customer experience. So as an example front line staff are given training (even if it costs more) to ensure the front line are empowered, can do their job to the best of their ability and answer questions from customers to give them the best service. Dropping staff onto the front line without training, is not customer centric. Check out Disney if you want a shining example of this.
I love feedback and surveys and I always do them knowing how much I benefit from feedback from customers within the organisation I work and have worked within. I know that if customer are not giving feedback, it means they don't care and are more likely hot footing it to your competitor. They are giving you the chance - by giving feedback - to make amends, which is amazing considering for ease they could.... just hot foot it to your competitors. Listen and respond by showing you have listened with changes even if you cannot do everything. Customers will feel valued!
Metrics are important otherwise how else do you know how well you are doing on the previous month or year? . In the end, it is only the numbers that matter. It shows customer growth and thus to a degree satisfaction. You have to keep this up to continue this. Ensure comparison metrics all the time. Leaders really only care about the numbers so don't dress up your reports, just make sure you have sound metrics. In the end it is the doing that allows for the metrics, so keep your planning and reporting to a minimum.
So you have your leads, now you have to ensure the experience so that all the work that marketing do is not wasted. Design your experience by mapping out the journey a customer makes with you and every touchpoint. Investing this time is crucial. If you get it right and make those changes, it is a game changer and real gains can be made - growth, brand perception, retention of customers = profit - by ensuring a smooth customer journey.
Customer experience is the new marketing battleground and to make this happen, a customer centric organisation is vital!
24th June 2022
The Savoy is back on our screens with a new season of luxury and five star (Forbes rating) customer service.
I watch these shows, totally enthralled with them. Much as I love marketing in the education sector, a little piece of me always feels I should be working in the luxury hotel sector in customer experience. When they talk about perfection, going the extra mile (putting together a child's bike for the family in the Royal Suite just arrived from Amazon), ensuring every square centimetre is cleaned and dusted in each room, creating a warm and welcome feel every step of the way and listening to the Customer Experience Executive saying that 'the word 'No' does not exist', I find myself furiously nodding and saying why can't this happen everywhere, turning to my husband, starting a full scale rant on the lack of customer experience in most places. Now the significance of this for me is that I am watching this show without an iPad in sight as it is one of the few shows on TV that has me totally gripped from start to finish without me needing to multi task by going on my iPad to keep my brain engaged to a degree.
That's because the Savoy and all its staff see their customers - and their repeat custom - as highly valuable in a highlight competitive market. They put value in the customer experience and journey that their customers have before, during and after. This is customer centricity. You can see that staff have the power to ensure customers are looked after at a five star level all the time.
What I was most impressed with is that for new staff who have been there three months, they get a reward of a night (with a partner) at the Savoy with dinner and breakfast. The cleverest reward I have ever known. Why? Not only have they got a wonderful reward of a night at the Savoy with luxury, all expenses paid dinner with drinks and then the all important breakfast, but they get to experience the luxury that their customers get and really understand the importance of this experience for themselves. They can understand what makes people enjoy it so much and keep coming back and how important it is not to let those standards slip.
As I have said before, price becomes a non-existent entity when luxury and the best service comes into play. The Savoy plays on this and well.
Other companies do this well too: The Ritz Carlton chain where ladies and gentlemen serve ladies and gentleman, and Disney, the staff Cast Members as they are called - are empowered at all levels. All of these organisations promote excellent training and this is key to any business dealing with customers and wanting repeat business. After all - it is expensive getting customers, you want to keep them!
I was lucky to work at Harrods (so I have spent some time dealing with customers in a luxury setting and I loved it!) back in the late nineties. I really cut my teeth on customer experience there and the training was amazing and the various requirements to ensure customers were made to feel special that were drummed into us during the training were incredible including answering in the phone within one ring!
So empowerment of staff through training as one part of empowerment is key, as are a few other aspects in the journey to customer centricity.
This is part one and next week I will delve further into the key aspects of a customer centric organisation.
17th June 2022
Customer experience relies on every member of an organisation to play their part in the experience.
As you walk into Harrods for instance, there are smart doormen, lovely smells, cleanliness, gleaming walls and counters and smiling staff. You probably have not even notices a product, yet the first impressions are made by people you would not even interact with: cleaning staff, facilities staff, buying staff and shop / department designers. I say this about schools too: you enter an educational establishment whether on a private tour or open day, and you notice the tidy grounds or entrance, cleanliness of the building, welcoming smiles from reception staff and maybe some refreshments before you even clap eyes or speak with a teacher or member of the curriculum staff. First impressions are key and never more so than when you are about to invest a lot of time, energy and some cases money into something or a project or a purchase.
For instance, you go and buy a new car. You expect to take your time and you want to be looked after and you want to know the car you are about to buy is worth it. How do you know if it is worth it? Well if all the key first impressions are there and right and you feel valued from the word go then you are going to feel that your custom is valued and that if that is how the company treats you, you would then make the connection that the product is worth it and will be looked after too.
Everybody in a car sales room works to make this happen. From the cleaners cleaning the room, to the welcome from the receptionists to the smell of welcoming coffee and the smiles from staff and the gleaming cars. All this before you have started a conversation about the care you want.
Many companies operate with the premise that it is raison d'etre of the organisation that is the most important but everyone has their part to play in an organisation's success and an amazing customer experience for every customer.
So whatever part you play in an organisation, value everyone else's skill sets and what they bring to the table. That is true team work!
10th June 2022
I have often been in a situation where service always triumphs over price and price is forgotten when the experience is the best. Look at independent education for instance.
Last week the annual ISC census came out and it showed that this year, despite the issues with fuel, food, energy and the general hikes in cost of living, another 12,000 pupils are being educated in the independent sector compared to 2021. We are all aware the prices for this type of education are at luxury level (over £40k for a boarding place in many schools now) and families could choose to get it free down the road instead.
So what are families paying for? Not academic results, because this is a given. Probably excellent digital learning during Covid, small class sizes, extra curricular opportunities and discipline? How about intangible benefits: confidence, contacts and career propulsion.
Many independent schools are embracing customer experience for families and ensuring that each family is looked after in a bespoke manner as we are all different with different needs.
This is what families pay for. Price does not matter when all this is on offer.
I told a story two weeks ago about my Burj experience which ended up with me spending double what I wanted to spend because the service was so good and I still remember the service and not the final price of the evening and think it good value.
So when you consider price next time, then consider the service you are getting to make you think that way!
3rd June 2022
I felt this an appropriate blog to write after the last few days of celebrations and the thanks we owe to one amazing lady.
But, a personal experience over the weekend made me want to write this too.
We enjoyed an amazing street party in the village where we live on the Friday (an excellent idea of the Parish Council considering the weather on Sunday). We were treated to wonderful hospitality from a relatively new acquaintance who invited us into their house to continue the celebrations to quite late on and were huge hospitable both during the street party and throughout the evening at their house.
We bought them a thank you gift, and as our parents had taught us, wrote a handwritten 'thank you' note. The hosts were quite taken aback and said - when we delivered it - 'how rare to see this'.
It made me think, why is something so simple, so rare? Why do we rely on email or text thanks? What happened to saying 'thank you' properly and personally. I wonder if we could increase and better our customer experience through offering better 'thanks'?
I have always thought that 'hello', 'please', 'goodbye' and 'thanks' should be used more. We are to shy or too unconfident to meet people's eye and say many of these words. However they are so simple and really top and tail experiences, so why cannot we consider these more when a customer enters the room, shop or other sales or service location.
So after a weekend of saying 'thank you' let's hope that practise makes perfect and we can continue to say 'thank you' - and all the other words - more.
26th May 2022
So many times I have visited places and gone into receptions and the welcome has been cold and functional. No 'hi, how are you doing and welcome to xxxx' and definitely no warm smile and eye contact.
I arrived recently at a hotel late in the evening, tired, and needing my room. I stepped into the reception and was greeted by a large smile and a lady saying, 'hi and welcome'. I felt much less tired and as if I had returned home and that I would not be long away from being able to change into my 'hotel clothes', grab a cup of my tea in my expandable travel cup with tea from my travel tin, put on smooth chill radio and sink into a bed of clean, starched, fresh linen. (Habits made during a time of frequent travel!)
I have visited many shops, restaurants, schools and hotels and I always look for a warm smile, eye contact and friendly greeting. I have worked in organisations previously where the receptionist has been commended for being one of the warmest and friendliest of receptionists in any school in the country. I have also worked in organisations where the receptionist is cold and unhelpful and therefore no doubt off putting.
So, have you ever thought, how friendly are you? Not how many friends you have on Facebook or in the real world? That's different to how friendly you are.
I, at this point, need to mention the Burj in Dubai and the experience I had there. We arrived for drinks and upon entering the bar and being welcomed warmly with eye contact, a smile and a warm greeting of welcome and after giving our name, it was used the entire evening with warmth along with receiving excellent and friendly help on drinks choices. Nothing felt like too much trouble and we just did not want to leave and ended up spending double what we planned because we loved the experience.
Friendliness costs nothing. It cost nothing at the hotel I arrived at and made us spend more in Dubai.
Great customer service starts with that first impression which takes just seven seconds. Perceptions are built in such a small amount of time, you cannot squander that seven seconds and not make it an brilliant seven seconds (just enough time to smile, make eye contact and warmly greet someone and ask if they need help, or ask them how their journey was.
Marketing budgets are big. This costs nothing and it is just as important to the sale.
19th May 2022
A number of phrases in the English language annoy me including this one. I cannot understand why people don’t like to consider change or other ways of doing things to get better or try a new way of doing something.
People are either lazy or tired of trying. We cannot be like this when it comes to customer service. Although I believe that we should not reinvent the wheel where possible, if something is not working, or even better still can be improved upon (and I believe this to be the case with most elements in life) then why not have a go and try. What have you got to lose? You can either make the change and it does not work (and you have lost nothing) or you do and it does to great benefit.
I have joined a number of organisations in the last 12 years of my working life and I have invariably heard the line in the image as well as the line ‘… well we did try that and it did not work…’
I sometimes wonder how hard people do try when it comes to really doing something different.
Apple have built a brand on innovating and providing what the customer wants. Amazon is continually ensuring that it makes changes for their customers to ensure they continue to be ‘…earths most customer centric company…’
It is 5000 years or so since we thought the earth was flat. We have progressed and we need to continue to do that to strive for the best and most excellent customer service.
Continue to test and change your customer journey if necessary. Make sure you are working to create the best journey and at all times by tweaking your journey for each customer, and for all customers. I remember tweaking one part of the journey five times and then Covid came and i had to change it all over again and then again after a customer actually went through the process.
It is important to ensure that at all times your are considering the need to be at the forefront of customer experience by testing new processes and updating where necessary which is where mystery shopping is vital but also making those changes quickly. It is important to be both proactive and reactive to change. So often we don’t do, we just procrastinate or create grand plans. Generally something just needs doing.
So remember, if the company you work for is not growing and when you suggest a new idea and someone says that phrase to you, just reply and say politely that it may be a good time to consider a new direction for the good of the company with a small trial of the new idea. Then suggest just test the new idea with a small cell of customers to begin with to reassure any nay sayers that if an issue occurs then it would affect a small number of customers first.
In the end, the proof is in the results. I am sure Apple and Amazon would not be where they are today without trying a few risky ideas and new ways of doing things that may have failed, but the point is to keep trying!
12th May 2022
So following on from last weeks blog in which I talked about ensuring you show the customers that they matter, this builds on this concept. To really get the customer buy in, you need to think like a customer.
How do you do this? Well, this is the easy part. You are a customer, so think about how you feel and then, you are in the mindset of the customer. Tip 1!
I am a customer service nut as most of you who read these blogs will know, so when I go out for dinner, drinks, shopping, whatever, I constantly see what can be improved upon.
As an example, last night I went out for a celebratory drink with my husband for a work thing, and the place did not have a bottle of fizz, only small bottles left. So we ordered a few small bottles only to be charged their price and not a full bottle price. I would have expected that the place would charge the price of a bottle as we are regulars too. I have to note at this point that my husband is getting to understand me and suggest on the phone earlier that we ring and check! He understands that I get disappointed with businesses when they don't deliver!
That is not going to be my next tip - ring ahead (although it is good). Tip 2 - if you cannot fulfil the order that the customer expected, look at what you can do to make up for this!
Another example, is that I tried a new restaurant close to my new place of work for lunch. The food and portion sizes were outstanding and the service actually very good. The only thing they did not do was make eye contact when talking while taking our order, use hello and thank you, and only gave us one round of water and did not come over to top it up.
Tip 3 - say hello, please and thank you and above all smile and look customers in the eye (not a stare but a brief moment of eye contact will do!)
My final example is one I have mentioned before: I had my bathroom done a year ago and the sales assistant who was helpful, did spend a little too much time telling us about her personal life. As customers we are time poor, and we don't want an overfriendly sales assistant going into personal details.
Tip 4 - Be friendly, but professional at all times.
You know what Tip 5 is going to be... Listen! The most important customer service tip of all. Listen to your customer. After all, we all like to be listened to, whilst purchasing a product as with life!
5th May 2022
Customers matter. After all, they are the ones growing your business to make a profit / be sustainable.
So lets get you to put yourself in the shoes of the customer. A huge part of customer service and ensuring a great customer experience is to be able, as marketers and sales people, to do this. Empathy is key and this is very different to sympathy.
Empathy involves feeling what someone else feels, but without changing your viewpoint on a situation, while sympathy doesn’t. Sympathy instead involves understanding someone else’s emotions but from your own perspective. Empathy is all about putting yourself in another persons shoes and that is how you ensure you show a customer that you are interested in what matters to them.
It is so important to be able to put yourself in the customers' shoes to be able to ensure you give a great service at all times. Role playing does help with this, but people hate role play!
So when you go into a shop sometime, consider the responses to your questions or requests. How do you feel? That will show you how your customers feel about your responses.
Three quick tips
- Never say no to a customer and certainly not on the spot without doing some research, even if the answer is still no. Go away and check and then come back and say no with an alternative solution.
- Listen to the customer and do not feel the need to tell them about you and your life and anecdotes. They are what matters at that point in time.
Be positive, smile, use their name and be proactive with your help and support.
I know that when I go into a shop and have questions, I want the sales assistant to
1 - welcome me with a smile and ask if I need help
2 - listen to me when I explain what I am after and help me locate it and organise the payment smoothly and easily
3 - if they don't have the item, check the stock and order it for me to be delivered to my home
4 - if they don't have any idea of when it will be in, take my number / email and contact me when they know it is in and arrange a call to organise for me to buy the product or send me a link to purchase if online
5 - if they do not have any left and will not be getting anything else, suggest some alternatives and revert to point 3 again! Simple.
I don't want to be told to pop in or ring the store next week in case it is in, and I don't want to be told no. I am there to spend money and the sales assistant should be clued up to this and take advantage of my financial frivolity!
If everyone in sales followed these five steps or three key tips then your customers will know they matter. They want a quick purchase process and this will do the trick!
28th April 2022
... customers and students alike (although these are all one and the same thing).
This image and quote from Albert Einstein is one of my favourite quotes with regard to education. It is only in later life that I realise why I did not engage with some lessons at school and did not learn as well as I should have (or could have!) I learn through reading and doing and endless lectures and lessons with teachers talking at me does not work. I have to work hard to concentrate very hard when people talk at me for a length of time to listen and take in what they are saying. My husband learns through verbal words and I learn through reading words and doing. You can imagine how interesting this is at times!
Why do we not consider this when dealing with students in our education system and with our customers? Good customer service requires a level of Emotional Intelligence (EI), to be able to know when the customer is switching off, or to work out from the beginning of a purchase experience that they prefer a succinct level of conversation and not a wordy exchange. You can tell this because the person in front of you will start to fidget and look around (I do this!) They might also jump in with questions to get to the point quicker!
You need to learn to listen to be able to do this and read the situation, just like a teacher or member of staff would do with regard to a student to get the best out of them.
Additionally, what also might seem obvious to you, might not be to others. Don't assume they know the answer or what to ask. Everyone is different including customers. Sometimes they don't really even know what they want so by listening you can gauge the situation and help further.
Don't treat everyone the same. Customer service, just as learning, requires a bespoke experience!
21st April 2022
Attitude is key in life. The right attitude that is.
Did you know that when we listen to someone, we only really focus on tone and body language and not the words. It is the arms crossed or the pout of a mouth that we notice - and feel - more than words.
In stats: only 7% of customer interaction is made up of the words you use. 93% is not what you say but how you say it and of this 55% of this is body language and 38% tone!
So consider how you come across more in the sales process: Are you saying yes, but your body language and tone. no. For instance, you could be saying yes, but how confident is that yes you have given. Are you smiling or scowling? Are your arms crossed? This is what we - and I certainly - notice!
There is also another mantra I follow: they say that people look at presenters and if they like what they see they will listen, if not, they will get their head down into their phone and do their emails (although it is hard to engage anyone for any length of time even if you follow the following principles).
1 - Are you engaging? By this I mean enthusiastic and upbeat? No one will engage or believe a person who is not motivating or passionate. Tone is crucial here as well as welcoming and inclusive body language with arms, head and eyes.
2 - Are you smiling? A smile is infectious and once you give one to one person, it travels around the world... or so they say!
3 - Are you on transmit? A person who just talks and does not engage the audience will not get people to listen. Nor will a sales person who just talks and does not listen. Engaging with the audience is key - beyond the words: humour and a positive attitude - even what asked an obviously difficult or challenging question. I have had these before, but you need to be gracious and good humoured with your answer.
You can even engage on the phone. I have a thought process that when I am about to engage someone on the phone or in a difficult call, I smile first, and then dial. People can hear the positivity in your voice and smiling lifts your tone... I guarantee it. Go on, try it!
So consider your attitude (body language and tone) next time you speak. You will win many a customer around by considering this along with your words.
31st March 2022
Richard Branson makes a good point here. I also think Shep Hyken would agree too!
When I was doing my CIM diploma back in the early 00's, I will always remember the teacher talking about customer delight and how this was gained through exceeding customer expectations.
I remember some of my recent 'delight' or 'wow' moments as Geoff Ramm calls them was pre Covid when I was travelling. I usually experience 'wow' moments in hotels and these two did not disappoint.
I had arrived at my usual hotel in Riga and they decided to bump me up to a suite. I had not stayed there many times, only once a year for two nights and the same time of year too. The views of Riga were stunning from the room and I remember returning from meetings to enjoying a chocolate on my pillow, some water and a turn down service with my nightwear neatly folded. Such a nice welcome back!
At the end of another of my trips, I was in Istanbul and again, not a frequent stayer at the same hotel. I arrived back from a day of meetings with agents to a slice of chocolate cake and rose Turkish delight with a note from the management to thank me for choosing them above all the other options in the area.
Now as you can imagine, these are not hugely expensive things to do. I think when people consider 'wow' moments they think it has to be expensive, but it does not. It has to be thoughtful and food items and notes are certainly thoughtful. I always believe though that the most thoughtful presents are the inexpensive ones though. However for another person, they might consider the wow moment to be an expensive item. We are all different. but the key is to find these out and ensure you give that level of experience to the customer.
If you want some inspiration, then if you are not watching the serious on TV - "The World's Most Amazing Hotels' then you should be. I would suggest watch the Lanesborough episode. They ask you for your preferences before you visit and accommodate these, obviously, but not only that, they database your requests and activities through your stay to ensure that other butlers who come on can see your preferences to anticipate what you might like for the rest of your stay and future stays! Amazing! This blew me away in terms of customer service! And it is why people kept returning because people know their likes and they felt at home and relaxed.
Remember that is all people want, to be wowed, and to enjoy the experience and if you can meet these expectations and exceed them with a little chocolate bar, a thank you note, cake, folded nightwear, a surprising upgrade or a glass of something nice on arrival, these things don't cost much, but the response and the returning business is priceless!
24th March 2022
I can honestly say that the times when I have been most successful in my professional life have been because of feedback from a variety of stakeholders to channel marketing and sales activity.
I have been in organisations where leaders have not been keen to get feedback because they feel it undermines them. How do we know what is best for the customers - we are only one person! You need to ensure feedback and opinion from a variety and number of stakeholders.
Feedback should be formed from a variety of ways:
1 - one to one chats / interviews with key staff and customers which allow great qualitative data and a conversation during which you can delve into various key aspects they raise as individuals all tend to point out different aspects
2 - focus groups with customers and staff which allow for either open ended discussion or task based discussion for feedback
3 - online surveys for all stakeholders that are easy and ask easy and non leading questions
4 - mystery shopping is also a great way of getting feedback from your competitors and their processes as well as your organisation!
You should always remember to survey all customer within all parts of the journey - buyers and non buyers for instance. Customers who have been a customer and then left. Customers who continue to purchase. It is crucial to the development of a product or business as the end user it not you, usually, it's a number of other people who will contribute to the growth.
Do not be afraid of negative feedback. At least they have given it to you and you have been able to have that feedback and deal with it. You should worry when you don't get feedback. For every customer who bothers to complain, 26 remain silent ... and usually vote with their feet.
Only with feedback can you get better. I remember at a previous business I had some feedback about a product and purchase process, with the customer telling me the organisation was the worst at this of the six organisations he had been too. He told me what they did better. I looked at implementing changes to this and adding more value and a year later he revisited looking at the products for another client and said we were the best! You can always turn negative feedback around and it is so easy to listen and act on the various bits of feedback given and nine times out of ten, the feedback is about areas you can change as well as being very easy and low cost.
So if you are not organising feedback from your customers, you need to start, because this is really how you get better. By acting on it and showing you have listened will ensure a great customer experience as well as great outcomes for you and your business.
17th March 2022
I have to admit I do think that Steve Jobs came out with some great quotes and the Apple brand is incredibly innovative and customer centric.
All brands should be copying this approach: focusing on the customer experience and then creating the product.
This all occurs when the organisation is customer centric. A journey is created to ensure a smooth process for the customer and then the customer is led to the product because of this.
Many times in the past I have had customers say that because of the follow up given in the teams I worked within did they choose the product in question, because we cared enough to want their business.
Customer centricity is actually really easy to get right. It is about ensuring that the customer is at the heart of everything a business does and that every decision made in the business will affect the customer in a positive way or indeed the customer is focused on in the decision making.
The reason why businesses don't think it is easy if for three reasons:
1 - people focus on profit and not customers (when if you read Shep Hyken's books) the goal of the business is to get customers who ensure your business is sustainable
2 - to be customer centric takes looking at the long game over the short term and many business leaders want to look good so focus on the right here and now rather than the long game when they may not be involved as well as being concerned about losing money in the short term to make these changes
3 - to be customer centric involves investing in people and processes / tools to be more customer focused and businesses don't often have the financial capacity to be customer centric.
Business leaders need to be able to take risks because being customer centric pays off in the end.
I saw a quote recently that said that customer experience is the next competitive battleground and I firmly believe this to be true. Truly excellent customer service creating an amazing experience for every customer is a real game changer. It you have a leadership that is behind this strategy then you cannot help but win. It can create real marginal gains and fantastic word of mouth which in turn brings in more customers and this is far more powerful than advertising or promotional tactics!
10th March 2022
Five star customer service begins with this principle in mind. This week, I am going to rely on some famous brands and stories to showcase this:
Ritz-Carlton - a hotel chain known for their great customer service. On one particular visit, a mother together with her two children had spent a few days there on vacation, and when they got back home, her son discovered that his beloved stuffed giraffe, Joshie, had gone missing. The boy was devastated, so his parents decided to tell him that “Joshie is just taking an extra long vacation at the resort.” That very same night, the Ritz-Carlton called to tell them that they found Joshie. The relieved parents asked if the staff would mind taking a picture of the giraffe at the hotel to authenticate a fabricated story. After a couple days, the parents received a package with Joshie and a bunch of pictures that proved Joshie’s prolonged holiday.
Pizza hut - A customer who ordered on a regular basis had suddenly stopper o ordering. The Pizza Hut branch was concerned about its loyal client and called him, asking if he was okay, as he had not ordered from them for over two weeks. To his surprise, they also offered him a complimentary “welcome back” pizza.
British Gas - I have had my own amazing customer service story this week. I had organised for a boiler to be fitted this week back in December as I am between jobs. The engineers came and told me that the boiler was too big for the space, even though the gas representative said in December it would fit! They located a new - correct sized - boiler and got it sent to my house within a few hours and arranged for the oversized one to be picked up. Not only that I had issues with the meter and their advice got an emergency call out for another supplier to fix my meter! Both the men who fitted the boiler could not have been more helpful, kind and polite throughout. The men who collected my over-sized boiler were positive and professional too. Very impressed with British Gas. Finally, I got the final bill for the boiler and I rang to say that there should be a reduction in the bill as we had to go for a smaller boiler and the man who organised the original quote range me an hour later to say he would be in touch after the weekend when he had looked at the quote to send me a revised bill! Wow!
The Druid Inn, Birchover (I am not going to out my favourite pub locally, and although I may lose my favourite table each time and have to fight tourists to get to the bar, I have to do it!) This place screams customer service: the welcome, the food, the wine list, the cleanliness and above all the people. Hannah who runs it is amazing. I had lunch booked this week and had to change the booking time at the last minute. She emailed back within a few hours to confirm it was ok in such a positive and 'nothing is too much trouble way!'. The welcome and service on entry was brilliant, as was being seated at my favourite table! The food was amazing and the helpfulness and friendliness of staff just exemplary. Love that place so much!
What do these business all have in common? They all do whatever it takes to ensure the customer is happy! Simples!
3rd March 2022
An external brand is only as strong as its internal brand and covid has shifted our priorities and is hitting the fast forward button on several workplace trends. It is now more important than ever for companies to keep their employees happy and productive and companies need to get with the programme so to speak or they will lose good, loyal and hard working employees.
Employee happiness is one of the most important factors in running a successful, profitable company. Happy and engaged employees tend to miss less work, perform better, and support company innovation. When employees are happy, loyal, and engaged, company profits are much higher—and turnover is much lower.
So what has it got to do with happy customers?
Perkbox - a company that works to help employees live better in life and at work through a global benefits and rewards platform - notes that disengaged employees are costing the UK economy £340 billion which includes retraining and recruitment costs.
Customers want a smooth purchase process and don't want to deal with new staff all the time because a company is not looking after its staff properly and therefore has high turnover.
Disengaged staff don't act as brand advocates which means customers are not given the best or a positive experience. Happy staff provide the better customer service.
There are many small things companies can do to show they value staff and keep employees happy - and productive, and therefore customers happy.
Flexible working and the four day working week are fast becoming a way to support this. A report from the LSE last year in September entitled, "Remote-Work Options Can Boost Productivity and Curb Burnout" and it concluded that when employees have access to remote-work options such as a flexible work location, distributed teams, and/or the option to work from home, burnout at work decreases by over a quarter (26%). Additionally, overall, compared to those without remote-work access, access to remote work increases employee well-being, productivity, innovation, and inclusion. It increases innovation by 63%, work engagement by 75%, organisational commitment by 68%, and 93% of employees are more likely to report feeling included.
Flexible and remote work can expand an organisation’s talent pool, ensure better work-life effectiveness, create empowering work environments, and ensure your business can function effectively even at times of crisis.
Listen to and learn about your employees, just as you would listen to and learn about your customers and their needs! The report mentioned also reveals the importance of empathy. When a manager demonstrates empathy and an employee has remote-work access, burnout is further decreased by 43%. A manager showing care, concern and an understanding of an employee’s life situation provides essential support for all employees, not least women with children.
Reward and recognise staff for hard work - and not just for taking on extra work! This is not how a positive working environment works.
Offer extensive benefits and encourage breaks.
Fairness and consistency are important in any organisation, but it is hard to align all staff with different roles and contracts. The most important thing to remember is to treat people as people, with care, kindness and empathy - just as you would the customer.
I will leave you with this final thought from Perkbox:
The average person spends a third of their time at work. That’s a lot of hours, minutes, and seconds. But despite what many people say, our lives aren’t divided into two sections. Life doesn’t start only when work stops – nor vice versa.
Therefore employers are responsible for empowering their people to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives outside of work as well as inside.
When this happens, the result isn’t just a motivated workforce, but a successful one too. After all, great customer experiences start with great employee experiences.
24th February 2022
Excellent Customer Experience relies on a smooth and easy purchase experience for the customer.
A customer does not need to know that your computer is not working, they would prefer for you to take their number and ring them back when it is work.
A customer should not be told not to put the forms there that they have brought it, you need to take them from them and sort them out.
A customer does not need to have to walk to the specials board and try to remember the meals for the other members of the party, the special board should come to the table!
A customer should not have to ring back in a few weeks to check if an order has come in because they were told it was out of stock. You should apologise and let them know that the item should be in the shop by x date and let them know that you will ring them to let them know it has arrived.
A customer should not have to follow up on an order that was confirmed and then told what was confirmed could not happen.
A customer should not be told that the organisation cannot do that for them or that what they have asked for will not work. The customer should instead be told that the organisation will work something out and will ring back by a certain date.
A customer should not be told that you don't know the answer to that question. You should instead tell them that you need to check the answer to their question and that you will ring them back with the answer.
A customer should not be told no. You should in fact tell them that you will check and see if that is possible and get back to them. If this outcome is not positive, give them another solution.
A customer should be told Yes and you then need to work out how to do it. Trust me, most things are possible!
Finally, a listen to the customer. You can ensure the best customer experience just be active listening. This allows you to ensure you create the right solution every time and don't waste your time, but most importantly the customers time!
17th February 2022
For the last ten years or so - and since the last economic slowdown - there is a feeling that people are having to work a lot harder to keep things going. I know things in the independent education sector have changed dramatically in that time too. Admissions teams have had to become professional sales people, selling a premium product and not just school administrators sitting in front of a computer screen inputting data and sending letters!
Salespeople in particular are subject to being victims of what is called the “shiny object syndrome.” This happens when a salesperson suddenly runs across a lead they believe is the next greatest and biggest opportunity they’ll ever find. They get caught up in chasing a dream that, in reality, is only one that they’ve created in their own mind. After exerting a huge amount of effort pursuing this 'shiny object', they either realize it’s not going to work or they move onto the next 'shiny object' that comes along.
When times are difficult, it’s more important than ever to remain very focused. I have always believed in strategy for an organisation and creating a business plan, so make one and stick to it. Now more than ever we need to have a plan to fall back on so when those opportunities come along you can handle them well within the plan. Sometimes opportunities will come along that are not right. The plan will let you know this. Make sure you move forward with things that work and don't do everything all at once in a desperate attempt to grow quickly. Focus on one thing at a time. Why? Your current and new customers will thank you in the long run. This is because although opportunities are great, they may take you away and dilute resources in the short term from ensuring great customer experience all the time. Don't forget, if you grow quickly, someone has to do the extra work, because generally organisations are not happy to take on extra staff until they see the results. A plan allows for a little bit of extra time for new things and some firefighting every so often.
You’ll do yourself more good by tightening your plans and activities and drilling down deeper with a tighter action plan than trying to cast your net far and wide, trying to do everything. Your most valuable asset is your time. Use it wisely with your customers. Let your advertising and marketing efforts chase the shiny objects, suspects, and distant leads. Your goals are to have your advertising / marketing create the awareness and stir a level of interest in the suspect, and to build the level of confidence your customers have in you. This is what relationship building and sales is all about and this creates those opportunities that you need which you will know how to handle because you are creating them.
People are being more hesitant to make a decision, which further increases the level of confidence they must have in you. To build this level of confidence, it requires face time, dialogue, and a competent style of selling and handling this potential customer opportunity well by giving a red carpet level of customer experience.
On a final note, don't wait for opportunities to come to you or wait for those supposed right opportunities. Sometimes you won't know what is right until you try a few and realise its not right or realise what you want and the right path to take! So go out and find them.
10th February 2022
I bet you have those people in your organisation who are always busy. You walk up to them or you cross paths and you ask them, 'How's it going?' and they say their now well-versed line: 'I am so busy; it is just so busy' whilst giving you that pained look.
These people are usually people most comfortable sat in front of a screen. In fact doing anything more such as looking after a customer would send them into an apoplectic fit because this involves a lot more of their time and customers get in the way of the screen and administration that they feel is mountainous and also needs doing there and then in case it builds up - which it never would do.
I know what you are thinking. What about those people who are really doing the work of two people? I agree. But if you offer help to these people, they take you up on it. 'Busy' people don't accept your offer of help, even if you suggest you take their calls, or help with emails or minor/easy projects they are working on, they say, it's easier if I do it. They prefer silo working and are not really team players either. Because if they did become a team player and ask for help, again people would see that their role is not that full on.
They also fear change and therefore are comfortable with the level of 'busy-ness' because it's busy-ness they understand and can deal with as well as making them feel important and gaining them much needed attention to what a central part of the 'team' they are and how core their role is.
They have had years of perfecting the 'busy' response. They are even too busy to look at ways to help them reduce their 'busy-ness' because secretly, they know that like teamworking above, it will show up to other people what their role entails and that it is not so full on and busy and that they have been camouflaging their job for years and years with the 'busy' line.
Because if for instance a new database came in to help with a variety of administrative functions, they would worry that their role would actually become defunct.
The busy comes with a lot of flapping and sighing and because this has continued for years and years, people around the person in question have bought into it. Being busy is the status quo and this starts to move in on the dealings with customers. People who are busy will certainly have no time for customers who need a lot of time... and of course it takes staff away from the safe zone of administration and the database that don't ask hard questions or take up their time with an endless amount of queries.
However looking after the customer is key to a great customer experience and ultimately growing an organisation which is the real outcome of businesses.
I have a poster up on my wall at work that has followed me around a number of jobs. It is of a person dressed in silver armour about to go into battle with a sword and shield. Behind the person, there is another person with a machine gun wanting to talk with him, yet the person in armour tells the sidekick, "I'm too busy to talk, can't you see I have a battle to fight". If only the person fighting the battle (just as administrators fighting the admin battle) took time out of the 'busy' mode and looked behind (took time out) just for a moment, everyone - person in armour and administrators - would realise the battle could be won more easily. This is why it is important to make time for strategic discussions and a proactive approach to work to forsee these issues coming and not just be 'busy' during each of them all the time!
So how do you change a culture of busy to a culture of productivity where people are proactive and not reactive?
Customer centricity happens when every decision is made with the customer in mind. Whatever happens, the customer comes first. For instance, dealing with a customer's query will come first over updating the database with information about the previous customer's query. Multiple customers needing help all at once take priority over sending a mailing to customers about an event.
By focusing on the customers and looking at strong internal processes to support a customer centric approach such as good CRM systems, customer focused staff training, considering what is best for the customer at all times over the needs of the organisation will create a productive staff culture because staff will see the results and realise that this approach - including being invested in - is more motivating, positive, inspiring and pro-active helping them to do their jobs better.
It is also about leading by example, creating supportive processes and opportunities for employees to feedback - and be listened to - on ideas that could help get even better. This includes having those meetings which gives staff time to get out of the busy / reactive mode and time to think ahead and plan so that everything is manageable and thought through.
Being busy is not good enough. You need to be productive to win the work battle and drive sustainability and a thriving business - through great customer service and time - which in the end is what pays the wages!
Final note: remember also when person A says to person B that they are too busy, it suggests that person A's time is more valuable than person B. That is not the case! Always make time.
3rd February 2022
I had the opportunity to attend a two day training seminar on Sales and the Art of Negotiation and Persuasion and Influence with Philip Hesketh. If you don't know who he is, in a nutshell he is a sales graduate from Proctor & Gamble and helps international firms with their sales. If you are in the world of sales, and have the opportunity to hear him speak, I would recommend you go as he is truly inspiring and motivating.
His key focus was on the importance of the chat, getting to know the customer, focusing on them and their needs and interests. Share more and tell stories. Be real and genuinely interested and listen to understand. Finally you have to engage emotions as people buy on emotions and justify with logic.
Great salespeople employ these actions (I decided against using the word 'tactics' because real salespeople know this is not a game, but is something that is a natural part of the sales process) to help the customer have a great experience and help the customer with the outcome(s) they want.
Sales should not be about some sleazy, cheesy line or patter. It should be natural - just like breathing - and this comes to people to are genuinely interested and genuinely able to listen without considering a reply or a story of their own (active listening) to ensure the win-win outcome. Because it is not just the customer that wins, it is the business, because if done right, that customer will return to you for more sale support as well as tell other people about their experience.
If you prefer to hear yourself speak or engage in a one way - transmit conversation - which is all about you - don't bother going into sales. You won't help the customer win.
Sales don't happen when the following things happen:
- pressure and desperation (too much discounting devaluing a product)
- poor positioning of your product and what the customer wants
- a 'me, me, me' approach the client's perspective
- a lack of real connection with the talk just being small talk
- a linear or logical process driven approach to sales
- being a know it all / spewing everything and everything and not tailoring it (because you have not listened!)
Listening is all about ears (obviously!) and eyes and genuinely caring through focusing on the customers needs over the sales targets.
So, if you can find something interesting in every conversation or action with a person, able to talk to anyone about most things in an authentic and engages manner (because you are really interested) happy to listen and ask questions, genuinely want to help people and prefer a customer focused approach over a functional process, then get yourself into sales immediately!
Sales needs YOU and your relationship building focus to help customers win!
27th January 2022
As we head towards the end of January and you can see the days get longer, a positive feeling approaches that spring is nearly around the corner.
Being positive is a key part of giving a quality performance which creates a great customer experience. The thing is that we don't always feel very positive when we get up each day, but should the customer see that? No.
I always remember at school when I was in one or another sports training session, my Head of Sports, Mrs Mullen, telling me to have a PMA - positive mental attitude - and that has stuck with me ever since.
Positivity is one of the cornerstone attitudes of my customer experience beliefs and the word is littered throughout this website. I have always been a glass half full person and an optimist. This has really driven me throughout tough periods and activities in my life and it has allowed me to realise that even in the lowest times, things get better - well you have to focus to get through the tough times (including dry January! #firstworldproblems) as they don't last.
Customers don't know about the tough times or problems. And it' is not like they don't care, but do they need to know when they are searching for a solution to a problem? No, they don't, so you need to put your best face on and smile (or smile and dial if you are about to make a phone call), and be a ray of sunshine, because that is what people really want to see and hear.
It is tough, especially when you are really going through a tough time. But it is possible. I was recently so awe struck by a friend whose wife has died far too young. His positive attitude and the way he has dealt with this and his humour with us and positivity (and I know not everyone can) in the face of such tragedy has been incredible.
I listened to a lecture recently with Jasmin Paris about her drive to conquer the Montane Spine Race and her positivity and determination captured in video footage even after only having 2 1/2 hours sleep or so in the 80-odd hours she took to complete it.
Positivity can be pulled from deep down whatever the situation, if you want to pull it up. If you need to have a little ditty to help such as thinking of the Monty Python crew and the humming, 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life', or Julie Andrew's 'Favourite Things' that helps. I have a 'yes' button on my desk which I press if I need a reminder to be positive and can do! Whatever works for you.
Just remember the customer needs help with a solution and a positive, professional, pro-active and passionate approach to their solution is key to the sale and a long term relationship born from a great customer experience! if you are happy and smile, it rubs of on others!
To finish I will quote a great woman which is poignant on today's date: 'Whoever is happy will make others happy too." Anne Frank.
20th January 2022
I know I have not got a lot of patience. Last year, I became the proud owner of an allotment to grow my own vegetables and fruit.
The allotment I obtained (after a wonderful neighbour started leaving me vegetables on my doorstep that tasted so much better than shop bought) was a site where stinging nettles and weeds came to party. After a weekend of strimming the site down and then eight solid weeks of digging out borders, turning earth, weeding, laying compost and forking this and then finally adding plastic sheets to stop more weeds, alongside fixing a dying structure and adding water butts to collect water, mending and creating new fencing and finally building compost areas I was there! It was hard work and I had to get it done.
Now we are in January, and the work resumes. I have just ordered a shed and will have to lay a base and put this together. I have then to get more butts and create a drainage system to collect water. I need about 13-14 water butts of water to look after the space each year at least. I then have to insulate the structure to create a basic greenhouse to grow plants that need more warmth and to start to grow seedlings for plants that need to grow from seed rather than be directly planted into the borders.
Then a tending process of watering (but not overwatering), protecting plants from birds and pests and weeding will take place for a number of months before hopefully I will have some success. I have been warned not to expect overnight / first year success, something I will have to deal with when the times comes. I like to see output for my work and this will teach me patience. I have had and will have to work consistently hard as well as be consistent.
It seems that growing vegetables (working hard, being consistent, not expecting overnight success) is much like ensuring an amazing customer experience for customers. Results don't happen overnight. If you have been watching that engaging programme 'Britain's Most Expensive Houses' on Channel 4, some of the realtors have been working with clients for some time to find their dream house. They have to work hard, be consistent and be patient to get the results they need. They are creating an amazing customer experience through this, and yes the customers are paying a huge price for these houses, but then when you do pay such high prices you expect a high level of service.
Sometimes a customer won't always buy first time. Sometimes they may need more convincing and need more time. Patience is something that is needed in creating this as well as working hard to support the customer to get them what they want and being consistent with them with communication as well as offering the potential correct product each time after listening to their feedback - just like the realtors do.
Results happen in any sphere of life whether in sporting achievements, musical greatness, career defining roles and leadership all come with patience, hard work and being consistent.
I am now going to end this blog to do more reading and work on my alloment!
13th January 2022
“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Michael Jordan.
It seems we are programmed to feel that failure and mistakes are a bad thing. I have always believed that mistakes and failures are both great learning experiences, after all, we are all human.
It is not the mistake that should be dwelt upon, but instead we should focus on the solutions to ensure it does not happen again. Of course this does not apply to making the same mistake week after week, or month after month. You should learn from that isolated incident and then create solutions for it not to happen again.
My colleague bought an item for herself for Christmas from an online fashion store that she loves. She gave it to her husband to wrap without checking it. On Christmas Day, she opened the present, excited to see the item she was looking forward to wearing and it was not the item she had ordered. She emailed the store and they said to return it, after apologising. She did, but was annoyed at having to pay for the return - and their mistake - which she emailed to let them know about. They replied within 24 hours, again apologising for this, telling her how much they valued her feedback and letting her know they would refund the cost of the postage. She was very pleased about this and felt that the experience was exceptional because of it.
This is because although you would like a smooth purchase experience, we know it is not always going to be like that. Mistakes happen. We are not perfect. However, because we know this, if a company makes a mistake, then rectifies it with an apology, you have an even better experience because you know that they will look after you properly in the event of an error because they have shown they can. You are more likely to tell the story of the brand and the outcome to people because we are all human, we make mistakes, but in this case, the company took responsibility and in this day and age, that is a rarity!
So how do you turn mistakes into an advantageous customer experience?
1 - embrace the mistake, after all if you are not making mistakes, you are not innovating. When mistake equals failure, a negative reaction and loss of confidence is highly likely (The word failure even affects our sympathetic nervous system, the system linked to panic and anxiety.) When mistake equals learning opportunity, the positive spin creates a growth mindset which encourages improvement.
2 - acknowledge your customers' feelings by listening and replying
3 - apologise and do it early on; never underestimate the healing potential of the word “sorry.”
4 - take responsibility, both with the customer and in the organisation. We all need to be accountable at all times. Honesty is the best policy.
5 - Understand what went wrong and ensure you put in place processes and procedures to ensure it does not happen again.
6 - Personalise where possible.
Nelson Mandela says it perfectly: "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you Learn." Why is it that we pounce on failure and mistakes as a negative? Why can we not see this as a good opportunity to make changes and notch it up to experience, creating and even better Customer Experience at the same time which in turn enhances brand reputation? Answers on a postcard please...
6th January 2022
Happy New Year and what a special year it is? Why? Well, for those of you who know me, you will know that aside from customer service, my other favourite passion is the AGA. I have wanted one for over 20 years and I finally got one last year, it seems a year before it celebrated its 100th anniversary!
Now, what has AGA got to do with sales and customer experience. Well, I have to admit to not knowing the following information I am about to impart until a search to find out whether I had to use a Bain Marie in an AGA came up with an article detailing this and one other amazing sales point I was not aware of.
In 1935, a young sales executive called David Ogilvy wrote The Theory and Practice of Selling an AGA Cooker. (Please note, that if you choose to click on the link and read it, this was written and set in 1935, a very different time to now!) That young sales executive went onto be known as the Father of Advertising and founded the successful Ogilvy and Mather agency. Fortune magazine described it as one of the finest sales manuals ever written. One of its best quotes is that a good AGA salesman should have ' the tenacity of a bulldog with the manners of a spaniel'.
But there are some other gems of information that span the whole sales and customer experience pitch (and not least why I have included the picture of an AGA as a very good listener!).
It includes targeting information such as "In Great Britain, there are twelve million households. One million of these own motor cars. Only ten thousand own AGA cookers. No household which can afford a motor car can afford not to be without an AGA."
Additional information that suggest first impressions are essential, "Dress quietly...be a polite as you know how...tell the person who opens the door frankly and briefly what you have come for...study the best time of day for calling."
It includes other information such as "find out all you can about your prospects before you call on them...be vastly interested in any subject the prospect shows an interest in...pepper your talk with anecdotes and jokes...quality of salesmanship involves time, energy and knowledge of the product."
Finally it has about four pages dedicated to objections and what to say. This involved listening, as the AGA image demonstrates. Listening is key, making relationships and being knowledgeable to be able to give a great experience. Something that has been written about since 1935! We don't have to reinvent the wheel in sales, it is simple and as old as time!
30th December 2021
A short New Year Blog:
I saw this image on social recently and I though how appropriate for the dawn of the New Year. It also relates to customer service and marketing (and life!) too because sometimes you get few or no sales, knocked back (and in life), the customer complains, a 'no' to your idea and negative reviews. At this point, you can look like either of the girls in the image. You could even be thinking - what will the new year bring?
Let's embrace the New Year by facing it head on. Lets face few sales and customer complaints etc by facing the customer or leadership and looking at them head on whilst explaining how you will solve it.
As Julie Andrews said, 'you have to face your fears' so consider this something to add to the New Year's resolutions list and lets look 2022 straight in the eye and take what it brings!
23rd December 2021
Isn't this the most obvious statement about marketing? I think so. How can marketers really sell something that they have absolutely no interest in. Passion is key to sales and marketers are in the end sales people without a call centre or shop to do it in. They are a group instead of people who create adverts and campaigns and promotions etc to get people to buy stuff. The Dark Arts it is called sometimes!
I love education and being involved in the education system where good teaching and knowledge transforms prospects and lives. All the schools I have worked in or supported have had amazing KSPs (USPs are hard to find in schools) and the children benefited in so many different ways at each. I have worked within a number of charities (and still do voluntarily) and they all were and are amazing, and they had/have visions and objectives that I believe in. Fundraising is another form of marketing and selling too - but in a very different way. The end user does not tangibly benefit from the donation; fundraising is a much harder 'sell' in many ways actually. I chose my fundraising organisations carefully because of this reason. I have to have a passion for the organisation I work for; the product has to be amazing and something I believe in. I won't name them because of the subjectivity, but there any many charities and schools I would not work for because I don't feel passionate about their product. If you are one of those people who can 'sell ice to an eskimo' then good on you, but I feel in the main. you have to have passion.
This translates to the customer. They can feel your passion. As sales people - front of house marketers - you can feel this in an instant.
My husband is organising an event next year and he was bowled over by the passion and enthusiasm from one of the responders. He said why cannot everyone respond like that as it makes a person feel valued. It is interesting to hear this perspective on sales. Enthusiasm and passion is key. And you don't have to be an extrovert to love what you do and be passionate. I know many introverts who make great sales people. They show interest, are proactive and positive and respond and that makes a person feel as values as the enthusiastic person.
So the world of marketing and customer experience is one and the same thing. I love marketing and I love customer experience. They are two of the most interesting areas I have ever had the privilege of working within. Passion overflows when I talk about both. Just like when I talk about AGAs...
16th December 2021
... in fact the truth (and I am not talking about your truth, my truth or their truth, but the truth) is the most powerful element in any situation. Honesty and authenticity are absolutely key and in a recent life experience, both honesty and authenticity has endeared me so much more to a situation even if what you hear is not all good. The fact is you are able to make informed choices and decisions based on honest information given and feel valued that people are brave enough to do so.
In advertising, truth is so powerful. There is no need for the x-factor style backing bits, lights, fireworks etc. Keep is simple and honest. Currently, I love the Coca-Cola advert depicting a young boy making a chimney out of cardboard boxes to send a neighbour a gift of neighbourliness. That feels like 'real magic' to me.
I have always loved 'Innocent Smoothie' adverts, website and information. It feels real and authentic and honest. Now many brands are catching up with their clever copy writing and fun information which speaks to people and does not try to patronise or make people feel stupid because they cannot understand the huge words companies include in the ingredient section!
Another authentic brand for me is Ecover. I love how they make me feel. And I want to help with their mission 'for a cleaner clean'. Read the small print and be impressed. Look at the clean simple brand. No need for bells and whistles here. And you can re-use for refills!
Is truth a perception though? I am sure we find it hard to believe political adverts in the main. Even the great 'Labour is not working'. However, how do I know that Ecover is good? Well generally I have not seen any bad PR - although they could have a fantastic PR machine - but they have a simple mission and their work and additional green initiatives back it up. Simple.
In 2016, an international survey was done of the worlds most authentic brands. The top five were Disney, BMW, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple. Is this because they live their brand mission inside and outside. Adverts reflect their mission and values and it is simple. BMW certainly lives up to it's strapline - Ultimate Driving Machine - and their engineering development and progression for their machines and the brand is phenomenal. Other brands include Visa, Rolex, Audi, Samsung, Sony, Mercedes-Benz, Mastercard and of course Coca-Cola. All very strong, long standing, reliable, consistent and sound brands.
Lego was also high up the list and they had had a fantastic revival in recent years. They are very authentic and I love the fact that they and their products (millennium falcon!) appeal to all ages!!!
Rolex is also one of those brands that feel consistent and reliable. I think this is key to get over in your advertising. Why change something that works?
Disney? Well this does not surprise me. Even their resorts are built around their brand - and not just the infrastructure, but their people, their customer service and support.
I would have like to see Ritz-Carlton in the list, however, not everyone has experienced the 'ladies and gentleman, serving ladies and gentleman' - arguably one of the best organisational examples of customer experience in the world.
So the moral of the story is, if you want customers to purchase from you, be consistent, be reliable and keep it simple! Honesty and authenticity is the best form of simple!
9th December 2021
How often do you get feedback from the customer? Is it not the case that mostly feedback is gained from within and what people inside the organisation think should be the core campaigns, promotions and marketing messages trumps what the customer has to say?
What is it people - and non marketers specifically - think they know more about the customer, than the customer?!!?
Because our brands and marketing messages and campaigns and advertising is no longer about what we tell the customer is, what we think it is and should be, it is what the customer thinks and what they tell each other.
People get caught up for instance in the values and words rather than the feeling of the brand which stays far longer. You know the saying from Maya Angelou “people will forget what you said, forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” This is very true in the world of marketing.
What do you think when you see the big red truck on the tv in an advert with the music screaming ‘holidays are coming…’? I bet you think Christmas is finally here and get a warm feeling. I bet you don’t think, “wow, Coca-Cola is a wonderful brand and their values of leadership, collaboration, integrity, accountability, passion, diversity, and quality are just wonderful.” If you do, well I am very impressed.
I love AGAs, have wanted one for 25 years, and finally got one this year. I could not tell you want their brand values are, but I can tell you the sense of warmth, welcome, reassurance and calm comes over me when I think of one. I tell everyone i meet all about my AGA and what is does and how amazing it is for its warmth and cooking ability. Still don’t know what it stands for, but everyone knows what it does and how it makes me feel! AGA for people who know me therefore is not about what AGA sells, but what I tell them.
So next time someone tries to tell you to focus on the values and literal elements of a campaign, ask them to name their favourite brand and what it stands for. If they cannot, ask them how it makes them feel. They might just get a little lesson in marketing… and get a real insight into the importance of how the brand is felt and experienced by the customer, who tells other customers!
2nd December 2021
In the run up to Christmas, I am going to use my blogs to focus on marketing within the customer experience arena.
I thought this quote was very apt for this time of year to start these five blogs off.
So, marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but the stories you tell. If you don't believe me, look at all the Christmas adverts on at the moment and the hype with the arrival of the John Lewis Christmas advert.
The advert does not sell presents or toys, in fact how does the unexpected guest - and an alien to boot - sell Christmas and a store? It sells a message that reflects the brand / Christmas. It's all about the story that they are trying to tell you about them and their values and an idea of Christmas and a warm message, which also represents the values of the company.
Because marketing is all about stories and feelings and not about sales and products. Marketing should not be about what the company thinks, it should be about what the customer wants to feel about the company and their purchase experience. The image does not need to wholly match the words - we should leave some of this to the audience's imagination. The messaging should be clear and simple but leave something for the audience to feel and wonder about. This engages the customer with the brand as more than just products and services. In fact it becomes much more than that. You become part of the story thinking about your own experiences and how it matters and then you get that warm. fuzzy feeling which this company has given you. That is the marketing genius at work!
So many people think they are marketeers. We are responsible for our own brands and we are customers, so you can see why we all think this. How frustrating this is for marketers because so much goes into the story and experience than just what you see.
Selling a feeling is hard. But that is what it is all about. Stories have been around for ages in marketing: Nescafe and then BT cornered it. Now, organisations realise, they are not selling a product or service but a feeling, and therefore good word of mouth!
It really does all end up about customer experience and the customer journey!!!!
25th November 2021
Although it is important to keep one eye on your competition, it is more important to focus on your customers.
Every organisation has its own values, objectives and aims which mean that every organisation is different, had different strengths and ways of doing things.
I have always felt that it is important to focus on what you do best, your strengths, rather than focus on your competitors and what they are doing to try and copy or best them.
I believe if you focus on your strengths and aims and promote these, this is what makes a company differentiate themselves from their competitors and allows them to be able define their brand and reputation and not another replica brand.
Customers will often talk about what another brand does best or what they like in the sales process. It is better to listen to this and their experiences than think your competitors - and what they are doing - are the answer. Because in many cases, your customers may not agree AND not all that your competitors are doing may be good or work, or even right for you and your brand. Only your customers will really know from experience.
It is a useful activity to gain feedback whenever possible with customers after the purchase experience. Ebay for instance does it as part of the process. Many companies email you after asking for feedback. This allows you to gain feedback direct from the customer to allow you to change processes, procedures and the parts of the purchase experience.
I also think it is good to get this throughout the experience and not just at the end because you might be able to rectify a situation that you were not made aware of and the customer can gain a smooth experience for the remainder of the purchase process. Schools could do it after a visit or offer letter has been sent out to gain the opinion of buyers and non buyers and not just a few weeks after the point of entry.
Customers do like to be asked their opinion and as long as you can provide a quick one minute task for them / five question survey they will happily help.
We need to focus on our customers over the what the competition is doing every stage of the way. Have one eye on the competition, but both ears on the customer!
18th November 2021
It's another one of those blogs where I begin with the phrase 'Have you...."
So, have you ever been in a shop and you have asked for some help or the member of staff comes over to help and a few minutes into the conversation, the member of staff is looking past you at something else, or some noise (and I am not talking fire alarm, intruder alert or some other emergency sound that should demand their attention) catches their attention?
Have you been at a party when you are talking with someone and their attention continually diverts to what is going on behind you - and you notice this as their eyes shift. How does this all make you feel?
Less than special, not important, a side show? Well I understand, because this infuriates me. I hate it when peoples attention is swayed elsewhere when you should be the focus and especially if you are spending money on a product.
By having your attention diverted you are suggesting to the customer that you are not really engaged or listening to what they are saying and as you will know from previous blogs, listening to every word the customer says ensures a smooth and efficient sales process. By listening to everything, you will complete the transaction in a speedy and painless manner without hitch because you have taken the trouble to engage and listen to everything. For instance, the customer talks about wanting a kettle and a certain type which you zone out of and when you come back in and they have finished, you take them to the kettle aisle and show them the range of kettles, not realising you have missed the bit about whistling kettle in the colour green which is not on the shelf!
If you had listened to the customer you could have told them you did not have any green ones our on the floor to look at but that you would go and check in the back, going via the kettles to show them the range and other colours to keep them busy whilst you went into the back to check.
Each time you interact with a customer, they are your focus. Then you start again with a new customer and give them your focus. This is how you build relationships and gain trust. Eye contact (to a certain level) is very important. I would not advise a continued stare whilst speaking but at least show focus.
I always tell others of engaging, helping and focused staff. They usually smile lots too and use my name once they know it. They are made for the customer service industry. And can I tell you from someone who has a very short attention span, it is possible to focus and commit. We just seem to live lives where FOMO seems to be top dog and meerkat impersonations are done to death (you know, when people poop their heads up and strain to see who has walked into a room rather than focusing on the lecture, speaker or video!)
So forget FOMO, and FOCUS!
11th November 2021
Have you ever walked into a shop or store or dealt with a member of staff who was so rude you wanted to say something along the lines of, "If you were in my shoes and I yours, would you expect to be treated as such?"
Most people understand the phrase "do as you would be done by" but most people seem to forget it. We are in an age where life comes across as very "me, me me!"
In this week where we have had social media kindness week (never have we needed that more each week!) it is a time to reflect on others experiences and putting ourselves in another's shoes and considering how they feel.
This is the same in the sales process. There is a great quote that I just found this week: "empathy is the art of stepping imaginatively into the shoes of another person, understanding their feelings and perspectives and using that to guide your actions."
Why do we not do this in the sales process on a daily basis? Why is empathy not something that people talk about in schools? Probably because it cannot be taught, only learned through experience (or you may be one of the lucky ones that have natural empathy in any situation).
Empathy is key in the sales process. Being able to put yourself in the shoes of that customer in front of you and treat them kindly, with respect and in a way you would like to be treated is rare.
If we did this more, we would be more successful and grow better relationships. It is hard to show real empathy and care over social media for instance! It involves more than just words, but tone, language and body language as well as facial expressions. It is not easy!
As it is remembrance today, I urge you to remember to put yourself in the other persons shoes. We are all different and have different experiences. Respect is key when it comes to engaging the other person in the sales process or in life.
Remember "don't be do quick to judge. You never know when you might just find yourself walking in that person's shoes!"
I hope we all do this in the sales process and in life!
4th November 2021
Next time you go into a shop and have some help from a member of staff, consider whether the person helping you aligns with the company you are buying from.
For instance, when I walk into a certain supermarket, I am always greeted by warm and helpful staff, tills magically open quickly when more than three people are in a queue in quieter times and the place sparkles! I always feel the brand is about warmth, reliability and helpfulness and all staff have a part to place in this.
Take another store, and my experience the other week. I am sure the brand would not want people coughing in my direction and looking after the next customer before I had finished packing my items away even though their focus seems to centre around non customer focused areas such as frozen food, innovation, convenience and value.
Staff - and you - represent your company. If you go into a luxury shop for instance on Bond Street, the door in many cases will be opened for you and you will be approached soon after to see if you would like any help.
Other high end shops or stores offer fizz and smartly dressed sales assistants to help with the sales process representing these brands beautifully.
Other convenience-focused, good value stores seem to focus on these traits over the customer, but at least they are sticking to their values. However, when spending their money, customers want a smooth and easy sales process. You represent that for them and you need to be ready to help and support them with their query.
You - at that moment - represent the company / brand, so are you aware of your company's values? Do you embody them when you talk to a customer?
For instance, if one of your values is individuality, do you ensure an individual approach to the customer and sales process? If innovation is another - as per the brand above - are all parts of your company from the support staff to front line staff working to ensure your decision making and investment in the company with regard to process, CRM systems etc to that is innovative throughout?
The values do not just represent the product you are selling. They must be represented in everything you do and say to the customer - and in every decision within the organisation - so that the values are believable. As you - the member of staff - represent the brand, you must ensure you represent these values.
Research has found that only 19% of nearly 2000 global employees felt strongly that the 'work' experience is matched by reality. In other words, what employees saw on the careers site or were told by recruiters or the company is inconsistent with the actual experience once inside the company. Imagine being promised a culture of innovation only to have every new idea you put forward dismissed because this only represents the product and nothing else. If you are not invested in around the company's values, then why would you espouse them in the sales process?
Companies have a duty to ensure staff are invested in and trained and that they live up to the values in every single thing that happens and every decision made. Companies have a huge part to play in ensuring their staff represent the brand in every way possible. This creates an excellent and consistent customer experience that people will come to expect every time you represent them.
28th October 2021
Many of you will know that Shep Hyken is one of my favourite customer advocates after reading his book 'Amaze Every Customer, Every Time.'
He mentions in his book that the goal of companies is not to make profit but to get new customers which will in the end result in profit, so a company should be making customer acquisition their goal.
So how do they do this? Simple - create an organisation with a customer centric focus. What is Customer Centricity? Customer centricity is a mindset and a way of doing business that focuses on creating positive experiences for the customer through the full set of products and services that the enterprise offers. Customer-centric businesses generate greater profits, increased employee engagement, and more satisfied customers.
Customer-centricity needs to become a mindset across the organisation with buy-in from all stakeholders, because all departments need to work from a customer-centric standpoint rather than from a product-centric perspective to profit. It happens when the leadership embrace this to ensure that every decision within the organisation has the customer in mind every time. When that happens, then customer centricity is reached.
Customer journey mapping helps this strategy to be realised. By looking at the touchpoints (all areas that a customer makes contact with your organisation) then you can ensure a great customer experience. This will include for instance in a school, website navigation, ease of enquiry and finding telephone numbers or an email address, ease of booking or registering an interest in the school. it will also include visiting and seeing the grounds, meeting admissions staff and then teaching staff. It will include talking with the finance team about fees, meeting the cleaners in the boarding house on a tour as well as the catering team if they are staying for lunch. It is even the taxi driver to and from school.
Schools and business don't realise the unlikely advocates of the business include those who may not be on the payroll of a business. It's not just restricted to the sales team and the core product, it goes much deeper and everyone should be on board with customer centricity.
This then creates a great experience at every moment along the sales process. Customers only really want their promises to be delivered on and to get a good results with regard to the product they have bought into with their hard earned money. They will then become the greatest advocates for you, and as well as coming back for more (products or siblings if in schools), they will be telling their friends all about you.
That's when you are really on the path to success, and I have seen this happen in many organisations I have worked in and the marginal gains from excellent customer service and the growth achieved in a very short time.
Customer Centricity is a very under rated strategy, so my advice, get on board with customer centricity.
21st October 2021
So what does first class service look like? To me this is so easy. It boils down to a few aspects that I look for when spending money:
- Ease of purchase / smooth buying process
- Positive, passionate and proactive sales staff
- Warm professionalism throughout the process
If you have never watched one of those programmes that have been on recently about luxury hotels or shopping for the rich then you need to. These programme give an incredible insight into first class customer service.
You get what you pay for in life. If you want to pay peanuts, you get cheap and if you pay a little over the odds, you should get a first class service.
I reminded myself of this today as I went for my jab and popped into a local supermarket who shall remain nameless. The service and store layout was not enticing, engaging or in any way premium and it was cheap. The sales girl coughed in my direction as I got to the till, said, "alright love" and then proceeded to serve the next person before I had finished packing the five items away in my bag. My usual store, a little more expensive would never do this, and I am not even referencing the Magic and Sparkle effect or store where you mostly see range rovers parked outside because they make the car parking sizes for larger cars! (If you never clocked a recent campaign of theirs asking customers why they shop there, then you will have missed this gem!) This experience above reminded me why I do not shop there!
So what makes first class service; let's delve deeper:
- Ease of purchase / smooth buying process
This has got to be key in our time poor society. I want to be able to go into a store or check in at a hotel where the process takes minutes. They listen to my requirements / name and reference number and get on with processing the purchase / arrival with warmth. Then you want to get to your room easily. So many times when I have been travelling for previous schools on a work trip and I have arrived at various countries at Oh My God It’s Early o'clock, where easy and smooth checks ins have been brilliant. I wish the immigration check in would have been just as easy and pleasant!
- Positive, passionate and proactive sales staff
Before I engage, it would be nice to have a smile and someone come up and offer help a little while after I had arrived in the store. I was in one hotel a few years ago in which one evening my husband Nick and I had got dressed for dinner and walked to the reception intending to enjoy the walk and night air to the restaurant, and the concierge spotted us and offered the hotel car to take us to our restaurant. We could not believe it. She obviously had been trained to watch for these signs and make the offer. It was a true WOW moment and fantastic pro-activity. In other hotels, we have been welcomed warmly with a smile and after giving our name the staff have proceeded to use it whenever we met new ones. I am not talking your £50 a night B&Bs here though, but once you experience a great customer experience you want to enjoy that all the time and that is how brands develop and grow customers.
- Warm professionalism throughout the process
Now, I want a member of staff to ask me how I am, what I am doing next etc to engage me in conversation (always a winner), but I don't want it to go too far. I don't want to know about them or their issues and problems in relation to mine and I don't want them to talk too much or over me. Warm professionalism is all about engaging without talking too much and being warm and friendly without stepping over that (I think) obvious line between customer and staff member. You might remember I had my bathroom done at the beginning of the year and the sales person decided I needed to know about her divorce and new partner. I don't personally think I did need to know and it certainly did not help with my bathroom purchase!
So, why do all of this for a sale? Well if you are selling a luxury product that goes over and above the usual bottom end price, you would expect a good to excellent experience to pay over the odds for the product / service. This is especially true of independent education. Because, parents can get an education for free or go elsewhere - to your competitor - who does care about the business, only theirs.
First Class is about being Customer Centric. Is your organisation focused on every touch point being about the customer and their perception? If not, then you will not be creating a great experience and a first class service.
14th October 2021
Well, have you ever felt 'delighted' by something? For instance, you have gone back to your hotel room and the staff have left some chocolates or some goodies on the side with a note, or the shop assistant says that although they don't have the dress size in store you want, she will locate it for you and help you order it. How about when the supermarket member of staff sees you looking lost and asks you if you need any help or the time when you went to a restaurant for an anniversary and the restaurant created a 'congratulations' plate with chocolates on at the end? The time when you email the restaurant and they include your reason for being here in their weekly menu introduction along with all the other people in that week who had booked and you feel special?
I remember each and every one of these instances with a huge grin on my face, right now as I write. I had customer delight - a WOW moment - every time. Not only did people look after me, but they cared enough to go the extra mile. This made me feel special; I have more than a smile on my face for all these organisations and their staff meeting my expectations whilst thinking about these customer focused instances; these organisations exceeded it and to this day I have a grin on my face.
I was reminded this week whilst seeing a member of my community carrying (what I expect a very precious) Harrods bag, of my days working for Harrods, Knightsbridge (whilst at University to pay my way), and how much I learnt about customer service there and the art of creating customer delight, a WOW moment
I remember a customer walking in (I worked in what is called the contemporary collections department) and she had just been surprised by her partner with dinner and the opera in London and she had nothing to wear. I found her a dress, but when she told me this story, I decided to go and find her shoes, tights, and a bag to go with the dress. She went off to dinner and hopefully had a lovely evening. I thought at the time that I did not want such a lovely surprise from her partner to have any negative feelings attached (the worry of not having something to wear) so I tried to ensure she had the most positive experience to compliment the surprise.
How hard was that to do? How hard is it for anyone to go to extra lengths in fact? If we put ourselves in others shoes more, we would understand how we can help our customers better and give WOW moments all the time.
It actually happened to me this week at work (20 years on from Harrods!) with a customer buying our product. She was looking for something totally unrelated which she slipped into conversation as I was asking her about various related aspects. I have since been able to help her with another area of her life to make things easier. She emailed back jokingly that she had received the full service package and then jokingly asked about another aspect, which I was able to help with, again unrelated. I know I am hopefully making life easy, which is all people want really when it comes to the transaction process. I know that's what I want.
I read Shep Hyken's book about 'how to amaze every customer every time' that I raved about last week; he wrote about Ace Hardware stores doing just this. Their staff create a dialogue by asking questions of the customer about their life related to the product which they have bought, which gets the customer talking about other aspects and things they need help with. Sometimes the staff members can help with items related to the Ace Hardware products, and sometimes not. But they help with both to create the full service package.
This is how you create Customer Delight or a WOW moment, going above and beyond! And trust me when I say, it gives you delight too as you leave the office that day with a wonderful warm fuzzy feeling.
When you help someone, it's a good feeling for everyone! Now that’s a WOW moment!
Creating an excellent first impression
7th October 2021
It is a truth not universally acknowledged that we seem only to see things one way way rather than considering that there could be another opinion on a matter.
I am always saying that there is no such thing as right or wrong, it's all down to opinion.
In this instance, the opinion of the customer is key. In fact it is more than key - it is king, as is perception.
The following fact can show this:
"80% of companies think that they are giving superior customer service, whereas 8% of people think these same companies are delivering superior customer service."
Interesting, don't you think?
Never be complacent that you are doing a great job. Continue to learn, and get better. The customer generally won't let you know you are doing a bad job, they will just shop somewhere else. Feedback is important therefore, and more important than this is acting on that feedback otherwise you have wasted the time of many people who have given you feedback to help you be better.
So how can you continually try to ensure you are giving consistent customer service on top of taking note of feedback? There are three good ways of doing this:
Mystery shopping: having someone come in and test the customer touch points, making sure that the buying process is pleasurable and smooth. This will allow you to see any inconsistencies and iron out problems to be able to support a real customer.
Customer service training annually as well as refreshers are also helpful in ensuring your staff are updated and that they are continually providing consistently excellent customer service according to your policies and requirements. Role play is good to get your staff in the mindsets of your customers too and to put themselves in the buyers position.
Customer service audit: looking at processes and how smooth and easy it is for the customer to get to the buying stage as well as how easy it is for your staff to get them to the buying stage. Barriers to that final purchase do not help, so look at trying to alleviate these in the buying process.
I employ all of the above techniques to ensure consistent customer service is maintained at all times as well as reviewing the process consistently to ensure it is responsive to the customers needs and that the staff feel it supports them in the sales process.
So in conclusion, remember, the customer's perception is your reality.
Creating an excellent first impression
30th September 2021
… it’s how you fix the problem that count to get the customer back on side and feeling confident about purchasing again in the future.
It’s not something that people realise, but making a mistake in customer service can work out better than if you had not made a mistake. The reason? It’s because you get the chance to show you can recover from making a mistake (we are all human) and give the customer an amazing experience which they will rave about to lots of friends and colleagues.
People do love a smooth and easy purchasing process, no doubt, but to be disappointed and then to experience a recovery and a great experience really does make people feel good about a company.
Recovery can be listening and fixing the problem as well as promising a product by a certain date and ensuring this happens. It can be ensuring the customer has updates and being proactive in communication with the customer even if it takes longer to get a product or service to the customer. It can be responding to an email rather than not responding at all and letting the customer hang.
You should create little wow moments during the recovery process to make the customer feel special and valued if there has been a mistake, or not. This creates customer delight which is something all businesses should be striving for.
Shep Hyken is one of my favourite customer service gurus. He wrote a book called ‘be amazing or go home’ and my favourite ‘Amaze every customer, every time’ which gives a number of tips to creating great customer service. If you love this subject, then you will love this book as he is all about a great customer experience and writes about recovering from bad experiences. It include 52 tips to giving the best customer experience on the planet so if you need something to read, I would recommend this book and his tips! It is so positive and the tips are so easy … so happy reading!
Creating an excellent first impression
23rd September 2021
I saw this quote the other day and I thought that this is getting more and more true and probably has been very true for quite a long time, but we have not really tuned into this idea until recent years. This is only because we all realised that customer service and word of mouth is key across all sectors.
Word of mouth has always been attributed by all marketing departments as a key selling tool and brand awareness development. However, in the age where customer service and an amazing customer experience is king coupled with the variety of social media and ways to let people know how we feel about a brand and the speed with which we can do it...... and the speed with which feedback can be distributed, I can undoubtedly day that customer experience is the new advertising department.
Experiences of bad customer service and naming bad companies in this regard reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience, consider your 'advertising department'. Should you not be investing in the areas that can ensure that your ‘advertising department’ is your best?
For years, people have been investing in their advertising to promote their brand and they always had control over what was promoted. Well, that is a little harder if your advertising department is your customers and they can say and do anything they want based on their interaction with your organisation.
So what should the new investment be if you are not spending money on advertising? How about your staff and training for your staff? What about ensuring your customer journey and all its touch points are at red carpet levels with regard to the customer experience?
It is your staff that deal with the customers. It is your staff that update your website or interact with the customers online. It is your staff that answer queries and deal with issues. It is your staff who ensure your new advertising department promotes a positive word of mouth.
I know with Christmas around the corner and our countdown to the annual adverts, advertising is still a key part of the marketing arsenal and supports the full experience that a customer receives. I am also sure that John Lewis though would say both - advertising and an excellent customer experience - are key.
So train and look after your staff to help with your advertising!
Creating an excellent first impression
16th September 2021
This week, a UK independent school advertised a new role which I had never seen before and hope to see more of. The role is for a customer engagement director. I was so thrilled and delighted to see a school finally take this incredibly important area so seriously through looking to recruit someone solely to focus on customer relationships within marketing, admissions, fundraising and commercial enterprise.
Schools need to realise that in the main, their product is good, in fact our products are the envy of the world. What we need to be concentrating on is the experience that our parents and alumni receive. I can honestly say that our products are fit for the 21st century and beyond with Covid making so many here in the UK (after years of derision) realise the benefits to an independent education. However the customer experience that parents receive is generally prehistoric and not befitting a luxury product.
Now I don't like to do marketing and admissions staff down but in so many cases schools teams are run -and have staff - that do not focus or care about the customer; they only care about the process. They are usually fearsome people who control the admissions process and year with a vice like grip, focusing on the dates and academic year rather than the customer journey: enquiry, visit, taster, offer, acceptance and joining.
I do understand that the product is sometimes at fault, but when you have an amazing product and it is not shifting, then it is down to one of two things: marketing and customer experience.
Now, the new marketing and advertising department is your ability to create a great experience for the customer who will go away and tell many people about it; I have seen this happen in recent years. One person experiences a new way of thinking or a new excellent experience and the rest - especially if spending hard earned money on a luxury product - will follow suit.
Customer experience is king in terms of your word of mouth. Unfortunately it is a truth universally acknowledged that humans tend to prefer to talk about negative experiences rather than good. Who wants to talk about the good news have everyone flocking there interrupting your great experience? In fact 26 people will hear about the bad and about eight the good. So it is in your best interest to ensure that the experience you give is excellent because word of mouth will affect your business. People can only take so much in terms of a bad experience.
When you are considering your product and the experience you provide, really consider both carefully. It is hard to really be critical about your experience so mystery shopping is key here and I would wholly advise this. Having neutral feedback from new eyes and in comparison with your competitors really does give you a sense of what needs fixing in terms of the customer experience.
I cannot emphasise the importance of the experience for a customer. You will find they will give feedback to others and this feedback can make or break your brand. So really consider customer mapping and the journey to ensure that amazing experience for your customers.
Creating an excellent first impression
9th September 2021
Customer centricity relies on six key tenets which are brilliantly displayed by the model attached in the picture with this blog.
You need customer focused leadership, continuous feedback, metrics that matter, a great experience and journey, an understanding of the customer and empowered staff.
Without all the key aspects, your will not get true customer centricity within the organisation and create a top class customer experience to retain and grow your customer base whichever industry or sector you are in. I say this because many organisations in various sectors do not think this applies to them and I have witnessed and experienced this in businesses both selling luxury and non luxury products.
Without a leadership that embraces a customer-focused approach irrespective of the time it takes staff to implement it properly or even the money invested in hiring new staff and ensuring all frontline staff are right for their roles then the rest does not matter.
Without research on your customer to know what they like and how to be treated then you cannot ensure you are responding to their needs.
Without metrics and feedback you cannot measure your success or indeed get better.
Without a proper customer journey, analysed and tested properly to ensure it is smooth and easy for the customer allowing for diversions and flexibility in the journey to ensure an individual journey for all - as customers are all different - then you will not see retention and growth.
Finally, without empowered staff, able to wholly support customers on the frontline (if you don’t know about the Ritz Carlton model by now then look up how they empower their staff - or ladies and gentlemen) then staff will not be able to meet the customers needs truly and give then a really bespoke and individual experience.
All six tenets are key to creating an incredible experience. Research and metrics might seem a waste, but you need to get these done first to set the scene and make things right. Marketing is not about being creative only.
Finally, I need to stress that leadership is key. Leadership might be on board in words, but when things cost money or time - or indeed staff who do not want to change so cite time and leadership are not strong enough to make the changes needed - and these costs and time are not embraced and dealt with through getting more staff or investing in new processes then you will not gain customer centricity. It comes for all aspects of the organisation and should get into all aspects of the organisation because of leadership.
Leadership is key to this. I will end with this quote: Leadership is never an avenue to be self serving, but a platform to render great service to people.
Creating an excellent first impression
2nd September 2021
You can always tell a company culture by how upbeat, positive and passionate the staff are. Although, granted, some people are excellent actors and actresses, in the end, it is impossible to keep this up day in, day out.
Everyone is part of a team whatever their role in an organisation and everyone’s contribution should be celebrated equally, For instance, if you don’t have pot washers in a restaurant, then you will not have plates to serve food on, without nurses providing support with correct tools, then surgeons cannot operate and without support and administration staff then schools and hospitals and so many other organisations could not go about their daily business. Everyone is part of a usually well oiled machine and without each and every person, a business would not be able to operate.
As schools return for the new academic year, one of the most important days of the year for staff is the first inset day. This is when the Head addresses staff about the year ahead, new additions - a sort of state of the nation-style address. How many times have I seen and been told by colleagues only academic staff are involved in the main introduction part. Don’t forget your school includes a team of people that work to ensure all elements run smoothly and not just teaching. Everyone should be included and be a part of this important start to the year and be made to feel part of the team; it creates a feeling of being valued. Exam results and university destinations are remarked on and celebrated, but so should all the work to improve the school over the holidays be celebrated and remarked on too. What about the admissions staff who have worked so tirelessly bringing in new families, or the cleaners ensuring the schools are spotless - especially this year in the wake of the pandemic.
So many schools don’t include every single member of staff in these inset days - as one team. Every single member of staff is probably going to have contact with the customer at some point whether in a school or other business so everyone needs to be updated and feel valued. Everyone should be hearing about numbers, exam results, and work done and marketing and development plans and activities. Everyone can help in some way to make an organisation a better place and a great experience for the customer.
Teams are important and it is important to treat everyone equally because staff will start to feel less than valued and talk at the wrong times to the wrong people which can damage your brand.
Remember, team work makes the dream work… and there is no ‘I’ in team, but there is nearly a meat pie!
Creating an excellent first impression
26th August 2021
It always amazes me that organisations get it so wrong with regard to staffing sometimes, especially with regard to front line staff who deal with customers on a day in, day out basis.
Why would your trust your sales to anyone other than the most passionate, proactive, positive and professional people?
CVs come in laden with lots of interesting job and education information, but I always skip these and focus on the companies people have worked for and their interests and hobbies. This tells you more about a person than any other part of the CV.
Now don’t get me wrong, educational achievements and career development are important, but a customer could not know whether the person in front of them has a A at A level in Psychology or a first class degree in History. This has no bearing on whether a person is able to listen and be helpful, things you can pick up in the interests section of the CV and at the interview.
When looking for someone to fulfil a role in supporting customers, look for those four key attributes:
Positivity - so important, even after three hours of helping someone find the perfect product and answering a million questions
Passion - for the service or organisation they work within
Pro-activity - are they a great listener which will then ensure they can help efficiently and smoothly
Professionalism - are they friendly and warm without moving from a member of staff to friend.
People are key to business and finding the right person for a front facing role is so key. It helps with your recruitment of customers and retention of customers (read my blog from last week to find out why this is so important).
People placed in a customer focused role should not just be doing the job for the financial reward. It has to be more than that. They have to love what they do, because the customer will always know from the body language and help - or lack of - whether the person really cares. Because. If they really care, he customer will know that they will be looked after well and have a great experience, and will probably return…a good thing for the business!
So why don’t businesses and organisations invest time in this crucial area? Training would be a great start and then re-training annually so that any new employees are up to speed and the culture of ‘customer service’ is in bedded. Not only that, even. If staff leave, all the other staff are clued up as to what needs to happen so companies can spend time ensuring they get the right people in to take on any new roles. Organisations need to consider strategic planning with regard to customer service, roles and staff to ensure business sustainability.
So next time you need to recruit to a specific role, take time to read all the non essential information a CV as well as listen to see how well the candidates listen and really answer a question. It could make the difference between business loss or sustainability.
Creating an excellent first impression
19th August 2021
This blog is directed at schools’ staff, mainly Heads, Directors of Sixth Form and Marketers.
Right about now, many schools are looking at their year 11 numbers: how many will stay, how many will go (because the grass is always greener, they’ve been at the school forever, they want more freedom…you all recognise the responses), but how many of you conduct real research into really understanding your customer and why they leave?
Do you send a leavers questionnaire to year 11’s, year 13’s and their parents around June time? Do you send another one around September time to all leavers? Do you conduct parent and pupil surveys? If not, how then can you know what the customer is thinking? Only by asking and listening, will we know what is wrong and be able to fix the issues, because - and here is a scary stat - it costs seven times more to recruit a pupil that it does to retain a pupil! So why are we not creating teams with a customer retention champion to keep these students? How unfair on the marketing teams year in, year out, trying to recruit (in a very tough market) only to see their recruits bottom out? Would it not be sensible (and here I am doing marketers out of their jobs a little) to focus on retention and save money???
Customer experience - or lack of - will most likely be the number one reason a person leaves, made apparent most likely by the indifference of one employee as families will cite a name if you ask for general feedback.
Humans don’t like change, and teenagers for all their blustering, really don't like change! So the pastures new / grass is greener reasons really are for effect and to look cool. I would suggest that potentially the product is not enticing enough and therefore the customer will experience a less than first rate final two years. Because if your school is the best in the world, no sane person would move their child from it and nor would their child want to leave. So how do you fix it?
Listening to customer feedback through focus groups and surveys as well as looking at your competition and what they are doing. The last two years needs to be the best ever (if you have a Sixth Form) and your product should reflect this and not give all the tools and best bits away byyear 11 which is not the end of their school career.
Focus on the Sixth Form product, the next step support, what’s available for these young adults. Is your school too focused on an area, creating an imbalance and retention issues? The Oxbridge supposed favouritism towards state schools should not be - and is not - an issue, as independent schooling in itself gives you so much more long after university days. So focus on soft skills, life skills and a character education - an all round education - that employers are crying out for.
Look at your customer experience and journey over the recent 3-5 years. What can be done better and what can be learnt from the recent 18 months that can be used to help better the experience for parents and students.
Don’t forget, an independent education is a luxury product with a price tag that reflects this. We need to give more and ensure we give good value for the price tag. This does not include academic teaching, which is a given, it is the other bits and bobs that make up our schools and the incredible education we provide for 6% of the country and many around the world.
Consider your customer experience by sitting down parents and students from all year groups and asking how the preceding year has gone. Can you learn from anything said and make it better so the experience is the best and both parents and families would then never consider leaving at such a crucial time in their education journey.
Creating an excellent first impression
12th August 2021
It is a truth universally acknowledged that you never get a second chance to make a first impression so why do so many people never get it right first time?
A number of reasons - lack of preparation, training, care or investment.
Last year, in my previous role, it was necessary to change the visit process to accommodate the pandemic and the rules at the time to ensure visiting families had the same experience but in a safe manner. This visit process has been tried and tested and worked well over a two year period so we had to adapt and overcome quite significantly to ensure a fantastic first impression.
Planning was key and giving time to ensure it was right. We did not book in visits until a week after we thought it would be safe to do so and when we were ready. We invested in time and new processes, plans and signage both before, during and after the visit and did a run through before the first visit of the physical side of the visit.
We had eight visits booked in over four days and we ensured that only one family could come in the morning or afternoon to ensure we could clean down any equipment used.
Every family was impressed with the impression and visit plan, both information sent before, the day of the visit and the care taken. Needless to say, with the help of a number of other parameters to do with the education, most signed up to start immediately or in the end academic year.
This reminded me to how important it is to ensure you plan well to create that great first impression and that people feel valued when you have done this.
Second impressions do not count, people remember the first impression only and this counts not just for organisations and their service but you as a person - your brand.
It is important that your first impression of you is the same to everyone. Be consistent. Live your brand every day. Don’t run an environmentally friend company and drive a gas guzzler, don’t sell vegetarian products and still eat meat.
First impressions count, you cannot change this with a second impression. Even if you get it right, people will always remember that first impression.
Creating an excellent first impression
5th August 2021
Every so often we all have to have some time off and enjoy a break away from work, so here are some tips to be able to be email free for your holiday and give great customer service at the same time as no-one should need to be checking their emails even people within leadership (as I was told I had to in a previous role!) People are paid more for responsibility and not to work ridiculously longer hours as I have always believed as people in leadership and roles need a break too, in order to cope with the additional responsibility they have!
Tip 1 - ensure you tell all your suppliers and customers in advance that you are on holiday so that you can help with any key issues in the meantime and let them know who will be taking your place during your holiday to contact.
Tip 2 - plan your work around your holiday such as sending content to designers so they design the literature during your holiday ready for draft one to be looked at on your return.
Tip 3 - ensure your ‘out of office’ includes someone the person emailing you can contact in your absence and not just have a message saying you are away which is unhelpful. Always include a telephone number and email address too.
Tip 4 - do state when you will return from your holiday in your out of office and when you will be back in the office to go through your emails
Tip 5 - don’t book or go on holiday the week before results days (if you work in a school!)
Happy holidays!
Creating an excellent first impression
29th July 2021
You walk in to a store and go up to the help desk. Two members of staff are talking and they continue with their conversation about a recipe, recent date, TV programme or friends breakup (not work or stock levels) rather than smiling and turning to you to ask if you need any help. How many times has this happened to you? How do you feel as the customer when someone blatantly ignores you. You may however not consider this a customer service no-no. However most people would state that these members of staff are being paid by the company not to be chatting about personal affairs but instead to help grow the business and make a sale … by helping you in this instance.
I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me and how cross it makes me feel. People get breaks and lunch breaks. Chat then about Love Island or a holiday to Spain. Primarily people are in the paid employment of the business they are representing as staff, so I would think that should be the focus.
I have seen this in shops, hotels, restaurants, museums and even schools. The latter I can never understand and makes the worst first impression and says we care more about us than your custom.
As purveyors of a luxury product, schools focus should be on every tough point with the customer at all times.
So, after this little soap box moment, let’s consider what you can do to ensure your customers never get so irate and walk out of the organisation (as I have done many a time!)
If you were nodding your head vociferously to the above example, then I am sure you are the kind of person who gives excellent customer service and if you were talking to a colleague, you would probably say quickly “lets continue this later as I am just going to help this gentleman / lady.” If you were not nodding a lot, then you fall into two camps:
1 - you have done this in the past but don’t really think it’s an issue - everyone’s allowed a personal life after all
2 - you have done it, but did not consider at the time this to be a customer service faux pas.
So with camp 2, I would get your company to invest in some customer service training. It really is not great if you are being paid to look after customers and you have not been trained to understand that this is you key focus. If you don’t have breaks during the day to chat to colleagues - and this is important in terms of teamship - then speak with someone who may be able to look at this for you.
If you fell into camp 1, then there is nothing I can say apart from that customer facing roles may not be for you.
Your customers are crucial, as the sole focus of a business is to gain customers … to gain customers and grow. If you are not looking after them using your own experiences then you will have a hard time growing and thriving as a business.
Customer experience is considered the new marketing. Marketing relies a lot on word of mouth. You need to ensure your customer experience is first class all the time to retain and grow your customer base!
Creating an excellent first impression
It’s not the big that beats the small, it’s the fast that beats the slow!
22nd July 2021
There is nothing worse than oil tanker movement levels from people and businesses. In an age where we are cash rich, time poor, speed is of the essence.
I remember when I first heard this in a presentation from Dominic Moon of Metropolis Education and I realised this to be absolutely true. Yes, small businesses can win over big businesses now with the age of the internet and low cost digital advertising making accessibility so easy for all, but it is the fast that does beats the slow, alongside amazing customer service, in the end however big or small you are.
How? Well, lets use my sector as an example. A busy parent emails two schools for information or a visit. Both schools are on summer holiday. School A has an admissions team that are open for tours and the one of the members of the admissions team are always there, and the second school, School B, is open for tours but not by the admissions team because they are too busy, instead sending enquiries to other members of the staff to do this whilst at the same time not always both there to forward these on. School A gets back within 24 hours and secures a visit the next day at a time to suit the customer. School B takes three days to reply, passes it onto someone else who says they can only do tours at a certain time. Which do you think leaves the best impression and which will the parent choose?
Easy right!?
Let’s give another non school example: you need a dress by Saturday, and two ‘shops’ on eBay have the same dress but delivery dates are for Saturday and Monday, which one will you go for? And you are happy to pay a little extra for the speed of course.
I recently sent out a request on ‘bark’ for a service. Who did I go with? The one who got back to me quickest.
Finally, I am still trying to sort out a refund with a company two months on. Not happy! I will not be using them again.
So moral of the story, be helpful and efficient. But listen too, because contrary to the main thrust of this blog, some people like to take their time, some like speed at the appropriate time.
For me, it seems appropriate to quote from a legendary film (when it comes to customer service), whose sequel is coming out this year, finally:
‘I feel the need, the need for speed!’
Creating an excellent first impression
What Does Great Customer Service Look Like?
15th July 2021
Well it really starts with a customer centric organisation employing the right people to look after the customer and thinking solely about what the customer wants at every touch point they have with the organisation.
You really do need your staff to have the right customer service skills to create a great customer experience, as the image attached to this blog shows.
I am going to relay the best customer service experience I have ever had and how it got me to do the three things that organisations want you to do: spend more money in their organisation, tell the world how brilliant they are, therefore gaining more customers and then returning - creating repeat business and life time custom!
On a trip to Dubai a few years ago, my husband and I decided to treat ourselves to an evening at the skyline bar at the Burj Al Arab. This was to be a late evening drinks rather than dinner (way to pricey for us). We booked understanding there would be a minimum spend for the evening per person. Within 30 minutes of booking, I had a personalised (albeit computerised with my name in it, which was fine) email thanking me for my booking, giving me information about when to arrive, dress code, spending requirements and where to go. Impressive. Real attention to detail. We arrived and were kindly and warmly told where to go by the hotel staff. As soon as we arrived at the bar we were welcomed and after I had told them our name, without fail, every single one of the waiters used it at the appropriate times. They seated us explaining as soon as they could they would get us a seat by the window. I knew which drink I was going for, and my husband was going to choose the same but they tactfully suggested an alternative one. My drink came out in a high heeled shoe with a variety of lipstick tasters! His came out with smoke in a more standard glass! Impressive. We ordered another. They moved us to a lower seating area nearer the window. It was interesting because throughout I never felt overly looked after but at the same time I never felt we were neglected, with nibbles brought over and being asked about drinks at the appropriate times. Waiters were positive, helpful and kind. We decided to order more drinks and we were then seated by the window getting a fantastic view of Dubai at night. The waiters had been patient all night helping us with choices and suggesting options and they showed real empathy with conversation and their suggestions and help as well as knowing we wanted to sit by the window, and made this happen.
We were treated so well we ended up spending double what we had decided on spending that night! And to top if off, I received an email about 4-5 hours later with a survey about the experience. One of the questions blew me away. It was - “Did anyone throughout the evening say no to you?” I jumped for joy when I read this. No-one likes to be told no in the purchase process and especially if you are spending a lot of money. And you don’t have to say no to a customer ever. (If you want more information on this, then email me!) There are ways of letting a customer down without saying no. We got to the window in the end didn’t we! This made my day, week, year well decade I think. Customer experience in Dubai is on another level - and I experienced this warmth, patience, empathy, tact and positivity on a number of occasions (although never at the Burj level) but then Dubai has customer happiness centres, so it figures.
So, now you know the elements to great customer service. I bet the staff at the Burj go through rigorous training in customer service but I also know they are a totally customer centric organisation.
So remember attention to detail, positivity, tact, empathy and patience is the order of day to creating a red carpet, five star customer experience.
You can always email me for help with this: lucy@4pcustomerxperience.biz
Creating an excellent first impression
8th July 2021
It is a truth not universally acknowledged that we seem only to see things one way way rather than considering that there could be another opinion on a matter.
I am always saying that there is no such thing as right or wrong, it's all down to opinion. And the glass could be half full or half empty!
In this instance, the opinion of the customer is key. In fact it is more than key - it is king, as is perception. The following fact can show this:
"80% of companies think that they are giving superior customer service, whereas 8% of people think these same companies are delivering superior customer service."
Interesting, don't you think?
Never be complacent that you are doing a great job. Continue to learn, and get better. The customer generally won't let you know you are doing a bad job, they will just shop somewhere else. Feedback is important therefore, and more important than this is acting on that feedback otherwise you have wasted the time of many people who have given you feedback to help you be better.
So how can you continually try to ensure you are giving consistent customer service on top of taking note of feedback? There are three good ways of doing this:
Mystery shopping: having someone come in and test the customer touch points, making sure that the buying process is pleasurable and smooth. This will allow you to see any inconsistencies and iron out problems to be able to support a real customer.
Customer service training annually as well as refreshers are also helpful in ensuring your staff are updated and that they are continually providing consistently excellent customer service according to your policies and requirements. Role play is good to get your staff in the mindsets of your customers too and to put themselves in the buyers position.
Customer service audit: looking at processes and how smooth and easy it is for the customer to get to the buying stage as well as how easy it is for your staff to get them to the buying stage. Barriers to that final purchase do not help, so look at trying to alleviate these in the buying process.
I employ all of the above techniques to ensure consistent customer service is maintained at all times as well as reviewing the process consistently to ensure it is responsive to the customers needs and that the staff feel it supports them in the sales process.
So in conclusion, remember, the customer's perception is the reality.
Creating an excellent first impression
1st July 2021
I have been blogging for 2 and a half years now and so I thought I would celebrate with a very early blog that I love…
This quote hit me like a bolt of lightening when I read it recently as being so obvious, so why don't we all practice it?
Every so often little nuggets of genius appear on Pinterest in response to my pinning of customer service quotes, and this is one of them.
It's like that other wonderful sales quote, "Sell an experience, not a product".
But what does it all mean?
Customers go online or to shop to find a product in response to a need. Sometimes that product need is easy to fix, but not always.
For instance, you want to find an implement for eating soup - well a soup spoon is pretty much the tool for the job.
But what if you need to buy a television, a car, an oven or a house? There are more variables that go into the search for these items. This is when helping the customer to find what they are looking for and listening to their requirements and needs really helps to sell your product and organisation.
Reeling off information on the latest and most expensive television or car in the range just because you know the patter or you have been told to upsell usually ends in the customer running for the nearest exit!
By listening to the customer, finding out what they need and helping to solve their problem, will gain you a new customer, or a more loyal customer. And why is this important? I am sure you have competitors who would love to take your customers, but most importantly, authentic and honest sales help a business in the key goal of customer acquisition: a customer for life.
Why is this important? Because it acquiring customers costs seven times more than retaining customers!
An example of helpful sales to the importance of life time value is shown here: my father buying his first German car, one that he had been wanting and looking at for a long time: his dream car. He spent months visiting the sales house, going over all the options until he finally bought it. I thought at the time the staff had the patience of a saint, but their patience won out (Remember: never, never, never give up... on the customer!) I remember someone saying at the time that they would see my father as a potential life time customer if all went right, and that it was not just about one sale with regard to all the time Given and patience. The help they gave him over the months was important because that person were right: he has since bought a number of German cars - only from them - over the years.
So it is important to help the customer find the perfect product or answer to their problem however long it takes. It is not a sale. it is providing help or an experience. People love helpful people. People warm to help to solve their issues and queries. It stands to reason that helping someone with their query, solving a problem, all the while creating a relationship and an experience, will end up in a sale.
Creating an excellent first impression
24th June 2021
My husband always say that team work makes the dream work and he is right because it takes a whole team to achieve ongoing excellent customer service.
If you are not aware of the following statistic - it is my favourite and I use it a lot: did you know that the single biggest reason a business loses customers is due to the indifference of one employee? I know, a sort of Victor Meldrew - ‘I don’t believe it’ has just come out of your mouth, but it is true! It is not competition or word of mouth etc. It is your employees - or one or two - that put off a customer. And I know this to be true as I have left organisations for this very reason myself!
This means that 99% of staff in a company could be creating an amazing customer experience for every customer who comes through the doors, via the phone, email or internet, and one member of staff could be letting the side down in a big way.
Team work is therefore key and customer centric organisations, where customers and their needs are the first thought in every decision, really do support a team focus with regard to customer service.
If everyone knows what to do and how, how to respond to a customer and how to answer the various questions asked, then people will feel confident to do the right thing.
I know after I delivered customer service training in an organisation once, that one of the members of staff thanked me for this training because they said they had never been told what to do before and they found it helpful to be shown what was needed. Don’t forget, this giving great customer service is not natural and easy for everyone.
Helpfulness and listening are key for internal stakeholders and your colleagues as well as your customers. It is annoying I know when you are a ‘yes’ person, being helpful and supportive, and your colleagues cannot muster the proactive support you need time and time again (and it happened to me this week so I know) but that should not stop you being proactive, positive, professional and passionate about helping and supporting.
Teams are key. I love working in teams and know in recent times the importance of teams and the support and role of every member of the team with growing a department and business. I know this to be the case because in a previous role, one member of a team I led spoke up about their role in the growth of a section within the department stating ‘I reached those targets, I grew that area’. What that person failed to recognise was the work that another member of the team did before they came on board laying some foundations to support the longer term growth within the organisation and the meeting of targets that they enjoyed because of this alongside the ongoing support of a variety of members of staff within the department and wider organisation too at the same time. Not everyone is a team player! It is all about team work, not individuals. Development teams really do know this because they cannot take credit in the main for a legacy gift from a legator that was probably stewarded before their arrival in the department.
I have worked in marketing and development in schools over the last eleven years but I have helped with outdoor education in the form of two hiking trips, doing boarding duties, looking after pupils during Christmas week last year, being support crew for Devizes to Westminster, helped with quizzes, stuffed letters for other departments and provided cover for lessons. I also ran our local post office for a day when the couple running it wanted to go to a special family event. I list this to show we can do stuff to help outside our jobs, allowing you to see things from a different perspective to help you with your role.
I am a big believer in team work and helping others with their jobs because it creates a positive internal environment and builds trust and great relationships. And in the end you are all working towards the same outcome whatever your role.
As my husband always says, there is no I in team, but there is nearly a meat pie!
Creating an excellent first impression
17th June 2021
I wrote a blog last year about how time was the greatest gift. Giving someone your attention is giving them your time and it really makes someone feel valued and ultimately special.
As we continue to live in a time poor world, in the main, giving of your time is increasingly valuable. I always feel uplifted if a meeting does not last as long as it has been booked out for or even cancelled. I feel like I have been given the gift of time which is so wonderful and precious. (At work it allows me to get on with another project, but in life a chance to spend time reading, drawing or painting - something that always slips down that list because it feels indulgent or selfish!
For customers, your attention translates - for me - into one of two aspects of customer service that I always talk about: listening. I am such an advocate for listening. Listening is giving your attention fully - and I mean 100% and not thinking about the shopping list or how to reply to the customers questions or conversation - and then you are in the best position to help. So many times, in my recent career, I have found that staff do not really listen to a customer and therefore do not answer the question they were asked. They might even go off in a tangent not realising that it’s not about them but about the customer after not listening to them fully and forgetting what the real query was in the first place and just waffle on.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that people are more comfortable talking about themselves. If this is the case, then to get the best out of the customer, give them your attention by listening and ensuring your responses are succinct and most importantly reflect their words and conversation. Additionally, be mindful of how much of the time your words and conversation are taking up and ensure it is less than 50% of the time and less if possible!
Don’t forget to use previous knowledge gained from the customer throughout the process from previous conversations or in a new purchase process from previous purchases. Remember details a customer has offered because this really shows you listened and gave them your attention.
In a previous role, with hot leads, we would note their coffee and tea preferences for any future visits. We would add key information for the purposes of building the relationship and moving the purchase process to hopefully a positive outcome. This is the key premise of donor relationship building. Remembering and using details and information in a previous conversation shows you care and have given your attention.
So even if that is for five minutes - and that’s not long - just listen and learn and then respond. It does not take that much to really listen and be attentive. So many people chip in and not let a person really get everything out. Remember some people don’t have everything in their head to use in conversation, some people think on their feet and need time to get everything out so as not to forget anything. Chipping in with your thoughts mid way is not listening and is not attentive. For some this is hard, but just try it for five minutes - it will be very rewarding!
I will leave you with advice my husband gave me once: you have two ears and one mouth, use them in proportion!
Creating an excellent first impression
10th June 2021
I am one of those customers that if I don’t get great customer service all the time, every time and at every touch point, I switch off. I am one of this people that are actually bothered by this to spend time finding an alternative.
Generally people are cash rich, time poor and you can bet they won’t go elsewhere and that they will stay with you because of this. This is not a good thing. Why? Because they will not be giving you good word of mouth whilst they are still buying your product or service, resentful that they don’t have the time and inclination to move to another company, giving them even more ammunition to give you and your company negative reviews.
Generally I would expect you would want rave reviews, good word of mouth, happy customers and growth? If so, then you have to give great customer service every time. And this is not limited to the final purchase. This has to be from the start when that customer visits your website to start the purchase process (how easy is it to navigate, to find help or a number or email to make contact?), to how helpful a member of staff is on the phone and finally to being looked after whilst that customer makes their mind up. This requires patience and understanding and listening. Well aren’t you a customer too, and don’t you want these things?
I made the mistake of giving someone the benefit of the doubt recently, longer than I should, and they did not pull it back as I said can be done successfully in a recent blog. In fact they only gave themselves an own goal. I had my bathroom done in January and thought it was so good (albeit a few small issues) that I thought I would get the kitchen done by the same people. I sent an email with the whole spec in February. Nothing for a while and then an email a few weeks later when I chased saying everyone was on furlough until April 12th. Then on April 12th I sent another, and ...you guessed it nothing. Early May (and there are some time constraints to getting this done), another email was sent with a follow up and a promise of getting back to me. Nothing, so I went into the store. They promised to email with a date for an initial measurement and they did. However they emailed the day before to say they could not make it that day! I had on a number of occasions tried to get them to email me, but they persist in ringing. I got someone else when I emailed every day after the no-show for the agreed date, who rang, and they said that they had a number of staff leave the company but said they would make a note to get back to me this week. Have they? No. So I decided in the meantime to look elsewhere. Within 24 hours of this decision, I had researched other kitchen companies, contacted them and one has been in to measure within 72 hours of my phone call and sent a quote within days; furthermore a very kind person who I also contacted said they could not do it in the timescales I wanted but would be happy to check the quote for comparability (what amazing help and customer service is that!) and it’s now all booked in before the end of August which was critical. Now, kitchens are not cheap and you would expect better service don’t you think?
So, moral of the story, if you are not great every time, your customers will look elsewhere.
Creating an excellent first impression
3rd June 2021
I read a book a few years ago that totally wowed me with regard to customer service. The book is by Donna Cutting and it is called 'Insider Secrets to delivering Red Carpet Customer Service' - The Celebrity Experience. The Pizza story will really make you understand what amazing customer service is and take it to a whole new level.
People like to feel special and the red carpet treatment makes people feel special.
You must have had that experience in a shop or in a hotel, where the member of staff goes the extra mile and makes you feel valued and special with their manner (professional and polite) and help. If not, I suggest you hop on a flight to Dubai where they really know all about customer service!
The red carpet treatment resonates with me this week as I experienced it during my holiday including little gifts from BnB owners to enjoy on our walking holiday, to being flexible with dinner time and the best one - allowing us breakfast 30 minutes earlier so we could get off on our walk earlier to catch a train.
I say this every week, but if people are spending money on your product or service then you need to treat them well, well actually the best, so they will come back and spend more money. Because, again, repeat customers are much less expensive to your business in the long run compared to constantly finding and bringing in new ones with expensive marketing and advertising campaigns.
So, when you deal with that next customer, think how you can give that person red carpet customer service and therefore help to retain a customer and bring customer loyalty to your organisation and support in its growth!
Creating an excellent first impression
27th May 2021
... and I know this to be true! It happened to me this week. I had a less than great first impression and experience with a new organisation that left me feeling a little unsupported. Their communication had been confusing and I had signed up for a course to help me with an area of work thinking it was for me, but was told it was then not really for me.
I did question this and got some less than satisfactory information back.
This week a representative from the organisation came back to me and asked for feedback and said she would ensure the feedback that she patiently listened to was sent forward for inclusion into the general feedback.
It was nice to feel listened to and valued, and in turn I now have a great feeling towards this company and my experience as a whole has made me feel totally positive towards this organisation in question.
Companies don’t realise that bad customer service or a poor first impression can be turned around.
We all know mistakes happen and service levels may not be five star, but it does not take much to turn this around by making a customer feel valued through apologising, listening and supporting.
I have also experienced this turn around as the person supporting the customer. This situation arose because a customer had fed back that the service they had received whilst supporting a friend with the purchase process was not great especially when comparing it with other organisations. I invited the customer in to full go over the aspects that other companies were better at. I revised this part of the customer journey and implemented the new changes. Six months later the same customer returned returned to support another colleague with the same part of the purchase process and was overwhelmed at the difference citing us as the best of all the organisations. So I know that it is possible to do a 180 and change perception by listening, apologising and supporting.
I also relish the challenge of sorting out the issue and making the customer happy. Customers are humans too. As long as they feel valued and listened to and helped with what they need, that’s all you need to do to win them around even after an erroneous and poor service experience.
As I always say, put yourself in the shoes of your customer and think how you would like to be treated. It’s that easy to get into the mindset of your customer.
Loyalty is hard to establish, but turning a bad situation to good is one of the best ways of achieving this and even more so in some cases had the service been right the first time. All it does is demonstrate that you are human and that we all make mistakes and that they now know you can solve issues for them. Therefore they know that if any future mishaps occur you are able to solve the issue too as you have just proved that you did.
So remember that when you think you did a bad job, don’t be negative. You can turn it around. Just own the situation, apologise and put it right.
Creating an excellent first impression
20th May 2021
I have been considering the fact that marketing is really all about creating a great customer experience and it’s more than a one sided relationship like it used to be.
I re-read a great article on the future of marketing and it made me realise how far marketing has come. It is now totally focused on customer centricity and organisations that don’t embrace this, will lose.
Truly customer centric organisations put excuses like lack of man power aside and get in more manpower or look at their systems to ensure that the company can focus on the customer first and foremost and especially if you have a luxury product. Excuses such as lack of man power, too many applications or enquiries to give customers options, your support or your time, too much data basing to do, or concerns customers might want to choose the second option over the first option which we don’t want because of the time and effort the organisation has put into the first option does not demonstrate a customer centric organisation. It demonstrates an old fashioned, slow and process led organisation, stuck in the past and unable to see the wood from the trees,
Customer experience is key - whether in retention or recruitment of customers. Current customers should be treated the same as potential customers and we should not be complacent.
To go back to the article some of the key points - 15 in total - that marketers like Seth Godin and Jim Stengel make are really focused on the customer such as engagement, agile will rule, turn start-stop into start and continuous (in your conversations with customers), be transparent and passion trumps everything.
There are marketers who cling to pushing products with advertising and there are marketers who are embedded in what the company makes and are pushing it towards what the consumer wants.
Read the article here courtesy of The Economist:
Creating an excellent first impression
13th May 2021
I have always been a firm believer in enthusiasm at every turn. People think I am a little mad when I bounce into meetings or online with energy and positivity, but however I am feeling, I always think people respond better to an upbeat and positive person. I understand that for introverts this is hard to do, but you can also be quiet in your manner and positive!
I do realise this does rest on personality. I believe that in sales, personality is key. It is really the arena for the extroverts and the upbeat people. Although lots of business owners will not always be introverts but then quiet passion and positivity always comes across. If you believe in your product that will always come through. Look at some of the contestants on Dragons Den.
So it brings me onto this question... why is it that so many people go into roles and work for organisations that require passion for the job and enthusiasm, and yet they just don’t have it for the business they work for? I understand that you are not going to love every bit of every job you ever have, but don’t get stuck in a job that you are unable to muster enthusiasm for and are able to promote or sale (if you are in a sales position). It’s not fair to a business if you are not 100% into it because work is a transaction of services, your enthusiasm and sales (usually) for financial gain (pay!)
As Samuel Coleridge says, enthusiasm is contagious and if you practise it you will send this enthusiasm around the world. When staff and employees use passion and enthusiasm in the sales pitch you immediately notice an upturn in sales and repeat business. I have seen this happen in an organisation when really positive and enthusiastic people replace less energetic people and the sales results exponentially go up. People want to do business with people who are upbeat. If you love the product, then they will want to buy it. If you are less confident about it and don’t show commitment through passion and enthusiasm it reflects on the product and the organisation and the sales figures. Authenticity is key but ideally you are working in an organisation, selling a product you love so that authenticity for talking about the organisation comes through.
As we come out of lockdown and the last year, we are all enthusiastic for - in many cases - reverting back to our old lives (whilst embracing what we have learnt over the last year that is good and a silver lining to all of this). This week sees the start of being able to see friends and family far away and stay over. It’s easy to get enthusiastic for this as it is our choice. But your job is a choice too!
Smiles are contagious. You smile at a person and they smile back and you feel warm and fuzzy all day continuing to smile at the world. In fact, as I write, this actually happened to me today at the gym (so grateful that gyms are finally open!) That’s how enthusiasm works. It’s contagious too so practise it where possible. Exclamation marks help when you write - like my gratitude for the gym. I understand it’s not easy for everyone to be like this, but even if you try it a little it works and visits you ten fold in terms of feelings of positivity and sales!
So practise a little enthusiasm into your life!
Creating an excellent first impression
6th May 2021
You will probably know - if you read my blogs - that I am a firm believer in good customer service. In fact if you know me at all then you will know that customer service is my favourite subject and that I believe in the best customer service ... actually five star, red carpet customer service.
I have worked in many organisations where I have witnessed the power of great customer service and good relationship building to grow customers and thus revenue. I have seen tweaks and changes to customer service journeys, to focus more on the customer over data driven processes, revolutionise organisations and their sales and targets. I have seen what power the gift of time can do to a business in terms of profit when deployed on a customer. I have seen the power of listening and helping on the end of year targets. I have seen the power of empathy and kindness, compassion and consideration on the end of year sales report. I have seen what proactivity, passion, professionalism and positivity can so for an organisation struggling at the beginning of these changes. And this spanning my career in a variety of organisations.
For me this quote is totally spot on. Good customer service is good business. In fact good customer service is the best business strategy you can have, no matter what sector you are in.
I firmly believe in creating the best customer experience to create loyalty and increased buy-in from the customer. Last weeks blog mentioned that customers want solutions. They certainly do. They have a need and we need to solve that need for them with a product or service. How? By listening to what they want, and only then can you give them what they want, not what you think they want from a half listening exercise. Good business means you use two ears and one mouth in proportion to each other. Good business means you let the customer do the talking until you know what they want. Good business is ensuring a customer driven approach (customer journey) over a data driven approach (organisation needs).
Just over twenty years ago when I entered the work arena, I did so at Harrods. Whatever anyone thinks about this store, I really learnt a lot about customer service and owe a lot to working there throughout my time at university. I saw the value of giving a customer time, help, a listening ear. That has not changed over twenty years working in marketing and fundraising. People work with people whether in retail, marketing or fundraising and in any organisation. They are not different. There may be a difference in product but in the end, it is all about relationships.
Good service is embodied by building good relationships whether it is a short one at the check out or longer one at a school. These interactions are all important to shaping your feelings and thoughts towards a brand. Every touchpoint counts.
So remember, next time you are looking after a customer, it makes good business sense to give them the best customer service. It’s the only strategy you will ever need to grow your business.
Creating an excellent first impression
29th April 2021
Did you know that if a company messes up and does not give the best customer service, but then goes on to fix that customer service with a solution, your customers will be more engaged than if you had a perfect sales experience?
This is because you have shown you are human and can solve the problem. We are not perfect. We are human and we get it wrong. All of us - after all, even Mary Poppins was only practically perfect in every way.
We cannot get it right all the time. It’s great when we do, but when you have an erroneous or bad customer experience you have the amazing opportunity to make it right and fix it, giving good customer service and creating amazing word of mouth because people love telling a story with a happy ending that has a little bit of drama in it!
This has happened to me in a previous organisation and after someone gave me the time to give me some feedback, I could act on that feedback and create - in the end - a great customer experience.
Customers just want a solution to the problem - however you get to the solution - whether first time lucky or after having to claw back from what you think it a customer service disaster.
Customers want an easy purchase process and to be supported and contacted throughout. They don’t want to be calling the organisation to find out what is going on like I did the other week when my car went in for a major repair.
The reception staff said they would call me to let me know what the issue was after doing some diagnostic testing. By lunchtime, four hours after dropping the car, they had not rung me, so I rang them and they confirmed it was what I suspected it to be. I then said would it be ok to pick up a few days later and the sales person said that should be fine. At this point, it would have been good for the organisation to ring me the day before to confirm the car was fixed and ready to be picked up. No! That did not happen and when I frantically realised that I had not heard from them and needed to ring them to check before making the journey to pick up the car, I did so 10 minutes before they shut, to be told thankfully it was ready. This is very poor customer service to have to do the running like this. I will now be trying to find another specialist dealer of my car for future issues. Why? Because I am busy and I should not have to remember to ring up the organisation whom I am about to give my money to. The follow up and chasing should be done by the organisation and not the customer.
And follow up is key. How many times have you sent an email and there has been no confirmation of receipt of it? How many times have you left a phone message and no-one has rung back? These small things ensure that a person will go elsewhere to spend their money because they have not got the time to chase and continue to chase.
Follow up means you know that your business is of value to the organisation and that you could have gone some where else, but yet the company recognises that you have chosen them to spend your money with and they know that and feel valued too. Customer service is not just about a two way trade of service, it’s also about a two way trade of feeling valued. This creates loyalty and repeat business: the goal of any organisation.
So remember, next time it goes wrong, don’t think negatively and that the customer will move on. Actually, it’s your opportunity to show them that you can fix it and give an amazing customer experience by turning a bad situation into a good one, by finding a solution. This creates excellent word of mouth.
We are all human and we all make mistakes. As I always say, it’s not about the mistake, but how you solve it!
Creating an excellent first impression
22nd April 2021
I firmly believe that it is so important to ensure you constantly listen to your customers and are able to be flexible and change aspects of your processes (internal phrase, because we don’t really focus on what we should actually be thinking about - the customer journey) if something does not work, is not right or the customer is not happy.
A lot of the time people within organisations assume that everything is ok, because it’s always been done a certain way or because the customers are used to it. Two very dangerous phrases. And I kid you not when I have heard both, from my experience in schools and from colleagues in the sector about their schools.
Many a time I have heard this and then I send a survey out and I get the opposite in response from the customer. I think a lot of the time it is because staff - especially in schools admissions and marketing - have such full workloads. (Notice I don’t use the word busy - a word that is endemic in schools - because it suggests when you use it that your time is more precious than another person’s time, so I always make a habit of not using it ever, and because most of the time most people are just busy fools!)
It is not good enough that staff say it’s always been done this way (my least favourite phrase in the English language). Staff need to have the chance to step back and question their processes all the time and be flexible, adapt and overcome, to give the best service to the customer.
It is not good enough to say that the customer is used to it. It might be that they are used to it because they have no alternative and they just go along with it. Whether they are happy or not, remains to be seen and will they be your best advocates?
It is not good enough to say anything is fact without checking with the customer. And a customer of an independent school is buying into a luxury product.
Surveys are very useful to conduct every so often to check that you are aware of how your customer journey is perceived.
I tend to organise ones for those leaving the organisation whether because they have to come the end of one part of the relationship with you naturally or not. I also like to conduct surveys and focus groups to all stakeholders both internally and externally. I also like to ask people - who did not buy into the product and those that did questions - about the purchase process. These are often the most enlightening!
If you do not listen, your customers will go elsewhere to someplace they are listened too. Why? It’s a fundamental part of the purchase process to be listened to, to ensure that the customer can be helped effectively and accordingly to their needs, and not according to what you think because you have only bothered to really, actively listen to part of the story. How can you be helpful if you don’t fully listen?
It’s really interesting to hear the power of the people this week in the world of football. The people spoke, and the top listened. The end. This is how it should be. In the end, people can vote with their feet quite easily.
Innovative companies are always listening. They have no qualms finding out what’s wrong. Most people at the top I have encountered don’t like to do this because they think it might reflect badly and be a criticism on them. Well my feeling is to this is that it will be much worse if you don’t and the business closes down. A leader has the opportunity by listening to stop this from happening. Furthermore, it could be worse and that the findings are buried after a moment of a person being supportive of the idea of asking what the stakeholders think. Even worse! They both end badly. I think dealing with the criticism and changing things shows courage and that is to be commended.
So, remember, listening is a skill in the sales process but also to your current customers. We all like to be listened to. It’s makes us feel valued and then we feel more supportive of the organisation in question.
To end positively. I have mentioned my least favourite word and phase, so my favourite word is one of the following AGA, chocolate or sale, and my favourite phrase which I have alluded to earlier in this blog is ‘There is only one Boss. The Customer. And s/he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his/her own money somewhere else.’ You have to love Sam Walton!
Creating an excellent first impression
15th April 2021
Why is it we wait with baited breath for the John Lewis Christmas advert each year? Why do we all (of a certain generation) remember the BT and Nescafé ads? Why do we buy/download fiction books? Because in the end, we all love a story and we want to feel a part of it and something special.
Customers want to be engaged in your story and you need to make them a central part of it.
I was reading through some presentations on retention within schools from the US - who do this so well. One of the suggestions was that to retain pupils, you should make them the centre of your story.
At the same time, I was thinking about aspects I wrote in my blog last week: how we ensure we know what makes our customers want to buy our product and how it makes them feel over and above brand values and aims which is the foundation of an organisation but not central to the purchase process. More of an invisible support.
Disney do this at their resorts. Customers (guests) are treated to a show by the employees (cast members) and are part of that show. It’s how the magic continues!
Books can now be personalised for children who can be in the story; better - the hero of the story. Companies need to create marketing campaigns that really engage the customer so their imaginations imagine themselves in that advert as the hero or heroine! That is when you can really ensure a sale - when customers become a part of it and they can imagine using that product or service.
As the retention strategy says, pupils and prospective pupils who can imagine themselves in the Sixth Form or attending the school, and are not just reading another piece of literature, can then be won over. People want to feel like they fit in and be part of something. Look at Sports teams and their following, and loyalty to an area or location. Marketing done right can do this and make people central to the story.
Curate don’t create is key here. It does not just end with the marketing literature and scheduling on social. It has to mean something to your audience. Engage them. Ask their views. People have opinions and they like to express them.
Why can’t we create Nescafé and BT stories on social media and drip feed out the next sequel each week to engage our audiences. Engage our customers like the soaps do and get them to become a part of the drama and story.
It’s all about selling with story and we need to embrace this as marketers.
This blog only really came to fruition for two reasons: because I saw the image for this blog and had a wonderful advertising story come through the post this week, both at the same time! Thank you to David Mellor Designs for their ‘Springing back to life’ treat in the post where I am now inspired to do some baking and visit the store soon and be the hero of my kitchen!
Creating an excellent first impression
8th April 2021
One of my favourite quotes is from Maya Angelou who said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Empathy is key to ensuring you make a customer feel engaged and valued.
I was speaking to a former associate in the independent school sector recently and she was talking about how crucial this is within the sales process. Part of the sales process, for example in schools, is the interview process and all too often staff (mainly academic) forget that actually they are also being interviewed because they are focused on ensuring that the pupil is academically the right candidate over and above anything else. Now more than ever, when visits are not easy for families to schools (especially international families) it all hangs on the interview, that one and only real life touch point with the school in question. Interviewers and interviewees are interchangeable in the sense that interviewers need to have empathy and engage with the interviewees, because you represent your school and brand and because it’s a two way process. Not only that, interviewers are the adults (in schools) and need to give more in the process that is very new and daunting for many. Empathy is therefore key. Schools will lose out if staff do not practise empathy at this stage (including putting yourself in the customers shoes) and remember that the customer will choose a school based on this interaction: how you engaged, how positive and upbeat you were, the kind of questions you asked and finally the answers you give to the questions from the interviewee. It is no good not listening, not engaging, doing most of the talking, focusing on ‘the questions’ and not expanding when you detect an additional interesting element that comes into the conversation. This is where emotional intelligence comes into play and by using this you find out more about a person. I always find talking to people so interesting and finding out information there and then. I think it comes across as more authentic than reading about a person and preparing knowing the information already which kills any kind of real conversation and engagement. Most people are not good at conversation and are worse if they know the information and feel like they do not need to ask! It’s just a conversation in the end, and do you over prepare for these in life?
How people are made to feel is therefore key in the sales process and remember, people buy from people not the organisation!
Another example of this is how a brand makes people feel because in the end, it’s our feelings towards a brand that makes us buy into that brand. If you asked Joe Public the strategic objectives, brand values and beliefs of Nike, Amazon or Apple, few could tell you what these are, but if you asked these people how each brand made them feel, you will certainly get an answer.
Let me give you a personal example: I love AGAs. I don’t know what the company’s strategic objectives are, nor their values and aims (and I have been a fan for over twenty five years) but I can certainly tell you have the make me feel: warm, cosy, happy and a picture of dogs and cats warming themselves by the fire springs to mind as a kettle boils and jam is bubbling on top whilst dinner is cooking as the rain lashes down outside. How do I get all this from an AGA if I don’t know their brand values? Seeing them in action, images across the internet and other peoples reviews; their story and narrative and marketing of the beliefs and values within their story that conjure up these feelings. That is what sells.
Businesses and organisations must not get caught up in the process (sales and strategy) and forget about engagement and empathy to allow the customer to connect with you and ultimately win the sale and then a brand ambassador.
Remember to be empathetic. Remember to listen and remember to engage! People over process everytime!
Creating an excellent first impression
1st April 2021
People really don’t realise the importance of customer service within the purchase experience. I was once that I was neurotic by a former colleague when making the point that I refused to return to an organisation after poor customer service.
Why do people decide to move their custom elsewhere? It’s a pain and time consuming, so for someone to do this, it is a big deal.
But people do it for a smooth purchase process and good value for money. I moved both my car insurance and home insurance to new suppliers in the last month. I was not getting value for money and each time when I rang up to give the current provider the option to try and match the ‘confused’ price, they always said they could reduce it but not match it. I always reply that I am not one of those people who blindly continue with the same car insurance each year, because I want to get value for money (and I am Scottish). I add that I will not accept the renewal quote because I cannot be bothered to spend 10 minutes of my life updating my details and getting a new quote. So many people do it and continue paying higher fees because people are time poor.
So the second reason is a smooth purchase process. People are time poor (as we have discovered from above) and they want their purchases to be easy and smooth and take up as little time and energy as possible. Insurers could better their retention levels if they looked to increase their price by a small amount year on year meaning they could retain loyal customers and reducing the need to find new ones and gain more money each year at the same time.
A smooth transaction looks like this: greeting the customer on entry and smiling, offering them help a little while on and then when the customer does ask for help, listen closely and act on exactly what the customer has said to ensure a speedy close to the purchase for the customer. A post purchase follow up would be nice also. (People do not see the importance of follow up especially if a person if buying a luxury product. Follow up during and after the purchase process says ‘we value you and your custom and want your business.’) Loyal customers like incentives to stay (not over 150% hikes in the price of insurance!). It is why i have never understand banks’ fascination with focusing incentives on the new customers all the time and forgetting their current customers. Look after the ones you have before trying to get others.
Finally, this statistic shows that one of my favourite customer service training engagement slides is absolutely right. The slide asks the audience, which is the biggest single reason a business loses customers. The possible answers are a) competition b) indifference of one employee c) word of mouth and d) dissatisfaction with the product and the answer is always ‘b’ and every one is always shocked. But it’s true! I wont return to a certain hotel in Edinburgh, a local campsite, a Lakes cafe, an online shop and many others because the service I received did not equal the money I gave for the product as an exchange. (Money is also hard won/ earned by the customer and the customer can go to another shop to purchase the same item in many cases, so customer service and shop service needs to take account of this).
In the end, customer service wins the deal. How can you not afford to invest in customer service for your staff and organisation (especially if you have a luxury product you are selling)? How can you not afford to ensure loyal customer tactics to support the customer experience, when it is more costly to gain new customers than it is to keep them? You cannot in this age, when customers are smart and savvy and want an experience. Millennials now dominate the market place, so ensure your experience meets their expectations!
Creating an excellent first impression
25th March 2021
Smile and the world smiles with you. Cry and you cry alone! Because no-one likes negativity and miseries, in a nut shell.
What does this quote really mean? Smiling is important, and in fact it is one of the key first aspects in making a good first impression amongst using a persons name, saying hello, a good handshake (when we could!) and standing tall with your hands by you side (and not on your hips!)
If we take this as the representation of the shop window (your welcome is a representation of the journey the customer will go on) then it could mean so many other things and represent so many other things:
It could mean a metaphorical smile: in other words the smile represents the internal culture. A brand on the outside is only as a strong as the brand on the inside. We know that good cultures in great organisations make people feel valued and motivated and then in turn they love their organisation and become an amazing ambassadors for it, developing and creating amazing customer service and experiences.
It could also mean the loss of a key leader or member of the leadership team or more worryingly the loss of the raison d'etre / North Star of your business. All of these can upset the normal functioning of a business and create a downturn in business and sales.
Finally it could most definitely mean that if your customer service starts to slide and fail, then you lose customers. A smile is one of the first things you see when you walk into a shop with sales staff, or the first thing you can hear on the phone (listen next time because I promise you, you can hear a smile!). It is a key 'touchpoint' in the customer journey and experience and it has nothing to do with data processes or how you think your customers should fit in with your processes. It represents your customer centricity ... or not. If this goes, you can pretty much guess that the rest of the customer experience is going to be few and far between and that's when you lose customers.
I have met people who do not smile on the phone, say they do not have time for the customer because they are busy and who are ruled by data processes (that they have used for years, are comfortable with and that are old fashioned and inefficient so make then busy because they are archaic systems that do not allow for time with the customer!). These systems fit their way of working - because they do not like change or they feel change will give them more work, get in the way of the busy-ness and most usually and feared by people 'who have always done it this way' make other people realise they are not that busy, just busy fools! Instead they should be smiling, giving their time and planning around the customers needs and journey with new systems to make the data process so easy that their time is focused on supporting the customer and developing real relationships that are key. Because this is what makes a customer feel important.... time, and you can get all that from a smile!
Customers are key to business survival so ensure your organisation is a customer centric and one where smiling and being helpful are all part of the culture, a place where the customer journey beats the data process and where giving of time is key... for your customers (both internal and external).
Remember, your customers are important to you so don't forget to smile at them, on the phone and in your emails!
Creating an excellent first impression
18th March 2021
If anyone every wanted to know what real customer service looks like then you don't have to go far. It's Disney.
I often make reference to them in my blogs and am always wowed at their values and training programmes for their 'cast' members.
You can always tell a brand is good and that their customer service is going to be at red carpet levels (I think) when the the business elevates their people from the name 'staff' to something special. You just know that you are going to receive amazing customer service because the people inside the organisation feel special. Think 'partners' at John Lewis and 'Ladies and Gentleman' serving ladies and gentlemen at the Ritz-Carlton.
I have never been to Disney but I have heard all about it from Disney fans. I love their service model as shown in this weeks image. In fact I use all of these when training people in customer service especially smile, using eye contact, respect and welcome all guests (with their name if your business allows), initiate guest contact (something I was taught at Harrods). So many people lack confidence to go up to people and say hello and initiate conversation. How many times do you go to networking events and people are mainly in twos. People cannot go to networking events without a 'safety mat' all because they don't want to look silly. I think they look silly because they end up talking to the person they know throughout the event rather than working a room. Anyway, this blog is not about networking skills!
I also train people in being helpful (creative service solutions) and always being able to answer with a yes, and only a 'no' if you have another option to give the customer. 'Please' and 'thank you' are some of the most underused words in the English language and so important in the sale. You can never use them enough.
When they talk about 'Value the Magic' - what do they mean? Do they mean valuing the magic that children and families come to their parks to enjoy from the fairy tales they have seen on screen? Do they mean valuing the magic of the whole Disney experience or do they mean valuing what excellent customer service can bring which is in essence customer growth and retention which is magic in itself if any business cracks it!
Who knows, but those of us who are not 'cast' members at a Disney resort and who do not live the 'Disney' magic everyday, I think it's valuing the magic of customer service to give customers a magic experience and one they see on the films. Disney films are escapism, they are enchanting and easy to watch. Should customer service not be so? A chance for a customer to escape from the every day world and be transferred into an easy world of of purchasing which is enjoyable / enchanting ... enchanting enough to make the person spend their hard-earned money! Because that's what customers want and I say it all the time: they want a helpful, easy and efficient / speedy experience which is positive and proactive by a person that is professional and passionate about the business (magic!).
We need to start thinking about the magic that amazing customer service creates for our businesses and consider ways to make it better and better. As one clever man said, "If you can visualize it, if you can dream it, there is some way to do it."
Creating an excellent first impression
11th March 2021
I often think how much money organisations could save if they invested a little more money into customer service training. Great customer service and an amazing experience is a brilliant - and probably the best - advert for a business.
Advertising is so expensive, but customer service training can cost very little. Obviously other aspects are important for an employee to radiate positivity, proactivity, professionalism and passion for the products they are selling and the company they are representing such as fair pay, feeling valued (invested in) and usual benefits.
Businesses do not seem to realise that word of mouth is one of the key aspects to gaining more customers. My favourite customer service revelation is that it is the indifference of one employee that kills a business quickest / loses a business customers quickest, not competition or word of mouth. People are more likely to tell others about bad customer service than good and therefore good word of mouth is just as powerful as an advert - and it's more direct.
Taking care of a customer is really easy. How? Just put yourself in their shoes and consider their situation. Then ensure you listen carefully to what they want so you can be as helpful as possible. It's that easy.
Most people think it is hard because it involves time and patience. A lot of people have told me over the years that they don't have enough time to help customers fully or support them with their needs. This boils down to one of two things: laziness, or in fact that the company is not investing in the person and the resources needed for that person to be as effective as possible.
Advertising spend has gone from print to digital. Maybe the new advertising spend should be on people and the advertisement that the front line staff give. when dealing with customers directly every day. The advertising spend would be much more targeted (directed right at the customer) and help with repeat business and new business all at the same time. The advertising spend would allow for personalisation (which is very popular at the moment) and create an experience which is key. It would also prove that a company was really customer centric in their thinking.
I mentioned about the high street having to evolve from shops to a more boutique style of experience with social interactions. Advertising - as with most things - will have to evolve too.
This could really support the marketing dream of the ultimate segment of one - the ultimate in customer personalisation!
Creating an excellent first impression
4th March 2021
You know the old saying, people give to people - well it's the same with business. People do business with people and not companies, and in the end companies might have strategies and processes in place to help customers but it is down to the staff to anticipate and support customers within the parameters of these strategies and processes.
I was lucky enough to attend a Customer Experience Management course recently and towards the end of the second day after all the learning, the instructor told us who he thought gave the best customer experience in the world. I was expecting the likes of Amazon to be mentioned and he had mentioned the company positively a few times over the two days, but it wasn't Amazon.
It was the Ritz-Carlton Group.
Why Ritz-Carlton I hear you say? Well, I have actually heard what he then told us before, so I understood why. Did you know that every employee (or lady and gentleman as they are called) is empowered to spend up to $2000 to solve a customer issue or create a Wow-moment!? The Ritz-Carlton knows very well that it is their front-line and front-facing staff that deal with customers on a daily basis and therefore need to have the tools to ensure customer retention and loyalty for what is supposedly for the Ritz-Carlton a potential average lifetime value of $250,000. (This makes $2,000 seem relatively tiny!)
When you are dealing with a luxury product, it does seem a given to ensure staff have the ability to "own and immediately resolve guest problems" especially when guests are paying more for a better experience, a luxury experience.
I have experienced this kind of attention to detail and magic moment within another luxury hotel chain for a special occasion. We arrived at the hotel and our room was not ready so we were offered free champagne. We had a surprise of a decadent chocolate cake and wine left in our room when we went out for the afternoon. During our stay, the bath plug got stuck and when I phoned down to reception to report it, a member of the estates team was up within five minutes fixing it. We went out for dinner and were going to walk to the restaurant but were offered the hotel driver instead by a very astute front of desk member of staff. We did not even have to move to get breakfast, everything was brought to us. You do pay for quality and luxury. We would definitely stay again... for a special occasion and that is what the hotel is banking on, in terms of customer loyalty, and the fact that I told numerous people about it including the name of the hotel has additionally given the hotel chain good word of mouth. And it was the helpful employees (people) who made this experience amazing.
The quote in the image is from one of my favourite customer service guru's Shep Hyken. He talks a lot about how good customer service is driven from the people within the organisation and makes reference to Ace Hardware stores as an example. He adds that the Ace Hardware staff are always friendly and helpful and work hard to build good relationships with customers to create life long customers. In life, building good relationships is key to success and this is something I have come to realise in recent years.
When I was working on my Companion Membership Application for the Institute of Customer Service, I realised that throughout my whole life, I had worked in environments where relationship building and providing a great experience was key and that all my roles where about interactions between people and building long lasting relationships - something which I never get bored of doing ever - in fact it is my favourite part of any of my roles I have ever done - interacting with people.
I began my career in fundraising where stewarding and engaging donors was key to moving them through the commonly known thirteen stages of donating. Friend-raising was key to engagement. As I moved into schools marketing, looking after parents and prospective parents and ensuring they felt that the school was looking after them and their needs was central at every stage especially since they were and are buying a luxury product. This - as I realised when completing my application - demonstrated a common theme: people give to and engage with people above all else.
82% of people who leave a company because of bad customer service (as I mentioned last week) can't be wrong.
And finally, it is the indifference of one employee (and not word of mouth or competition) that is the number one reason people leave a business.
Creating an excellent first impression
25th February 2021
This is not a blog on tennis! This is a blog on customer service... because it is a truth universally acknowledged that customer service done well seals the deal.
It is worth knowing that 82% of customers have a company because of bad customer service.
It is also worth knowing that out of the top ten priorities for the customer in the purchase process, nine are to do with customer service including (and in no particular order) helpfulness and friendliness of staff, ease of doing business, being kept informed, speed of service, handling of enquiries, problems and complaints, competence of staff and being treated as a valuable customer. The only inclusion not relating to customer service was overall quality of the product (which also relates to price).
This information backs up what Tony Alesandro says. So if your product and price are great but your service isn't, game over!
How many companies focus on product and price over people and in training people in customer service?
I listened to a lecture recently and the person leading the lecture talked about the importance of teams and people and it was so refreshing to hear this. The lecturer talked about this with regard to the sustainable growth of businesses. People are key to growing businesses and more importantly, people with the right kind of attitude.
It is the same with customer service because we have both internal and external customers and we should treat each other how we wish to be treated whether the customer buying the product or the customer you work with.
People want people to be friendly, helpful and have a can do attitude. They don't want to experience people who are rude, arrogant, impatient, and lack in any kind of real effort. Service is about going that extra mile to help someone because this is what gets you over the line; I know this because I have had customers feedback to me who tell me this time and time again: customers that are customers because of a follow up, a warm welcome, because nothing is too much trouble, because of the lengths gone to to ensure they had all the right information, saw the right people, and so on. These comments all have one factor in common ... which is time. Great service relies on taking the time to help and support people and never being too busy. This then says to people that you and your time are more important than the customer and his or her time. That is not the case, because as we know businesses rely on customers, so time should be part of the sale - whether internal or external.
I have a favourite cartoon I have up on my wall at work to showcase this. The cartoon is set in medieval times with the leader saying to his junior, "Can't you see I am busy, I have a battle to fight". He is holding a bow and arrow and behind him is someone holding a machine gun ready to help! It always reminds me that however busy (or at full capacity I prefer to say!) I think I am, someone might have come in with something to say to make my job easier or a helpful idea to get the job done faster.
Just a few more thoughts for the week: "80% of companies think they deliver 'superior' customer service, but only 8% of people think these same companies deliver 'superior customer service. Be honest about what you and your company deliver - ask your customers at the end of each sale.
Don't forget that we all see things differently - a glass can be half full or half empty. My husband would say that you just pour that glass into a smaller glass and hey presto - a full glass! But seriously, remember what you and your customer sees could be different, so really listen to ensure you know what they want so you can help and get that sale.
Listening and helping is key!
Service wins the day. I know this is true as I have experienced this as a customer and looking after customers. Game, Set and Match!
Creating an excellent first impression
18th February 2021
Customer Service, Customer Experience and Customer Centricity are all very different. Customer Service is the assistance you provide throughout the Customer Experience and Customer Centricity is ensuring that the customer is at the heart of all your decision making as an organisation.
I have always known that both as the person giving providing customer service and being on the end of the customer service (whether that gives me a great experience or not), you can give this service and experience - and make it better - depending on the organisation you work within and how customer centric they are.
One of my first jobs was as a retail assistant at Harrods in 1997. Harrods really taught me the basics of customer service and creating a great experience for the customer. Basics included acknowledging a customer within a minute, and following up a little later with an offer of help, answering the phone after only one ring, saying thank you, and staying a little late to support a customer and complete a sale. They gave new staff two days of training which was amazing and you were told what was expected before going onto the shop floor. They also did mystery shopping frequently and so the training was always being tested!
Ever since then, I have realised the power of the customer and putting the customer at the heart of your business and your business decisions. Shep Hyken - who is quoted here - says that the goal of a business is not to make money but to gain customers. His quote at the top would suggest that he knows all about gaining and keeping customers. In fact, I would recommend his book 'Amaze Every Customer Every Time' as a great read.
His quote also mentions a follow up, key in my sector with regard to both prospective parents and donors. You can never follow up too much when it comes to a prospective parent and a potential donor (however serious or not you think they are) and you can never say thank you enough to either too when they come through. You don't want to waste or lose those hard won leads from the marketing team!
I also think these attributes are great in our every day jobs with our colleagues, internal customers and organisations, especially saying thank you, doing your best, following up with people, helping your colleagues by staying late and starting early when needed and just doing your best.
Customer Centricity relates to both internal and external customers and we need to remember to listen and look after both to ensure a great Customer Experience.
Creating an excellent first impression
11th February 2021
So in the week where we look forward to Valentines Day, I thought I would add a little passion into my blog this week!
Passion is one of my four Ps but I tend to focus on professionalism, proactivity and positivity in the main throughout my ramblings.
What is clear throughout my life and experiences in customer service, you need to interact with passionate people. So advice of the week, if you don't feel passionate about your organisation, service or product, move on. Don't bother faking it as customers know.
You can spot passion a mile off as the customer: the person who comes up to you to offer help, who listens (really listens with their whole body and eyes and not just to reply but to understand) to ensure they can help you properly, efficiently and competently, who really wants to make sure your experience is a five star / red carpet feel experience.
There are so many people in front line positions, who interact with the customer, who are doing their job because its a job. I know that most of you are not going to love your job all day every day, but you have to do this for 40-odd years, so make it count and be involved with an organisation, service or product that you believe in. Trust me, you will be better at customer service and give a far better customer experience to the customer.
In the end, people do business with people and how you are with people matters. No one wants to do business with a negative, unprofessional, unhelpful and unenthusiastic member of staff. That is not the experience we are after.
Companies and businesses should train people in customer service if they want the best results. Most companies have inductions and this should form a part of it. No company should assume that a person knows how to do great customer service automatically or a certain way and every organisation has a different way of creating great customer service. However, they will assume that if you have applied for a job that you are half interested in the company and a little bit more interested in more than than what's in your pay packet at the end of the month. Companies are paying you to do a job and if they invest in you, which many do, you should be paying that back by being a good return on investment for their training.
So if you display passion, the people you interact with with return to deal with you which helps the business you work within. In the end, the company you work for will continue to invest in you and display a professional passion for you in their company.
It's rare to have a person who both loves their job and is good at it and most companies would not want to lose that!
So, do it with passion or not at all!
Creating an excellent first impression
4th February 2021
Google defines legendary as based on legends and remarkable enough to be famous; very well known.
The companies that deliver that extraordinary/legendary level of service don't have to tell customers in their voicemails and emails, quite honestly; they just do it!
You know - we all know them. But what is that makes them legendary?
When I was studying for my CIM Marketing Diploma nearly 20 years ago now, I learnt about customer delight. I remember at the time realising that this was a powerful feeling that organisations could create for their customers and allow them to keep them (after all the goal for any organisation).
Customer delight was all about an organisation exceeding expectations giving the customer 'delight' in the experience.
Today - 20 years on - not much has changed. Customer delight is repackaged as "exceeding customer expectations" and in doing so creates (another buzz phrase): legendary customer experience.
It includes doing the basics (meeting expectations):
- Treating customers with respect
- Acting with integrity
- Being polite
- Trusting your customers - don't call them liars!
- Being responsive - set an SLA for response time that shows you care! And stick to it!
- Doing what's right for the customer
- Doing right by the customer
- Showing empathy and understanding for the customer's situation
- Caring about your customers (we can tell when you don't)
- Being willing to help your customers
- Adopting an attitude of "yes"
- Doing what you say you'll do
- Understanding your customers - the person, the situation, their expectations, and more! (Listening!)
- Making it effortless for customers to do business with you
And then there's exceeding expectations:
- Being professional - Identifying/understanding my expectations - and exceeding them
- Being passionate about your product / organisation and doing the unexpected and therefore adding elements of delight (including personalisation) that I would appreciate
- Being proactive - why should the customer wait for you; and be helpful!
- Being positive - at all you do, in every interaction
Finally, be consistent - from interaction to interaction, from employee to employee Once its done for the first time, we expect it every time and for it to get better!
Just think of the 4 P's and you cannot go wrong!
Creating an excellent first impression
28th January 2021
Great customer service requires people in organisations to work together. You will probably know the following statement that customers leave an organisation mainly due to the indifference of one employee. 99 people out of 100 could be doing an amazing job, but if one person has a bad day or is not giving 100% it affects the whole organisation, and thus the team.
I have read so many books on teams over the years. One of the books that has really stuck with me is "Five Dysfunctions of a Team". It charts the key reasons why teams do not work and how you can resolve this. It also suggests that genuine teamwork is elusive.
Teams are constantly shifting as we work during a time when people do not stay in jobs for life so teams are constantly forming, storming, norming, performing and mourning. I think it is possible to have genuine team work at points of a cycle but - probably with a shifting and ever changing and dynamic workforce - not throughout.
However, some firms might dispute this. Some of the top firms for customer service in the UK such as John Lewis. Direct Line, M&S etc would say that team work is vital and comes from a sound internal culture of valuing all members of your staff. It is hard in some organisations to create equality when everyone does different jobs, but the perks have to be different for each team and within the teams (eg sales and marketing, finance, shop floor staff, distribution etc) for people to feel that they are treated fairly. I know that this has been key throughout my career. It is worth noting that focus within an organisation on one team might lead to other teams feeling that they are not as valued. Spending equal amounts of time and energy on all your teams is therefore key to feeling valued and being treated fairly within an organisation. The cleaners are just as important as those stacking the shelves and staff at the checkout. Each has their place in the organisation, each is a cog in the wheel to make the wheel go round.
I always mention in my line of business that when a family visits, they see tidy lawns and well kept buildings with excellent signage guiding them to meeting a smiling and welcoming receptionist sitting in a clean and fresh smelling reception room. They may enjoy refreshments / food with a member of the admissions team all before they have met a member of the academic/teaching staff - the key reason for a school! First impressions are vital.
In my various roles both working within and leading teams within businesses, I have realised that success only happens when the team is aligned. This comes from
1 - great communication,
2 - a team committed and focused on shared goals and results,
3 - everyone doing their fair share and supporting each other ie if one member of the team's workload increases and you have the time, offer to help (even if that is stuffing envelopes!),
4 - a diverse team of personalities ,
5 - everyone contributing equally and everyone being heard and listened to and treated equally and or fairly,
6 - being organised
7 - great leadership. The leader is there not to micro manage but be the glue holding the team together, responsible for setting the pace, offering encouragement and motivation, a listening ear and keeps all members of the team updated. Great leaders promote the teams successes and take responsibility for the teams failures. Accountability is key.
8 - Finally, a great team has fun together. After all, you spend more time with your workmates than you do at home!
From my experience (and I have been lucky enough to experience great teams) they do work and perform when the above eight attributes happen.
I have heard people say there is no such thing as a team. I disagree. I know one of my greatest hero's - Margaret Thatcher - was focused on the individual above community (it's the only aspect of her three premierships which I don't agree on - but leaders do not get it right always!). However, I believe as humans we naturally need company and people around us, and so work best in teams and win together as a team.
After all, even Lewis Hamilton and Andy Murray have a team behind them!
Creating an excellent first impression
21st January 2021
Recent experiences have reinforced this message to me strongly. Promises are fine, unless they are not delivered. There is nothing worse in life than being promised something or promising something and then not delivering on it or not having it delivered whether you or the other person is an internal or external customer. Don't forget, your brand on the outside is only as good as your brand on the inside.
I remember in a previous organisation I worked, someone talked to me about how hard they worked and did all the right things (subjective, I know) and wondered why they were not picked for a role that was up for grabs. To be fair, working hard is important and doing the right thing (in my opinion) but it is not enough if you are not working hard - SMARTly - and doing the right thing to gain results because you need an output / result from the hard work and right way of doing things, otherwise no one can see the end result of your hard work / good efforts.
Customers don't see the work that goes into a blue cardigan for instance. Watch the Devil Wears Prada for a lesson in what goes into the Blue Cardigan that the members of the public can buy in a shop as an example of what customers don't see. They will only see if the blue cardigan works for them, fits their style, that it is fashionable and is of good quality. There is much more that goes into that Blue Cardigan!
I am always careful to promise actions and outputs that I know I can deliver on. If I cannot, I will offer an interim solution to see whether something can be achieved. Your promises have to be as SMART as your hard work.
Be consistent with your promises (this is how you build a personal brand of always delivering and I am a big believer in a sound and respected personal brand). Ensure you can see a way out or a secondary solution if you promise something before you know you can achieve it. Of course, if money is no object you can promise the world (or a pizza flown from the US from a specific pizza place if you know the story!?).
I had some work men in the house recently who promised to get the final job finished on the Monday just gone and as I write (four days later) it has still not been completed.
I have had retailers promise to contact me about a purchase by a certain date for an update and not received a communication by the promised date with a solution or even an update!
I have had had friends tell me that their bosses promise change or say they will consider an email they sent (that they agree with) at a later stage, and they never give that time or don't follow up.
It all leaves me (and them) disappointed with the brand or personal brand and you feel demotivated or undervalued and you start to not want to believe any more promises. In fact you start to distrust that person or organisation or not shop at the store or deal with the person in question. It's how businesses lose customers they have worked so hard to get and keep, whether internal or external.
If only people give themselves more time when promising something or under promise and then over deliver. It's much better this way round than the other!
So remember next time when you are with a customer and they ask how long it will take, build some realistic timescales in for a response to their solution or let them know you will call them on 'such a date' for an update. When dealing with friends, don't say (post Covid) that you will see them at 7pm when you mean 8pm!
Work hard, be kind and respectful, and deliver! Simples!
Creating an excellent first impression
14th January 2021
I come across insightful quotes every so often, but even less often am I taken aback by who they are attributed to.
Ghandi, as far as I know, lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. After more research (which I have to do when something astounds me and to learn, so I don't feel so ignorant!) I find out he was a lawyer too (and of course their customers are very important to them).
What a great quote for January. To feel inspired to treat all our customers as an opportunity for our businesses and to realise that our livelihoods depend on people.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 10 months, Covid has shut down businesses and closed doors - because of lack of customers.
Maybe this is the wake up call for businesses to realise that the goal of a company is to get customers, to make profit, not to make profit. You cannot do the latter without customers. S/he is the purpose of it, as Ghandi says.
We need to view customers as central to our businesses and treat them as such. They are as much a part of the fabric of businesses as the till / card reader etc.
Customers should be made to feel part of the family. I know that when I am listened to and my purchase or transaction is looked after well, I relax and feel comfortable that everything is going as I expected. I know, for instance, when I have an amazing stay at a hotel or B&B. How? I feel comfortable and I can relax, like I am at home. We should make feel customers feel comfortable to do business with us at all times, after all that ensures repeat business, the goal of great customer service. Why spend all the marketing on just getting customers, you need to keep them. It takes seven times more expenditure to find a customer than to keep one.
We could just do one thing: respond to all customer emails within 24 hours whether with a solution or a next step or even (if you are working on the front line) smile at someone and say hello. When I am in Morrisons, I try and reverse it and use the name of the check-out member of staff when I thank them and say goodbye. The response every time is not one of 'how did she know my name' but warmth that I took the time to notice and use it. People love the personal touch so how about try and get peoples names and thank them when you say goodbye at the end of a telephone call. Acorns to oak trees!
Ghandi had a truly inspiring life and career and he lived to serve I find out when reading his background. I can now see why - and how - this quote is attributed to him.
Creating an excellent first impression
7th January 2021
Do you always have good intentions at the beginning of the year and then these drop off the list or cease a few weeks into the New Year!?
Why not make the change this year and start as you mean to go on. Ensure you are giving amazing customer service from day one... make it a New Year's Resolution.
The only game changer in business today is great customer service and organisations doing it right have the edge.
One of my favourite quotes is "The best marketing strategy is customer care" and I very much believe in this.
If you don't have great customer service now, it is going to get harder and harder to provide it. Starting from scratch: training staff, creating a service level agreement, creating smooth customer friendly processes, looking at the customer journey and the touch points to make them customer friendly, modelling the behaviour and reviewing this will take time to implement.
Organisations rely on customer to purchase their product or service and for repeat business and ensuring excellent customer service is key.
As an example, I am currently having a new bathroom fitted. It was started on Monday and then lockdown happened! Thankfully trade workers can continue to work. I have had a few small issues (surprises, promises not kept, lack of care and attention from all sides and with regard to additional fittings) that I am not very happy about and emailed the key contact at the business in question. The lads working spoke to me and went through everything which was reassuring and I was surprised not to have had something from the main contact. Two hours later, and after a very helpful email directly from him, he paid me a personal visit (socially distanced and outside as the person responsible for the job and the tradesman on site) to go over everything. I was very impressed. He knows that I am keen to use him again to do my kitchen!
It is never too late to begin great customer service but don't leave it too long because your competitors will steal your customers!
If you are just starting, others will be ahead but you can catch up. If you don't start you will fall further and further behind and it will be harder to catch up.
Don't forget that you must ensure that everyone is on board with this. The biggest single reason a business loses customers is because of the indifference of one employee. You must ensure that everyone is tuned to the training and that new people coming in after have the training. You must ensure that the service level agreement is followed and that people are picked up for any errors or have a refresher in customer service using examples and real life situations to get people to think about how they could do things better. Get them to put themselves in the place of the customer and see how they would want to be responded to. I always have a slide of scenarios and negative statements that can be turned into positive statements because I believe you never have to say no to a customer, but that if you do you should always present another option.... and that's a whole other blog!
So make your second New Year's Resolution - after having High Expectations - to initiate and provide outstanding customer service.
Creating an excellent first impression
31st December 2020
Every year I make New Year's Resolutions to ensure I have a focus for the year and don't while away the next 12 months aimlessly.
High expectations is a good one to have. People feel valued and motivated when others have high expectations of their ability and ability to achieve and generally those high expectations will be realised.
I have seen how children respond when you have high expectations of them. They respond positively and work hard to reach the expectation level because they are motivated to achieve when you have such high expectations of them and their ability. It is incredible to see what can be achieved when you challenge people to meet to rise to a high expectation.
Customers have high expectations when they go into a shop or online to purchase something and so they should spending their hard earned money.
Two examples of this I experienced today! Firstly, I went to purchase an item of clothing online, and there was no PayPal purchase option. I decided against buying the item because it was not easy (ie a payment option there and then) and I could not be bothered to go and get my wallet, get my card and add the numbers to complete the transaction. This is a luxury retailer too. I have high expectations as to what I expect in the purchase process: ease of transaction is key,
Secondly, whilst doing the shop for the last minute NYE's goodies in a well known and ethical supermarket, the staff member at the till totted up the three items I purchased. The total came to £37 and I know it should have been £32. Rather than apologise for the error and the additional non existent bottle of wine added, he went on about how he could not alter the transaction / take of the additional spend; we all know that a supervisor always has to do this. As customers we have high expectations of how we are treated and we know what is right.
So consider this for yourself too. Look at what you can achieve this year by having higher expectations and you will look back and think at the end of 2021 - wow, I achieved that!
Now I just have to find the goals I set for myself at the end of 2019 for 2020 (which I have lost!) to decide on my 2021 goals. I probably should add, be better at personal admin for 2021!
Happy New Year!
Creating an excellent first impression
24th December 2020
This is a short one since it is Christmas Eve, but I saw this quote the other day and I decided to use it in this blog.
I remember watching ‘Old people’s home for four year olds’ a while back and one of the key things that the parents of the four year olds said was that they wanted their children to grow up and be kind. They felt that kindness was the most important aspect for their children to learn, and be. I remember thinking how important this was at the time and how great it would be if everyone grew up being kind.
This year, it has been so important for us to be kind to each other, respect and think about each other and as we move into 2021 we certainly need to consider this even more as much of the country goes into a full Tier 4 lockdown on Boxing Day.
The more we can be kind to each other and think about each other, the faster we can get out of this situation.
The same should be of customer service: kindness to the customer is imperative and this could be listening and responding kindly and helpfully to make their experience easy and positive.
Just a little thought for 2021!
Merry Christmas!!
Creating an excellent first impression
17th December 2020
I love this quote. It is my favourite customer service quote of all time... to date! I am a firm believer that it is therefore people who are at the heart of customer service. You only have to look at the amazing example of Disney and their customer service. They call their customers guests and I think this is brilliant. If we all treated our customers like we do guests in our house (put them first, give them the best, make them feel relaxed and comfortable) we would all be winners at the customer service game! Just think 'be our guest' from Beauty and the Beast!
Disney also put their 'cast members' (staff) on a serious training programme at 'Disney University' to ensure their cast give their guests the best service. Service for them is all about creating that magical experience for both children and adults. In fact, they want people to come back again and again to enjoy this experience so the 'show' has to be first rate every time. Their service model is built around:
Smile
Eye Contact
Respect and welcome all guests
Value the Magic
Initiate guest contact
Creative service solutions
End with a 'thank you'
They have 'service' at the heart of their training!
Now, even I know that not every person is cut out nor wants to deal with customers on a daily basis. However, if you are going to apply for a front/ customer facing role in a service sector environment, know that you will have to deal with people and the rule is that customers pay your salary in the end. You have to want to help a customer, want to make them happy with an excellent purchase experience and want to do all you can to ensure this.
I have used the following statistic a lot in my blogs but it is well known that the biggest single reason a customer does not repeat purchase and moves to a competitor is because of the indifference of one employee. I know. I have not returned to a hotel because of a shocking experience with one member of staff; this hotel will remain nameless.
Organisations have a duty to recruit the right staff for the customer facing roles and training staff properly. Staff then have everything they need to ensure they look after the customer. It's that simple.
Shep Hyken's book 'Amaze Every Customer, Every Time' is all about helpful and friendly staff (central to business success) giving great customer service. If you have not read this book yet, order it! It will inspire you to give great customer service, and you will realise it is so easy too.
So as we enjoy this season which is full of magic - value the magic that amazing customer service can bring.
Creating an excellent first impression
10th December 2020
I love this quote and I only found this quote this year and it transpires I am a full believer in this saying. Well I am a glass half full person! Winning is great, but you can only win if you have put the effort in and learnt how to get something right through practice and patience. Sometimes you win the sale and sometimes you learn how to create a better sales experience to win the sale.
Great sales includes two vital ingredients covered in the previous tips - listening and being helpful.
I remember when I worked at Harrods and in one particular fashion department there was a regular customer who would come into the department at the start of every season looking for a specific look from a specific brand. Each time she would ask to look at the same size (we only ever carried one of this size) and she would try it on and look at it and leave. She would come back a week later and do the same thing. After three or four times she would then get to the actual purchase stage but would look at every thread and pick out any fault with it so we would ensure that it was faultless. She would then buy it and bingo... the sale was done - until the next time.
The moral of the story is, it was important to be patient through listening and helping her with the purchase. She would talk about her husband and home and would look at your with sharp beady eyes to make sure you were listening and responding not with the intention to respond but to actually listen and then respond.
So many people get despondent when people don't really listen. How do you know what a customer wants if you do not take the time to really listen to them? It also means you don't care which leads me onto one of my other favourite sayings is "The best marketing strategy ever: care".
If you don't listen, how can you help? If you don't know what the customer really wants because you have not listened, how can you help them get what they want efficiently and create a smooth purchase process.
The lady at Harrods was wanting a wonderful experience. She enjoyed the anticipation of the purchase more than the purchase itself. I know this because this is how I am. Looking forward to the end result is more exciting for me and more rewarding and enjoyable than the end result itself. What makes the end result so great is the work that has gone into it and the exhilaration of the end result is actually quite fleeting. Then you remember what it took to get there and you realise what makes that experience great - it's the journey, not the destination (another of my favourite sayings) and we need to brush up on the journey (the customer journey) more!
Someone said once that patience is a virtue. I believe it is more than just a virtue - it is central to a great customer service experience.
Creating an excellent first impression
3rd December 2020
This was always my favourite quote growing up. I think it came from the Wash and Go shampoo advert. It always resonated with me when I went for my first real job and any job since, as well as ensuring a consistency of brand in both personal and commercial endeavours.
Part of that first impression is all about positivity and pro-activity. People make first impressions in seven seconds and not only that, when it comes to a life time of a first impression, people remember how you made them feel more than what you did or said.
The customers journey is key, right from the very first touch point, whether that be in person, on the phone, by email, social media, or through your website. Was the experience smooth and positive and easy. Was the website easy to navigate? It can all be summed up in two words: being helpful.
Shep Hyken talks about Ace Hardware's organisational mentality of being helpful as key to their success. The top organisations are top (John Lewis, M&S, First Direct to name a few) for being helpful and ensuring an easy and pleasant purchase experience.
This also includes a great experience if the item/service is faulty. We want a resolution and we want it quickly and painlessly! We want help to make this happen and not all sales people are really good at this. People focus on the mistake that has been made, rather than the solution not realising that a helpful solution to a problem can boost your brand even more than if it were a normal easy transaction because you have to work harder to be helpful to make it right. Also, we all know mistakes happen - we are not all perfect.
It is so easy to put yourself in the shoes of the customer and ask yourself, 'what would I want to make this a pleasant and easy transaction' or ' how would I like this issue to be resolved' and then just do that! Companies need to empower people to do this too!
This year, we need helpfulness (as well as kindness and a little magic) more than anything, and I bet you can add a sprinkle of magic and kindness with a little helpfulness to one person that in turn will spread around the world as fast as Santa delivers his presents to the billions of us on Christmas Eve!
Creating an excellent first impression
26th November 2020
It is a truth universally acknowledged that people like kindness and helpfulness. I know that when parents were asked on that wonderful documentary series "The Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds" all the parents said that they would want their children to display kindness as the character trait they would most want them to have.
I think being helpful is kind and by that fact both positive attributes. The shop assistant that my colleague dealt with that I mentioned in my blog last week was certainly not positive or kind.
I said in my first blog of this six part series that I would be sharing some of my favourite quotes over the six weeks and this is certainly one of them.
Customer service is everyone's job in the organisation. It is a fact that 99% of staff can be pulling in the right direction and giving amazing customer service but the other % could be letting down and we know that the single biggest reason a customer goes elsewhere is because of negative dealings with an employee or employees.
Everyone has to be helpful and everyone has to be positive, otherwise the business loses out and then in the end everyone loses.
Being positive is easy if it's your disposition and you love dealing with people. If not, I would suggest a front facing customer role is not for you. You have to love interacting with people and you have to want to be helpful and spend the time making sure that customer has what he or she needs at the end of the purchase process.
I remember, when I worked at Harrods to pay my way through university, I had organised an evening dinner with a friend I had not seen for a while and was looking forward that day to leaving in an hour for this. However, I had been dealing with a lady who had placed a number of high price items on the counter and had gone off to the men's section to collect a few items of clothes for her husband. My manager asked me to stay on to help. I rang my friend to say I would be late and apologised. The customer came back up and with the men's clothes and continued to shop. Two hours later I was free to go. I could have been annoyed but I kept being positive and helpful after all she did not know that I had plans and nor would care. She was there as a customer to purchase at that moment in time. As an aside, it was not all bad, I actually got to look after and help one of my operatic idols and this is still one of the highlights of my time at Harrods; I also gained a good commission from the sale!
It does pay to be friendly and helpful and positive. I later found out she was in London recording as I spoke to her whilst processing the sale and that she had this short window to go shopping. I had let my manager know earlier who she was and the store remained open for her for an additional two hours. My friend who is an opera fan understood too!
So be positive, the experience could be win win for you and the customer!
Creating an excellent first impression
19th November 2020
My colleagues were lamenting the demise of customer service in retail this week and the lack of care, help and professionalism (my first tip from last weeks blog) shown by staff sometimes and in many cases all too frequently.
People seem to be placed in front facing customer service positions who have no passion or care for representing the business they are being paid by nor the customer in front of them who is actually paying them. albeit indirectly.
One of my colleagues was talking about the member of staff throwing her purchases around and nearly chucking them in the bag. Where is the passion or care here?
This could be due to one of three things:
1 - the organisation has not seen fit to give the member of staff customer service training which is shameful and the biggest mistake of all. Your business derives its income and sustainability from staff who know how to help and deliver support to customers. If you have not done this, well in my opinion organisations deserve what they get. I remember once after delivering customer service training in a previous role how grateful members of staff were with one telling me that they had never been told and so now knew how to deal with 'x' and words to use to deal with 'y'.
2 - the person is not valued at the organisation or show to be valued. Again shame on the organisation. If staff are not fairly paid, treated well, valued and looked after then of course you are not going to get the best out of your staff. It is false economy to think anything else. Staff are representing your brand, make sure its good on the inside and out! Of course, I also believe if you are not happy, then go elsewhere where people do value you and you can be passionate about the organisation.
3 - the person is having an off day. I am afraid my answer to this is tough. The customer does not know, nor care and when you get into work you have to adjust your attitude.
There is another option and that is the person is just not good at customer service, but then you wonder how on earth the company made the decision to place someone without these skills on the shop floor!
Generally people want and need to be happy and passionate in their jobs as they do it for over 45 years on average and so it is incumbent on organisations to give the right level of training and to motivate and engage their staff. This will always result in passionate staff who care about their jobs and the organisation they work for.
Take Shep Hyken's example of Ace Hardware. Staff are always helpful in every store you go in. They are knowledgeable and passionate about their organisation and it shows when they deal with customers... who then recommend other customers!
Disney is also another shining example of amazingly passionate people and Disney employees (cast members) go through some rigorous training before going out to deal with their 'guests' as they call them.
I am sure if we thought about our customers as guests too they would have just as magical experience (and it is the season to create this!) with us as they do at Disney.
Creating an excellent first impression
12th November 2020
It's six weeks until Christmas tomorrow so I am going to do a countdown each week of the six Ps to giving great customer service and use some of my favourite quotes at the same time for a little bit of inspiration as we countdown to the end of 2020. I know what you are thinking, her website is 4 Ps? Yes, but there are two more (just like when PEST went to PESTLE!) and I am sure there is an eighth habit now to the ever popular and widely known seven highly effective habits!
So here is the first: be professional.
What does this mean? Well, it includes saying 'please' and 'thank you', saying 'good morning' and 'how are you', never stepping over the client / sales line and over too much about your personal life. The customer does not need to know.
It means being professional and respectful, yet engaging and friendly as well as honest and clear.
It also means knowing your product. You cannot sell what you don't know. You cannot help if you don't know your product.
Professional means "to be competent or skilled in a particular activity". To do this you must have expertise and knowledge about your activity so make an effort to learn about it.
I was talking to a colleague about this in the sector and she mentioned how important product knowledge was. She cited that a new member of staff said they were not aware about a certain policy because they were new. She told them that the policy was on the website and that as a new person, you could be expected to have gone through all the key information on the website pertaining to that role to be up to speed on day one. That is being professional (and also another P which I will go through next week!).
Professional is not letting on when you are upset - after all the customer might be having a more upsetting time. Some people call this stiff upper lip. Professional is doing your job to the best of your abilities, honestly, and with dedication as part of a team and to not be the weak link.
Professional is putting the customer, your team, the organisation first over self, in the end the rewards will come back to you because everyone is winning.
Customers respond to professional, knowledgeable and courteous people. They will always come back for more of the same when they need help.
To conclude, "The mark of a true professional is giving more than you get" and "Professional is not a label you can give yourself, it is something you hope others will apply to you."
Creating an excellent first impression
5th November 2020
Following on from my blog last week, people are key in good customer service but great customer service is all about attention to detail.
It is the little things I have noticed that really make people smile. For example, parents have told me how much they love the personal car parking signs and their child’s name on the chalkboard when they visit (pre Covid 19). Many people take pictures of the latter and say how special they feel. They usually add, it’s always about the little things and I could not agree more.
It’s the smile from the shop assistant so you know she is there if you need help (I have zero patience and little time so always prefer to ask for help than search for the item I need). I had some new lavender and linen masks delivered and they had a little extra present included of a decorative clip and they smelled of lavender. This made me feel so happy and gave me a lovely warm feeling that someone had made the effort to make my purchase extra special.
Detail is shown in the automatic upgrade for a room in a hotel I have stayed in 3 times before, or the little chocolate dessert left in my room to thank me for choosing their hotel.
It is the good morning, the thank you’s, use of my name and the helpfulness that are some of the things that set great customer service apart from good.
It is all down to people again. Are people trained in how to support the customer, to respond and given suggestions of how to engage a customer in conversation. For some this is all natural, but others can to it too with the right support and training. Some people just need to be told and shown to get it right. For others it is natural and for the rest, it’s the wrong job.
You have to have passion, your have to care and you have to want to give the customer an amazing experience and to help them. So many other good and great quotes end with passion and care and I believe this to be true of great customer service too.
Passionate, caring and proactive staff really do make a world of difference and can make your business not just good, but great!
Creating an excellent first impression
29th October 2020
Following on from my blog last week about trust, it seems appropriate to talk about how important the people you are in your business when it comes to giving great customer service.
People give to people, they say in the world of fundraising, but people also buy from people too.
If you are not investing in your people and training them to deal with customers, how will they like you and then ultimately do business/buy from you?
Does your company even do the basics of customer service training with anyone who has a front facing role? That usually means everyone, since everyone picks up a phone at some point to deal with a customer. And don’t forget your internal customers, they deserve a great experience.
Customer service training is well worth it. When I have organised it and done it over the years, people respond with, ‘I never knew that, but now I have been told and shown, I can do that!’ And, ‘Thanks did showing me ways to never have to say no to a customer.’
People love being invested in and there has never been a better time to invest in staff to support your business for the future. Competition will be fierce to ensure businesses stay afloat and people are key to ensuring relationships with customers.
People like to do business with people they like and trust and a lot of that is how you manage that relationship. People need training in this. It is not always natural for people, but in the main it can be taught if the person is positive.
Customer service does rely on people with a growth mindset, people that never see a customer as anything but someone to build a relationship with rather than a nuscience. I know you know those people, the ones that chat about their life at the till when you are waiting to be served! Or the ones that you can hear on the phone with a voice that sounds frustrated when the clock strikes 5pm.
Dealing with a customer does mean prioritising them and their needs over your date or event and your time to degree. This all supports the relationship building element of trust that you start to build when you make that person feel valued.
Three quick tips to great customer service to start any novice on the right track:
Smile and be/ sound positive
Listen and be helpful
Give them your time
Trust me, you will build trust! and customer loyalty.
Creating an excellent first impression
22nd October 2020
I have realised this week that when people go into negotiations over issues with a relationship or product it should not be a battle: you don’t have to put your battle armour on to have an effective conversation with a customer.
When dealing with a customer that is not happy with the product or service, it's easy to fall into one of two modes: defensiveness or just giving everything away just to get the person off the phone or out of the meeting!
It is important to note that people don't just buy a product or service, they buy an experience and this experience involves people. There is nothing worse for a customer who in their eyes has spent a lot of money purchasing your product or service and telling the world how good it is, for an error to happen that is very challenging. Imagine then if the customer - already feeling let down and aggrieved - has to fight to be heard, is dealt with unsympathetically and the organisation does not budge an inch? How do you think that customer will feel?
It is easy to implement a few simple negotiation tactics to ensure a win-win situation. This is better than either party leaving a meeting with a sour taste in their mouths and questioning the relationship and carefully built up trust within that relationship, and not just the product or service.
Here are some negotiation tactics to try when dealing with a tricky situation or customer to ensure a win win outcome:
1 - Listen, empathise and ensure to keep calm at the beginning of the conversation.
2 - Ask exactly what they want! Sometimes by cutting to the chase, and asking what they’re looking for, it may be less than you think! Just because customers are upset with a product doesn’t mean they want a full refund. Maybe they want a discount, a new product, or something else to appease their frustration. Listen and then ask what they would want to help ease the difficult situation and least you know where to start from.
3 - Know your “bottom line”: Know exactly how far you’re allowed to go when talking with a customer. If you know there’s absolutely no way you can give a full refund but that you’re able to give 75% back, that’s incredibly important information. You know where the negotiation will have to end, at least before you pass things off to a manager. It’s important to understand where your ending point is so that you have a firm grasp of what you have to offer.
4 - Stress how important they - your customers - are to you: You want customers to understand that although it feels like it’s you vs. them, you’re actually on their side. Stressing how important this conversation is and how vital they are as customers may get you further than you think. It’s hard to be mad at someone who’s expressing that he or she wants to walk away from the conversation feeling heard, appreciated, and satisfied. It will diffuse tension, remind him or her you’re a human being, and hopefully make it easier to come to a compromise.
Customer loyalty is important. People deal with and buy from people whether business to business or business to customer. As I have said, experience is key as people buy from people and put their trust and faith in people not just the organisation. If you don't handle the situation right, you could lose not just a customer but reputation and we all know that brand reputation takes years to build and seconds to destroy.
Most businesses cannot afford this outcome. The answer? Invest in basic customer service training for all your employees whether they directly or indirectly deal with your customers. It will be the best investment you make.
Creating an excellent first impression
1st October 2020
So, last week my husband ordered some new face covers / masks from a seller on eBay and this was the response [word for word] post purchase (as he said to me "Not very good customer service"):
I KINDLY ASK YOU PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE
😷 THANK YOU FOR YOUR PURCHASE 😷
I’m sending this message as sadly I’ve dealt with a few very rude customers recently (even yesterday) who didn’t read the listing when they made their purchase nor note the despatch date which was stated at the time.
So my SINCERE apologies for the lengthy message ahead but I now feel I need to explain myself & justify the despatch timescale.
As you will have seen at checkout & stated on all the listings,
Despatch currently stands at within 3 weeks.
My despatch is normally 1-2 weeks but I’m on holiday (well a much needed & earned break) 26th Sept -5th Oct which is why an additional week has been added making a 3 week despatch at present. This is only temporary.
As well of my much needed break (my first this year) this timeframe is also because I continue to have an unprecedented amount of sales and as I hand make my items to order I am making my way throughout these sales in date order, I work extremely long hours to serve my customers as well as still attempting to sleep, eat & keep on top of the day to day running of my home.
It was only August that I had finally taken the decision to start giving myself the occasional day off from all the sewing because for months I’d continued 7 days a week, 4/5am starts and 11/12pm finishes & they had taken their toll. 😓😓
👍💪👍 My Hope is, you shall not wait 3 weeks for your item to be made & despatched but I have this 3 week timeframe in place not only to compensate my holiday but also ‘just incase’ as no sewing day is certain on production levels. 👍💪👍
Thank you so much for choosing me but most of all thank you for your understanding. It is much much appreciated.
🎅🏻🎄⛄️ A WONDERFUL RANGE OF CHRISTMAS MASKS NOW AVAILABLE OVER TWO LISTINGS ⛄️🎄🎅🏻
I message all my customers once items are made & despatched so there is no need to chase your order as I will be in touch.
Very best wishes, take care and stay safe 😷
As my husband also says, "Don't give me problems, give me solutions!" which I tend to agree with. This is not my customer service obsession rubbing off on him. this is the real deal.
He is right though. We don't want excuses or problems, we want a smooth and easy transaction to any purchase. Even though the seller bothered to reply which is great, I know my husband would have preferred a shorter message saying it was coming without the lengthy message and excuses including mentioning lack of time off and having a much needed break. Some people have not had a proper break at all this year, many cannot afford one considering the current circumstances and finally the seller is in a great position that the business is going well which in these circumstances is amazing!
Does that want to make you buy one of the wonderful range of Christmas Masks available? Or even go back for more!?
Remember: No Excuses. Only Solutions!
Even Santa Claus finds a way to deliver billions of presents to children all over the world in one night even with the help of a few elves and eight reindeer!
Creating an excellent first impression
8th October 2020
This week is National Customer Service Week! Very exciting. The Institute of Customer Service's infographic states the following:
Monday: Knowing your customer and how to deliver for them
Tuesday: Capability and Skills: identifying and nurturing customer service skills in your organsiation
Wednesday: Recognition - celebrate your customer service heroes
Thursday: Leadership - championing customer service in the boardroom
Friday: Trust - building brand reputation by delivering on promises
These are all brilliant. It includes key aspects such as knowing your customer so you can deliver, focusing on your staff so they can deliver to your customers and then celebrating staff who do deliver to customers and on their promises.
I am going to focus on Thursday's statement (since I write this on a Thursday!): championing customer service at the top. If you do not have a culture of customer service that is driven from the top and by this I mean nurturing the skills and leading by example, your cannot expect your employees to deliver on this too. If the boss says 'he cannot spend much time with the customer because he has another meeting to go to' in front of other members of staff, how do you expect other members of staff to deal with the customer. Because we all follow the lead of the person/people in charge; they set the tone for all aspects within a business.
People at the top need to realise that they have a duty to their business and that duty is to lead by example in all that they do professionally. Children do the same from their parents, they learn good or bad behaviour and copy it. It happens every where so it is not always easy to get right.
However, by championing customer service from the top and ensuring that staff are really behind customer service means that those people at the top can save their bacon because:
"There is only one boss, the customer, and s/he can fire everyone from the chairman on down, just be spending his/her money somewhere else."
Customer service is easy. People only want five things when spending their hard earned money and you can practice one of these each day:
Monday: Value for money and therefore a good experience
Tuesday: Customer service: listen and be helpful!
Wednesday: Keep your promises and deliver
Thursday: Quality of the product and experience
Friday: Ease of doing business - again, listen and be helpful!
Happy National Customer Service Week!
Creating an excellent first impression
15th October 2020
This week I have certainly have earned my badge in dealing with anxious customers.
I have learnt that when dealing with anxious customers the key is to keep calm, be confident in your decisions and ensure you are constantly available for customers to be able to speak with to reassure them.
Here is my seven step by step guide to dealing with anxious customers, because in the world we live in at the moment, it is crucial to be able to do this effectively.
1 - Every concern a customer has - even it not directly related to the crisis you are dealing with - is valid however small it is in the scheme of things and must be treated with equal priority.
2 - For customers who are directly affected by the situation you must ensure you are constantly and effectively communicating with them and ensuring you are available on many channels for them to speak with you.
3 - Although I knew this was key, this next steps has never been more apparent this week. Do not just go in with your information, but empathise with their situation and really listen to their concerns. Active listening and a warm and compassionate tone is key here.
4 - Address their anxieties straight away and don't dismiss anything they say because we all have different anxiety levels and we all feel things differently.
5 - This is key for me: don't be afraid to apologise. Even if the situation is not your fault, you can apologise of the situation and let them know by doing this you have heard them and you understand their concerns.
6 - Reassurance is key. Do this by succinctly focusing on the facts and using reliable sources to explain your decision making and why the outcome is as it it is.
7 - Give customers a deadline for the issue and provide solutions to the current issue with additional solutions for after the deadline.
After the issues have been resolved, ensure you provide continued reassurance and updates as appropriate. You need to be clear and concise in your communications, be factual but always compassionate.
We are human after all and need to feel we can connect with each other.
Just remember, we all make mistakes but it is how your handle those mistakes and deal with people. That is what people will remember when they come to look back on the issue or concern.
Creating an excellent first impression
24th September 2020
I am a big believer in being positive. I think, do and be positive as much as possible. I am a glass half full person and get excited and energise over the littlest of things!
Do you know that you can do this in sales too? People love it too. They love positive, passionate and pro-active people. All the time in fact.You turn even the grumpiest person around with all of that! You never have to use the word no...... don't believe me - well here goes...
Ten well used phrases that can be turned into positives -
Phrase - Don’t put those forms there
Solution - Let me take those from you and I will deal with them
Phrase - We can’t do that
Solution - This option is another solution to this problem which might help?
Phrase - That won’t work
Solution - Have you considered this option to your query?
Phrase - That’s not our policy
Solution - Leave that with me, and I will speak to my manager and see what we can do.
Phrase - You’ll have to call back for that information
Solution - Please can I take your details and I will ring you back with the information?
Phrase - We’re out of those
Solution - Have you tried this option? However, if you prefer to stick with 'x' then I will see when it is back in stock and ensure we put one aside for you. Could I have your number to confirm when this will be?
Phrase - You’ve missed the deadline for that (scholarships).
Solution - We have given out all the scholarships this year, however scholarships for next year are available from xx date. Shall we will look to add your name to the list for next year.
Phrase - I don’t know
Solution - Let me check with my manager to find out the answer. Please wait here, and I will be 2-3 minutes only / let me take your telephone number and I will call you back.
Phrase - My computer is moving slowly (never say this!)
Solution - I am sorry but could I take your number and I will call you back in an hour or at a time to suit you?
Phrase - No
Solution - sometimes you do have to say no, but if you can offer a solution then at least people feel that they have not reached the end point yet, that there is hope and people still leave with a positive impression and the feeling you have been helpful.
Still think you cannot always be positive?
Creating an excellent first impression
17th September 2020
My colleague went into a well known high end supermarket today for her lunch and she was told 'Don't Know' when asking for a certain item!
Not only was I astonished that anyone who is in the business of serving customers would say this phrase (surely the store would keep them up to sate to be knowledgeable and helpful to customers) but that they would say it in this store! Took the 'sparkle' out of my feelings towards this normally five star retailer.
There are times where you will not know the answer, but don't say 'Don't Know' and leave it at that. That is not helpful and does not give the customer an end result to the purchase that she so desperately wants to make.
A better response would be, "That's a great question, and one I am unsure of, so if you don' mind waiting here for a few moments, I am just going to check on that for you." Helpful and positive.
It is possible to be positive with your answers on all occasions. As i have said before people do not like to hear the word no or any negative ending to their experience. For instance, you might know that there is no dress available in the size that the customer has just asked for, but go to the back anyway and look. It shows you care about helping the customer and that you will look anyway [they don't know you know remember and would just consider you not looking as lazy]. Come back and apologise and ask questions about what the customer is looking for and help to find an alternative or if not, help the customer to find it online and order it.
You never have to close anything with a negative. You can always turn things around to be a positive... something I will talk about in my blog next week!
Creating an excellent first impression
10th September 2020
Have you ever been in one of those situations where the sales assistant starts talking about their life and issues, and does not stop? You are in a rush - as always - and they continue to talk about their life. You reply out of courtesy but with a one syllable answer hoping that this will deter the continuation of the story or issue but it doesn't, so you politely say 'such a nightmare for you' or some such other phrase and you look at your watch and say you must leave and that you will be back in touch.
Do you? Probably not in most cases. You don’t have time to deal with this again, and so move to a new shop / company to help with your purchase needs It’s the company’s loss and they most likely would not know the reason for the lost sale.
Headline: the customer does not give a damn about your issues and life. They have an issue, which is why they are at your store, and they want you to fix it with minimal fuss, time and energy. This requires listening skills and helping skills, none of which happen if you are talking about yourself.
The problem is we all find it easier to talk about ourselves than ask questions. As a sales person, you are in the wrong job if that’s all you do, and you probably are a bad sales person. Yes, some relationship building, sharing of a few anecdotes helps but leave it at that! Focus on the customer.
I have experienced this recently when the member of staff started taking about her divorce which happened during lockdown and then continued on about the new man she now has in her life who is so much better than her soon to be ex-husband. Do I need to know this? Has it put me off the purchase? Yes, although I might request another member of staff to help me now since it is a big purchase and we are half way down the line.
I experienced it last year at work when a colleague did it in front of some potential customers and they looked at me for help (I could see it in their eyes!). The same thing happened two weeks ago when a colleague walked into a meeting telling some potential customers s/he only had fifteen minutes to spare because of another meeting. How special does the customer feel now? Do they care - if they have spent time coming to see you - about your lack of time? Does it make them feel more or less important and does it not demonstrate to them that you see your time as more valuable than theirs? If it’s like that in the purchase process, what will the after sales be like?
So remember, engage the customer by asking them questions, finding out information about them and help them. Focus on them and leave you out of it because creating an amazing customer experience requires a focus on the customer and making them feel special and if you are talking about yourself, that does not make them feel special, valued and unique within that moment.
Creating an excellent first impression
3rd September 2020
So you read at the end of my blog last week that I would talk about what customers top ten priorities are when it comes to the purchase process and here they are and why:
Overall quality of the product - no one wants a dud product because that means that the customer has to spend more time shopping for a replacement item.
Being treated as a valuable customer - if you are about to spend your money (and we do have a choice in most cases about where to spend our money), part of the transaction is to feel like we have made the right choice to spend it at the ship we are in and feel valued for doing so.
Speed of service - in this time poor age, this is so important. We do not have endless hours to find the perfect item, so when we go into a shop we want someone who really can get to the nub of the situation speedily.
Friendliness of staff - service with a smile is key. No-one wants to feel in the way, a hindrance or unwelcome.
Handling of problems and complaints - these should be smooth and easy. There should be no problems mentioned like slow computers, "you can order it online as we don't have it", "ring back next week for more information", and so on - this does not make is easy.
Handling of enquiries - this is where speedy and helpful responses are key for customers and you need to ensure if you promise something you must deliver.
Competence of staff - staff should be trained properly to deal with issues. We can all sport the 'Saturday staff' who are not as clued up and we head straight for the managers (well I do!) because i want to speak with someone who knows the products and can help me quickly and easily.....
Ease of doing business - we don't want problems, we want solutions and this is key to life because as I have mentioned we are very time poor in the 21st century.
Being kept informed - if you tell the customer that you will get back to them by a specific date, then do. If you have not resolved the situation, communicate on the date you said you would to call back and let them know the problem and the solution and when it will be resolved. Call back them to confirm it is to ensure that the customer does not feel out of the loop.
Helpfulness of staff - as I said last week, this is key. If you listen correctly, then you can be helpful since you are ensuring that you have listed to exactly what the customer wants and can help them.
So there you are - the top ten priorities of customers in no specific order... so what is most important to you?
Creating an excellent first impression
27th August 2020
So from last week's blog you know that 58% of customers are willing to pay more to companies that provide excellent customer service (and I am one of them)! But here is an even more exciting fact..... 86% of people are willing to pay up to 25% more for a better customer experience.
The sector I work in shows this to be very true, with customers paying a lot more than 25% more for a better customer experience (for their children) when the alternative is free.
I always say that I'll have made it when I can permanently shop in Waitrose and I won't mind paying it if I can afford it. It is a wonderful pleasant experience when shopping in Waitrose as I mentioned last week.
People splash out on those special occasions and pay that little bit more for an amazing experience. It's why girls and guys love the limos at Prom and parents pay for it - for the experience of watching their 'baby' graduate as an adult. It's a special experience demanding a little bit more financial investment!
What about that special anniversary weekend away with dinner and a spa etc. People don't want bog standard, so they pay that little bit more for something special.
Not only that, many people are cash rich, time poor so will spend more to make the experience hassle free and easy. That's how Amazon Prime have pitched themselves, for £7 a month! That's more than a 25% mark up.
My husband and I - before Covid stuck - enjoyed VIP seats at a local football match. We had the best time, because of the VIP experience and we agreed we would pay it again.
I am sure you can recount times like the above when you have not wanted to leave but stay in a warm bubble of the perfect experience!
I can only end with my favourite anecdote of all time: I booked the Skyline bar at the Burj Al Arab for drinks a few years back, which has a minimum spend per person. The pre-experience service was seamless; during the evening the staff used our names, were polite and helpful (not over solicitous) but cleverly there when you needed another drink and some help to choose something new. We ended up spending over double the minimum spend which we had not intended to do. The customer experience was 'seven star' like the hotel. Not only that, after the evening, a feedback email came through which for me was the icing on the cake, as one of the questions asked was "Did anyone ever say no to you throughout the evening?" No-one had, which helped cement this as the best experience. As a customer, I (in fact we all) hate being told no. We want solutions and help, not problems and unhelpful-ness.
And following on from this, next week, I will talk about what customers top ten priorities are to ensure a great customer experience and encourage them to part with their hard earned money.
Creating an excellent first impression
20th August 2020
It is a truth universally acknowledged that people like to get a bargain and are quite price sensitive. However, I firmly believe that people also like a great experience.
I love shopping in Waitrose every so often because of their gleaming floors, calm ambience and wide aisles. There is a reason it's a little more pricey!
I actually prefer to pay that little but more for convenience and a great experience. I succumbed to Amazon Prime about 18 months ago for this reason and i am about to consider Unlimited because of the amazing experience. I am paying for excellent customer service which in my opinion includes the experience.
Think about it: you go into a shop and how frazzled are you when you come out without the purchase you want and totally unmotivated.
I did this last week: i went to a garden centre to buy a quince. (Random, I know, but I like quince and my local supplier does not have quince any more and it makes really good chutney). I am not a natural gardener and can just about keep herbs and lavender alive.
I go into two garden centres and the customer service was appalling. The first one did not realise I was at reception even though I had rung the bell and the second when they said they did not have what i wanted (and this was the manager no less) did not even decide to be helpful and secure a sale by helping me out!
So what did I do? Go on Amazon - and there it was - information, pictures, size of tree at maturity - everything I wanted as the click of a button. It has cost more, but it is speedy and helpful and was a smooth transaction because of Prime.
So I am one of the 58% who will pay more to get great service because I am so time poor. I don't want to be trekking around 2-3 garden centres for one plant. I want to be told here are some options after being listened to.
I actually love going into shops where I pay more: M&S, Waitrose, my local village shop etc because I get an easy and smooth transaction.
I have to say, I enjoy being offered a glass of fizz whilst shopping at some shops which I know they do not have to offer and would considerably reduce the prices of the items, but its all part of the experience, I feel special and it helps me to spend money which is a clever ploy from the shop really.
So, have a think, when you offer customer service - that person will pay more for help and great customer service. This will guarantee you a sale... unlike the garden centres who missed out to Amazon.
Part 2 next week includes how much more people are prepared to pay for an amazing customer experience and why...
Creating an excellent first impression
13th August 2020
I thought that in the spirit of it being A Level results day today and GCSE results day next week, I would write about whether the answer is six or a nine?
So - a bit of audience participation - what do you think it is?....
Of course, next week these numbers really do matter, so most sixteen year old's would be wanting to say a nine. This is because it is the difference between the old A (9) and C (6), a grading range which we are more comfortable with (if you are my age anyway) and the grading being used for today's A Level results.
But for this weeks blog, if you look closely it could be either. Because it is all about perception.
Like the picture of the young and old lady or the glass half full or half empty, depending on your perception.
For many schools, there will be excitement for the numbers of A*s and As but at the same time, some parents and pupils will be unhappy. It is all about perception and which side you are on, a nine or a six.
It is why one of my mantra's is: "there is no such thing as right or wrong, just opinion."
Perception is king. For instance, for one person, Covid-19 might have been a terrible time which included loss, for another it might have been amazing, more time with loved ones and family.
We all respond to things differently and according to two key things experience and mindset.
We must remember when dealing with customers, that they see things differently to us according to these above tow aspects. We need to acknowledge that difference to ensure we have really listened and engaged with the customer to help and support them in the purchase process.
We also act differently as a customer, whether we are in a hurry to purchase something or wanting to ensure every bit of detail is right when spending hard earned money. I know something about the latter as I am in the middle of purchasing a new bathroom suite and having the whole thing re-done. I know I am being very detailed since I want to get it right and want to ensure I have all the right information to know I am purchasing the right bits and pieces. I can understand why families and people are detailed when purchasing an Independent education for instance or another luxury item. It's all down to perception and how different people are.
So whether you think it is a six or a nine, the trick is to realise there are two sides to every story, that everyone is different (which is a blessing!) and to ensure you listen and engage to realise a win-win outcome for both the customer and you.
Creating an excellent first impression
6th August 2020
This week I am enjoying a week's holiday in Cornwall. It has been a crazy few months and I really needed some time to get away from work and re-energise.
This is important. If we do not have time away from the grind, then we are liable to burn out, become unproductive and un-creative and worse, become ill.
It is important also to give your team the chance to step up, take charge and make decisions. No-one is indispensable, in my opinion, even me.
I read an article once that some people come back from holiday and delete all the emails sent to them whilst away, after giving senders notice in an out of office. It makes sense though. If people want to get in contact they would wait until the person on holiday returns and resend it or indeed someone else can deal with it in their absence.
So what should you put in place to make those emails lighter for your return but ensure at the same time amazing customer service which is of course key?
Five steps to annual leave preparation:
1 - Email all your key suppliers/clients a few days in advance to let them know you are going on holiday and to ask them to send any queries to you in advance of this and a key contact for them for when you are not there;
2 - Email all your key accounts asking them if they need any help with anything without letting them know you are going on holiday. They will invariably come back with some queries, so be prepared to spend your last few days fielding more emails than normal;
3 - Email a brief to key people with regard to key accounts and work that needs doing whilst away along with stages key customers are at, but try to ensure that most of your work is covered rather than adding to someone else's workload;
4 - Ask for the key person to send you a response overview to your brief back for speedy transition back into the workplace
5 - Add your out of office with helpful and friendly text including emails of key staff that people can contact in your absence should they require an immediate answer plus dates you are away and back in the office so people can decide whether to wait for you or ask the people you have listed in your out of office instead.
Enjoy your well earned holidays!
Creating an excellent first impression
30th July 2020
So you have created great customer service for your customers, now you have to keep them!
It is said that it is harder to stay on top than get to the top (although Amazon seem to be bucking this trend as they unveil their latest service offering in the food sector!).
In the customer service arena, it's not that hard and Ace Hardware as Shep Hyken demonstrates as well as Waitrose, John Lewis, M&S and First Direct to name but a few know what else they have to do to do other than be helpful.
To engage your customers and to ensure they keep coming back, you have to ensure you have created a great customer experience first time round and then continue to do this. Each time a customer wants something different, so why would a customer come back to you for new products or your help?
It is simple: an easy purchase process which consists of helpfulness in all aspects: choosing the product, support in purchasing the product and after sales - the whole customer journey in fact.
Helpfulness is key, but how does a person become helpful?
A very little known, little practised, highly important skill: listening.
How can anyone help anyone, unless they know what to help them with? And to know, you need to have listened to the customer (and I mean really listen - active listening) to ensure you are helping them correctly.
We forget sometimes that we have two ears and one mouth, desperate to add our point of view without listening, or to tell someone about a relevant anecdote, talk about ourselves etc. To be blunt, the customer does not really care. They have limited time in many respects and whilst a certain amount of conversation - where you ask them questions about them - will work, they just want to purchase a product and move on with their life.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that people like to talk about themselves - as the customer you can go mad, as the sales person, zip the lip on 'you' and listen and ask questions. This is how you find out stuff and can add value to your sale. By asking questions you can find out if the person might need any more items to help make things easier and you make more sales. That can only be good!
So my top tips to getting and keeping customers:
- be helpful
- listen and don't talk about yourself
- and say thank you!
- follow up (after sales is important!)
Of course and the product/ service has to work / be amazing too - that's a given!
NB: As an aside, I have noticed that for all you people reading this and saying to - 'how much talk is right' - well then Emotional Intelligence (EI) comes into play. as well as this useful nugget: when I spend a lot of money, I don't mind a certain amount of chat, but when I am buying a low cost item, chat should be limited to helping me locate it. I don't mind chat to fill a space as long as the purchase process is moving forward (ie supermarket till). When i am spending a lot of money, I like to enjoy the experience, so I don't mind a certain amount of chat.
Take your queues from the customer - listen to them!
Creating an excellent first impression
23rd July 2020
Shep Hyken writes in his customer service books that for him, the key to great customer service is helpfulness.
This week, I have experienced two sets of unhelpful ness that made my experiences poor. I realised that Shep is onto something here.
First experience: My husband and I went on a four day walk over the weekend. At the end of the trip, we experienced total unhelpfulness from every single amenity in the village we were staying in. The post office told us the buses were not running (I had an email from the bus company saying they were running from the day before).
Furthermore, no one could tell us when the main tourist shop (very famous) was open next (it shut as we arrived and although google said it should be open it wasn’t), including the only open coffee shop, said post office and our hotel. We finally got through to the manager on the phone line listed on the website after 4-5 tries, who apologised and told us the opening time for the next day. When we went back the next day she had the opening times on the door, although they were late opening. It seems we were not the only confused people but she had not put this up or added the information to the website. Yes, things had only just opened but surely, to encourage trade and help each other out post Covid-19, businesses would find out this sort of information to help tourists and ensure engagement.
There were so many other Instances of unhelpfulness, with one local woman having a go at me for not giving her the correct details for her to give me the right information (and I was not the local) and I was just repeating what I had read. I can tell you this, we were thoroughly disappointed and won’t be returning. Thankfully the shop does mail order!
Second experience: a supplier had been emailing me about a large order and payment. It was getting embarrassing and so I apologised forwarding it again. The receiver said that payment had been made last week and I should check first with her before apologising. How was I to know (after numerous reminders from the supplier had gone unpaid) that it had just been paid, and how was the supplier to know? Surely it you had had a few reminders, you would email the supplier to say payment had been made and copy the person in who had been getting all the reminders; not least so that the supplier could check on the payment and look out for it. It was interesting that the supplier came back to us (I was copied into the notification email) sent after this email conversation asking for information on the payment to check it with the bank. Helpfulness is easy and ensures a smooth transaction and or purchase process for all as well as ensuring engagement and a good reputation.
It makes me consider my 4 Ps of Red Carpet Customer Service:
Proactive - being helpful to the customer and ensuring proactive communication including emails to people when you do something so they know it’s done.
Professional - act in the way you would wish to be treated and respond in a timely and helpful manner
Positive - always say yes, always be helpful and if you have to say no, have another solution available to be helpful...
...And lastly,
Passionate people care and want to ensure a great customer experience. They naturally want to help and solve customers issues.
I know companies with great customer service and they all have not thing in common: their staff are helpful.
Have a think about these companies and then you will realised that helpfulness (to create an easy, smooth and positive purchase experience) is key: Waitrose, M&S, John Lewis, Disney, First Direct.
Finally, they all do something else key to amazing customer service which you can find out in next weeks blog...
Creating an excellent first impression
16th July 2020
There are so many statistics about customer service and word of mouth:
'News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise of a good service experience.'
'For every customer who bothers to complain, 26 other customers remain silent.'
So businesses really need be aware that people do talk and that people will talk about both poor and amazing customer service. But unfortunately, as the first statistic and phrase shows, more people talk about bad customer service than good customer service.
Only this week, a colleague told me about a customer service incident at the weekend and it was bad - not good. I asked him would he return and he said no. He has also told me the name of the business and I wont go there and will probably tell others about this if the business is mentioned with a negative review even though I have not been there. This is how TripAdvisor and other such online review site work - but they have been operating for millennia through the old fashioned 'word of mouth'. It goes to show that as we work harder for our pennies, we want to ensure that when we get the chance to spend that it we get an amazing service experience... otherwise no repeat business and that goal of businesses as we know from My Hyken is to find and keep customers to grow our businesses and make profit.
Can you imagine then when a person spends money on a luxury product (not just your every day coffee, pint or supermarket shop) that person is going to want to be treated well and the company should give that person the best customer service experience to secure the business. Plus - the quote above suggests it will help to secure further business!
Think about the great experiences you have had. What do they all have in common?
I can tell you from experience the common five denominators for me when I think back to amazing experiences that I tell others about have been:
1 - Use of my name / personalised approach
2 - Listening and helping - with the former being used for 75% of the time with 25% solution / helping
3 - Ease of business and smooth purchase process
4 - Positive and interested (passionate) staff
5 - Being proactive with additional help (going the extra mile) but yet professional (ensuring hat the line is not crossed by being too friendly and being overly helpful - because this can be the case when a member of staff does not know when to stop which means they are not listening).
These are not hard.
I say this all the time, but my advice is to put yourself in the shoes of the customer in front of you / or on the phone. Be them. Think about how you would respond to you if you were the customer and you would think and feel throughout. Get what you think and how you feel out of your head as the member of staff. I am afraid that they don't care about this, but only what they think and what they need help with and why.
When you realise this, you will be able to ensure you support your organisation with the majority of your customers giving positive feedback to others. After all, surely it is in everyone's interest to see their organisation or the organisation they work for grow.
Creating an excellent first impression
2nd July 2020
AGA's make me smile every time I think about them or see one. I love what they represent because it's not just about a cooker. They represent more than that to me: warmth after a cold day out, dogs and cats asleep around them, the kitchen being the hub of the home, the ironing done, the pots dried, and that time at the end of a long day when you can rest your bum on it with a cup of tea or glass of wine. And this does not even mention the reason for its existence: cooking.
'Smile moments' for me happen with Aga's and Amazing Customer Service. Anyone who has been through training with me in customer service will know this. Of course loads of things in life make me smile, but when I think of these two I get very excited and a big smile errupts.
I am sure you have experienced a situation that made your day, made you smile? I wrote a little about this last week when I talked about customer delight and listed a number of examples.
When I wrote about the AGA above, I listed all the aspects that for me make me happy and make me smile. Customer service involves creating an experience for your customer in their journey with you so its more than just a product that they walk away with.
I have experienced incredible customer service and wonderful experiences that make me think about the 'products' in many more ways than they originally were designed for. For instance, an amazing hotel stay when it was not just about the room and breakfast, but how the staff made me feel including the welcome and help they gave throughout, the use of my name, listening to my queries actively before offering help and using thank you a lot too. These all make me smile, and of course the rooms and breakfast were fantastic but when I think back to amazing experiences it was more than what was advertised (that was also excellent) that made it five star and makes me smile now as it did at the time.
Read my last blog which lists numerous ways I have enjoyed customer delight moment which made me smile!
We all want to feel special when we are purchasing something that could be considered a lot of money and especially so when we spending our hard earned cash.
Organisations need to get and keep customers. It is no surprise that companies with red carpet customer service get and keep customers by providing them with smile moments all the time. Ask Shep Hyken and Ace Hardware employees.
If you are new to all of this, read Shep Hykens book on 'Amaze Every Customer Every Time' (which is my favourite customer service book at the moment). If you don't have time or this does not appeal to you, why not start by smiling at a customer as they walk in and saying hello. If you deal with customers by phone only, you can still smile and they can hear this...... I know, you are thinking I have gone mad, but it is true. If you smile before you make a call, it lifts your voice, whereas if you are unhappy / not smiling, your voice sound lowers. If you are happy, you are usually more upbeat and by sitting more upright too this reflects in your voice. It's why (since I deal with customers both face to face and on the phone) I believe in the cheesy old fashioned phrase 'Smile and Dial'. It works though!
Now you can create a little 'Smile Moment' for a customer and you will make their day. Not least because we know the old phrase 'Smile and the whole world smile's with you' and most importantly, we all smile in the same language!
(The red AGA is pictured because I believe in 'Red Carpet Customer Service' as per my website. It is now 18 months since my first blog on one of my two favourite subjects in life so I thought i would tie in my blog with something red this week and my other favourite thing that makes me smile!)
Creating an excellent first impression
25th June 2020
... what does this mean?
Well, have you ever felt 'delighted' by something? For instance, you have gone back to your hotel room and the staff have left some chocolates or some goodies on the side with a note, or the shop assistant says that although they don't have the dress size in store you want, she will locate it for you and help you order it. How about when the supermarket member of staff sees you looking lost and asks you if you need any help or the time when you went to a restaurant for an anniversary and the restaurant created a 'congratulations' plate with chocolates on at the end? The time when you email the restaurant and they include your reason for being here in their weekly menu introduction along with all the other people in that week who had booked and you feel special?
I remember each and every one of these instances with a huge grin on my face, right now as I write. I had customer delight every time. Not only did people look after me, but they cared enough to go the extra mile. This made me feel special; I have more than a smile on my face for all these organisations and their staff meeting my expectations whilst thinking about these customer focused instances; these organisations exceeded it and to this day I have a grin on my face. Just like on the image attached to this blog.
I was reminded this week at work of my days working for Harrods, Knightsbridge (whilst at University to pay my way), and how much I learnt about customer service there and the art of creating customer delight.
I remember a customer walking in (I worked in what is called the contemporary collections department) and she had just been surprised by her partner with dinner and the opera in London and she had nothing to wear. I found a dress, but when she told me this story, I decided to go and find her shoes, tights, and a bag to go with the dress. She went off to dinner and hopefully had a lovely evening. I thought at the time that I did not want such a lovely surprise from her partner to have any negative feelings attached (the worry of not having something to wear) so I tried to ensure she had the most positive experience to compliment the surprise.
How hard was that to do? How hard is it for anyone to go to extra lengths in fact? If we put ourselves in others shoes more, we would understand how we can help our customers better.
It actually happened to me this week at work (20 years on from Harrods!) with a customer buying our product. She was looking for something totally unrelated which she slipped into conversation as I was asking her about various related aspects. I have since been able to help her with another area of her life to make things easier. She emailed back jokingly that she had received the full service package and then jokingly asked about another aspect, which I was able to help with, again unrelated.
I know I am making life easy, which is all people want really when it comes to the transaction process. I know that's what I want.
I read Shep Hyken's book about 'how to amaze every customer every time' that I raved about a few weeks ago; he wrote about Ace Hardware stores doing just this. Their staff create a dialogue by asking questions of the customer about their life related to the product which they have bought, which gets the customer talking about other aspects and things they need help with. Sometimes the staff members can help with items related to the Ace Hardware products, and sometimes not. But they help with both to create the full service package.
This is how you create Customer Delight.... going above and beyond! And trust me when I say, it gives you delight too as you leave the office that day with a wonderful warm fuzzy feeling.
When you help someone, it's a good feeling for everyone!
Creating an excellent first impression
18th June 2020
Or is s/he?
Well I always think so unless the customer is doing something illegal or immoral.
Here's why I think this: I was at work recently, and a customer emailed in to ask where her product was. I apologised that we had not organised this and I said I would ensure we organised this straight away copying my colleagues in and he to show we were communicating internally to organise this immediately.
My colleague took offence to this saying it looked like it was our fault and not to send an email like that copying her in displaying the situation as our fault.This was interesting to me and it made me think as I replied to my colleague.
Should businesses condemn the customer if we are 100% sure it was not us, or be humble, take the blame and deal with the situation.
I believe that latter. Even if a customer is wrong, we should never act as though this is the case, nor come across with the feeling of ‘I told you so’ when we are in the right. Humility is key to customers trusting us and rectifying a situation well which gives a customer even more loyalty to you.
Incidentally, the customer came back apologising to us about 10 minutes later. She checked her emails and released she had received a number from us she had not seen or replied to for us to organise her product. I forwarded this to my colleague so she could see that the customer realised her error, that it was not us and all was well.
Customers sometimes miss things. So do organisations. But if someone is spending money with you, you need to act in a manner which makes them feel special and that you come across as though you are willing to help irrespective of who is right or wrong. They will forget the issue until they realise it is their mistake if that is the case.
I believe the organisation should take the blame until proven otherwise. It usually happens that a customer will realise the mistake and come back to you and apologise in my experience. That is then not the time to make them feel bad for admitting the error. That is the time is be gracious and thank them for their email and say it happens to us all. It will score you more loyalty and further custom.
In the end, it’s not about right or wrong. It’s about good customer relationships and ensuring a positive customer journey.
Creating an excellent first impression
9th June 2020
I have noticed throughout my customer service journey, that happy customers remain loyal, become excellent ambassadors and help to ensure your business thrives.
As Shep Hyken says, the goal of businesses is not about making money, its the end result. The goal is to find and keep customers, after all your business would not grow, if you did not grow your customers.
I have noticed certainly in my professional life this week that good ambassadors are central to helping you gain new customers and that good word of mouth can really create a snowball effect, fast.
Todays word of mouth is very much done through social media platforms and the power of 'WhatsApp' groups has shown me that this is something we should not be taking for granted. The speed of 'talk' whether good or bad can really support your strategy of growing customers. Ideally it is important to have a great product that a few people start talking about. When those people buy in and are happy and tell others, and when the competition also fails at the same time, then you have to be able to take on board the enquiries and custom and ensure you can deliver otherwise all that work will be in vain.
To be clear, if you keep your customers happy they will
1 - keep coming back and buying your products
2 - recommend your business to others....
3 - ... who will recommend your business to others....
How can therefore you not consider and realise that the best business strategy is keeping your customers happy?
How do you do that? It's the simple things such as listening, engaging, thanking, the personal approach, chatting and helping.
Shep Hyken talks about 52 tools to amaze your customer every day and he uses throughout the book Ace Hardware, the helpful store. That is what they base every interaction on, being helpful. Whether by listening to the customer to ensure they can help from the beginning and not talk over the customer with information they did not request, to helping the customer with bags and talking products to the car. It is always about being helpful and they have legendary customer service because of this.
Other amazing brands include Amazon, Waitrose and First Direct. They are helpful, staff listen, people get an amazing experience and a tailored approach with their requirements. It's easy really. Why can't we all do it?
I believe its all about how customer-centric the organisation is and how willing the leadership is to empower staff and to create a culture from the top down of amazing customer service. a culture whereby the customer is first always and a culture of ensuring staff feel empowered to do what it takes to help the customer like for instance the Ritz Hotel has. The Ritz hotel management empower staff to spend up to £2000 to ensure the customer experience thereby saying that they trust their staff to make the right decision to ensure a customers satisfaction.
The more organisations trust their employees to make the right decisions, the more customer centric the culture is (and top down culture is crucial), the more a company can create a great customer experience.
The business strategy of looking after customers must include your internal customers too!
I have heard a saying that your brand on the outside is only as strong as that on the inside. Staff and feeling empowered to help really does make a difference to creating the best business strategy of all: an amazing customer journey for every customer.
Creating an excellent first impression
4th June 2020
Have you noticed that advertisers are all about the story? We saw this in the 1990's with the Kenco advert and then later on with BT advert with the family.
Now, we all get to mid November and are desperate to see the John Lewis Christmas advert. At the moment the Lloyds Bank advert's are really powerful too.
This is because we crave stories, relations and magic with our interactions. It's not just about the purchase. We want to get behind something, believe in something, feel connected to something.
Look how much Captain Tom Moore moved us. A 99 year old former soldier in the Second World War, raising money for the NHS. We all clung to a little bit of hope for a while, from an amazing man with wonderfully stirring words of encouragement and resilience borne of another generation. We loved the story and were moved by his achievements both now and before.
I love this statement (image) because I believe this to be so true which is why I am writing about it.
I enjoy expectation more than realisation. I am one of those that loves the build up to a holiday, the planning and the imagining of what we will enjoy. It's magic to me. The holiday is the end purchase, in a way, and 99% of the time the holiday lives up to the expectation.
I enjoy surfing the net to find 'that' dress and love the endless searching and finding it. The purchase seems - to be for me - so final. I just love the experience leading up to the purchase.
When I am about to spend money, for me it’s not about the purchase, it’s about the experience leading up to the purchase. For instance in a posh hotel, the care, personalisation, the help and efforts that go into making my stay worthwhile. In a luxury retailer, the help and time staff give you to make sure the experience is seamless, smooth and easy. In both aspects staff build relationships, ask questions, seem interested and create magic by giving of their time.
If retailers realised this then they would create incredible brand loyalty. I know this is hard to do because I read recently (and it's true - I have seen it work first hand recently as well) that if you make people feel valued and expect more of them within your organisation, they deliver more for the customer. If you don't care and don't expect great things from your staff they will not give great service to the customer and will not care.
To create stories, relations and magic, you have to care, you have to listen, you have to know you can give your time and create that little bit of customer delight. Why? Because if a customer is intent on spending their money within your organisation, they deserve this.
Don't forget the key aim of any organisation is to get and keep customers and the magic (amazing experience) does this.
If you need some reading on this, then I would suggest Shep Hykens ‘Amaze Every Customer Every Time’, because his 52 actions all create that magic.
As an aside, I finally managed to watch 'Becoming Michelle Obama'. It was a fascinating insight into the lives of being the President and the First Lady. She talked about the power of our stories and how we need to share our stories to allow us understand each other much better. She is totally right.
Creating an excellent first impression
28th May 2020
I had started to write on another topic which mentions magic - but I will save that for next week. I decided that after 10 weeks of lockdown and zoom meetings and hours sat in front of the computer that I should pay homage to the importance of the team.
I have realised that both in great customer service, in delivering a great experience, creating strong messages and delivering on huge projects (as well as climbing one of the big seven) as well as being the best you can be, being positive and having a growth mindset, it is all down to excellent team work: listening, caring and helping each other.
I don't often directly write about anything relating to my day job and try to be as professional as possible, but in the recent few weeks I am sure you like me feel grateful for your team (or whats left of your team) around you. The amazing thing is how much helping each other, the long hours because we all care and the amount of careful listening we have all done on zoom to get things done on time has been incredible.
The power of teamwork - and especially when you are in the 'performing' stage is amazing. Whether teams take years to get there, a few months or 6 days (I have seen all), working together, helping each other, listening, respecting each other skill-sets, caring and having fun is key. These all go together to create incredible outcomes.
I climbed Kilimanjaro last year (I should have been climbing to Everest Base Camp as I write - oh well - next year!) and the power of a performing team was revealed to me in such an awesome way. Here were 12 people from countries across the world, all very different people, and all here to climb Kili. Now, if you know anything about climbing one of the big seven, it's not that easy in the sense that you don't know what can go wrong, how your body will react or what the weather might do. And how the team will cope. The adventure company had covered a few bases including ensuring a slightly slower route up (which we had all signed up to) and giving us lots of prep information including what to pack, but most teams don't all make it up and we were a large team of 12. On ascent night, most had started before us or the same time and raced up overtaking us only to get to Stella Point and not make it the additional 45 minutes to the top. We were the first team to the top and although the weather was on our side we could see that most did not have this success. How?
I have asked this question a lot? 12 people who never met before formed, stormed, normed and performed in the space of 6 days. How? Well here is the secret: we all listened to each other; no-one took over and we all had an equal say and input, we respected the guides skills to lead us to the top and back down safely, we worked together, we cared about each other and looked after each other, and we had fun. We acted as a team. There is no 'I' in team (but there is nearly a meat pie!)
There is always a team leader, but they should just galvanise all the thoughts into a coherent action plan.
Back to customer service and an experience: its only because the front desk staff, cleaning staff, catering staff, and management work together equally to do their bit to create a great experience. One of these could let the team down. Its like schools: customers come in and see beautiful grounds, a clean building, a smiling receptionist and welcoming support staff before starting a tour to see great teaching in action and then maybe enjoy some lunch (which is a big deal in schools today too). Everyone has their part to play to create an experience for a customer. Everyone is equally important.
Together Everyone Achieves More.... including climbing mountains.
Creating an excellent first impression
21st May 2020
I mentioned in my blog last week, that this period of time in my life has given me the chance to read some books that were stacking up on my bedside table. As you know I love customer service and the art of care in the customer journey, and one of these books focuses on 'How to persuade and Influence people' which is important when you want to conduct and finish a sale.
How many times have you walked into a shop and the shop assistant starts telling you what they have without really taking the time to find out exactly what you want and what you need it for before starting to help. They reel off their knowledge, parrot fashion, without really taking the time to care. I notice that more with younger sales people in the Currys and PC Worlds of this world who want to impress with their knowledge rather than with their time and listening skills.
I wrote about the gift of time last week and what has really struck me is that time and listening are really integral parts of the customer journey and sales process.
It is interesting that in the customer journey, we as marketers really have to take the time to listen to the customer throughout to ensure we create that wonderful experience and journey.
My husband and I enjoyed the delights of a very nice hotel in Edinburgh before Covid-19 struck for his birthday in February. They really made an effort to care about everything even before we set foot in the place. Being a customer service nut I did give them fair warning about what I wanted to make the occasion special, and throughout the stay, everything was amazing, everyone was helpful and nothing seemed too much trouble. Everyone listened and tried to help: it was as though they really cared. We left feeling warm and fuzzy inside even after paying the large bill! I think it's called Customer Delight. Staff listened and advised, not the other way around. The cost of this hotel was definitely worth it and we would pay it again for that service and care. This hotel obviously does not settle for mediocrity, but aims for excellence. It is why they have no shortage of guests, even at their higher prices. But remember, people do not make decisions based on price, in the main, but on value which is a different thing altogether.
So show you care and have a genuine interest before you speak.
Aim high for your customers and make them feel valued by giving them time and listening.
You will get to the end result quicker and create true customer loyalty.
You will also ensure that price is never a real contender in the sales process.
And most important you will show that you care which means you have a customer for life!
Creating an excellent first impression
14th May 2020
I wrote a few weeks ago about silver linings. Although, I know for many people this is a very challenging time: isolation for our elderly, home schooling and working at the same time for parents, people facing redundancy, furlough (for some it feels like they are not wanted) and the hardest of all - loss of relatives and friends.
For me, I do feel like one of the lucky ones (touch wood!) since I have been given the gift of time. I realised this silver lining most acutely this week.
Over the last seven weeks, I have been working from home which has meant that I have reclaimed about eight hours of time from both commuting and driving to the gym. Most importantly, I have had seven days a week in my sanctuary (my home) and with my husband (the longest time we have been together in the last four years of our near eight year marriage) and it has been wonderful. I am no less fitter (I feel) from not going to the gym having organised a regime at home, so I am not missing it. I have read books that have been stacked up to read for ten months, deep cleaned the house, tidied the garden, baked a new cake each week, learnt new skills on Linked In Learning, have taken up an old hobby whilst doing my day job and more! All because I have time. Time is the most precious gift.
It makes me realise if extra time is so precious, spending time with customers much be precious and valuable to them.
I spent two hours with a customer on zoom this week. It was only supposed to be an hour but they had lots of questions and they needed reassurance. They can't view the product, so they need to be reassured about things they would normally see first hand. The time spent was important to them to ask the questions they needed. They kept apologising for taking up time, but I reassured them it was not a problem and that it was important that they felt they could ask whatever they wanted however long it took.
This all makes me think what will happen after we get to a new normal (as people say)? We have a little more time to think and most of us will have spent more time with loved ones. Will we continue this 'time' in the new normal?
Let's remember we had the gift of time for a bit and use that knowledge wisely, personally and professionally!
Creating an excellent first impression
7th May 2020
I have had a 'Shep Hyken' read-fest recently. As part of my self-development, and to aid my continual learning in Customer Service for me and my Institute of Customer Service development, I read two of his books recently: "Amaze Every Customer, Every Time" and "Be Amazing or Go Home."
Now, I have to admit to being a slight customer service obsessive. It's why I love writing my weekly blogs. I can always find something to talk about or a story to tell.
One of the key things I learnt from work this week is the power of follow up and staying in touch with new customers which Shep does talk about when it comes to be pro-active, going the extra mile and being accountable.
I schedule following up my prospects on the same day every week and it ensures I devote time to creating personal and bespoke communications because that day is follow up day and from experience, I know that following up is key. Follow up day means my brain is focused on communicating with customers, both those that have signed up (so staying in touch more than following up) as well as follow up leads.
This week I sent out a communication to our new sign ups to join in with an organisation Q&A and so many responded with how great it was to be included. They also get the weekly newsletter so they can feel part of our family before they start formally with us and have been encouraged before and in the newsletter to follow our social platforms. Staying in touch is all about keeping the love alive with your brand and developing this.
I had a signed up customer once tell me the only reason they signed up was because I persisted in communicating in a helpful way and they were helped through the purchase process and signed up. I now use this as an example of what not following up leads to: zero business and that when people say to me "I am sure it is possible to over follow up and be a bit like a stalker" and I respond and say, is it better for a person to feel wanted through over communication than not wanted by none? Is it better for your business to ensure a customer has communications that may want them to buy your product, or nothing and then lose the customer?
As Shep says, the goal of your business is to make money, but the function of your business is to get and keep customers. You can only do that by following up your leads and staying in touch and creating brand loyalty.
I am well known for being obsessive in following up. I know that when marketing works so hard to bring in those leads, it is crucial the sales team to not waste the effort and the money that has gone into generating those leads.
It is easy to use seasons to send an email (being mindful of cultural differences though) as well as new videos so say, "I thought you might enjoy this short video on xxxxx, let me know if you need any help with your application."
People to like to feel included, communicated to (in a timely manner) and to feel like people care about them. Following up and staying in touch certainly do this, so if you do one thing, schedule dedicated time to follow up because your mind them focuses on this important customer experience and you can create authentic communications to ensure people respond positively. I know that when I focus on something for a greater length of time, the output is better than if I dip in and out, but find out what works best for you to engage with your prospects.
My little golden rules to remember: say 'thank you', follow up, stay in touch, say 'please' and use their name!
Creating an excellent first impression
30th April 2020
As you will know if you read my blog last week, that I finished reading the most amazing customer service book ever by Shep Hyken called 'Amaze Every Customer Every Time.' It includes 52 tools for Customer Amazement. On for every week of the year!
One of his tools - tool 31 - focused on 'The Last Impression'. It was interesting to read his insights into this (and he did mention in his book that if you take 2-3 insights from the book and practice them daily that would really help to increase your customer service levels,. so this was one of them. It is interesting that the key take-aways for me from this book were all located in his chapter entitled 'One-on-One' which means these areas are aspects / actions we can all affect change with.
His focus on this 'The Last Impression' was - unsurprisingly enough - that you must leave a great lasting impression. He says that just as important to the First Impression is the Last Impression because that what will leave the Lasting Impression.
How do you do this? First impressions help to make a great last impression and lasting impression as discovered above, but there are other things you can do for this including:
1 - Follow up - make sure it is timely and courteous and pro-active. I don't think I have ever had a follow up call for any appliance, expensive product or key household good to ensure it still works and that I am happy? Isn't after-sales just as important as sales to long term loyalty and repeat custom?
2 - Say thank you and goodbye.
3 - if you promise something deliver on it
4 - Always be helpful and make it easy to do business with? For instance, I always walk families out to the entrance to where their taxi is and wave them off. They may not have come in the correct entrance, but I like to ensure it is easy for them to find their taxi and help them with any suitcases. Yes it is a little more effort and time but it creates a positive lasting impression. You could do that in a BnB - wave from the door or walk your customers to their car; you could help customers load their car - like Majestic Wines do. There many ways to help customers and create the Lasting Impression. It also allows as I found found and Shep identifies the opportunity to keep the conversation going.
So remember to consider not how you are at the First Impression but at the Last Impression. It means you have to keep your energy level, focus and customer-centric support at 100% all the way through the transaction to the end and the Last Impression. in fact Shep does mention this in Tool 23 in Chapter Eight again under the title, "It's Showtime."
Why? When you go to watch a show, the energy is there from start to finish - the same all the way through from the First to the Last Scene. Usually the last scene is an impressive large scale chorus with sound and and upbeat song to help you skip your way out of the theatre, humming all the way home. How's that for creating a Lasting Impression from the Last Impression.
Creating an excellent first impression
23rd April 2020
I have just finished reading the most amazing customer service book ever by Shep Hyken called 'Amaze Every Customer Every Time.' I was gripped from start to finish by his 52 tools for Customer Amazement and Ace Hardware, whose staff give consistently amazing customer service. The stories he uses about staff going above and beyond and the testimonials from happy customers would make any business owner a happy person. It sounds a really wonderful place to work.
One of his tools is entitled: "Treat others the way they want to be treated." At first glance, I read this and read it wrong - the way we have all been taught!
But have a think - every customer is different (and probably different to you in their requirements for a product or service in many cases) so we should treat them how they want to be treated.
Here's how I can explain this using an example from one of my experiences: my husband and I treated ourselves on a holiday a few years ago to enjoy a Michelin starred restaurant in the UK. We were really looking forward to it. It was generally a disaster including: no dedicated car park, walking from one building (drinks) to the restaurant which in winter would not be great, to forgetting our order, finding string in one of our pork meals and the whole thing taking 4 hours before we had an hour long drive back to our rented accommodation. Although the restaurant refunded half our money for the issue of forgetting the order for 40 minutes, the other aspects were over looked (including the string).
I uploaded my review to TripAdvisor as I always do mentioning all of the above; I believe feedback is important otherwise how does anyone get better? The manager responded to say he was very upset at the forgotten order and apologised which was nice, but then proceeded to write that other guests do not expect specific parking (well they would if there was no-where to park in a countryside restaurant which everyone drives to), do not mind the walk (i beg to differ in Winter!) and like the leisurely approach to the meal which is what they come for! I was most annoyed at the last bit because we came for our experience, not someone else's. I did not want to be treated as a collective noun. We are all different and if 'they' took the time to ask us and find out what we were expecting 'they' would have known. But they didn't.
Shep Hyken mentions this with regard to Ace Hardware whose staff ask open-ended questions and engage with the customer to find out what they want from the purchase. Unfortunately, I do not want to experience what Shep calls a 'Moment of Misery', so the next time we went to a top restaurant I pre-warned them. Do you know what? They listened to my requests and we had 5 star service and more than that actually. I do that always now - pre-warn companies when I am going to spend a lot of money not wanting Moments of Misery, but Moments of Magic all the time!
So create Moments of Magic all the time by listening to your customer, engaging and asking questions to find out what they want and how they want to be treated. Trust me, I know, you will Amaze Every Customer Every Time!
Creating an excellent first impression
16th April 2020
I saw this quote recently on Pinterest, one of my go-to sites to find excellent quotes to inspire me. I saw one today actually which said, "The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example" but this blog is not about leadership (so this is just another little thought for the day really, for all you leaders out there!)
So what does this quote mean? I used it the other day with someone (a very competitive person) and when I asked them to repeat what I had just said they said, "Well you said, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose!" Most of us are so preconditioned that you can only win or lose. But what about all the athletes who use the times they have not won a match? They can watch video re-runs to hone their skills and use this knowledge to hopefully win in the end? What about companies that lose money? When bosses analyse how this happened, they can prevent this happening again.
I know Michael Jordan has this mantra. Now I am not going to add his quote for the third week out of four blogs - so you will have to look back to see what I am talking about!
I am sure we all feel that we are winning on so many levels at the moment and also that we are learning a lot. I know am. I am healthy and I can see that the planet is healthy. Win! But I am also learning to be grateful (for the little things and the big things like the NHS) and to not take certain things for granted.
Customer service is like this. It is a journey and each customer is different. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.That allows you to be better for the next customer or organisation. I have learnt early on in my career things with regard to marketing for instance that I may have been cautious about then, but not so now, because I learnt by experience.
One thing I have always known is that customers like to be listened to and when we stop listening, we stop learning. Whether that it to an individual customer, feedback, research, social media responses etc.
It is the Dalai Lama that said: 'When you talk, you are repeating what you already know. But if you listen you may learn something new.'
In customer service, you could say you cannot lose. How so? Well the more we listen, the more we learn and the more we can help customers even more. Everyone is a winner then!
But you certainly cannot take it for granted that customers will always buy your brand!
So listen and learn and you will hopefully win. Sometimes you will need to learn more (we never stop learning), but we can never lose if we see every opportunity as a chance to learn and a chance to help us win or succeed!
Creating an excellent first impression
9th April 2020
The magic of please and thank you are so apparent at the moment with the Clap for the NHS.
We have a lot to be thankful for, but I do notice that so many people forget to say please and thank you in every day life before and during this testing time.
One of my colleagues experienced it in an email from a colleague when asking about the newsletter and what was going to happen to it? There was no "Please xxxx, can I ask for your help with the newsletter - thank you in advance."
It's ironic as I write this that my husband is saying 'Thank you' to our cat for giving him cat licks (or kisses in cat world).
So many people forget to say please and thank you and it has often been said - and I agree - that manners take you everywhere. People do not like bad mannered people and will not help people without manners. Please and thank you are so easy to get right but we seem to think that it makes you look weaker and that for some it is 'cool' not to.
I see it everyday: in emails, when I pull over in my car to let people through and no 'thank you' wave comes back, in conversation or when people ask for help. It sets you up in a negative frame of mind and you feel the world is rude!
We are in exceptional times at the moment. I wrote last week about silver linings and a lot to be grateful for. My jar of notes is nearly half full with all the things I am missing that I want to do when all this is over. I know when this is over and I delve into the jar to start enjoying 'normal' life again (whatever that may be and probably not the same as before Covid-19) that I will feel gratitude for all the little things I have missed out on.
So, as we clap for the NHS every Thursday, let's remember to thank them long after this situation - and each other. Let's remember our manners; knowing that spreading a little bit of kindness really does help.
Thank you for reading my blog this week and please stay safe!
Creating an excellent first impression
2nd April 2020
This week I was reminded of the need to be proactive with regard to customer service.
In previous years, the same annual communication was met with the usual slow response. This year we decided to follow up the communication with individual calls and contact to engage with the customer. And it worked.
I was reminded that we cannot be complacent and that we can be creative each year by being better with customer service.
The great thing was that this response had arisen from a perceived error with the communication with the calls and offers of meetings a chance to smooth that over. In the end it worked well and there was no issue with the communication either.
Additionally, another thing I learnt this week is that there is no such thing as mistakes but how you deal with them and that it should be always in a proactive manner.
It took me back to my first job back in 1999. I had been asked to send a letter out inviting people to a meeting. There were four different groups of people needing to be invited to each different meeting. I sent out the first letter all fine. Anxious to be speedy and get the letter out quickly as my boss, I changed the date on the front of the letter to sent it to the second group without checking it fully. I realised when I scanned the letter for the third and fourth groups that on the back of the letter there was a confirmation date too. I rang my colleague and let her know what i had done, and I always remember her just telling me to get on and contact each of the group to let them know the error and the correct date. She did not tell me off, but merely told me to solve it. I did, by ringing all 166 people in the group (there was no email group at this stage) to speak to all the group members' secretaries to let them know of the error and the correct date.
I will always remember this and to this day will always fully check a letter. I learnt from this that error can always be rectified by being proactive and that there is no need for a leader to go on about the error but as my boss did gave me the support to solve the error. In fact, he never mentioned it, thanks so his secretary who just told be to solve it.
This is one of the greatest lessons I have learnt in my time of work. In life, people can be reactive and labour the perceived error, or they can be proactive and get on solving the error.
I have always believed since this situation above that when you or your team make mistakes, it's not about the reaction you give because the error will be still be there waiting, it's all about the proactive response you give to the situation to solve it.
After all, isn’t the best way of learning making a mistake and experiencing? I know Michael Jordan would agree with his quote: “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
So in the words of a fun movie, but with a little twist for this blog: Be Pro-active, Be Be Proactive!
Creating an excellent first impression
26th March 2020
I have been thinking a lot about silver linings in the last few days. During these unprecedented times when all the things that we are used to - going out for a coffee, meeting friends, family gatherings, dinner out, a few hours at the gym - have been removed from our every day life, it would be easy to just get depressed about this situation. My overall feeling is: short term pain for long term gain ie: this current restriction on our liberties is a small price to pay to keep us all safe. And we can learn a lot about ourselves, each other and how we should be living post this. A silver lining!
(I have placed a little helpful/hopeful tip at the end of this blog to keep you going).
A friend was explaining about ‘the circle of control’ and how we only really have control of the immediate things around us. This is certainly a confidence booster and something to consider. At the same time, we also have control of how we respond to this situation and how we individually view things after Covid-19 calms. We have to enjoy the small things on a day to day basis and look forward to enjoying what we once took for granted (the notes will help). We must consider the silver lining at all times and keep positive. We can use this time to consider how we will live post Covid-19: digital communications and remote working helping to look after the environment and our well-being, being grateful for the NHS and key workers, a sunny day, each other, community and the ability to get a coffee with friends.
There is some real similarities with customer service. Companies can turn potential threats into growth opportunities. The silver lining in customer service is that you can turn a bad experience by handling problems in a customer centric manner into a powerful driver of customer engagement. This will create a positive outcome and brand loyalty as well as brand ambassadors.
It is well known that with customers you can turn bad customer service into good and therefore positive word of mouth. Customers always want to believe that it can be better, many coming back in the hope that will be the case. Ensuring a great customer experience after bad customer service is key the silver lining is that customers will respond positively. A negative brand perception can be turned around by great customer service. Although as a business you don’t want any negative experiences of your customers they do happen. We are human after all.
After all, isn’t the best way of learning is making a mistake and experiencing? I know Michael Jordan would agree with his quote: “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
So rather than focus on the negative - our current isolated state or a bad customer service, focus on the positive outcomes and how to create great customer service and a positive brand word of mouth.
And that’s where the silver lining comes in!
Note: a good friend has give me a great idea i want to share with you: she said to write down all the things you are missing out on, would be doing and want to do and place into a jar. Then when things become normal go to this jar and make sure you do them!
Creating an excellent first impression
19th March 2020
It seems wrong to write about customer service at this time when the world is going through a tough situation.
My only thoughts at this time are that we need to care for each other and keep calm.
We can do this best by following official guidance so we can care for each other best.
I have been looking up the meaning of care. We use customer care in the purchase process so much, but what does it mean?
Some defieryone Achieves More. He is right. We can if we pull together and care for each other in the right way.
I hope that when this has all been and gone, we can learn some valuable lessons about caring for each other and thinking of others more. I am sure as with all tough times, they don't last, and there will be silver linings at the end of it all.
I am sure that care and valuing each other will be one such silver lining.
Creating an excellent first impression
The Importance of Customer Experience.
12th March 2020
Customer Experience, Customer Delight, Customer Service, Customer Care .... what does it all mean?
Forbes - in a blog two years ago defined each as follows:
- Customer service is the advice or assistance a company gives its customers.The Institute of Customer Service also defines this as the process of ensuring the customer satisfaction with a product or service.
- Customer care means how well customers are taken care of while they interact with the brand.
- Customer experience is the total journey of a customer’s interactions with a brand. The Institute of Customer Service defines it as the responses to stimuli presented during interactions between the customer, an organisation or brand and the environment it presents spanning a range of touch-points and channels.
And finally:
- Customer delight is surprising a customer by exceeding his or her expectations and thus creating a positive emotional reaction.
Brands should not ignore customer service or customer care in favour of customer experience. No matter how hard a brand tries, not every customer will be completely satisfied, so there is always a need for customer service and customer care.
Customer service is a vital part of the entire experience—nearly 75% of customers who leave do so because they aren’t satisfied with customer service.
Customer Experience is key and ties in all of the above because it is the care, service and if possible delight that makes an experience.
If you need proof, I refer to Forbes and a wonderful blog from last September on '50 Stats Proving The Value of Customer Experience For Your Business'.
In these troubled times, amazing customer care and service will be rewarded with customer delight and new customers. We always have an opportunity to create an experience for our customers with our interactions, so why not use this time to create a five star experience in the lives of your customers. We could all do with it at the moment!
So keep calm and create a positive customer experience!
Creating an excellent first impression
First Impressions - seven top tips!
5th March 2020
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen (in the spirit of International Women’s Day at the weekend) nearly called Pride and Prejudice, First Impressions. You can understand why she did this because the story really centres around two pupil not liking each other much because of their first impression of each other. Thankfully, in matters of the heart in this story, persistence won. This is not absolutely the case when it comes to customers in the modern day.
Customers want a great experience in the purchasing process, if they are going to spend their hard earned cash on your product or service. So, here are seven tips to ensuring that:
1 – make sure you handle the enquiry efficiently or respond to an email as quickly as possible and within 24 hours. If you send a holding email, make sure you get back to customer when you say you will.
2 – follow up with the customer, and follow up again. It’s better to ensure a sale than lose it to the competition for not following up, as well as at all stages in the process too.
3 – when organising a visit if relevant, ensure it is bespoke. In the schools’ sector, we should ensure a tour guide of the same age as the child in question and that the guides share some of the same interests.
4 – welcome the family at the beginning of the tour, and spend some time talking with them and getting to know them face to face to put them at ease. Don’t forget, many families may never have set foot in an independent school so you need to help them to relax. Listening is key to creating rapport so they feel that they belong.
5 – It’s always nice to create a personal experience: a welcome sign with the child or family’s name on, a car park sign as well as using their name at all times.
6 – Thank them for taking the time to come and visit and ensure the information you send them away with is bespoke and personal.
7 – Follow up, and when they do sign up, keep the lines of communication open. Just because a family has signed up, it doesn’t end until they join. Make a note to contact them every so often, invite them to school events, help them integrate during the months before they join your school family.
Don’t forget… it takes seven seconds to create a first impression. Do remember that you and the customer are human though. Mistakes happen, I know all too well. I believe it’s not the mistake you should focus on, it’s how you rectify the situation and in many cases, a great first impression can still be made, even if it wasn’t smooth the first time round.
Well it happened for Darcy and Elizabeth!
This blog is also featuring as a guest blog on Ambleglow's website: https://www.ambleglow.co.uk/creating-the-best-first-impression-for-your-school/
Creating an excellent first impression
Can you afford to lose 55% of customers due to poor customer service?
27th February 2020
No? I didn't think so. This fact is huge for businesses and their profit. This really is a statistic to say - invest in your staff, their training and ensure you create a great experience for your customer, or you might as well shut up shop!
So much of this issue is down to the wrong staff or lack of training. I am a big believer in recruiting for attitude and training for skill. Customer service is an attitude, and you need the right people to put across the right attitude to encourage that sale.
I can recall a number of times that I have backed out of a sale due to the experience with another customer. I wonder on many an occasion why staff are not trained to deal with all customers effectively to ensure everyone is looked after and that they will make that purchase. (It may be that the organisation is not investing in the right numbers of staff to meet demand). Companies need to manage that experience from start to finish to ensure the sale happens and nothing should get in the way.
The main time I remember clearly was an occasion in New York. I had gone into my favourite luxury store to look for a specific item that I had been searching for whenever I had happened upon the store in another location.
The sales lady was being very helpful and another man butted in asking for help after waiting for a few moments. For me, the experience was shattered by this other rude customer and I told him to wait. He apologised but continued to stand there. The moment was over, I thanked the sales lady and left the store.
Why did that sales lady not say to the other customer, that she was more than happy to help, but she would be with him once she had finished looking after me, and then apologise? That would have solved the situation and made me feel more special and that my customer was equal to the other person.
There was another time I walked into a pub and I heard a lot of strong swearing from a customer in front of children. The bar staff did nothing to calm him. It made me feel uncomfortable, so we decided to leave before ordering anything.
If the experience is ruined and the staff are not helpful or able to manage a situation so everyone is happy then the sale will not complete.
Companies really need to wake up to this and that their staff, their experiences are pushing customers away and no one can afford to do that when growing a business or even sustaining a business when the buyer is the one in control.
My advice? Recruit good staff and train them well! Encourage them to deal with situations through listening and following through. Encourage them to put themselves in others positions. It is only when we do seek to understand how another feels (empathy) can we be persuasive with our language. This does take investment and training since difficult situations are not easy to handle.
Remember there is lots of competition out there, a buyer can go down the road to purchase the very same product, so ensure your customer service is red carpet levels and make sure all customers want to purchase from you all the time!
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer Care - the best marketing strategy ever?
20th February 2020
I saw this phrase and I instantly loved it. I wondered whether it was true, but then we are always taught to begin with the end in mind. The end is about - let's be honest - profit, growth, sustainability in business, and this only comes with customers and they only come because they are happy with your product and return or because they have heard about your product or service from a friend.
I saw this in action in a number of different ways last week.
I was in Edinburgh with my husband celebrating his 40th birthday. As I have mentioned before, when something means a lot to me in terms of getting service right and especially if I am about to spend some hard earned cash, I usually give the business a heads up with regard to my customer service requirements. I will mention five business here: one (the hotel and the hotel bar) knew of the importance of this occasion with a number of emails I sent in advance, another two were aware of the occasion (two restaurants) and the other two not.
All the businesses hard one in thing in common because they generally had and delivered excellent customer service: helpfulness. This was apparent as we stepped into every business. Helpfulness, and a proactive helpfulness to boot, is key. This made every encounter with each business a joy.
Where we experience that rare situation of customer delight (ie the business got five stars on TripAdvisor) was because of something that is hard to get right: personalisation with authenticity (the staff live and breathe the brand).
The hotel staff lived the brand but we got a note wishing me a Happy Birthday! When I asked to book an area in one of the bars for drinks, we were told group bookings were not allowed but then we went down to the bar the next day and tables were reserved for groups?
However, within the second hotel bar for the end of the birthday day, the member of staff who ran it was outstanding: helpful and authentic with his suggestions and knowledge. This was impressive. His help with the surprise cake and his helpfulness and kindness was incredible. This is what you want in staff, people who will go above and beyond.
The two restaurants were both warm, welcoming and amazing places to eat. One just pipped the other because all the staff were on brand and gave the personal approach from the minute you stepped in the door, even making us cocktails off menu as if it was no trouble (and they were the best mohito and cosmopolitan we had ever tasted!). This along with excellent service from all staff and the food service was why it got a five star rating! The other restaurant was excellent, but some of the staff were not as 'can do' as the owner who was friendliness and personal personified. She really loved her brand! It is true when they say that 66% customers are put off returning by one negative interaction with a member of staff.
Lastly, the two attractions we visited had warm and friendly staff. Both attractions gave my husband a small gift at the end of the visits when I mentioned it was his 40th birthday which was personal and proactive of the staff. The fact that staff have the ability to organise this shows forward thinking management. These little things are so important: its the time taken to care!
I therefore believe that care is the best marketing strategy after all customers are essential to any business.
Creating an excellent first impression
Good customer service is at the heart of any business!
13th February 2020
I saw this phrase and I thought it perfect for Valentines day tomorrow. I thought that if we looked after each other well as much as we look after our customers well, then Valentines Day would be every day because we would 'feel the love' everyday! Happy Valentine's Day and every day!
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer Journey Mapping - what's all the fuss about?
6th February 2020
The big buzz phrase for me at the moment is Customer Journey Mapping (well it seems to be for me anyway), and I have been hearing about this for a while now and so I decided to book on a training course to see whether it could help me to ensure a better experience for the customer.
I thought naively that it would be just about considering the steps and ensuring each touch point was managed with excellent customer service. Additionally I though that I would consider the process further and realise other touch points that I was missing out, that I could enhance.
Well, little did I know that it is not just that! How wrong was I (just as much as I thought Customer Journey Mapping was relatively new - it has been used by companies for about 15-20 years!)
I got a real insight on an Institute of Customer Service training day about customer tasks, touch-points, customer questions, emotional needs, delivering on these emotional needs, surprises or delight moments and then opportunities and unmet needs.
I learnt about on and off stage, the difference between customer service (interactions) and customer experience (end to end journey and everything in between including emotion and psychological areas), as well as what all customers want (answers later). We got to develop some maps and understand the full process.
Customer journey mapping really can and does enhance the customer journey when you spend time and really consider the full journey and everything in between. As long as you are not making too many assumptions (if so, you need to gain data to banish assumptions with fact to be able to create a smooth journey for the customer) then you really can make some serous marginal gains in your customers' experiences.
By really putting yourself in the mindset of the customer and considering what the customer wants, experiences and needs, you can really put yourself in the shoes of the customer to create opportunities for unmet needs to gain an edge over your competition and create positive brand association and ultimately brand loyalty.
The UKCSI (UK Customer Service Index) is now in its tenth year and over that period there have been some consistent top brands; the top one being First Direct. Their mission is to reduce the decision making gap for the customer, giving staff more power to make decisions and ensuring a more efficient outcome for the customer. I know that the Ritz Hotel also works on this area too to ensure a better customer experience.
Many other brands who are consistently good include Waitrose, John Lewis and M&S. These are very easy to understand with M&S ensuring that if there are more than three people in a queue at a till they open another till as an example. It's all about creating customer centric organisations and customer journey mapping can really help with this.
This was a course by the Institute of Customer Service, an organisation I have not been a member of for nearly a year. I love customer service, but putting that aside this was a great learning day for me. I am now looking to transfer this learning to my working life for a better customer experience.for our customers.
It was interesting too for another reason: at the start of the training, we all had to introduce ourselves; one lady from a well know car company came up and talked to me about the admission of her son to a school that shall remain nameless but was very negative about the admissions process and said she was glad to see schools taking this seriously. She mentioned that she is now looking at another school because of it. Her customer experience was as you can imagine, not good!
So.... I am sure if you have read this far you will want to know what customers want: it is easy and I have mentioned this in my blogs many a time: competence, good attitude, helpfulness. This really affirms my belief in being positive, proactive, professional and passionate (the 4Ps) about your service or product at all times.
Creating an excellent first impression
Think Five Star, not Four Star!
30th January 2020
From the title of this blog, you can see what is wrong with this image. Customer service should always be Five Star, not Four Star!
This is another consideration as we leave January and move into February. How about treat your customer's to Five Star Customer Service (I feel this phrase needs capitals) throughout February? You've done your New Year's resolutions and I am sure you have stuck to them......! Before we get to Lent and consider giving something up, how about consider this action for February?
What does Five Star Customer Service actually mean?
Well, if you ever check out my TripAdvisor account, I rarely give Five Star's to anyone nowadays. In my time on TripAdvisor, our of 297 reviews, to begin with I left quite a few 5 stars. Nowadays, I am more picky after experiencing top class customer service in Yorkshire BnB, a Hotel bar in the Middle East, a country hotel in Bronte country and a restaurant in both the Lakes and London.
The connection that they all have is personalisation (including use of a name), a warm welcome, the word 'No' is never used, they are all keen to ensure your stay or meal is perfect in every way including efficient staff who are there to help in a moment (without hovering awkwardly) and nothing is too much trouble down to the smallest detail. Transactions are smooth, no barrier is put in your way, before, during and after the experience and you feel as relaxed as you would be at home. These places ensure the home away from home feel but in a five star environment.
This takes great skill, and great training of staff to be able to ensure this happens every time. I can testify to this because all of these places I have returned to and would return again. Ironically ... or perhaps not, these are expensive places, but then you do pay for quality in life and my feeling is that price goes out the window to a degree when in the midst of a fabulous experience be it in a hotel, BnB or enjoying a meal.
I wonder if people upped their game with customer service, irrespective of the price, customer retention and brand loyalty would be a surity.
Today, I had this validated! A friend in the sector today shared with me that she had delivered customer training at work this week and that she had explained why - in the training - her team sends an email to all staff alerting them to prospective families visiting that day, adding the names into the email because she wants staff to use names when meeting or greeting a family for that personal approach. She continued to tell me that a few days after the training she told me that a member of staff came up to her and said that he used to delete this email, but took note of it this week and greeted a family using the child's name. He told her that the child in question's face lit up after realising that he knew her name, and that he now realised why she sent that email after seeing this reaction. She said it made her day; it made my day hearing about this little change that made all the difference and means so much. It does not cost anything either!
So, consider Five Star Customer Service and I bet you that the reactions you get will be just as equally priceless!
Creating an excellent first impression
... the most dangerous phrase!
23rd January 2020
I hate this phrase. It is my least favourite phrase in the English Language. I have heard it so many times from two types of people: defeatists who are tired and don't to even try and affect change, or people who think they know everything but are hiding behind a wall of thoughts including "I have thought about that idea; why did I not say that" and who don't have the confidence to speak up because they feel that they might look stupid. Stupid is not thinking you can affect change and try new things and suggest ideas that might make you look stupid but all the while are actually moving things forward with creative energy and ideas.
It's also up there with that other phrase, "We've already tried that and it has not worked." Well how about we re-look at the idea and develop it and see if it has merits a few years on! I heard myself say that in a meeting this week and I could have kicked myself! We are all human and don't get it right all the time.
I am afraid I used to hear it a lot in my local village group (also a national organisation) in my early days as a member. The group was dwindling in numbers and I suggested ideas and I heard that phrase. I remember blowing up at the meeting saying that I did not want to hear that phrase and thinking we would never grow and move forward with that attitude. Years later the group are four times as big as then and they have adopted a let's try anything approach to everything, very proactive and vibrant, which has brought new people in to continue trying new things or reinventing old ideas.
In customer service, you always have to be trying new things and re-inventing old, but great ideas. Every customer is different, and we also have different ages of customer too. One size does not fit all. Customer service is about listening to the customer, finding out what they want and creating a bespoke experience for them to enjoy their purchase and tell the world about it.
If we employed the "We have always done it that way" we would never find new customers and develop our businesses. We have to be constantly adapting to the needs of the business and our customers as the world changes at lightening speed.
So New Year's resolution... another one I know! Think of a new way of getting to your customers. If you always use email, phone them in the evening; if you send an email, why not try a hand written card. Why not pick up a phone after one ring rather than five and why not ensure to put a customer through to a person rather than an answer phone?
It's the little things that make the world go round and keep customers happy and coming back. Adapting is crucial and this means trying new things all the time and not just thinking we have always done it this way and it works!
Creating an excellent first impression
New Years Resolution: think outside the box
16th January 2020
It's a new year, a new you! So why not think about what you can do in your job that can enhance the customer experience? How about consider new strategic objectives for the new year, that really are new and not the same old; how about thinking outside the box?
I sometimes feel that things can be very samey year after year, but it is important to consider alternatives and work to develop and be better.
One member of staff said to me this week, 'it is so important to email back to a customer straight away rather than leave their email unanswered because I find that irritating, and so must they.' This may not be new or thinking outside the box, but how do you get everyone doing this? This involves thinking outside the box and investing time in creating a solution.
How about consider a proactive and positive policy for dealing with challenging customers, that everyone is aware about and can use to make the customer happy and the member of staff feel more confident?
How about looking at your various types of customer and potential customer and seeing who you have not been able to get to yet and work out strategies and plans to get to this hard to reach customer. By this very situation, you are going to have to think outside the box to get to a customer you know should be a customer who does not want your product (or so s/he thinks!).
Businesses have to 'adapt and overcome' all the time to stay ahead of the competition and thinking outside the box helps with this. So how do you do this?
Its easy, Start from a blank sheet of paper, nothing, zero, to answer the question or query you want to deal with. Come up with lots of ideas - no idea is silly - and write them all down and create a board with all the comments to reflect on. This will allow you to think about different ways to solve the situation.
Sometimes we are very bad at stopping to think. We tend to 'do' all the time and thinking time could probably saving us 'doing' time. How about input thinking time into your working week?
I have resolved to read a few customer service books to learn some new customer service techniques and hone the ones I have as well as organising some training for customer service mapping to ensure we are looking after the customer properly at every contact point as well as inputting thinking time.
Why not make it a resolution to have more thinking time in your busy work day to come up with new ideas to work on and new actions to create a better customer experience. Now even that alone is thinking outside the box!
Creating an excellent first impression
Targets v Customer Care?
9th January 2020
This week, I finally got the chance to watch 'The Cure' which was on over Christmas. The drama was about the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal where management put targets above patient care.
We are all to aware of the need to reach targets in our daily life. We see it in banks, retail, sales teams, supermarkets and the list goes on. It is all in the name of profit.
Surely, as 'The Cure' showed, albeit an extreme example, it's not about targets, but customer care. If you show customer care, you recruit customers, who will in turn look after targets. surely?
This week, a colleague within my sector spoke to me about customers over targets and this is incredibly important within education. We call it empathetic sales. You really do have to listen and be proactive to the customer. Don't forget that the best sales technique is to listen and engage with the customer. Your product will not always be right for the customer, and if you are honest your will create brand loyalty. Think 'Miracle on 34th Street', when Santa told parents where to buy something cheaper and the reaction! I also have a local outdoor shop that I consistently shop in for my adventure gear, even though the honest sales assistant often suggests another shop or brand to go to, to get the best outcome. That's why I go back, because I trust the member of staff and the advice I get. Not naming names I am afraid!
The same colleague also told me that she put customer care over a sale and targets this week. I love hearing this because we as sales people should recognise the need to do this to create integrity and a strong and reputable brand.
You can argue extensively that good customer care equals profit, but how do you get there if management is short termist in its outlook for profit? Customer care is all about relationship building which takes time.
One think I have learnt from 'The Cure' is that customer care should take priority to ensure long term profit (not death in the meantime) and that this will support a sustainable and ethical business. People want honesty and want to trust in the age of cynicism. Give it to them and it will ensure strong brand reputation too. I am sure Mid Staffs will find this hard for a long time.
Creating an excellent first impression
Red Carpet Series: Telephone Sales
2nd January 2020
Happy New Year to you all. I begin the year with my recent purchase experience with a well known mobile operator! As you know, every three months I do a 'red' blog every three months, now entitled Red Carpet Series: xxxxxxxx and here it is!
Summary (if you don't want to have to read on): listen to the customer (especially if they have been one for nearly twenty years), pass on a summary of the situation to your colleagues so the customer does not have to repeat the story four times, be assertive in your responses so you don't leave the customer feeling worried that they do not feel the order was correctly placed and finally offer this loyal customer a discount after the awful experience (which they did). Easy!
My husband rang up our mobile provider after they did not return his call when they said they would after saying they would listen to the original conversation he had with them to find out the offer price that jhe was given on a new iPad that my husband stated was correct (following not receiveing a new iPad). The member of staff was very positive, professional and pro-active. She agreed the original price because the notes suggested the conversation had been listened to and put us through to the sales department.
However, the lady we were passed to had no knowledge of the background, so repeat 1 of story occurred. We thought the sale had gone through when my husband mentioned my iPad upgrade. The offer we were given was too high for mine and we asked to be put through to a team who could organise a discount (since we have two 'phones and two iPads with them). Repeat 2 of story ensued and we found my husbands iPad was not ordered either. We then got cut off. We rang through again and repeat 3 of story ensued - of course! Something happened to the phone at that point and although they tried to call us back it did not work.
The next day we rang again and repeat 4 of story happened, but within 15 minutes we had two iPads ordered at good prices. It was a 40 minute conversation with no outcome the day before!
We were not convinced though after the issues from the day before that the iPads were ordered since the guy who sold them to us was not very passionate or positive with his sales manner or tone.
The iPads have now come and all is well! A smooth transaction thought would have been the icing on the Christmas cake!
Creating an excellent first impression
The most popular blog of 2019 is...
26th December 2019
Wherever I go, I want to enjoy an experience, because the world can sometimes feel a little bit crazy and a positive interaction really does help to make my day. Just like my red pepper experience two weeks ago.
When I walk into Costa, I want the baristas to engage with me, I want retailers to be able to help me with real care and attention when I am trying to find a product, and I want to have a warm fuzzy feeling when I walk out of shop, purchase something online or finish a phone call, not feel let down or a big anticlimax following spending my hard earned money.
This is a little explanation of something called the customer experience, and it determines whether a person talks positively or negatively about that company and returns to spend more money.
Companies need to consider this: it is the little things that help make the big money.
I recently purchased Christmas presents for my husband, and I received a hand written note from two of the suppliers thanking me for my business. I will certainly be a returning customer.
No-one can underestimate the power of the customer experience and with Millennials the current key market, who thrive on experiences, we should be creating these at every opportunity we have to grow our businesses.
Word of mouth is powerful, and in the age of social media, great customer experience is vital.
Experience and perception is king...
Creating an excellent first impression
12 Days of Customer care looks like this...
19th December 2019
On the First Day of Customer Care, the Customer said to me, create me a Red Carpet Customer Experience;
On the Second Day of Customer Care, the Customer's feedback to me was the two most important words are 'thank you' (Blog 27.06.19);
On the Third Day of Customer Care, I was told to never, never, never give up on the customer. (Blog: 11.03.19);
On the Fourth Day of Customer Care, I said to the Customer, I will give you the 4 Ps: Passion, Positivity, Pro-Activity and Professionalism;
On the Fifth Day of Customer Care, the Customer said to me, Five Sta-ar Service (should always be the goal);
On the Sixth Day of Customer Care, I said to the Customer No, in six ways but still ensured positive feedback from the Customer (Blog: 05.12.19);
On the Seventh Day of Customer Care, I reminded myself that there were seven basics to excellent customer service (Blog: 26.09.19);
On the Eighth Day of Customer Care, I reminded myself that 8% of people think that superior customer service is gained from the same companies of which 80% say they deliver superior customer service (Blog: 22.08.19);
On the Ninth Day of Customer Care, the Customer said to me, you never get a second chance to make a first impression with six tips to gaining it (Blog: 18.07.19);
On the Tenth Day of Customer Care, the Customer said to me there are ten key things to ensuring an excellent customer experience (Blog: 04.07.19)
On the Eleventh Day of Customer Care, the Customer said to me, Customer First mentioned in a two-part (II) blog. (Blog: 06 and 13.06.19);
On the Twelfth Day of Customer Care, the Customer said to me, be 12 out of 10, because nobody raves about average and exceeding expectations wins business (Blog: 25.04.19).
Merry Christmas!
Creating an excellent first impression
Expectation and realisation...
12th December 2019
Now, if you have not discovered Shep Hyken, I suggest you go and treat yourself to one of his books for Christmas (or if your loved one is a customer service nut then go out an buy one). Shep has books on Amazing Customer Service which will really add value to your knowledge if you love to better your customer service at each and every opportunity that presents itself.
Alongside this, I went to some sales seminars recently, and I learned (although I think I realised this anyway) that experience is created through showing you care and really listening to and understanding the customer. This was thanks to Gavin and Phil.
I have experienced recently the downside of being a customer when my expectations were not realised. It left me feeling very let down and bereft. An experience was built up in my head with my association to various words linked to the experience which I won't name here. I think overselling would definitely come to my mind. From beginning to end, the experience was a real disappointment. I had built up the experience so much in my head and it was a let down. I did not real valued as a customer since the value in the experience was lacking.
I mention this as a word of warning with regard to marketing and advertising your product or organisation. Always be honest and clear. The customer will build a picture of all the words you associate with something and expect that.
To create loyalty, it is better to promote a certain level and then add special touches to create an experience and exceed expectations. The alternative is much worse as I discovered!
There are some brands that do this 'certain level' well: Premier Inn, Radisson, Marriott and Hilton for instance (interesting that they are all in the hotel industry which is a key area for great customer service). Other brands like Costa generally have warm and welcoming staff which is always a bonus. Marks and Spencer is another one with the amazing staff.
That's it for this week - a short blog. Next week - my last real blog of the year (since it is Boxing Day on the last Thursday of the year so I will re-post my favourite blog of the year).... read my 12 days of excellent customer service!
Creating an excellent first impression
Ho Ho Ho..... No?
5th December 2019
Is it OK to say no to the customer? If you are anything like me, you will not be comfortable with saying no to the customer. So much so, that I have learnt the tactics of saying no in a subtle way so that the customer does not even think that they have been told no. It makes me feel that I am actually helping them.
No-one likes to be told no. Watch a child being told no in the supermarket. See the reaction to 'no' in life, and then the reaction to yes..... as well as the reaction to "I wish we could however, we can do this for you..."
I saw a cartoon recently with a man saying, "Yes, we can do that" and the customer saying, "Don't you have to get the managers approval for that?" with the member of staff responding, "Actually, I would have to get the managers permission to say No!
I have learnt this week that at times the word no has to be employed. But some customers can take this knowledge to the extreme and arrogantly expect yes. I will always stand by the fact that if a customer is doing anything illegal or immoral including swearing then No is perfectly acceptable.
Some customers need to be firmly told that other options exist, if you know you unable to fulfil their request.
Is perfectly OK to say no, without saying no and giving the customer another option. Here is an example:
Q: Do you have that dress in my size?
A: Let's have a look at that...... well not at the moment, however let me check when it is due in and take your number to give you a ring when it is? Shall I show you also some other options in the meantime that might work?
I have learnt that people are much happier with an option rather than a flat out no. So always provide an option for the customer.
Customers can also play the tricky game of going above you to get what they want. In this instance, when the boss comes back to you, firmly state why the situation is an issue and the solutions that have been offered.
So here are my tips for saying no to the customer:
1 - Do not actually say no, there are many ways of saying no without saying no.
2 - Listen to the customer to frame your answer without including the word no
3 - Empathise with their predicament
4 - Always have an option for them so you can say, "Have you considered this?"
5 - Apologies are always good to hear in many situations
6 - Never just come out and say 'No, we cannot help you' without putting any effort into finding a solution. That's just lazy!
7 - Sometimes it is a really good idea to try and explain your situation without making excuses
8 - Get feedback - people love nowadays to offer feedback and advice! If you don't believe me read TripAdvisor!
This season is always challenging for customer service, but use this time to convert customers to your brand. Customers are tired, fraught and trying to pack a lot into one month! By helping them - and not saying no - you will be spreading 'Joy to the World!'
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer Joy this Christmas!
28th November 2019
Joy to the World.... and I tell you Magic and Sparkle is giving it that this Christmas.
What with their awesome advert of jumper wearing jumpers, the shoulder roll (which you cannot help rocking too), and the recent joy they brought to my better half yesterday, M&S are on fire with their customer experience both in store and in the media.
Yesterday, my husband went to pick up our usual fish order and he is a regular at picking up the same delivery so is well known. Anyway, as the lady went to get the package, my husband was looking in that direction and suddenly spotted a Percy pig cup cake. Now with the demise of the actual Percy Pig cake, this was an exciting moment. Nick pointed this out and so he and the store manager - who knows him well because of said fish order - went over to have a look. The store manager at this point - seeing my husbands excitement - said to him that he had to have to look at all the other Percy Pig offerings and spent time walking my husband around the store. Nick was in his element (he is a Percy Pig nut!). He came away with the fish.... and wait for it... a complimentary cup cake. Needless to say, my husband experienced that rare feeling in the world that organisations strive for.... customer delight!
My husband had the best customer experience, and do you know what... next time he and I are near a M&S you can bet we will be going in and purchasing Percy Pig Christmas bits and pieces.
You cannot put a price on amazing an customer experience and to feel such a warm and happy feeling towards a brand.
M&S have always had wonderful, helpful and positive staff where nothing is too much trouble, but this season, they have gone off the chart in terms of the creation of warmth, experience and happiness.
It did not take the store manager long to create that experience and it was such a small thing to do, but it will create an 'experience' memory for Nick - and any customer - who will always remember that, and M&S, with a positive association. With brands, it's all about positive associations.
You can also bet that Nick has not just told me about this experience too. He will be telling others about this and creating additional positive associations for others who will imagine this scenario during this festive season and beyond.
This involves a customer centric approach which I wrote about a few weeks ago. The store manager took time out of his work to create this - focusing on the customer - which in turn supports the brand.
Christmas joy can definitely be found in Christmas jumpers, but also in Percy Pig experiences!
Creating an excellent first impression
Do as you would be done by...
21st November 2019
Do you remember your mum / dad saying to you as a child, 'do as you would be done by'? It's not a phrase used much now, because sadly my experience in the main is that people don't always practice what they preach - another old phrase!
We were discussing this in the office this week about how manners have gone out the window and how people don't say thank you, even if you stand back to let them pass in a supermarket as one of my colleagues said they did, and then if you mention the lack of thank you, they get all shirty. Same with people on the roads, if you let them out into a queue, but I bet you if the situation were reversed, they would want a thank you too! Or have we just forgotten to communicate properly, verbally, to each other? That's a whole other blog!
My point this week is that when you are in the midst of the sales process, always think: what would I expect as the customer? How would I want to be treated? Would I have warmed to that last response I gave and most importantly, would I buy the product if I had had the same purchase experience?
This does also require empathy which is a skill not taught; it is either within you or not. Empathy is a really key skill in the process and is defined as:
'the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.'
Sympathy is different. Sympathy is when you share the feelings of another; empathy is when you understand the feelings of another (for instance you can put yourself in their shoes and see it from their perspective) but do not necessarily share their view. Empathy is great in sales, because it means you can understand the feelings of the other, whilst not actually removing yourself from the business of the sale.
It always makes me frustrated when people don't consider this, because it is double standards. An experience recently made me think about this. I was checking into a hotel and I received no eye contact from the receptionist, no welcome, no engagement and no 'have a lovely stay.' Room service took an hour to arrive and I was promised 20 minutes, and they only told me one of my options was not available only when I rang to see where my food was. I went downstairs to ask about this and the member of staff laughed at me first and foremost. Finally, on departure, I was not asked whether I had enjoyed my stay (probably a good thing) nor asked if I needed a taxi or a place to store my bag. I bet all these staff would like a welcome, good service and helpfulness when they stay at a hotel away from home comforts.
Remember, you are a customer too, so just think, what would I expect in this situation? It's that easy!
Note on this blog and a practical tip: There are three types of empathy - compassionate is best. You can find out more about empathy from the CliftonStrengths or StrengthsFinder assessment and take the test to see if you have this - and other strengths too. Always focus on your strengths!
Creating an excellent first impression
Customers need patience and understanding, so keep calm.
14th November 2019
As someone who has converted to using the 'Calm' App recently, I realised that keeping calm in challenging situations is the key to not panicking.
Being calm allows the mind to think better under pressure, but displaying a stressed external demeanour does not give a good impression to your customer and will most likely ensure they end up stressed with you and the situation and then have negative feelings towards your organisation.
I have noticed this specifically in the last 24 hours. I am currently out in China on work, and they generally have a very calm manner, especially the women (sorry gentlemen) and those involved in the service industry. It reminds me of previous trips to this part of the world and the calm manner displayed at all times in hotels, restaurants and at meetings, in fact in most places actually.
Staff are calm in manner, tone and demeanour and it's a very relaxing and warm experience when being helped.
It has made me wonder, we don't need to be flustered in the sales process. We are all human and make mistakes, but it's all about how you rectify these errors. With calmness, apologies, a listening ear and then solve the issue.
I know sometimes this is not so easy, but you are dealing with people who are on the receiving end of customers too. They will have to deliver a great customer experience in their roles, more than likely, too.
So my advice, keep calm and carry on!
Creating an excellent first impression
7th November 2019
I saw this quote the other day and I thought that this is getting more and more true and probably has been very true for quite a long time, but we have not really tuned into this idea until recently as we all realise that customer service and word of mouth is key.
Word of mouth has always been attributed by all marketing departments as a key selling tool and brand awareness development. However, in the age where customer service and an amazing customer experience is king coupled with the variety of social media and ways to let people know how we feel about a brand and the speed with which we can do it...... and the speed with which feedback can be distributed, I can undoubtedly day that customer experience is the new advertising department.
I mentioned in last week's blog that news of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many years as praise for a good service experience so when considering your 'advertising department' should you not be investing in the areas that can ensure that advertising department is your best?
For years, people have been investing in their advertising to promote their brand and they always had control over what was promoted?. Well, that is a little harder if your advertising department is your customers and they can say and do anything they want based on their interaction with your organisation.
So what should the new investment be if you are not spending money on advertising? How about your staff and training for your staff? What about ensuring your customer journey and all its touch points are red carpet levels with regard to the customer experience?
It is your staff that deal with the customers. It is your staff that update your website or interact with the customers online. It is your staff that answer queries and deal with issues. It is your staff who ensure your new advertising department promotes a positive word of mouth.
I know with the advent of the Christmas adverts, advertising is still a key part of the marketing arsenal and supports the full experience that a customer receives. I am also sure that John Lewis would say both are key.
So train and look after your staff to help with your advertising!
Creating an excellent first impression
Complaints are good!
31st October 2019
Have you noticed that the world is full of those that have a growth mindsets and those that don't?
I am beginning to notice this more and more, and never more so that in the field of customer service.
Human nature dictates that we do not naturally respond to issues or feedback in a positive light. But what if we all considered feedback as a chance to show how good we are by rectifying the situation being complained about and giving the customer the warm and fuzzy feeling they want from a wonderful purchase experience?
I experienced this recently when someone in my industry talked me through a story about how a family had turned up to an open day and did not come away with a favourable impression of the school. She did not know that at the time, but one of her colleagues had one of the parents around by chance to fix some electrical issues at her house and they told her about the less than favourable impression they received of the school by listing a number of issues. This man was therefore talking to people about the bad impression he and his wife had received. When her colleague mentioned this to her the next day, she said that she thought this was a great opportunity to contact the family and how how good the school really was by apologising and inviting the family in to view the school again. She did not see this as a criticism - although other members of staff might - but she thought it the perfect opportunity to act and try and resolve the situation. She said after all if you don't get feedback, how do you get better? A true growth mindset in action!
So the next time a customer complains, use it to resolve the situation and give them a great customer experience. After all, many people don't realise that you can regain a positive association for your brand after bad customer service. It is important to remember, that it is how you handle this issue to regain that trust from the customer. There are four key elements to doing this:
1 - Listen to the customers issue (and I mean really listen)
2 - Apologise for the situation with real sincerity and ....
3 - Respond by repeating the key aspects they brought up to show you have listened and they will immediately calm down
4 - Let them know how you will rectify it, and by when and without fail do this
5 - If you have not by the date you said you would, it doesn't matter, but contact them to let them know when it will definitely be rectified by. Don't leave the customer guessing when it will be organised. They are not mind readers and you need to let them know to ensure you create that positive experience.
News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many
ears as praise for a good service experience, and we know that from the story above, people do talk!
Creating an excellent first impression
Focus on the Customer!
24th October 2019
I saw this image on the internet a few weeks ago whilst pondering customer service, as I do. I have been thinking recently about customer service, and most importantly, how can we measure great customer service?
The image made me realise that we can measure this in the product itself: how focused on the customer is the product? Does the product meet the needs of the customer, or the organisation?
I had come across this situation recently when working with a supplier. I tried to explain that for me, and ultimately for the organisation, it was key that the overriding aim should be – with the product they were pitching – to give a better service to the customer, first and foremost. I said that the sales pitch should not be focused on how easy it would make my life but how it will allow me to spend more time with the customer. However, if the supplier meant that by easy, it would free up more of my time to communicate and support the customer, through their journey in a more personal and bespoke way, because this new service allows me more time for that, then great!
I think businesses – like many leaders – are all about ego. Brand first and reputation of the brand, and whilst this is important, brand reputation is actually best gained through looking after the customer. After all, sales only happen if the customer likes your product and more importantly enhances their time poor life as the image above shows! How many times have you gone for the old Tommy K and it takes forever to get the sauce out? I know their adverts used to be about the ‘best things come to those who wait’ but with the advent of social media and our need for a speedy outcome, this does not cut it in this customer-focused age. Hence, the new tube, in which gravity is the secret ingredient! Much more customer focused and gravity does not cost anything either! The other, however, costs customers... and therefore is not ideal.
Additionally, their brand name is higher up the bottle. Who knows which shelf this will end up on, but I can tell you that when we shop, anything close to eye level is best.
It’s interesting that this is not always considered, for instance, by organisations when promoting their products at a show, especially in my sector. You see these pop up banners at shows, usually behind a table, with the contact details - including email and website - right at the bottom! Brand centric again!
So always begin with the end in mind – the customer and their purchase requirements – because in the end they grow your business and enhance your brand, which is win-win!
Creating an excellent first impression
Always Deliver More than is Expected
17th October 2019
I am lucky that within my job, I often get to experience quite amazing customer service as well as very bad customer service. This is because I tend to travel a lot, especially at this time of year. In many cases, its experience with hotels; I don't tend to quibble at the awful 'grey' service I receive at immigration desks, which ironically is the first person and therefore the first impression you receive of a country! (Although I had a very warm and chatty immigration member of staff in the USA recently, which did give me customer delight - a rarity!)
This year, I have returned to a hotel that I have stayed in, during my last two visits to this same city in October-time. Without question, the service during my last two stays was perfection. Not so this third time around.
At check in, I was welcomed back by the member of staff (at which point I thought, well, they know I am a returning customer, so what are they going to do to create a positive and / or better experience than last time?). As my key was handed to me, I requested some milk to be brought up in a jug, to make a cup of tea, but I was promptly told which number to dial from my room since 'they did not have the information there to do this.' Computer says no springs to mind! I did look at the receptionist in disbelief; she apologised but did not do anything.
After arriving at my room and unpacking, I tried to get onto the WiFi and it did not work, so I rang down to reception and unfortunately got hold of the same member of staff over milk-gate who said, 'you can find the code at the table.' I replied looking at the several tables in my room, 'which table?' and she replied 'on the work desk'. I was at the work desk and there was nothing, as I told her. She then said in an exhausted tone that she would spell the code. Two WiFi connections popped up and I asked whether I should use xxxxxx connection, spelling it out, and she answered yes. The code she gave me did not work. Anyway, after a number of go's, she sent someone up who confirmed in was xxxxx connection, the opposite of what the other member of staff said, and this resulted in a connection. This was all in the space of 15 minutes.
Several other issues have cropped up since my arrival, so at the moment, my delightful feelings towards this usually top hotel are non-existent.
This shows how important it is to do more than is expected at all times, especially to repeat customers who know what the drill is and expect the same or better. Like me.
The receptionist was not proactive about helping me, passionate about her work (her tone was not warm), positive in her knowledge (of the WiFi code) or indeed professional (exhausted tone when she had to spell the WiFi code). Remember, perception is king.
She should be thinking, this is an opportunity to show what I can do and how I can help, especially to a returning customer, one who she might assume had a great experience last time round (because I am returning) and therefore want to make it better. This is how you keep customers coming back. And it's not that hard to retain customers. As I have described above, it is the little things: ringing for a jug of milk, getting the WiFi code right, asking if I want coffee at breakfast (rather than me having to ask...yes, i had to ask for coffee at breakfast; I know exactly what you non-morning people are thinking right now!) It's rarely a question of big things and it is so easy to fix the little things.
So have a think when you go into work today about how you can ensure you deliver more than expected. One little thing will do the job!
Creating an excellent first impression
National Customer Service Week 2019
10th October 2019
This week is National Customer Service Week and I wondered what I would write about to do this exciting week justice, but this weekend just gone I watched a programme called 'The World's Most Luxurious Hotels' on Channel 5. This is definitely where the magic happens.
These luxury service programmes are captivating for me. Generally, whilst watching TV, I usually multi-task by surfing on my iPad because I tend to get bored unless the programme is really good. This Luxury Hotel programme falls into that category: really good and the last programme of this nature I watched was the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai and the Burj in Dubai.
The reason I am captivated is as a red carpet customer service obsessive, I am constantly wowed by the fact that these hotels do this level of service as standard. Their usual line on this when asked by the programme makers is 'we are a luxury hotel, so it is standard and what our customers expect.'
This week featured the Hotel Adlon in Berlin and levels of care included replacing gold leaf on scratched and tired cabinets, ordering ballons for a set of twins, ensuring the cutlery was set the right way to make it easy for the customer. All this to give the customer a great experience, but more importantly to build loyalty and create excellent word of mouth. As you can see, I am writing about the hotel!
What amazes me about this magic and the truly inspiring levels of customer care is the fact that everyone buys into it and everyone makes the effort. This is because hotels such as these have incredible training programmes for new staff and no doubt, repeat training programmes to ensure staff continue to maintain these top levels of customer care.
Additionally, the staff all reiterated that it was important to be one step ahead of the customer. Be pro-active, in other words. They all mentioned that if the customer is requesting something, then the experience is not luxury or bespoke. Organisations need to be ahead of the customer and what s/he wants at all times to create a level of 'delight' in the brand.
I always come away after watching these programmes both inspired to implement some of this incredible care into my role and practise this - as these staff do - on a daily basis.
I have been lucky enough to experience a hotel such as this and I know how valued it makes a person feel when experiencing this kind of service.
I know you are thinking at this point, well they are paying a lot of money. Yes, this is true, however, in many cases you will be spending at some point large amounts of your hard earned money on expensive domestic appliances, cars and other household items for instance. Surely you deserve a level of care, and in turn surely your customers purchasing expensive goods or services do as well?
It is so easy to make people feel valued in the purchase process.
As it's National Customer Service Week this week, how about upping your game with your customers for the week and seeing the results and trying to be one step ahead of them to create customer delight! I bet it will be rewarding and worth the effort and I am sure you will create magic for the customer too!
Creating an excellent first impression
Red-Eye Flight Customer Service!
3rd October 2019
As you may know, every three months I celebrate 'red carpet' customer service with a blog focusing on something red.
This week it's an experience I had flying back from the US on a red-eye flight. These are not the most comfortable of flights considering you fly over night and arrive early morning in the UK, most of the time without sleep, so you would imagine the customer service levels would have to be really good to keep tired people in a good humour ... or so you would think.
So, I had requested a window to do some work and not worry about getting up every time someone wanted to stretch their legs etc, and was told the only one left was an exit seat (which means that you cannot have your bags with you for take off and landing, and I like to have my stuff with me), so I said an aisle seat would be fine, which she booked. I then got onto this very full flight - because of the Thomas Cook situation - to find myself in an exit aisle seat.
An airline member of staff then told me I had to move my stuff and I explained the situation. I was cross at this point because I had explicitly said what I would like and the other member of staff had not listened. I pointed out in a rather sarcastic way - 'Happy Birthday to me' - because it was my birthday at that time (but in UK time) and she apologised, wished me Happy Birthday and she said she would try and get me moved.
Although the flight was full, she managed just before the plane started taxi-ing to get me another seat, which mercifully had no-one next to me, so I had two seats to myself. Then she brought me a glass of fizz to wish me Happy Birthday. Wow, I experienced customer delight at that point and thought what a fantastic airline.
Two things changed this (and this shows how the indifference of one employee can change a positive situation): the crew member looking after our side did not smile, was short and curt in her tone and language the whole time. There was no please or thank you, just rudeness in her manner. For example when asking me to take my charger out for take off, she could have said, "I am sorry to trouble you, but would you mind removing the charger for take off?" Instead she said, "You are not allowed to have that in charging during take off, so could you remove it?" No please, or thank you when I went to remove it.
Secondly, the disembarkation took 45 minutes in total. I was near to the back and it took 40 minutes. I have never, ever had to wait 40 minutes to get off a plane, and I have been in some large planes carrying the same number of passengers on the wonderful airlines Emirates and Singapore, my favourite airlines. (I wish they did routes across the world!) It struck me that if this was an emergency situation, it would have to be a quicker exit otherwise people would not be walking off!
This goes to show that amazing customer service after a negative experience can turn things around, but that in seconds it can be reversed.
P.S. Surely as airlines have access to our dates of birth via our passports, something should flag up to staff onboard information on birthdays to give people that customer delight? I had to mention it to gain a complimentary drink which was very welcome, but really I should not have. I know that in my line of work when I meet families, I always make a note of something that seems as small as a birthday, but makes the person feel very special inside when you have noted it. That's red carpet customer service!
Creating an excellent first impression
Get the basics right first!
26th September 2019
For the last week, I have been on work trip in what people would consider the top nation for customer service: the great US of A. A for amazing when it comes to customer service..... not any more. From my experience, other areas of the world are far better, including and not limited to the UAE and Vietnam.
Why has the leading nation of the free world lost its place? Well, in my opinion, most places I visited this week - even one of the top hotels in Manhattan - are not a patch on the two countries listed above. Why? Because these two countries mentioned above practice the basics and the many places I visited this week do not.
Here is my list of the basics of customer service:
1 - Smile and say hello - a greeting starts things off on a postive note.
2 - Use their name - once you have learnt it
3 - Be helpful in the buying process - a given right?
4 - Eye contact - people do not want the main first impression of their welcome to be of a member of the hotel staff to be spending the entire process looking at a screen whilst answering questions as if the screen will give the answers!
5 - Say please and thank you - again, a given... not anymore!
6 - Smart attire and professional look - a professional and clean 'uniform' really does say to the customer 'I am here to help, I know my stuff, I represent the brand as the first point of call and you can trust me'.
7 - Make the transaction as easy and efficient as possible so that the whole process feels seamless and pain free in our time poor world
8 - Say thank you again and wish the cutsomer a pleasant visit, stay, meal ... whatever it is!
In both the UAE and Vietnam, wherever you go every member of staff is like this. It's like it is inbuit into their DNA and it makes you want to return and enjoy a hassle free few days.
In New York - as in many places in and other great cities - people are stuck up, rude, abrupt, time poor and absolutely do not value the customer and do not practise the basics. How different would our world be if the basics were mandatory and people felt valued however much they were spending? We would all be smiling!
On a final note, please do not discount first impressions in the basics. I entered a building whose function will remain nameless and I was greeted by a girl on a stool with the shortest of skirts. The rest I will leave your imagination. I had to ask, whether this was actually the reception point for the organisation and she said yes. I was astounded that this was the first impression for a customer who would be paying a lot of money, I hasten to add at this point. Not what you expect for a first impression. And they really do count!
Creating an excellent first impression
You always start over with the next customer...
19th September 2019
I realised this week that each interaction is new each and every time you deal with a customer or returning customer. Do not treat returning customers any differently. If they are returning and they have had a great experience, you have it tough to live up to the last experience. For new customers, it is a chance to showcase your brand from the beginning.
This has been highlighted to me this week both positively and negatively.
I am on a school recruitment trip and returned to the hotel I stayed in last year. Last year they were amazing with their help and customer service. This year... wow. They stepped it up a level. It is hurricane season at the moment and what I was told before going on the trip was that a Category 1 hurricane would pass by. By Tuesday, it was Category 3.
The hotel's crisis management was incredible. We had continual information in the reception and individual letters in our rooms each day updating us on the situation and letting us know what was available for use and what was closed. They looked after their staff by offering accomodation in the hotel so they did not have to travel in the storm and to ensure the hotel kept running throughout. During the height of the storm, we were evacuated to one room as the hotel started to flood. The staff brought out refreshments, pre organised, and board games! There were no windows to see what was going on outside (sensible since people were beginning to panic in the restaurants as they could see the storm) and we were all together enjoying cookies and board games! The storm passed and everything returned to normal. I did not think they could get better but this proved they can! Customer delight achieved!
On the other hand I am trying to organise dinner for a friend in a special restaurant in the locality where we live, and because I am working long hours, email is the only way of communicating. I am currently in an email tennis match because they cannot accmomdate my request, because you can book the expensive restaurant for dinner but not the less expensive bar, so to guarantee a reservation you need to lock in the expenisve meal! I am finding it tiresome in my time-poor life. I love this restaurant/hotel, but they are not making the transaction easy for me. I am going off going there for dinner slowly.
I am a returning customer at both organisations: one is keen to please, the other not so.
It is always important to remember to give great customer service at all times and even delight - at least an easy transaction would be a start. Word of mouth is crucial for businesses and they say for every one person who complains, 26 remain silent (go elsewhere probably).
Remember: each transaction is new, fresh with no mistakes in it!
Creating an excellent first impression
Service over price any day!
12th September 2019
I saw this quote on the internet this week and it resonated with an experience my husband had at a very Magic and Sparkly retailer!
We spend a little bit more money on ensuring we purchase free range fish (I know I bet you are thinking, don't fish swim in the sea freely) but trust me it's not that easy. Although it is a little over the usual price, I realised why I don't mind paying it when my husband went to collect the fish yesterday and the member of staff remembered him and knew my husband had come in to collect said fish, because he said "you are the gentleman who told me all about farmed versus free fish, are you here to collect more salmon?"
My husband delightedly told me the story and I heard myself say, "it's what it is all about". I meant the delightful transaction, totally forgetting in an instant the cost of the fish in question.
It made me realise how true this is and how true when I look back at some lovely experiences I have had and how many times I did not mind paying the price because the service and experience were incredible and more than worth it.
There is a man called Philip Hesketh (of whom I have a number of books to read and I am going to his talks in November) who actually promotes the nine keys to charging a higher price and discounting less. Well he is certainly onto something, because if the customer service is excellent, a person can charge a reasonable price for something and not need to discount.
It's all part of that smooth transaction, pleasant experience and customer delight that we want to achieve when interacting with any organisation whilst purchasing a product or service with our hard earned cash.
We live in a 'cash rich, time poor' society and although we are always looking for bargains, we also enjoy paying for an easy life. If that were not the case, why would washing machines, ovens and hoovers have not been invented? If not we would still be using mangles, fires and brushes!
So for any high end product, I say stick to your prices where possible, because if the service is good - well no actually it has to be excellent - then the price becomes irrelevant! People will pay!
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer Service is just Common Sense!
5th September 2019
This week I am in the midst of training staff in customer service. I generally always end up saying - when I go through the presentation - that it really is common sense ie: treat people how you would like to be treated in the sales process. Yes, it's that easy!
However, people do not realise that the smallest of aspects that could be considered basic common sense can put a person off or will give them a negative feeling towards a brand, product or service.
As an example, at the weekend, I was enjoying some quality time with friends. We had all just gone on a big walk and just happened on a pub on the way back that we thought looked great for an early dinner since we were all starving. We went in and ordered food and drink, and some of the drinks were forgotten because they were not alcoholic. The food order then came with a meat dish for the vegetarian. There was no sorry for this issue, and as it is, my friends hate making a fuss about this sort of thing, so the lack of apology was not helpful. In fact they made an excuse that because it was a half portion (that's all they had available and all my vegetarian friend could eat, clearly stating she was vegetarian) that 'it goes through the till as a half portion and the kitchen would not know otherwise!'
Furthermore, they started clearing some of our plates away (using the time old excuse about giving us room on the table, although we always manage in our homes with the amount of plates and cutlery on a table for six people!) just as they brought out the vegetarian dish for my friend. This is not conducive to a relaxed, unhurried eating experience for all.
This is also not common sense customer service after making an error on the ordering.
The lack of apology, excuse for the ordering when they could have clearly popped back to the kitchen and told the chef to prep the vegetarian option and latterly plate clearing only after bringing out her dish shows a complete lack of common sense or even empathy after the situation. If only the staff put themselves in our position and thought about how they would feel they might have done things differently.
It is so easy just to consider each situation and how we would feel if we were in that situation. If we would be unhappy with it, why therefore would the customer in front of you be happy?
It's just common sense!
In my training, I always go through first impressions, how we would like to be treated when we spend our hard earned money and look at what we as customers want in the buying process. I reiterate at this point just put yourself in the customers shoes. It's as easy as that!
To end this blog, enjoy this customer service fact:
80% of companies say they deliver
"superior" customer service, but
8% of people think these same companies deliver
"superior" customer service
Creating an excellent first impression
Indifference - No 1 cause of customer attrition
29th August 2019
Most people do not believe me when I quote this statistic to them. I use it as part of my customer service training - as the first bit of audience participation - citing other options such as new competition, word of mouth and dis-satisfaction with the product. Most people invariably go for word of mouth. People never think individual people are the issue.
But then I get people talking to me about their worst customer service experiences and it usually involves a person being rude, not helpful, not listening, not addressing the issue, passing the issue over to another department.... and another.... and another! Then, the light bulb moment happens!
For me, it's that time of year when I get ready to give customer service training to all new staff within administration, catering, cleaning, maintenance and teaching, because every single person could and at some point will interact with a customer. Every single member of staff make up the team supporting our customers, so each and every one of them needs to be on board with giving red carpet customer service.
And it is the indifference of one employee that could mess it all up.
I mentioned in my blog last week the importance of people in ensuring a fantastic customer experience, and this statistic surely confirms the importance of staff.
I always try to focus on what is possible to control with regard to growing a business. For example, it is impossible to control what the competitors are doing, so focusing on your company and its strengths is more proactive.
It is possible to control dissatisfaction with the product, word of mouth and indifferent employees.
The first, can easily be rectified with focus groups and research through questionnaires with recent buyers and non buyers for instance, and then looking at ways to make your product or service better.
The second is is based on both a great product and great customer service.
Great customer service, comes from ensuring the third aspect is focused on.
One of Richard Branson's popular quotes is "If you look after your staff, they will look after your customers," and to an extent, this is true. What it fails to say is that you need the right staff in a customer facing position in the first place. You can ensure all the support, benefits and remuneration, but if the person is not in the right role, then the business and the member of staff will suffer.
So for this blog, let us assume you have a great recruitment process with a clearly defined role and people specification in your job descriptions for your front of house staff. They need to be trained in the processes and company's customer service requirements. Do not think that it is right or fair to let any new member of staff just get on with it. Training is key.
In one organisation I worked in, I will never forget a person (front of house too) thanking me for some customer service training. She said to me, "no-one has ever trained us before so we have never known what to do and it is nice to have had the training to help us do our job better."
Therefore, do not assume people have had training in this area or that they know the key areas of great customer service, aspects of a great first impressions or how to turn everything into a positive / easy transaction for a customer.
It is surprising how many companies do not invest in this area given the statistic attached to this blog to reverse this 68%.
People are key to your business growth and sustainability, and to end with another Branson quote: "Train people well enough so that they can leave, but treat them well enough so that they do not want to".
Creating an excellent first impression
One customer at a time...
22nd August 2019
I found this quote online recently and though it was a great way to view growth, ie not worry about it, but focus on the journey so to speak.
Rather than considering profits, why not consider the present and making each customer happy to create that organic growth over time?
If we look after each and every customer, then you look after your business. It's like that old fashioned phrase: 'look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves'.
It seems apt to be considering one step at a time on the day of GCSE results and the importance of revision in 'bite size chunks' which this quote can relate too. GCSEs are one step in a long road of results, grades and then career steps to gain the end result. A person would not generally worry about being bigger, but focus on getting and being better in their career path.
Every brand started somewhere and gained a few supportive customers who were looked after and who then told others about the brand; and then it grew! Even companies like Amazon started small, focusing on looking after one customer at a time.
Customer journey mapping is a real buzz phrase at the moment, and this focuses on the touch points of the customer journey with a product or service, making sure each one works for the customer.
If we could look after each customer to the best of our abilities at each contact point, each and every time and really focused on them throughout the customer journey, then organisations would automatically see a growth in their customer base as the positive word of mouth spreads.
It is easy really. By focusing on each customer and their individual requirements, employing the key customer service actions, every customer should be happy and tell others about their experience and then your organisation or business should grow, right? So why does this not always happen?
People.*
People are important in ensuring excellent customer service and it is worth noting that it is the indifference of one employee that kills a business the quickest. I believe that you should recruit for attitude, and train for skill.
I will explore this in next weeks blog more fully, but great sales people are key and that includes listening skills in the sales process!
* It is worth noting that I toyed with the idea of a fifth 'P' when setting up my customer service website and that being people. It did not sit well with my other four adjectives which are something each of us can control since these four are up to us; what we cannot control is how other people are which is why I left this fifth but very important 'P' out of the final line up.
Creating an excellent first impression
Service with a Smile
15th August 2019
I have just returned from an adventure experience of a lifetime, climbing Africa's highest mountain.
What has stayed with me from this achievement, is not making the summit. It is the incredible people I met during my journey to the summit and back down.
I can hear you thinking: what baring has this on amazing customer service? Well two things that are quite important actually - team work and service with a smile.
Team work: there were 54 people in our team (36 porters, 6 guides and 12 walkers). Every single member of our 54 strong team contributed to getting all twelve of us to the top of the mountain and back down again safely. We worked as a team: we trusted the guides and followed their instructions, we worked together to help each other, we listened well, we cared about each other, we respected (well we were in awe of) all the porters and their amazing support. When a team works well, it performs, as in business.
I am still working out how a team who had never met before, performed / achieved the goal, knowing that so many teams go forth with this one mission in mind and fail to get all their team to summit.
I will let you know, when I know the answer to this conundrum, because if we could transport this scenario to real world situations, we would all have top performing businesses!
Service with a smile: every single porter and guide always had a smile - morning to night; from the porters who dusted our shoes at the end of the day and who helped us with our bags, to the cooks who prepared the food to fuel our mission and bid us happy eating, and to the guides who told us we were doing so well and who kept our spirits up along the way. They all seemed to genuinely love their job and even though a tip was expected it did not feel that this was the reason they all had smiles on their faces all of the time. Could you imagine if we were always so happy in our jobs, how great our customers would feel - as we all did on that mountain?
You will know that service with a smile has been a basic part of the customer service experience forever and a day: smile and dial, smile to greet customers and so on, but do we do it enough? I certainly don't feel we do after eight days of constant smiles and kindness from our porters and guides earning very little.
I just know customers would be just as happy with their interactions with organisations as we 12 are with our recent experience because of all the positivity, passion, professionalism and pro-activity by every guide and porter to give us the greatest experience and journey ever.
After all, isn't that what it is all about?
P.S.I often wonder, now I have returned, whether the happiness was the fact that their 'office' - as they put it - was a simple one of eat, sleep, walk, repeat, along with singing, dancing and camaraderie? Have we forgotten the joy of living, enjoying each moment and just being grateful on a daily basis for the little or big things (whatever is important to you). One of my wonderful new Kili family suggested at our last meal on the mountain to talk about one thing that we were grateful for. It was great to be able to voice our thanks and it is something I now do every day to remind me of this trip, the people and the gratitude for this incredible experience as well as the ability to enjoy life and new experiences since then every day.
Today I am grateful to be so inspired by amazing customer service and to be able to share this blog and the importance of team work and service with a smile with you.
Creating an excellent first impression
Out of Office 2 - Remember to take time out!
8th August 2019
I love customer service, but I also know I have to re-energise and refocus every so often and step away from giving that red carpet customer service!
Creating an excellent first impression
Out of Office 1 - Short blog due to Summer Holidays!
1st August 2019
With it being that holiday time of year, you still have a duty to your customers to ensure they are looked after.
You may be travelling to a part of the world with no wifi (yes people, these places do exist) but your customers will not know that, nor care.
My advice, is to be proactive before leaving for your holidays and let your key customers know they can contact another person while you are away by email and ensure to copy in that colleague to your email so it easy for your customers to locate the contact email address.
Secondly, do not forget to turn on your out of office. Make sure to include contact details of colleagues who can help in your absence.
Happy summer holidays to you and your customers!
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer relationship building is key to growth
25th July 2019
I was writing an article the other day, and in it I mentioned that the relationship does not stop with the sale. In fact it is important to contact the customer after the sale to keep them engaged with the purchase if there is a long lead time between purchase and enjoyment of the product.
It is important to make the customer feel valued before, during and after, and if you stop looking after them just because the money is in and you've 'closed the sale' then they will feel undervalued and more than likely decide to consider other options in the future.
I read another quote recently on Pinterest that said: 'The Customer Experience is the next competitive battleground'.
It really hit me reading this that companies and organisations are really going to have to get savvy when it comes to generating growth.
Organisations really do have to consider every touch point in the customer journey and ensure it is positive and meaningful so that the customer purchases the product or service and returns to make repeat purchases.
I mentioned in a recent blog how my father is a life time customer of a certain German car manufacturer, following the patience of the staff over a number of months whilst my father deliberated and then purchased his first of a lifetime of the same car albeit different models. He was provided with excellent customer care and over the years, a real journey as a loyal customer.
The sales people did not just close the sale, they opened a relationship with my father. This is how organisations win and keep customers.
Creating an excellent first impression
First impressions count!
18th July 2019
In the last two weeks, I have really noticed that first impressions count.
You probably remember a certain shampoo advert that used this slogan as part of its advertising campaign. It has always struck me as important wherever I go and whatever I do.
In a world of speed, we also judge our fellow man on first impressions. Do you know it takes us seven seconds to form an opinion of someone just by looking at them and before we have even heard from them?
In customer service training the other week, to some new members of staff, I touched on this very subject.
I used the famous quote: 'Suit up, because your personality is not the first thing people see". I have to say it amazes me how some people turn up to job interviews, even interviews on Skype for instance. You may be a thousand miles away, but it is still an interview! My mother always said it is better to over dress than under dress; you can always take a tie off for instance or a jacket but not if its the other way around and there is a dress code in place.
I read an article recently on key things people look out for when interviewing that are a no-no and having sunglasses on your head is one of them. As the article author wrote, "you're not going to the beach!"
Other key aspects of the first impression I touched on in the training that relate to whether we as customers / the customer wants to continue with a purchase include six further areas:
1 - Adjust your attitude - what I mean by this is that whatever is going on in your personal life, leave it there - the customer does not care. They are in front of you to buy a certain product and have chosen you and your store to do this in their time poor life. You have to put on a positive front, on the front line.
2 - Use their name - no need to explain.
3 - Smile - it is so much better than a cross or miserable face that feels like the staff member does not care or does not enjoy the organisation he/she is working at. Why therefore would the customer think it's a good idea to shop there if the staff member does not seem passionate about the organisation and the products they are selling?
4 - Stand tall - slouching is not professional, standing tall shows confidence even if you are only five foot tall! I never present sitting down for this very reason, by standing I can breathe deeply and smile at and look at everyone in the room......
5 - Make eye contact - we engage people by looking into their eyes (obviously not for hours at a time!) and showing them we are focusing solely on them and their needs at all times.
6 - Positive body language - arms crossed shows boredom and an uncaring attitude. The customer wants you to care about their needs, so you have to show this is the case.
The shop floor is not a place to gossip as I have seen in many a department store. It is about smiling and saying hello to the customer, asking if they need help a little while later and being positive, passionate, proactive and professional in your manner and focusing on their needs.
Most of these aspects above can be used on the telephone too. Just listen to how you sound when you smile and stand tall compared to when your face is frowning and you are slouching. Using positive body language makes you feel positive and upbeat. By crossing your arms you will naturally come across as defensive and this will affect your tone on the phone too. Eye contact is difficult I agree!
So in a nutshell, remember, first impressions count, whether as a member of staff on the shop floor, at a job interview, on the telephone and in an email! Because you have seven seconds to make it count!
Creating an excellent first impression
Perception is king!
11th July 2019
It is a truth not universally acknowledged that we seem only to see things one way way rather than considering that there could be another opinion on a matter.
I am always saying that there is no such thing as right or wrong, it's all down to opinion.
In this instance, the opinion of the customer is key. In fact it is more than key - it is king, as is perception. The following fact can show this:
"80% of companies think that they are giving superior customer service, whereas 8% of people think these same companies are delivering superior customer service."
Interesting, don't you think?
Never be complacent that you are doing a great job. Continue to learn, and get better. The customer generally won't let you know you are doing a bad job, they will just shop somewhere else. Feedback is important therefore, and more important than this is acting on that feedback otherwise you have wasted the time of many people who have given you feedback to help you be better.
So how can you continually try to ensure you are giving consistent customer service on top of taking note of feedback? There are three good ways of doing this:
Mystery shopping: having someone come in and test the customer touch points, making sure that the buying process is pleasurable and smooth. This will allow you to see any inconsistencies and iron out problems to be able to support a real customer.
Customer service training annually as well as refreshers are also helpful in ensuring your staff are updated and that they are continually providing consistently excellent customer service according to your policies and requirements. Role play is good to get your staff in the mindsets of your customers too and to put themselves in the buyers position.
Customer service audit: looking at processes and how smooth and easy it is for the customer to get to the buying stage as well as how easy it is for your staff to get them to the buying stage. Barriers to that final purchase do not help, so look at trying to alleviate these in the buying process.
I employ all of the above techniques to ensure consistent customer service is maintained at all times as well as reviewing the process consistently to ensure it is responsive to the customers needs and that the staff feel it supports them in the sales process.
So in conclusion, remember, the customer's perception is your reality.
Creating an excellent first impression
Red Carpet Customer Service - ten top tips!
4th July 2019
It seems fitting on the 4th July and with Prom season on at the moment to talk about 'red carpet' customer service. It is also six months since I started blogging about customer service and my experiences; every three months I like to do a 'red' blog so here it is.
If you look at the 4th July celebrations, the US have really rolled out the red carpet this year for them. Prom venues up and down the country are decorated with red carpets to welcome Year 11 pupils.
So why do people organise red carpets?
Well, it makes people feel special. I know that for many Year 11 pupils, they enjoy being made to feel special after months of revision and a few weeks of their first public and important exams. It's a celebration of years of work and a chance to relax and enjoy a little bit of focus on them, that's not all about work and exams.
Traditionally, red carpets were rolled out to dignitaries and politicians, but more recently it is more associated with celebrities and star studded events.
A red carpet has been used as early as 465 BC and according to that well known online encyclopaedia, in 1902, the New York Central Railroad used plush crimson carpets to direct people as they boarded their 20th Century Limited passenger train. This is believed to be the origin of the phrase "red-carpet treatment". As you can see, customer service was given out, red carpet style, over 100 years ago by a company wanting to give their customers a special experience.
Rolling out the 'red carpet' (if you cannot do it literally) means making people feel special. This includes ten key ingredients:
1 - giving them your time
2 - listening, and I mean active listening
3 - giving them the information they need and sticking to key points and not waffling so you appear confident in your knowledge of the product and will therefore build trust
4 - being proactive to their needs
5 - being positive in your interaction with the customer
6 - being professional in your dealings
7 - being authentically passionate about your brand, product or service
8 - paying attention to the detail during the purchase process including using their name, making eye contact and smiling
9 - remembering to say hello, please and thank you
10 - resolving any issues with a sincere apology and a solution
It all feels like common sense, doesn't it? Treating people as we would want to be treated. This is always a good barometer for any situation you are in, to consider how you would feel listening to yourself and your words during your interaction with your customer and what your overall feeling to the experience you have just given is if you were the customer. What could you do differently, if the sale is not made for instance, or what you can do if the sale is made to encourage a repeat purchase?
This is the ultimate aim: customer loyalty and repeat business and thus business growth. Red carpet customer service will do this every time!
Creating an excellent first impression
'Thank you' are two of the most important words in the world of customer service
27th June 2019
Last week I wrote about the customer being the priority and that red carpet customer service is all about giving the customer an excellent experience. Why? So that they purchase your product or service. And after? Then you continue that top class experience and then they will continue to purchase your product or service.
I also mentioned I was loyal to a certain supermarket. A colleague did her online shop at the supermarket recently and had it delivered. Check out the image attached to this blog to see what was delivered with it. Talk about service with a smile and customer delight as well as something to enjoy over a nice cup of tea once all the food is put away.
I also mentioned a few blogs ago about the delightful experience of when I was staying in a hotel in Turkey. I arrived back from a number of meetings to a sugary dessert as a treat, with a note thanking me for staying at the hotel especially knowing I could have stayed at any number of hotels in the area.
It is these little details that really make a person smile and give the customer a warm feeling towards the organisation creating potential repeat business. Other examples I can recall, when I have been impressed, include whisky in the main hotel living room (in a small hotel in Scotland) for guests to enjoy at no charge, homemade cake and a pot of tea on arrival at a farmhouse B&B, eco-friendly local toiletries in a B&B that mentioned profits go to help regeneration within the local area, and a personalised welcome sign in another B&B because the owners were unable to greet me personally. I have had personalised thank you notes/cards with an online order of clothing, a small thank you gift with one shop purchase I made in Germany and a free addition to a personalised order I made at an online store after I relayed the reason for the order. I have had puddings with the word 'congratulations' on a plate at special anniversaries or birthdays from organisations wanting to create that magical experience and even received a half bottle of champagne from one hotel and a chocolate dessert and bottle of wine on a special occasion from another. All of these experiences I remember vividly and many of these go back / span eight years alone. I will ensure to go back to these hotels (if I have not already) and place repeat orders with the retail companies because of these little experiences which gave me such a warm feeling towards the organisation at that point of sale / during that stay.
How hard and costly have these little actions been for each organisation? Generally not that hard or costly. How has it made me feel? Valued and wanting to return or purchase additional items, and not only that, for many of the accommodation providers an excellent review on TripAdvisor telling the world how wonderful they are. So how hard can it be for you to think up some great ideas to make the customer feel valued for them to experience customer delight? Not that hard I bet.
Just remember it's all in the detail..... and never forget to say thank you.
Thank you for reading my blog today.
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer First - Part 2!
20th June 2019
Last week I wrote about the customer being the priority. Red carpet customer service is all about putting the customer first and giving them an excellent experience so they purchase your product or service, and then continuing that top class experience so that they continue to purchase your product or service.
It costs seven times more to recruit a new customer than to retain. Therefore it stands to reason that once you have put effort into that customer, you want to keep them for as long as possible.
I can tell you now that I am a loyal customer to various brands based on customer service and quality of the product. I am loyal to Hotpoint and have a fridge freezer, and washing machine from them; I would have an oven but it does not fit I found out this week! They have excellent service and guarantees as well as being incredibly supportive and helpful during the purchase process. Not only that, but their products are of a good quality and because of this do not mind paying that little bit extra for that and the excellent customer service.
I am also a loyal Morrison's customer for my main supermarket shop - excellent service and friendly staff; and Marks and Spencer (for my bits and bobs and train station meals) for the same reason.
As customers we value friendliness and helpfulness, a real focus on our needs and requirements as well as an efficient purchase process. If the organisation gets this right every time, why would a customer switch? Customers value ease in the process which is more valuable than getting the cheapest deal in our largely cash rich time poor society.
Thinking about customer service and what the end result is all about, I typed 'business goals' into Google this week and the following came up: increase profit margin (arguably the overall aim), Increase efficiency, capture a bigger market share, provide better customer service and improve employee training (all helping towards the initial aim). The overall aim is achieved (arguably) through the others, all of which aim to look after the customer (better customer service, better training of employees) to create a bigger market share (customer recruitment and retention).
Therefore, if you look after the customer first (better training and service), the customer will last (greater market share) which equals increased profit margin.
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer First!
13th June 2019
I tend to notice that customers engage more when you ask questions about them and get to know them rather than just talking shop. Your shop.
Have you also noticed that people are more comfortable talking about themselves than they are about things they are not as knowledgeable about?
So with these two statements in mind, why not talk to the customer and ask questions about them (not personal information!) to find out a little bit about them, help them to relax and then get them in the frame of mind to discuss your product or service.
I followed through on this advice yesterday to amazing results and the customer visibly relaxed and opened up about her concerns. We were then able to have a frank conversation about various aspects and I could reassure her that our product could do x and y to alleviate her concerns.
I also notice how brilliant general chit chat and listening to the customer is when gaining their trust for you to talk about your product or service.
I have already spoken in previous blogs about how important listening is - and I mean active listening. Neither listening with the intent to respond, listening whilst all the while formulating a response, nor listening whilst looking at who else is around and what others are doing in the vicinity. This is not active listening. Active listening is totally focusing on the customer, their words, their tone and their body language, above anything else.
The only thing more important than the four P's (being positive, proactive, professional and passionate about your product or service) is listening.
Listening makes us all feel valued and that what we are saying is important. It allows us to build rapport and trust. Trust is important in building a relationship with a customer who will in turn listen to you and your knowledge on the product to make the purchase.
Top tip of the week: 'Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” Bernard Baruch, US Philanthropist.
Creating an excellent first impression
Resilience and perseverance are needed sometimes!
6th June 2019
I thought it appropriate today to use one of my favourite quotes: 'tough times don't last, but tough people do.'
On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, I thought how appropriate is this!
Of course dealing with a tough customer will be nothing like landing on a beach in Northern France in Operation Overlord.
However, we can learn a thing or two from the veterans in the news this week about not giving up, persevering and showing resilience in the face of adversity ... albeit with a customer service challenge.
I am sure you have had those times when you feel all your top customer service support and red carpet levels directed at the customer are just not doing the trick and you will have those days when nothing goes right. You can't win them all, after all!
You will be thinking: what am I not doing right, how can I make the experience better, what is is that the customer is really needing and why am I not delivering it?
I have had those days when you get setback after setback and the reasons to your request for feedback are nothing that are within your control, which can happen on occasion.
It is always about resilience and perseverance because you will get through to some customers with your red carpet customer service.
Just remain positive, professional, passionate and pro-active as did our veterans 75 years ago and you will see yourself through the challenges and onto a winning outcome!
Top tip on staying positive: if I am needing a dose of positive, I have a 60 second video showing scenes from my favourite place in the world set to some inspiring music that I watch, which focuses my mind back on a positive path! Chocolate always helps too....
Creating an excellent first impression
Give your customer the red carpet treatment every time.
30th May 2019
I read a book a few years ago that totally wowed me with regard to customer service. The book is by Donna Cutting and it is called 'Insider Secrets to delivering Red Carpet Customer Service' - The Celebrity Experience. The Pizza story will really make you understand what amazing customer service is and take it to a whole new level.
People like to feel special and the red carpet treatment makes people feel special.
You must have had that experience in a shop or in a hotel, where the member of staff goes the extra mile and makes you feel valued and special with their manner (professional and polite) and help. If not, I suggest you hop on a flight to Dubai where they really know all about customer service!
The red carpet treatment resonates with me this week with a project I am working on at the moment. The project involved red carpet levels of customer care and I am wanting to ensure I deliver top class red carpet levels of customer care. Every detail, every name, every part of the schedule is totally focused on giving the customer the best experience - the red carpet experience.
I say this every week, but if people are spending money on your product or service then you need to treat them well, well actually the best, so they will come back and spend more money. Because, again, repeat customers are much less expensive to your business in the long run compared to constantly finding and bringing in new ones with expensive marketing and advertising campaigns.
So, when you deal with that next customer, think how you can give that person red carpet customer service and therefore help to retain a customer and bring customer loyalty to your organisation and support in its growth!
Creating an excellent first impression
Be the best at customer service!
23rd May 2019
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about focusing on your customers not your competition, however you will want to keep one eye out on what you competitors are doing in the field of customer service to keep one step ahead of the game and be the best.
Sometimes the only that will differentiate you from the competition is amazing customer service. In fact I have just bought a book called 'Amaze Every Customer, Every time' so I will let you know what this is like and some little snippets of wisdom from it next week. I love reading books on customer service and finding out new ideas and ways to wow the customer and keep them coming back.
Anyway, back to being the best!
I read a cartoon the other day that fits in with this: a man is by a hotel reception desk and he is tired, upset and fed up and has just mentioned what a terrible day he had had with a delayed flight and traffic issues and is angry and short. The woman behind the desk thinks although this is not my fault, its my opportunity to end this mans bad day! What a refreshing take on customer experience. She is about to consider what will make his day the best and give him the best experience at check in.
I love reading ideas like this. How many times have we thought... well, its not my fault, I will just try and not make it worse, but have we ever thought... it's my chance to make this day the best for this person and turn everything around?
So my thought for the week is, be the best at customer service every time, ensure your customers have the best experience whether they come to you with a positive or negative frame of mind and just fly the flag for amazing customer service every time! You never know, you might turn their rubbish day into the best.
Be positive, professional, passionate and above all proactive! Think how the customer must be feeling and put yourself in their position. What would turn your day around if you were in this position and then act on that. Just smile and be helpful and enact the 4Ps and you cannot fail to give the best customer service!
Creating an excellent first impression
Does price really matter to the customer?
16th May 2019
I was looking through pinterest when I came across this quote: The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven't given then anything else to care about.
I thought... is this really true? And I realised I actually experienced this change in focus the other day during a meeting. Some customers mentioned to me that the price of a product was costly. When I broke the price down and described the different elements that the customer received for the price and the experience they would enjoy, then the customers got excited and price became obsolete and they realised what excellent value the product was and that they were going to enjoy an experience too.
I am a great believer that price is something that can be pushed aside to make way for experience, value and care to support in the purchasing process. Generally people are happy to pay a price for an item. When we start haggling and discounting, then it becomes all about the price and the experience is lost. What if we focused on what a customer receives and how much value can be found in the product, surely then a customer will enjoy a wonderful before and after experience buying and enjoying the product or service.
Lifestyle brands, products where demand is greater than supply and brands which give 'out of this world' customer service are all expensive, but for people who buy them, worth it for the experience before and after the purchase.
Not only that, brands that are considering their environmental impact whether through the reduction of plastic usage, using recycled plastic from the oceans in their packaging, banning straws etc, certainly gets people voting with their feet in terms of customer loyalty. These brands have given their customer more to care about than just a great product; people buying the product can also feel they have done their bit to care for the environment.
Furthermore, some of my best retail / purchasing / leisure experiences have been in some luxury goods stores, restaurants and hotels where the experience of purchasing the product has been just as good - if not more exciting - as enjoying the item itself. I just love the whole experience involving care and attention in the buying process before and after - it is something that gives me a feeling of being valued. We all like to feel valued.
Obviously there is an argument for ensuring that there is value for money in many instances and for many people which I do not want to take away.
However, we have entered a world where experience is all part of life; the millennial generation have certainly put this word on the map. But with the amount of choice we have out there, it stands to reason that if we give customers more to consider than just price, price becomes irrelevant.
Lets start to care more!
Creating an excellent first impression
Customers do not like excuses! They like an easy purchase experience.
9th May 2019
How many times have you been in a situation where someone says to you something like: 'We cannot help you with that', 'That option is not available', 'We cannot do that', or my absolute pet hate of a phrase, 'We have always done it this way' (aaaahhhhhhhh), when you suggest an action?
I often do customer service training to a variety of stakeholders who although they are all customers out in the big wide world do not often put their minds into the mind of a customer, when dealing with customers. As customers, we do not want barriers, we want solutions, an outcome, and end to the purchase / transaction experience.
My training includes ensuring that there is a positive response to every situation and that you never have to say no to a customer, and that on the rare occasions that you do you can provide a solution to a customer so they do not feel that their search for an outcome is in vain and therefore will still speak highly of how helpful you and your business have been.
The training is not really about saying yes to people; it's more about going the extra mile rather than just saying no as a default which many people tend to do because they cannot be bothered to put the extra effort in.
But when dealing with people who are about to spend their hard earned money, we need to be bothered!
I have to remind trainees that people are cash rich and time poor and that an easy purchase or transaction experience is paramount not just becuase of their lack of time, but for the business to gain a repeat customer a loyal customer and ultimately a brand ambassador.
So dispense with the 'my computer is moving slowly', 'you'll have to call back for that information', 'I don't have an answer to your question, could you call back later to find out', and 'we're out of those, but we will have them in next week so come back then', and instead say 'please can I take your number and I will call you back later / the next day when I can give you that information / let you know when the item is back in stock.' How easy is that!
Excuses are not an option in business today when growing your business and your customer base, action is what is required.
Creating an excellent first impression
Forget your competitors. Focus on your customer.
2nd May 2019
I saw this quote today and I thought how true it is....
I was always brought up not to worry about anyone else handing their homework in on time at school, just focus on getting my homework in on time. I worried about people finishing exams first, in my early education years, but learned to focus on my own exam later on and finish in my own time to get the best results.
In my early career days, I worried that other people were doing better than me, but learned over time to focus on what I was doing and my career to succeed.
All of these examples show that focusing on you and your affairs helps you to be the best. Surely this must translate to your business and growing it?
In recent years, in my work, I have worried less and less about competitors and focused more and more on the customer.
There is not much you can do about your competitors, so why spend time worrying about or considering them? Of course, having one eye on them is useful, but for general day to day working, just focus on your customers 100% and this will give you the edge on your competitor. By spending time considering your competitors daily movements you are reducing time spent on looking after the customer and thus considering and developing more and better ways to look after them.
So to quote that positive phrase: focus on what you can do (looking after your customers), and not on what you can't.
Creating an excellent first impression
... You have to be Outstanding.
25th April 2019
Have you ever noticed that people talk about their experiences with brands in two very different ways?
If the customer experience was awful they talk in mainly negative adjectives. However if the customer experience was outstanding, they rave about it.
Nobody really mentions average. It's one or the other, and I can imagine which end of the scale you and your business would want ... no need... to be.
There are so many online opportunities for people to be negative or rave about your business or product, or rate it: social media, TripAdvisor, amazon ... the list goes on.
Bad customer service can jeopardise a company's reputation.
Businesses today cannot afford this. Competition for customers is strong so you need your customers - ambassadors for your brand - to rave about your customer service. So you need to create customer delight (the ultimate goal) every time.
For example, I have been back to a few hotels and B&Bs along my travels that I rave about (usually on TripAdvisor because I believe in feedback), because every time I stay, the customer experience does not diminish. It is usually the small touches that make me rave about a place. But most importantly it is a great all-round experience and being valued as a customer. After all I could have gone somewhere else.
Examples include: dessert treat time in a hotel because the hotel recognised that I could have chosen any number of other hotels to stay at and wanted to thank me, using my name on arrival and throughout my stay, upgrading me because this was the third time I had returned, extending my check out because my flight was much later on, presenting me with my packages on arrival and leaving further packages in my room during my stay without me having to ask for them, being positive and helpful with all my questions and suggesting alternatives and options, giving me a quiet room because the member of staff could see i was a business traveller, organising last minute breakfast refreshments for a group gathering without any issues, offering to call a taxi rather than me going outside to flag one down.
It is the little things that help a rave review, because nobody raves about average and your business needs to do better than average to beat the competition and create customer loyalty and ultimately growth.
Creating an excellent first impression
Helpful Sales are key to Customer Growth
18th April 2019
This quote hit me like a bolt of lightening when I read it on Pinterest today as so being obvious, so why don't we all practice it?
Every so often little nuggets of genius appear on Pinterest in response to my pinning of customer service quotes, and this is one of them.
It's like that other wonderful sales quote, "Sell an experience, not a product".
But what does it all mean?
Customers go online or to shop to find a product in response to a need. Sometimes that product need is easy to fix, but not always.
For instance, you want to find an implement for eating soup - well a soup spoon is pretty much the tool for the job.
But what if you need to buy a television, a car, an oven or a house? There are more variables that go into the search for these items. This is when helping the customer to find what they are looking for and listening to their requirements and needs really helps to sell your product and organisation. Reeling off information on the latest and most expensive television or car in the range just because you know the patter or you have been told to upsell usually ends in the customer running for the nearest exit!
By listening to the customer, finding out what they need and helping to solve their problem, will gain you a new customer, or a more loyal customer. And why is thus important? I am sure you have competitors who would love to take your customers, but most importantly, authentic and honest sales help a business in the key goal of customer acquisition: a customer for life.
Why is this important? Because it acquiring customers costs seven times more than retaining customers!
An example of elpful sales to the importance of life time value is shown here: my father buying his first German car, one that he had been wanting and looking at for a long time: his dream car. He spent months visiting the sales house, going over all the options until he finally bought it. I thought at the time the staff had the patience of a saint, but their patience won out (Remember: never, never, never give up... on the customer!) I remember someone saying at the time that the they would see my father as a potential life time customer, and that it was not just about one sale. The help they gave him over the months was important for them to see this. They were right: he has since bought a number of German cars - only from them - over the years.
So it is important to help the customer find the perfect product or answer to their problem however long it takes. It is not a sale. it is providing help or an experience. People love helpful people. People warm to help to solve their issues and queries. It stands to reason that helping someone with their query, solving a problem, all the while creating a relationship and an experience, will end up in a sale.
Creating an excellent first impression
Never, never, never give up ... on your customer!
11th April 2019
Today, at one of my meetings, I saw the timeless quote of the great Sir Winston Churchill and I thought what a perfect quote for my blog this week, and following on from last week's blog.
I sometimes feel that we give up too easily, because it is the easier option than using all your energy, drive and determination in whatever activity or project that you/a person is involved in at the time.
As an example, this week, the staff at one of my hotels I was staying in were very quick to give up on me with my daily request as to whether my packages - that I had mailed to the hotel before setting out on my latest work trip - had arrived.
I asked on the evening of my arrival, the next day - both lunchtime and early evening - as well as the following morning. The same person was at the reception desk each time and each time a member of staff 'looked' for my packages including him on one occasion. The final morning I asked the question, and the same man smirked at my question and proceeded to cover his mouth to stop me (from noticing....doh!) that he could not stop smirking at the potentially mad woman in front of him looking for her packages. It was just like the first night on my arrival when I could see the trainee receptionist go into the office for help trying to locate my package because he could see the note on my file regarding them. I proceeded to speak with a lady who seemed less than happy to help me as though I had interrupted her important work ... of probably online shopping or posting some important details on facebook.
It totally made me feel that I have been given up on even at that time!
Needless to say the packages arrived later that day after my final request to locate my package - two hours before I was due to leave. Better late than never!
However, the incident has made me question the lengths that people would go to to ensure a customer is happy and I really did not believe - from the lack of trying to find tthe packages - that the team were really keen to help me locate my missing parcels. Nor would they go over and above their duty to help a customer eg: red cup customer service!
It is a well known fact that people tend to focus more on body language than words. 93% is not what you say but how you say it and of this 55% is body language and 38% tone. (Only 7% is on the words you use)
Why are businesses not training their staff to have positive body language at all times? And especially hotels, when there is a lovely little websiite out there called TripAdvsor!
So the moral of the story this week is: never, never, never give up on your customer; going the extra mile is worth it in the end.
Creating an excellent first impression
Red Cup Customer Service!
4th April 2019
This week I am on work trip meeting with agents.
Last year, doing the same trip, I promised an agent a red cup to complete her collection of five coloured cups.
So I thought I would pop to the onsite shop to get the cup last week, but there were none left. I searched high and low for this cup since I had promised to get her this and when you make promises, you always need to deliver. I bet you are thinking what a mug(!) I am for making that promise.
After searching through a number of departments for over 60 minutes, I found what I suspect to be the final red cup available.
I was glad to be able to present this to her this week and not let her down and I knew when I presented it, it was worth the extra time in locating it.
So .... the moral of the story: never promise what you cannot deliver, and going the extra mile in customer service is worth it!
Creating an excellent first impression
Be Positive, Say Yes!
28th March 2019
Creating an excellent first impression
Customer happiness centres - a new take on red carpet customer service
21st March 2019
So it's the first day of Spring today and I have decided to write about new beginnings.
On my recent work trip, I caught sight of these signs (image) along the main road and I thought to myself that this was the icing on the cake to my Middle East trip where excellent customer service seems to be the norm: customer happiness centres.
I did not get the chance to stop off at one of these 'centres', but I can imagine that nobody leaves them unhappy!
This means that a total red carpet experience must be given to each and every customer to ensure they leave happy.
My blog last week mentioned the 4P's of customer service: positivity, proactivity, passion and professionalism. I can imagine the people (staff at these centres) are totally committed to ensuring customers leave happy by employing these skills.
How? It's easy.
By being positive in all their dealings as well as being professional. It is being proactive with their help and solutions to challenges (not issues!) and above all passionate about their product and ensuring the customer leaves happy.
Can you imagine if you employed these tactics in your business - ensuring this approach to all dealings. Customer loyalty would be easy and business growth more than just organic.
So how about considering a new beginning to your marketing strategy and customer care and considering the customer's happiness in all things - ie: putting the customers needs and wants first and delivering on them every step of the way however big or small they are.
It's the season for new beginnings, so what have you got to lose?
As an aside, I experienced customer delight today. My hotel had left a sweet treat in my room for me to find as a surprise on my return from my meetings. A letter was included from the management on behalf of the hotel and staff which said they were grateful that I had chosen their hotel as my home away from home when they know that there were many other hotels in the area I could have booked and stayed with. They had even listed the ingredients of the treat!
Wow - it's the little things that really do make a difference! Cistomer happiness certainly comes easy to this business.
Creating an excellent first impression
It’s the little things...
14th March 2019
I am in the Middle East this week for work, and there is a noticeable shift in customer service excellence compared to the UK. How? Read on.
Firstly, I just recieved a call from the hotel reception to check that I was happy with the room which gave me customer delight! This is being proactive.
Yesterday, I was sitting in the executive lounge drinking tea just after my arrival because my room was not ready catching up on emails and I had a very helpful member of staff organise my pot of hot water for my tea. He asked me where I was from and what I was doing here, and he seemed genuinely interested in my response. I could tell he was very passionate about his work and ensuring that customers were happy.
Every member of staff I have met has smiled every time I leave and return to the hotel. They have asked if I need help if I looked lost and welcomed me as I walked into a different part of the hotel. Even at breakfast I was shown to my table with politeness and helpfulness and another member of staff came straight over to see if I wanted coffee. 'Please' and 'thank you' is used a lot.
From an challenge-free and seamless arrival, to a smile on request of additional hangers in the room with immediate production, to smiles from all members of staff, to leading me to a location (not just telling me where it is for me to locate myself), the level of service is totally focused on ensuring a happy customer.
Every member of staff is professional and courteous. They go out of their way to help and make this experience the best.
No-one says no, of if they have to, it is done by giving an alternative option rather than saying no.
I am sure that every member of staff has gone through significant training on being proactive and professional as well as being positive and passioniate whilst representing the brand to the customer. This is how repeat business and excellent word of mouth - plus a 5* review on TripAdvisor - is realised and businesses need to start realising this needs to be a key tactic to business growth within their marketing strategies.
It is lots of little things that make up one amazing experience and that the 4Ps - positivity, proactivity, passion and professionalism - are key to this experience.
They say it is the little things that make a difference and 'they' are not wrong!
Creating an excellent first impression
Be Proactive, be be Proactive!
7th March 2019
On the eve of International Women’s Day, I felt proactivity was an important point to talk about with regard to customer service.
Anyone - women included - who has achieved success (however you define this) has done so through being proactive. Nothing is gained by sitting back and waiting.
When I give customer service training, my first ‘audience participation’ task is to get trainees to give the best and most positive and proactive way to some statements. The first is: ‘Don’t put those forms there.’
Trainees usually after a little bit of silence suggest, ‘put those forms there / in that tray / leave them there’ but the best answer is ‘Let me take those forms off you and I will see that they get to the right person.’
Another statement / situation is when a customer rings up to speak to someone and they get routed through to another person who proceeds to tell them to call back on ‘X’ number or the same line. Would it not be better to say, ‘I will take your number and get ‘X’ to call you back.’
In the customer service journey, we want an easy and seamless purchase. We don’t want difficulties, obstacles or challenges as ‘time poor’ people. We want people to make the journey a joy not a chore.
Being pro-active with the customer is key. Taking the chores and challenges out of the journey and making it pleasurable and easy will create loyalty and a positive word of mouth.
Don’t forget that in life it is the small things that count whether it is taking those forms for the customer, taking their number and ringing them back when the computer is working again, the clothes are back in stock or the person they need is not there to speak to right then.
Be proactive, be be proactive!
Creating an excellent first impression
Time is precious
28th February 2019
Elements of this week have made me realise how valuable time is.
Both as a customer, and dealing with customers this week, time has played a bit part in positive outcomes.
I went to a meeting for what I thought would be an hour. It turned into three., yet it turned out to be the most positive and useful three hours relating to a massive project I am working on. Looking back now as I write this blog, I am glad I spent the time.
Today, a one hour meeting - for the same project - turned into two. Again it was such a beneficial two hours. Both sets of time given to me this week will secure my business by some wonderfully helpful and patient organisations.
It’s got me thinking. Customers really do like time spent on and with them. They may feel time starved in life but when something is worth it - especially when a lot of money is involved - time is the best thing you can give to a customer. It a relationship building process.
Looking after customers this week has taken up a lot of time, but when they thank you for your time, organisation and help, you realise it is worth it.
As we leave the shortest month of the year, I can honestly say time spent on and with customers is the most rewarding.
We live in a time starved world, with lots of technology to help us with time management and ways to help us maximise our time. Would it be more beneficial I wonder to consider the opposite, not worry about time so much and just focus on each project there and then.
For if ‘we have all ... the time ... in the world’ for our customers, we would create both personal and professional wellbeing, development and growth.
Creating an excellent first impression
Find your passion!
21st February 2019
Following on from Valentines Day last week, I thought I would continue the ‘love’ theme and talk about one of my key 4 Ps: passion.
Bottom line: if you don’t love what you do, if you do not believe in your product, if you don’t show passion, why would anyone buy it? Why would anyone spend their hard earned money on your product or business if you do not come across as totally committed and focused and passionate about it?
Passion is so important. There has been many a time I have walked out from a sale in a shop, walked out of a restaurant, or told Tripadviser what I thought of some accomodation or dining experience based on a member of staff, owner, or organisation’s lack of customer care and going the extra mile.
Your passion IS your success.
Look at the candidates on Dragons Den who command attention from the Dragons. They invariably invest in the person not just the business.
We as customers respond to someone who really loves what they do. Negativity and a lack of care do not grow a business or loyal customers.
Organisations need to invest in the right staff to carry their brand out there to the world and therefore create passion in their staff for the product or organisation.
The bottom line is passion as well as all the other Ps that I believe in make up an amazing customer experience and it all starts and ends with the right staff and excellent and thorough training. Check out Disney’s model when it comes to staff training and the Disney way!
As the Dragons show, people buy from people. Passion is key!
Creating an excellent first impression
14th February 2019
In my blog last week I mentioned that my favourite quote whilst growing up was ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’. So in honour of Valentines Day today, I thought I would blog about what constitutes a great first impression and why it is so important.
Did you know that first impressions are made within seven seconds of meeting a person and / or experiencing a brand or organisation?
We judge everything in that tiny amount of time. Therefore so will your customers.
This includes your website, response to an enquiry, how the enquiry was dealt with, any responses to issues and the resolution of these. Each new activity in the purchase chain builds up a picture in the customers mind and reinforces that initial contact whether positive or negative.
This is why your first impression has to be a red carpet first impression for your customer. You want them to experience customer delight to ensure they keep coming back as well as telling everyone else how wonderful you are, helping to create positive word of mouth.
First impressions in a shop could be a smile, and a hello - for instance - from a smartly dressed assistant and an enquiry of help a little while later.
It could mean a warm welcome from your accommodation provider on your arrival and help with taking baggage to your room.
Finally, it could be a rapid response to a query about a product or service and a friendly, helpful voice on the telephone.
It is always saying and using the most important words in the world: please and thank you.
It is also not saying anything at all sometimes and just listening.
It is the little things that matter when creating that red carpet first impression.
We all judge, so make that first impression count to create a red carpet experience from the word go.
Happy Valentines Day!
Who’s the Boss?
7th February 2019
To celebrate the launch of my new website dedicated to Customer Service and a month of blogging about it (my favourite topic), I thought it was time to share my favourite customer service quote.
When I was much younger, I was always struck by the following quote: ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’.
However, when I first saw this quote by Sam Walton, I realised this was the quote of quotes to focus the mind on why amazing customer service is so important.
This quote brutally says why looking after the customer is so important: if you don’t look after your customers, they will move on to your competitors. This means your revenue - and therefore profit will become less and less. This is not the goal most businesses want to achieve.
That is not the point of business.
We need to ensure a ‘busyness’ towards our customer which includes care, helpfulness, going the extra mile, ensuring good and timely communication, listening, adapting, and above all exuding the four P’s: passion, positivity, pro-activeness and professionalism.
If you can afford to lose customers because you do not need to give a red carpet customer experience you have hit the jackpot. This is a rare situation and one that I have never come across. Even the big brands who command our spending have to look after their customers.
We cannot ever become complacent. Remember who’s the boss!
Practising Active Listening
31st January 2019
My blog last week ended with a paragraph on listening. Listening is a very powerful tool when dealing with customers.
There is a reason why we have two ears and one mouth!
Customers want you to find solutions to issues and problems without having to deal with any additional complexities. So rather than listening with the intent to reply, listen to actually understand what they are saying first. When you repeat what they have said and then continue with a solution, you really gain a customers trust, confidence and above all advocacy.
Being listened to is something we always want from an early age. Listening says to a customer that they are important. But how often do we really do this both personally and professionally?
I experienced both active listening and passive listening in the space of 24 hours, but in the spirit of positivity here’s my active listening story.
A well known global hire car brand told me they were unable to deliver a hire car to a hotel after a diverted flight and late arrival made picking up the car at the airport impossible, and a taxi necessary.
I rang the local car hire company near to the hotel, after the hotel receptionist helpfully located it for me and the sales assistant listened to my story and then proceeded to repeat certain aspects and solve my problem by providing me with a new hire car with the ability to drop off at the airport. She was positive, pro-active, professional and you could tell she was passionate about helping customers.
An incredible customer experience and I will now, after a bad start to the hire car brand, be an advocat of them because of this solution focused sales assistant.
Red carpet customer service at its best!
Think like a Customer!
24th January 2019
I came across this quote this week: think like a customer! I thought, how simple is that! If we all did that, every day, in our service roles in effect putting ourselves in the customers shoes and thinking like them, we would start to have a good idea how they feel and what they want.
So next time, you answer a customers question, think to yourself, how would I respond if I was told that? Would it make me more or less engaged with the organisation or brand, and ultimately would it encourage me to purchase the service or product more?
If we all took time to consider what we are saying from the customers perspective, because after all, that’s our reality with regard to our product or service, I know that our businesses and organisations would experience more customer loyalty and ultimately more growth. It’s just another form of listening, albeit listening to your responses as well as the customers needs.
Listening...the greatest gift we can give customers, and ultimately ourselves and our businesses. That’s a whole other blog!
Experience is King!
17th January 2019
Wherever I go, I want to enjoy an experience, because the world can sometimes feel a little bit crazy and a positive interaction really does help to make my day. Just like my red pepper experience two weeks ago.
When I walk into Costa, I want the baristas to engage with me, I want retailers to be able to help me with real care and attention when I am trying to find a product, and I want to have a warm fuzzy feeling when I walk out of shop, purchase something online or finish a phone call, not feel let down or a big anticlimax following spending my hard earned money.
This is a little explanation of something called the customer experience, and it determines whether a person talks positively or negatively about that company and returns to spend more money.
Companies need to consider this: it is the little things that help make the big money.
I recently purchased Christmas presents for my husband, and I received a hand written note from two of the suppliers thanking me for my business. I will certainly be a returning customer.
No-one can underestimate the power of the customer experience and with Millennials the current key market, who thrive on experiences, we should be creating these at every opportunity we have to grow our businesses.
Word of mouth is powerful, and in the age of social media, great customer experience is vital. Experience and perception is king...
It’s all about attitude...
10th January 2019
Do you know the single biggest reason a business loses customers? Well .... the answer is (and this will shock you) ... the indifference of one employee! 99% of the organisation’s staff could be doing first rate, red carpet customer service and the other 1 percent or person could be letting the side down.
It’s not the responsibility of a department, it’s down to everyone in the organisation and you’re all on the same team.
Attitude is crucial. Talking with people in the know, great sportsman are great because of the right attitude, which is more important than athleticism; winners have that mindset of being able just to give that little bit extra, and the right attitude - we are taught as kids - is so important to get on in life.
It is in customer service too. To achieve red carpet customer service, adjust your attitude, smile and dial, stand tall and employ the 4 P’s!
Here’s to a new year full of amazing customer service, because when it works, it’s win-win!
Red Pepper Customer Service
3rd January 2019
I get a real buzz out of great customer service and enjoy giving top class customer service too. Welcome to my new website and weekly blog on all things customer service.
Today I did my monthly food shop in Morrisons. I was at the counter packing my food and the lady at the till showed me a red pepper I had picked up which had seen better days. She asked me would I like another one and I thanked her saying yes. She organised for another member of staff to go and get a fresh red pepper. Now this gave me a warm feeling and was a great start to my day - lovely red pepper customer service before 9am! Happy New Year.
4PCXBlog
Read my weekly thoughts and Xperiences on Customer Service and Customer Xperience
24th August 2023
Last week, I included the following stats in my blog:
60% of Baby Boomers want excellent customer service
71% of Gen X want excellent customer service
77% of Millennials require excellent customer service.....!!!!!!!
I added that Millennials are the worst at giving great customer service even with all the competition out there whereas Boomers who grew up with no competition - a sort of 'you'll get what you're given' range of options and are the best.
It got me thinking (and I have blogged about this before, but I do feel very strongly about this and this stat might prove that we should discount the competition) forget about the competition (the Millennial sales assistants do with their lack of help in shops) and focus on your products.
I mentioned last week, that I would include one of the world biggest brands on this point: Amazon.
Ever since they started, Amazon have been customer focused. There mission is to be Earths Most Customer Centric Company and they certainly do that.
Jeff Bezos has been fixated on the customer over competition since day one of Amazon when it started to sell books. I am a big believer of focusing on the customer over the competitor and focus on your strengths to drive this message home which you can control rather than an obsessive focus on the competition which you cannot control.
As I mentioned last week, I was doing a presentation for work on customer service and found this video of Jeff Bezos talking in the late 1990s about his focus of customer over competitor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbENtDIPl3U
So the world's most influential companies have one thing in common:
1 - They disrupted their industries by being customer-centric, rather than competitor-centric.
2 - By focusing on customers needs, they highlight their competitors' shortfalls and gain market share.
3 - By taking the time to truly understand the needs of customers and think creatively about how to meet them, these leading companies set themselves up to win.
By focusing on creating a strong customer experience, instead of being overly concerned with competitors; companies can experience higher levels of growth.
Great experiences drives more traffic to a business through word of mouth. More traffic leads to more sales, which ultimately gives you more resources to create an even better customer experience.
I do understand that someone in your company needs to understand the marketplace: who your competition is, what other products are on the market, and how they are doing, at a basic level. But there’s a point at which paying attention to other companies and what they’re doing interferes with your team’s ability to immerse itself in the world of your consumer.
So why are so many companies focusing on the competition over the customer?
I feel it's because a company does not have strong products or services and therefore produces copycat products and services to alleviate this weakness. However this is not innovative or customer focused.
It could be weak / safe leadership driven to follow rather than be innovative and take risks, which is what forward thinking companies and businesses are all about.
So I say this:
Focus on the customer + Your Strengths = Growth
17th August 2023
I was working on a customer service presentation for work today and I was looking at customer service videos and images and I was surprised to learn the following information:
60% of Baby Boomers want excellent customer service
71% of Gen X want excellent customer service
77% of Millennials require excellent customer service.....!!!!!!!
Well I was shocked by the statistic!
Because, they way I see it, why are many more young people / millennials than more mature staff so bad at customer service if they expect it more than their previous generations?
Whenever I go into a shop to buy something, it's always the more mature people I head to from previous experience. Why, I hear you say? Well, most of the time young people are more interested in catching up with what happened at the weekend or talking about plans of the weekend, or the latest video on TikTok rather than greeting me and asking if I need help. Not only that - but now I really am entering grumpy old person territory - but I can never quite work out what they have said as they generally don't speak clearly or audibly.
I thought about the statistic some more and realized I totally get Boomers want less of a customer experience, because they grew up in a time when there was little choice and you got what you were given. Businesses did not have to compete for customers then as there was little competition; businesses were small shops and everyone worked with everyone else. With the rise of supermarkets and large national brands and mail order .... and now the internet, that has changed.
With businesses competing with each other for market share, of course Millennials are sued to shopping around for the best deals and sticking with a brand that gives them a great experience for their hard earned money and especially at the moment with the cost of living crisis. Not only that, we know Millennials love experiences in their lives and this includes customer experience or they will move to another brand that does that. And customer experience need not be the interaction with a person, it can also be brand values too that keep Millennials with a brand or moving to another brand.
Next week, revisit this site to look at the importance or not in this case of the competition and why the worlds biggest brand agrees!
10th August 2023
Today at work, a customer experienced a great experience all through team work.
I tried out our new online chat function today which was amazing, working to help the team with the many queries we have coming in.
One query, I could not answer and so I emailed my colleague who told me to send her two bits of data and she could sort the query. I went back to the customer and apologised for the delay and said to wait five minutes and she would have what she needed.
She responded with a positive thank you and I thanked her for her patience.
It was great to see that team work really does make the dream work.
Organisations whose staff work together and help each other, succeed. It's a given as it is all for the benefit of the customer who will speak positively about their experience to others... who will come to you for the same great experience.
Organisational culture is the key aspect of ensuring your customers have an experience that keeps them as customers while making them brand advocates.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best systems or the best head of customer experience. First and foremost, you need the correct cultural orientation toward customer service. That, of course, stems from the top.
The CEO has to talk customer. He or she has to be accountable for customer experience in some respects. The customer has to be front and centre so that everyone is thinking customer, whether they have a direct or indirect interface with them and as shown in my previous blogs, leaders see customer experience as more important than price and product which speaks volumes about its importance to organisations.
It is teamwork in the end between the leadership and staff, between departments, within departments and ultimately between the organisation and the customer which both help to grow each other!
3rd August 2023
I love this image I found recently. It says it all. It is about The Customer. Nothing else.
Focus on The Customer and you will always have a positive outcome. Companies who focus on customer centricity (really just another phrase for 'The Customer') really do have the edge. Look at Amazon.
Focusing on the customer is a game changer now. I have always said that customer experience is the new marketing battleground but here are a few stats to show this that Salesforce have put out:
1 - 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.
2 - 80% of service decision makes say emerging technology is transforming customers' expectations of their service organisation
3 - 82% of decision makers say their company's customer service must transform in order to stay competitive
This comes on the back of a statistic that in 2020 nearly 50% leaders said that customer experience was now more important for their company's growth than product or price.
When you read /hear these statistics it is mind blowing on two levels: one for many of us in the customer experience business, it is great to finally see this recognised, and two, how come it has taken so long to realise!?
I have been in the education sector for over 12 years, and I have seen how great customer experience, both before and during a sale / purchase of the product / service (prospective customer and current customer) really does help an organisations growth. Just by changing a few small things and ensuring a great experience for the customer, actually gives the sales team a great experience too (read last weeks blog!).
In the end it boils down to
- the right people in the right jobs wanting to help and
- the organisation ensuring customer service / experience training for all so everyone is on board with it and most importantly
- support from the top down; a customer centric focus can only happen if led from the top.
So, consider these stats when you read this and then consider how you cannot afford not to ensure The Customer is the focus.
27th July 2023
Right from my first job as a babysitter as a 16 year old where I prided myself on turning up on time, listening to the needs of the parents, ensuring the 'baby's' had what they needed and getting them to bed on time to giving the parents a warm and reassuring welcome back to working at Harrods, then in fundraising roles and latterly school / college marketing and admissions roles, I have enjoyed helping people and making people feel happy.
For me it is the most natural activity in the world and I love the fun of any challenging journeys and smoothing them out because it does feel good when someone goes away happy.
There have been so many occasions in my career when this has happened: the babysitting role, to looking after customers at Harrods and giving them a personal experience - even one an actual personal shop (although I was not a personal shopper) organising dress, handbag, tights, shoes and a shawl for a surprise visit to the opera by her partner, to looking after donors and spending 1000s of hours chatting with all kinds of people and listening to their needs and how they wanted to support the organisation I was working for at the time to now, looking after parents and learners.
One family at one of the schools I was working for wanted to switch schools but were concerned at the double fees and we worked something out to ensure a win- win situation. Within weeks their boys were shining at school and the parents were so happy.
Another school could not accommodate a boy from abroad at the last minute for various reasons and the agent rang to see if the school I worked for could. Within 24 hours the family had travelled to us and the student was happily ensconced in his new educational home and family within a matter of days.
One of my schools I managed to work with a well known TV series to come in and film. We worked closely with them and gave them everyone they needed and red carpet customer service on the day they came to see if it would work. They especially likes the car parking sign and home made cakes and biscuits and then returned to film!
More recently, just listening to learners and hearing them has been key to creating an amazing experience for them. I do believe kids just want our attention and time - the most precious of gifts. If only we could spend all our time doing this.
Former colleagues thought spending a good few hours on a visit / sale was a waste of time. I never felt this at all. I always thought time spent with a customer was the best use of time and my sales record showed this.
It really is the little things that matter in customer experience too and these don't cost anything.
These are just some of the examples of customer experience although I have never seen them as part of the job - they have always seemed very natural activities and not part of my job, but something that seemed the right thing to do at that time.
I love it more than anything (well AGAs and my family in joint place!).
What I am trying to say is, that if you are in the business of customer experience you should love it and want to help and feel it the most natural thing on the planet - like breathing actually.
I did some customer service training recently and I love doing this. I especially love the difficult questions colleagues ask and there are always these. Its not natural for everyone and you have to be passionate to convince them.
I will be doing more training - as well as for the learners - in the new academic year which I am so looking forward to doing.
If I can spread the word on the importance of customer service to colleagues, learners - anyone who will listen (and read in fact!) - with the knowledge that anyone can grow their organisation through a focus on customer experience (the new marketing battleground) because I have seen it happen three times now, then my work is done!
20th July 2023
This week, we have been enjoying a walking holiday in the South of the UK of just over 100 miles. I love these holidays, as not only does it give me the chance to really switch off by walking through amazing countryside and have a chance to breath and be mindful as well as enjoying our wonderful history and heritage and meeting like-minded people, but I also get to experience the best and worst of customer experience in the various hotels, BnBs, hostels and cafes along the routes.
My poor husband is a saint in this regard, although this holiday he finally realised what I had been banging on about for years with an incident in one of the accommodation providers that we stayed with! I will get onto that later.
Throughout the week, I realise that when you are tired from walking (along with carrying our own stuff over the walk which we still like to - stupidly! – do) you want a kind, warm and welcoming end to the day and also during the day when it is raining non-stop like we experienced this week. Not only that, you don’t want to be told no or have unhelpful information given to you when you are tired and wet through!
One waitress in a very helpful place on the rainiest day ever, after I asked for the biggest coffee possible, gave me a coffee in her large pint mug she uses. Wow! Talk about customer delight. We ordered some food and they found a table for us too even though they were full. The food was amazing. Another café gave us amazingly warm service as we trudged in during a 19 mile day for a break and the waitress was so kind and attentive. Many BnBs offered us a pot of tea on arrival – with one offering cookies too! One offered evening meals which was amazing at the end of one of our longest days and the best walkers packed lunch ever! Just amazing little touches that made our day.
The one incident where my husband realised I was right all along…about customer service…. was the monologue we received at one breakfast. We were informed of the process in the same tone and ramble… as was everyone else. It was said with little breaks, kindness or intonation and totally devoid of care. I could barely hear what the member of staff said and it was repeated exactly the same to all new breakfast diners. There was no, “Good morning, did you sleep well”, or “how are you today,”… just the breakfast monologue! It did not make it better that the day before, we arrived an hour before check in and were told we could not check in for an hour – although another member of staff gave us the key to our room just over 30 minutes later! The first member of staff could have said something along the lines of, “ we don’t usually check people in until 3pm when the rooms are ready, but pop back in about 30 minutes and we will see what we can do.” How easy is that!
So, if you want more information on customer service, check out my reviews on TripAdvisor!
13th July 2023
So in last weeks blog I mentioned three reasons for poor customer service with the first one focused on lack of customer service training given by the organisation. This was after a week of doing customer service training to staff in various conferences digitally and face to face too.
My other two points after this were these:
2 - the staff may have had training but should not be on the front line in a sales position; it's just a job to them.... they actually really don't care about the customer (harsh but fair I am afraid!)
3 - the staff member in question may be having a bad day.
So what happens if your member of staff just does not care? Well - difficult. I am a big believer in Disney's approach to recruitment in that you have to hire people that can do this and they hire purely on personality and fitting the 'cast member' criteria. But what if you are unable to be as picky as Disney. What if you don't have the right person for the role? I believe in recruit for attitude, train for skill and you will get the right person for the role in time so don't give up. Hold out for the vest person even if that is going through another round. Having the right staff in place is key.
I once made the mistake of hiring someone because of the workload in a department. That person was not right for the role in the end and I gave myself more work in the end not just saying no to the first person and waiting for the right person who eventually came along.
What if the person is having a bad day as in point 3? Well if they really are having a bad day... and it can happen, send them home to help them with what they are going through. If it is that bad they should not be at work and they might bounce back if they have a chance to unwind and solve the issue in front of them. Wellbeing and being mindful of everyone's wellbeing is crucial to ensuring a happy team.
However, if this happens all the time, then you need to bring in the 'adjust your attitude' training. I present this in my first impressions training slide.
What I am about to say is harsh... but fair. You may be having issues at home, having a bad day and someone has really annoyed you, but the customer does not know and nor do they care. They are there to get their purchase of your product or service done in as efficient and easy way as possible and if you are focused on you and not them, this makes for a slower purchase journey. So you have to adjust your attitude and be positive, upbeat and focused on them and forget your troubles at home in that moment. Because lets be real... your company or organisation is paying you to do this at this precise point in time and you owe it to them to focus... or go home.
A great customer experience will have people returning time and time again so don't jeopardise this because of an off day or because you need anyone to fill a role! You are in this for long game so focus!
6th July 2023
Customer experience cannot be learned sitting behind a computer.
I have been presenting this week on customer experience to staff in my workplace both digitally and face to face.
I know that it is important for everyone to be able to deal with a customer whether via a phone, email or face to face and the same basic actions apply.
Not least because even the person in the organisation who does not even deal with an external customer, still have to deal with internal customers - and these are just as important to the organisation as external customers. If we don't treat each other right and support each other with great service internally, how can we expect to be able to do even better for external customers? One to consider....
But back to the point, so many companies don't invest in this important training like the organisation I work for does which I think is very forward thinking of them and very customer centric.
When you see poor customer service, there are a number of reasons why it is poor generally
1 - no training have been given to staff by the organisation
2 - the staff may have had training but should not be on the front line in a sales position; it's just a job to them.... they actually really don't care about the customer (harsh but fair I am afraid!)
3 - the staff member in question may be having a bad day.
I will deal with points 2 and 3 in next weeks blog so don't forget to visit this page next week.
Point one is something every organisation should invest in. Customer experience is the new marketing battleground and in 2020, 45% of business leads said they were going to focus their organisation towards customer experience over product and price strategies. This is a monumental turnaround considering these are two of the key parts of the 4 Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion and place.
Consider the last time Amazon really changed the look and feel of its website? You can't can you! So what do they focus on... the user experience! How annoyed do you get when supermarkets move products around? Not a great user experience!
So some stats to back all this up: did you also know that 86% of people would pay more for a better quality of service and that 46% spent more money (recent survey in specific sector) after a more personal and bespoke service?
So why would you not invest in your staff and customer service training knowing this information about your customers?
Don't forget to check in next week about points 2 and 3.... the employee side!
29th June 2023
I think we always underestimate what poor customer experience does to a brand.
When you read the words in the image you realise the importance of a great customer experience. And this applies to me too!
I have switched companies because of a poor customer experience and I have not returned to a business because of poor customer experience.
So why is it so important to give a great experience?
Not only does a great experience ensure a customer tells everyone else what that experience was like and give you free publicity but it also retains that customer.
It is seven times more expensive to recruit customers than it is to retain them. How do I work that out? Well, the marketing cost is a additional budget to get customers. In a business, staff are already in post to support the customer experience and salary is included generally for current customers and then new customers.
So consider the fact that you need to put that effort into giving a great customer experience to ensure that they purchase the product or service and then return and bring others too. Why therefore would you not want to ensure you give a great customer experience to your customers.
Customers also want to feel good about a product and the purchase process. They want to feel their hard-earned money is being spent wisely and actually would like that member of staff to be helpful and listen and support them with a smooth and efficient purchase process.
They want to feel positive about the process and the outcome of the experience so make them feel valued and they will return.
22nd June 2023
Soft skills are crucial to life and are the bed rock of great customer service. It is soft skills that the CBI continually says school leavers do not have and employers are desperate to see in new recruits and in their workforce.
I thought about this today as I supported an event at work focusing on the Rotherham Children's University in which I was privileged to see young people aged between 7 and 11 receive certificates for completing a certain number of hours involved with some extra curricular activity or learning. These extra curricular activities help to gain the soft skills that employers need and people themselves need to get on an function well in the world.
Soft skills includes a variety of character traits that are needed by employers in their staff and at the same time soft skills can really ensure that people can get ahead personally too with personal relationships and personal and professional success.
These character traits include aspects such as communication, team work, resilience, confidence, hard working, enthusiastic and positive to name a few.
These are all traits that are needed also to thrive in the world of customer service.
You need to be able to communicate clearly to the customer, have resilience when facing a number of 'no's'. work hard throughout the purchase process to get it right and to listen actively, be enthusiastic and positive with customers as well as be confident with your advice and support of the customer and in helping them to get their end desired result.
I always say to young people that what you learn in the classroom is just as important as what you learn outside and it is these soft skills that will help you get on better in your career journey.
There is a saying... "Recruit for attitude, train for skill"... and I am a firm believer in this maxim. Disney recruits people based on personality to be a part of their 'cast'. They want people to perform and create an amazing customer experience for their customers to continue to grow the Disney empire and retain customers.
Of course you need a certain level of academic qualification for many careers - we know Maths and English GCSE is crucial - but soft skills learned and developed through extra curricular activities and especially in sales roles where relationship building with both internal and external customers is key, is something that is crucial for people to learn.
Thank God for organisations like the Children's University which aims to make the most of the 91% of time spent outside the classroom and gives children and young people the necessary skills they need to live fulfilled and happy lives personally and professionally. And lets hope many of these move into the customer experience business!
15th June 2023
I saw this on Pinterest recently and thought how clever it was. If we all considered this phrase a little more, the world would certainly be a much nicer place.
Consider this phrase when it comes to customer service:
1 - Always tell the truth to help create trust between you and the customer.
2 - Always be helpful - and in fact this is something I always talk about - being proactive and listening well allows you to be helpful and get the purchase process and experience right quicker.
3 - Be inspiring with your help and customer service - go the extra mile - that's always inspiring to watch and be on the receiving end of.
4 - Ensure the information you give over is necessary. Don't waffle! People are time poor so ensure your information gives the bare necessities and answers the question. I am dealing with someone at the moment in a personal capacity who answers with 1000 words and skirts around a short answer - like a politician - when 10 will do! Again you build up trust.
5 - Be kind with your customer service. There are some people/ customers who may talk too much, or go on, or return time and time again before a purchase, so be kind and give them your time. It is worth it and time is the greatest gift you can give anyone! I was on a wellbeing day last week - given by work - (yes, I know - amazing isn't it!) and I was enjoying some quiet time painting a pot when this woman started talking to me. Now I wanted to enjoy the quiet and the creativity and the rare chance to paint. but I also realised that she may not have talked to anyone for a while or lived alone so just struck up a conversation. It may not always be what you want to do, but kindness is the greatest gift. (Those of you who have not read 'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse' should do so and if you have.... you will know what I am talking about!)
So THINK before you speak in future!
8th June 2023
I tend to notice that customers engage more when you ask questions about them and get to know them rather than just talking shop. Your shop.
Have you also noticed that people are more comfortable talking about themselves than they are about things they are not as knowledgeable about?
So with these two statements in mind, why not talk to the customer and ask questions about them (not personal information!) to find out a little bit about them, help them to relax and then get them in the frame of mind to discuss your product or service.
I followed through on this advice this week to amazing results and the customer visibly relaxed.
I also notice how brilliant general chit chat and listening to the customer is when gaining their trust for you to talk about your product or service.
I have already spoken in previous blogs about how important listening is - and I mean active listening. Neither listening with the intent to respond, listening whilst all the while formulating a response, nor listening whilst looking at who else is around and what others are doing in the vicinity. This is not active listening. Active listening is totally focusing on the customer, their words, their tone and their body language, above anything else.
The only thing more important than the four P's (being positive, proactive, professional and passionate about your product or service) is listening. We have two ears and one mouth, don't forget!
Listening makes us all feel valued and that what we are saying is important. It allows us to build rapport and trust. Trust is important in building a relationship with a customer who will in turn listen to you and your knowledge on the product to make the purchase.
Top tip of the week: 'Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” Bernard Baruch, US Philanthropist.
1st June 2023
I read a book a few years ago that totally wowed me with regard to customer service. The book is by Donna Cutting and it is called 'Insider Secrets to delivering Red Carpet Customer Service' - The Celebrity Experience. The Pizza story will really make you understand what amazing customer service is and take it to a whole new level.
People like to feel special and the red carpet treatment makes people feel special.
You must have had that experience in a shop or in a hotel, where the member of staff goes the extra mile and makes you feel valued and special with their manner (professional and polite) and help. If not, I suggest you hop on a flight to Dubai, a country where they really know all about customer service!
The red carpet treatment always resonates with me and this week in particular as we gear up for the final half of term at the Group and the support we will need to give learners in choosing their next educational steps. Not only that, a situation this week made me realise that everyone deserves care and attention whoever they are. Using their name, being kind and supportive, listening and being friendly.
I say this every week, but if people are spending money on your product or service then you need to treat them well, well actually the best, so they will come back and spend more money (and this is the case if people are not spending money with you too). Because, again, repeat customers are much less expensive to your business in the long run compared to constantly finding and bringing in new ones with expensive marketing and advertising campaigns.
So, when you deal with that next customer, think how you can give that person red carpet customer service and therefore help to retain a customer and bring customer loyalty to your organisation and support in its growth!
25th May 2023
When it comes to customer service, there's a lot of talk about customer journey and customer experience. While the two concepts are closely related, they are actually quite different. Understanding the distinctions between customer journey and customer experience can help businesses provide better service and create a lasting connection with customers.
This week I experienced a bit of both in my workplace. I had a great customer experience along my customer journey with my new place of work. My customer (employee) journey is a fantastic one and it gets better every day due to the many experiences that happen!
A customer journey is the entire path a customer takes from discovering a product to making a purchase. It includes all the steps a customer takes to research, evaluate, and purchase a product or service, including visiting the website, reading reviews, talking to customer service reps, and so on. The customer journey is the framework that guides the customer’s experience.
Customer experience, on the other hand, is a more holistic concept that encompasses the entire customer journey. It includes not only the customer’s interactions with the company, but also their overall impression of the company and its products or services. It’s about creating a positive emotional connection with customers, making them feel valued and appreciated. This is done through providing excellent customer service, building trust, and offering a personalized experience.
In other words, the customer journey is the path the customer takes to purchase a product, while the customer experience is the overall feeling the customer has as they go through that journey. Both are important, but the focus should be on providing an exceptional customer experience that will build loyalty and keep customers coming back.
So how do you create a great customer experience? Start by focusing on the customer and their needs. Make sure you have a solid understanding of your target market and put yourself in their shoes. Deliver on your promises and exceed expectations. Make it easy for customers to do business with you by offering clear information and simple processes. Offer personalized, helpful customer service and respond quickly to customer inquiries. And always follow up with customers after the sale to make sure they’re satisfied with their purchase.
By taking the time to understand the differences between customer journey and customer experience, businesses can create a truly exceptional service experience for their customers. This will help to build strong relationships and loyalty over the long term.
18th May 2023
I was recently considering what makes a good team both for the internal and external customer. This thought has been on mind mind since I climbed Kilimanjaro in 2019. Why? I went with a group of 12 who all successfully summited but had not ever met each other as a full group before that 6 day trek. How is it that 12 strangers worked together to all achieve the summit of Africa's highest mountain?
Over the years, successfully creating and developing teams has been a huge part of my work. If the team is not right then the customer and ultimately the business suffers so what makes for a good team to ensure both an awesome internal and external customer experience?
Reflecting on the summit experience and the teams I have been in during the past and present here are some attributes that make teams successful:
1 - Relationship builders - every member of the team on Kili were keen to learn about each other, listen and converse. We had no wifi and no email; it was all done face to face. We had a creative two hours the first night to really get to know each other and this quickly bonded the team. Relationship building face to face is key.
2 - Participation - the people who generally take on an adventure of this sort get stuck into the job in hand. The help and support each other and work hard for the team to ensure success as a team. Active participation is crucial to teams to ensure fairness and equality which ensures people are motivated and valued. Teams should be equitable. There is always a leader but in the end the team needs to work together. Our guides and the people carrying our bags were also part of that team. Everyone did their job to ensure success. Everyone worked hard and got on with it. Nothing was too little or too much. We all looked out for each other and played to each others strengths.
3 - Honesty - we had some members of the team who were ill during the trip. We had all paid a significant amount to do this and so we did suggest the ill people kept to one side of the table and away from the team for the illness not to spread. We always said how we felt alongside being mindful of each others needs. Some people did not always want to play the games, some people went to bed earlier as they were tired. No one judged the honesty and the need to be individuals as well as be part of a team.
4 - Accountability - we were all accountable for our shortfalls or if someone did not do something they should - for instance walking off too fast! (pole pole!) then the team would talk about this and the person would be accountable.
5 - Listening skills - crucial part of any team. Listening to each other. One member of the team said she loved Sound of Music early on and on ascent night struggled near the top so I started to sing 'Climb Every Mountain' and she laughed and found the strength to go on. We also equally and respectfully listened and conversed and did exactly what we were told by the guides who were the experienced mountain trekkers for the good of ourselves and the team.
Teams should consider these five key skills when working as a team both to support internal happiness and a great employee experience as well as then ensuring a fantastic customer experience.
11th May 2023
This week I have been doing some customer service training and especially focusing on interviewing. In Schools and Colleges up and down the country, prospective learners are interviewed but no one really gives anyone any coaching or training on how to do this ever do they?
Curriculum teams and business support staff alike do interviews but most have never had interview training.
It is heartening to go into schools to support them with interview training for learners whether they are potential candidates or not. To support schools - and most importantly their young people - and to help them with content and first impressions is crucial. They can be quite daunting, can't they?
I was lucky enough to have interview training at my school. In 1995 (how long ago is that!) we all sat in a classroom with an external adult and videoed so we could watch it back after. I remember I was given some great feedback because I answered the question by linking it to something I was happy to talk about and knew about which I knew would relax me.
Now, I try to ensure I ask questions of learners - and anyone I interview - that will help them to relax and treat it more like a conversation than an interview. When people feel comfortable they then give the best of themselves and when they do this they leave the situation feeling happy having achieved and wanting to come back for more. This is what we want customers to feel - not just after and interview - but after an experience with us. Interviews are all part of the customer experience.
It is important to make people feel at ease. Sometimes humour helps, but you do have to be careful with this because not everyone has the same sense of humour and could be offended. It is not also a good idea to be negative - these do not support a great experience. Mentioning to the candidate whilst informing them of the course that they will have ten exams during the interview will put them off immediately.... and saying that they are nothing to worry about won't ease the situation.
The most important thing to remember is to listen. As the interviewer, you are not there to talk about yourself, you know about yourself! You don't know anything about the interviewee so make it your mission to listen and find out lots of amazing things about the person in front of you because if you listen you will be able to find these out.
Remember, interviews should always have a positive outcome even if the outcome is unsuccessful because word of mouth about how someone was treated will do the rounds.
Finally, you may be the interviewer, but you are also being interviewed yourself!
4th May 2023
LORIC is my new favourite thing. LORIC stands for: leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative and communication.
Schools are teaching this to students to support skills for employment and ensuring learners are work ready.
I think this can be used in customer service to create an excellent customer experience as as adults we can translate this into our working lives and develop our employability skills.
Employers are crying out for these skills so lets get learning them or developing them.
So how do they relate to customer experience?
Leadership - we can lead by example in customer service as customers ourselves we should treat customers as we would want to be treated. Leadership in the organisation should have a customer centric focus to ensure employees focus on the customer with every decision made.
Organisation - be efficient with the customers time and each others time within an organisation or company. We are in a time poor society so ensure your actions consider others. I have had to talk to a group recently outside work about time being precious and to ask each person to consider spending one or two more minutes before acting to ensure the person dealing with the actions does not spend more time sorting out the aftermath. No ones time is more precious than another, so be organised. [Also people who say they are too buy are actually saying their time is more precious than yours - not the case!]
Resilience - my favourite one here. We have lost so much resilience in recent years. Our ability to keep on until we succeed, to push on through - potentially with customers in the face of lots of 'no's'. Where has it gone? Why don't we persist? The best things come to those who wait!
Initiative - make sure you are constantly trying new things. Businesses who let employees be innovative will succeed. Innovation is key - look at Apple! Try and fail and try again - customers will respond to you trying on their behalf!
And finally - communication! Without good communication, how does anyone know what you are doing for them - even if it is a holding email to say you are working on their request. Communication is important. Don't rely just on emails... pick up the phone or go and see the person. We have lost the real art of relationship building through face to face conversation. I make sure I pick up the phone and go and see someone once a day to build relationships. So much more personal than an email... and the jobs get done faster too!
So, lets bring LORIC into our lives, and customer service!
27th April 2023
Volunteering is a great way to help others. Time is the most important thing you can give people in our 'Cash Rich, Time Poor' society.
#TheBigHelpOut is the start of that so happy volunteering this weekend!
20th April 2023
Have you ever noticed that people talk about their experiences with brands in two very different ways?
If the customer experience was awful they talk in mainly negative adjectives. I have had a very bad experience on holiday recently which does not equate to the money spent. At the moment, not even the few good things that occurred can make me speak positively about the experience. This proves that customers want a great all round experience and even one or two negative aspects that outweigh any good... it all depends on how the company rectifies the negative experience. I will keep you posted!
However if the customer experience was outstanding, they rave about it. My previous two holidays with the company mentioned above were faultless and i raved about the company.
It is easy to see how companies either sink or swim!
Nobody really mentions average. I have not mentioned average in either of the examples above! It's one or the other, and I can imagine which end of the scale you and your business would want ... no need... to be.
There are so many online opportunities for people to be negative or rave about your business or product, or rate it: social media, TripAdvisor, amazon ... the list goes on.
Bad customer service can jeopardise a company's reputation.
Businesses today cannot afford this. Competition for customers is strong so you need your customers - ambassadors for your brand - to rave about your customer service. You need to create customer delight (the ultimate goal) every time.
For example, I have been back to a few hotels and B&Bs along my travels that I rave about (usually on TripAdvisor because I believe in feedback), because every time I stay, the customer experience does not diminish. It is usually the small touches that make me rave about a place. But most importantly it is a great all-round experience and being valued as a customer. After all I could have gone somewhere else.
Examples include: dessert treat time in a hotel because the hotel recognised that I could have chosen any number of other hotels to stay at and wanted to thank me, using my name on arrival and throughout my stay, upgrading me because this was the third time I had returned, extending my check out because my flight was much later on, presenting me with my packages on arrival and leaving further packages in my room during my stay without me having to ask for them, being positive and helpful with all my questions and suggesting alternatives and options, giving me a quiet room because the member of staff could see I was a business traveller, organising last minute breakfast refreshments for a group gathering without any issues, offering to call a taxi rather than me going outside to flag one down... and this is just a small list of amazing examples of customer experience.
It is the little things that help a rave review, as well as the solution and support to make a situation good... no excellent.
Because nobody raves about average and your business needs to do better than average to beat the competition and create customer loyalty and ultimately growth.
6th April 2023
Taking a break from work is essential to prevent burnout, boost productivity, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. I have been told by colleagues in the sector that bosses have expected them (actually told them or emailed them in response to their 'planned ahead' email update before leaving to go on holiday) to be available during their holidays and to periodically check their emails, especially those in leadership positions! How does this help wellbeing and productivity in the long run... or setting an example of even motivation for that matter!
How does it help the customer if you are tired, demotivated and not functioning properly because you have not had a proper break? It doesn't and that is why good planning can help you ensure you get the break you deserve.
Plan Ahead
Before you go on annual leave, it’s important to plan ahead and make sure that everything is taken care of while you’re away. So here are a few things you should do before you leave:
- Inform your colleagues and clients about your leave: Give your colleagues and clients plenty of notice about your holiday, so they can plan accordingly. Inform them about the dates you will be away and who they should contact in case of any urgent matters.
- Set up an out-of-office message: Set up an automatic reply for your emails and phone calls. Your out-of-office message should include your return date, the name and contact information of the person to contact in your absence, and a brief message about when you will be available again. It is important people are able to contact other members of your team without having to have to search for the relevant number in a haystack... so to speak!
- Prioritize your tasks: Before you go on leave, prioritize your tasks and delegate any urgent matters to your colleagues. This will ensure that nothing falls through the cracks while you’re away.
- Complete pending tasks: Try to complete all your pending tasks before you go on leave, so you don’t have to worry about them while you’re away.
Unplug and Disconnect
Going on holiday is not just about physically leaving your workplace, it’s also about mentally disconnecting from work. Here are a few suggestions:
- Turn off work notifications: Turn off notifications for work-related apps and emails on your phone. This will prevent work-related interruptions during your holiday.
- Avoid checking emails: Try to avoid checking work emails while you’re away. If you must check your emails, set aside a specific time each day to do so.
- Set boundaries: Let your colleagues and clients know that you will not be available during your vacation. This will set boundaries and prevent work-related interruptions.
Enjoy Your Holiday
Now that you’ve planned ahead, delegated tasks, and set boundaries, it’s time to enjoy your holiday! Here are a few things you can do to make the most of your time off:
- Disconnect from technology: Try to disconnect from technology as much as possible during your vacation. Instead, spend time with your loved ones, explore new places, and engage in activities that you enjoy.
- Practice self-care: Take care of your physical and mental health during your vacation. Get enough sleep, eat healthy, and engage in activities that help you relax and unwind.
- Reflect on your goals: Use your vacation as an opportunity to reflect on your personal and professional goals. This will help you gain clarity and focus when you return to work.
When you return to work, you’ll be refreshed, energized, and ready to tackle new challenges as well as look after your customers with renewed energy and positivity!
30th March 2023
I am about to spend some much needed time in the wilderness over the Easter holidays and it got me thinking about how time is so precious.
Time is precious in many different ways. We talk about being time poor even now post Covid when the rise of hybrid working has allowed us to work remotely and regain 'time' from the commute. This has happened after years of the increasing focus of on time at work over home after the introduction of the mobile phone which for many means you can take work anywhere.
Yet we still fill our 'time' with things, activities, trips, friends etc. When will we have time?
It is an interesting phenomenon. I believe if you really, really, really want to do something you make time. For instance, I love my allotment and I always make time, even in the rain, even when I have to weed. If I want to go and have cocktails with the girls... that happens too. If I want AGA time, painting time, camper van time, I make time! But cleaning... much harder to get done! See what I mean!
For customers, time is important. Time makes a person feel valued. Time ensures you give the best customer service and allows you the chance to listen. I used to organise visits in schools where in some cases these would take up 3-4 hours of my time. Some of my colleagues would look at me horrified at the time it would take out of their day and say that they were too busy to devote this kind of time. I knew that it was important and would ensure a customer for life. Giving of your time shows the value you place on the other person...and their business or friendship.
A meeting finished early recently, and it was ended with the organiser saying I can give you the gift of 17 minutes time! Wow - it is a gift when you think about it.
As I make my way to the Middle East for my trek through the desert, I am reminded of the time of year by my neighbours both for Christians and Muslims. Indeed, I will experience time in a different culture during an important time in the calendar. I will enjoy quiet time trekking, a chance to enjoy some wilderness time, and some head space time...all very important to recharging.
One of the most amazing adverts I have listened to recently is from Viking Travel on 'Time' narrated by the Chairman for their 25th anniversary. If you need inspiration, listen to this. Forget they are selling travel, and just listen to the message.
You can see the importance of time. It is precious...priceless in fact. Use it wisely.
30th March 2023
I am about to spend some much needed time in the wilderness over the Easter holidays and it got me thinking about how time is so precious.
Time is precious in many different ways. We talk about being time poor even now post Covid when the rise of hybrid working has allowed us to work remotely and regain 'time' from the commute. This has happened after years of the increasing focus of on time at work over home after the introduction of the mobile phone which for many means you can take work anywhere.
Yet we still fill our 'time' with things, activities, trips, friends etc. When will we have time?
It is an interesting phenomenon. I believe if you really, really, really want to do something you make time. For instance, I love my allotment and I always make time, even in the rain, even when I have to weed. If I want to go and have cocktails with the girls... that happens too. If I want AGA time, painting time, camper van time, I make time! But cleaning... much harder to get done! See what I mean!
For customers, time is important. Time makes a person feel valued. Time ensures you give the best customer service and allows you the chance to listen. I used to organise visits in schools where in some cases these would take up 3-4 hours of my time. Some of my colleagues would look at me horrified at the time it would take out of their day and say that they were too busy to devote this kind of time. I knew that it was important and would ensure a customer for life. Giving of your time shows the value you place on the other person...and their business or friendship.
A meeting finished early recently, and it was ended with the organiser saying I can give you the gift of 17 minutes time! Wow - it is a gift when you think about it.
As I make my way to the Middle East for my trek through the desert, I am reminded of the time of year by my neighbours both for Christians and Muslims. Indeed, I will experience time in a different culture during an important time in the calendar. I will enjoy quiet time trekking, a chance to enjoy some wilderness time, and some head space time...all very important to recharging.
One of the most amazing adverts I have listened to recently is from Viking Travel on 'Time' narrated by the Chairman for their 25th anniversary. If you need inspiration, listen to this. Forget they are selling travel, and just listen to the message.
You can see the importance of time. It is precious...priceless in fact. Use it wisely.
23rd March 2023
Most people do not believe me when I quote this statistic to them. I use it as part of my customer service training - as the first bit of audience participation - citing other options such as new competition, word of mouth and dis-satisfaction with the product. Most people invariably go for word of mouth. People never think individual people are the issue.
But then I get people talking to me about their worst customer service experiences and it usually involves a person being rude, not helpful, not listening, not addressing the issue, passing the issue over to another department.... and another.... and another! Then, the light bulb moment happens!
Every single member of staff make up the team supporting our customers, so each and every one of them needs to be on board with giving red carpet customer service.
And it is the indifference of one employee that could mess it all up.
I always try to focus on what is possible to control with regard to growing a business. For example, it is impossible to control what the competitors are doing, so focusing on your company and its strengths is more proactive.
It is possible to control dissatisfaction with the product, word of mouth and indifferent employees.
The first, can easily be rectified with focus groups and research through questionnaires with recent buyers and non buyers for instance, and then looking at ways to make your product or service better.
The second is is based on both a great product and great customer service.
Great customer service, comes from ensuring the third aspect is focused on.
One of Richard Branson's popular quotes is "If you look after your staff, they will look after your customers," and to an extent, this is true. What it fails to say is that you need the right staff in a customer facing position in the first place. You can ensure all the support, benefits and remuneration, but if the person is not in the right role, then the business and the member of staff will suffer.
So for this blog, let us assume you have a great recruitment process with a clearly defined role and people specification in your job descriptions for your front of house staff. They need to be trained in the processes and company's customer service requirements. Do not think that it is right or fair to let any new member of staff just get on with it. Training is key.
In one organisation I worked in, I will never forget a person (front of house too) thanking me for some customer service training. She said to me, "no-one has ever trained us before so we have never known what to do and it is nice to have had the training to help us do our job better."
Therefore, do not assume people have had training in this area or that they know the key areas of great customer service, aspects of a great first impressions or how to turn everything into a positive / easy transaction for a customer.
It is surprising how many companies do not invest in this area given the statistic attached to this blog to reverse this 68%.
People are key to your business growth and sustainability, and to end with another Branson quote: "Train people well enough so that they can leave, but treat them well enough so that they do not want to".
16th March 2023
I was reminded of this quote yesterday as I started helping at the first of a number of open days over the next few weeks.
I remember when I read this a few years ago on Pinterest it struck me as being so obvious, so why don't we all practise it?
It's like that other wonderful sales quote, "Sell an experience, not a product".
But what does it all mean?
Customers go online or to shop to find a product in response to a need. Sometimes that product need is easy to fix, but not always.
For instance, you want to find an implement for eating soup - well a soup spoon is pretty much the tool for the job.
But what if you need to buy a television, a car, an oven or a house? There are more variables that go into the search for these items. This is when helping the customer to find what they are looking for and listening to their requirements and needs really helps to sell your product and organisation. Reeling off information on the latest and most expensive television or car in the range just because you know the patter or you have been told to upsell usually ends in the customer running for the nearest exit!
By listening to the customer, finding out what they need and helping to solve their problem, will gain you a new customer, or a more loyal customer. And why is this important? I am sure you have competitors who would love to take your customers, but most importantly, authentic and honest sales help a business in the key goal of customer acquisition: a customer for life.
Why is this important? Because acquiring customers costs seven times more than retaining customers!
An example of helpful sales to the importance of life time value is shown here: my father buying his first German car, one that he had been wanting and looking at for a long time: his dream car. He spent months visiting the sales house, going over all the options until he finally bought it. I thought at the time the staff had the patience of a saint, but their patience won out. I remember someone saying at the time that the they would see my father as a potential life time customer, and that it was not just about one sale. The help they gave him over the months was important for them to see this. They were right: he has since bought a number of German cars (the same brand) - only from them - over the years.
So it is important to help the customer find the perfect product or answer to their problem however long it takes. It is not a sale. it is providing help or an experience. People love helpful people. People warm to help to solve their issues and queries. It stands to reason that helping someone with their query, solving a problem, all the while creating a relationship and an experience, will end up in a sale.
9th March 2023
I saw this image on the internet a few years ago whilst pondering customer service, as I do, and saw it again recently as I have been thinking about how we can measure great customer service.
The image made me realise that we can measure this in the product itself: how focused on the customer is the product? Does the product meet the needs of the customer versus the needs of the organisation?
I had come across this situation recently when working with a supplier. I tried to explain that for me, and ultimately for the organisation, it was key that the overriding aim should be – with the product they were pitching – to give a better service to the customer, first and foremost. I said that the sales pitch should not be focused on how easy it would make my life but how it will allow me to spend more time with the customer. However, if the supplier meant that by easy, it would free up more of my time to communicate and support the customer, through their journey in a more personal and bespoke way, because this new service allows me more time for that, then great!
I think businesses – like many (not all) leaders – are all about ego. Brand first and reputation of the brand, and whilst this is important, brand reputation is actually best gained through looking after the customer. After all, sales only happen if the customer likes your product and more importantly enhances their time-poor life as the image above shows!
How many times have you gone for the old Tommy K and it takes forever to get the sauce out? I know their adverts used to be about the ‘best things come to those who wait’ but with the advent of social media and our need for a speedy results and outcomes, this does not cut it in this customer-focused age. Hence, the new tube, in which gravity is the secret ingredient! Much more customer focused and gravity does not cost anything either! The other, however, costs customers... and therefore is not ideal.
Additionally, their brand name is higher up the bottle and larger. Who knows which shelf this will end up on, but I can tell you that when we shop, anything close to eye level is best.
It’s interesting that this is not always considered, for instance, by organisations when promoting their products at a show, especially in my sector. You see these pop up banners at shows, usually behind a table, with the contact details - including email and website - right at the bottom! Brand centric again!
So always begin with the end in mind – the customer and their purchase requirements – because in the end they grow your business and enhance your brand, which is win-win!
2nd March 2023
This week at work, we had induction day for new staff and I presented on marketing within the organisation. I reiterated the importance of customer experience not just with our external customers but with each other including the importance of communicating with each other in a timely and supportive way, working to build relationships with each other to support the organisation and its objectives.
Much of the online customer experience focuses on the external customer but as Shep Hyken says so succinctly, 'It is the internal Customer Experience that determines the external Customer Experience’. Shep, who is the author of one of my favourite customer service books - Amaze Every Customer, Every Time - means if you do not get the internal functions working together then it is more difficult for the frontline staff to deliver excellent customer experience. Yet all too often it is overlooked with resource and energy focused externally or predominantly on frontline staff only.
Customer experience is about everything. If key information does not get back to frontline staff efficiently enough, a customer has to wait; if the accounts department don't pay a bill on time, then this gives a negative impression.
Then on top of this, if internal customers don't talk to each other (relying on emails only which I am sorry to have to say the millennials and Alpha generations favour because they think it is quicker and less waste and ultimately they think phone calls are rude and intrusive) then how do we build meaningful relationships? How do we query and question in a diplomatic manner to support each other if not face to face. I say in those myriad of emails which we all have, ensure you take time out to send that email via a face to face discussion. You may well have to follow it up with an action email but the bulk of the typing is done!
Not only that, emails can be intimidating when a member a staff copies in the whole leadership team with a success and then asking for your help. Does this build a strong relationship do you think? Or when a member of staff includes the 'well, the leadership want this' in their email? Does that help? Do capital letters help? Does underlining certain words help? Does bold lettering help? No, none of these help but only serves as a negative in the relationship building process as it gets peoples backs up!
We are paid to do a job, and that includes working with our colleagues to support the organisation to ensure growth / productivity etc. We need to work hardest on overcoming issues internally and build mutual respect. Working within our departments is easy since we work and communicate with these people daily, well hourly actually. Other departments less so and therefore without that constant engagement we need to work harder at communications. If we do the cogs will turn smoothly and the jigsaw pieces will fit!
I have been in the workforce for 25 years now and internal communication and culture has always been the biggest challenge and even with the increase of ways to communicate, it has not made it any easier.
However, if we consider some old fashioned options that in my opinion stand the test of time whether on email, text, whats app, platform chats, face to face chats etc then we might be able to work towards good internal communication:
If we all considered timely, efficient, effective, positive, supportive and clear communications using the right mode of communication both from the top down and bottom up creating respect, integrity, value and inclusivity, it will develop a strong internal culture that will do amazing things for your external customer experience.
23rd February 2023
The power of thank you is incredible. In fact the power of words like, 'please', 'sorry', 'hello', 'goodbye' is amazing. So hello to you this week!
I noticed this on a walk this weekend. I stepped off the path to let some people use the path as it was single track and there was a nice little bit for me to get in to, and not one of the group said thank you which balanced with an earlier similar event where all of the walkers thanked me for doing the same thing.
(Another time, I moved over and the walkers coming towards me continue to walk three abreast and not even acknowledging me at all by trying to walk two or single file which shows to me that people are aware, consider others in our green spaces and most importantly are not entitled enough to presume everyone should get out of the way for them! Grrrrh!!!!!!)
But back to the point...how did I feel after each encounter? How would a customer feel with an acknowledgment of their presence in a store, a 'hello' and a 'thank you' after they have purchased something. Probably how I felt, positive to the store (me to the people) as opposed to the people who said nothing.
So, by giving the customer some little positive words, you are more likely going to get them returning to you to purchase more. With no words of encouragement, what's the point? It is the little things in life that make the difference and in customer service and in creating an amazing customer experience this is definitely true.
On a deeper note, I have been out to dinner a few times recently and I noticed that the waiters and waitresses who were most confident gave the best customer experience and also could engage better - crucial for front facing roles. This sounds like a given, but great customer experience requires confidence, the ability to talk, to listen to the customer and give them your time and most importantly to have great manners by saying please and thank you and hello and goodbye and sorry when it is warranted too.
Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you will please read my blog next week! Goodbye!
16th February 2023
I have always said that you can never reply on what people say, only what they do. This absolutely applies to focus groups and surveys because in the end people will do something different when they have to actually do. Saying what you want to do is so easy; we can all say anything. But when you have to put your money into something, we all 'do' differently.
Neuromarketing is a field that applies brain-based research to everyday advertisements and marketing messages. It is market research of a type using processes such as neuroimaging and eye tracking in order to analyse the way in which a consumer's brain responds to particular products, advertisements, brands.
"The holy grail of neuromarketing is to predict which ads will lead to the most sales before they've been released."
Wading through the sea of choices to make a logical purchase is more than difficult; it’s impossible. This rule can be applied to almost any product. As a result, consumers make almost all of their decisions subconsciously, far from conscious reasoning. If we accept that consumers can’t consciously express why they make purchase decisions, why would we rely on what they say to inform our marketing and advertising efforts. Simply put, neuromarketing is the only way to gather information directly from the source of human decision making: the subconscious.
So you can now get adverts that track eye movement: pupil gaze and pupil enlargement to register likes with their advert for a product. Stores have this technology to to find out what signage is being read, what kind of viewing patterns do consumers show when browsing a product category for instance. In short, eye tracking offers a great way to find out things that are hard to discover using traditional marketing research. Marketers measure heart beats and heat radiation to a product which generally is more useful and subconscious - like a lie detector test in a way. What is the point though?
Neuromarketing helps the organization to built brand positioning and loyalty. Emotions lead to the attention of the people and this may lead to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the customers. The phenomenon leading to satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the customers exists for the short term as there are many surveys conducted that resulted that even the consumers who are satisfied are walked away and those who are satisfied may be returned after some time.
In the end, it all aims to being more attuned to the customer needs through subconscious behaviour. That can only create a more smooth and efficient customer experience and organisational growth. Win win!
9th February 2023
You need commitment within customer experience. If you cannot stick something until the end and ensure the experience plays out how it should do, then you're in the wrong business.
Excellent customer experience requires commitment, calm and a customer focus.
The other night I was at an event with a sit down dinner that was supposed to be for 70 people. For various reasons, when guests sat down for dinner, there was more than seventy. So what did the restaurant manager do? Set up a table for another seven, and served a two course dinner with all allergies and intolerances catered for, to 77 people.
This showed real commitment in the face of adversity. I could hear 'the show must go on' in my head rocking out from Queen as the situation was overcome with flawless calm, commitment and a focus on the customers. These additional seven were made to feel special and not an inconvenience.
So many times do I see around me when I experience new issues or situations, the people at the cold face of the customer unable to maintain the calm and collectiveness and commitment to ensuring a top class service for everyone there no matter what issues come along.
I have managed, helped and co-ordinated a number of events and situations in my so far 25 year career (cannot believe it's been that long but then I love what I do -working on customer experience every day, not marketing or fundraising (previous career) because customer experience is the new marketing/sales battleground if you weren't aware!). Anyway, every event comes with numerous ways it can go wrong and you have to account for / consider these in the brief so it goes right. This is where the commitment lies.
So many people are unable to take any form of negativity, and customers can do this. You need resilience and to be calm, collected and committed to supporting that customer there and then because word of mouth is the biggest and best marketing tool in the world.
You have to love it. Want to make a difference. Care about the customer and making them happy. This is going the extra mile. This is commitment.
2nd February 2023
I have just read an incredible article on Customer Experience that I am going to share with you. Everyone in the business of business (and by that I mean charities, colleges, schools, third sector organizations too) need to read it.
The shocking - but uplifting for those in the business of customer experience - is that in a recent survey of 1,920 business professionals, guess what they listed as their number one priority for the next 5 years?
Customer Experience... and it beat product and pricing for the third time in a row with 45% of professionals putting this at the front! (This is not a surprise to me, as I have worked in organisations where I put customer experience first - three times - and both leads and purchasers/customers grew!
It is important because
- it improves cross selling and up selling
- it improves customer satisfaction
- it improves customer retention!
and all of these impact on revenue.
Remember, customer experience is your customers’ perception of how your company treats them. These perceptions affect their behaviours, and build memories and feelings to drive their loyalty. Remember that it is your customers' perception and not what you think they think, or what you think.
So here is the article from SuperOffice which has some tips to creating a positive experience for 2023 too: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-statistics/
26th January 2023
Customer experience is the new marketing. I have been reading about neuromarketing today in the recent edition of Catalyst, the magazine for marketers which I will talk about next week, but for this week... how about we focus on employee experience.
The importance of HR and Marketing's relationship cannot be stressed enough. I have written articles before about the importance of the relationship between marketing and finance, but this is equally important.
Marketing and HR should be talking with each other all the time. Why? Because between the two of them they are responsible for people - external to the organisation and internal to the organisation. Staff are crucial, as are customers to buy the product. But without happy and productive staff who are behind your vision and values then how can you market a product for them to sell successfully? Without happy customers - who have had a great experience (marketing journey) and stay with you and tell others about your great product - then staff are at risk of not having a job.
Marketing and HR need to work together to encourage this relationship development. Companies that have marketing and HR working in tandem will be successful. Where I work, marketing and HR come under the same staff lead and that is fantastic in terms of ensuring that relationship development between two areas that look after everyone's journey.
Looking after staff is pretty easy - but not all company's get it right most of the time. I know that it is easy to write this but looking after staff really is easy. It's like management, it's pretty simple but again most people don't get it - although you won't get it right all the time because that's not possible and you cannot please everyone. Remember this when dealing with any large audience / group of stakeholders otherwise you will beat yourself up!
In terms of looking after people in an organisation, the one key thing to consider to when looking after your staff the most is good communication. This is not something every company gets right but if you ensure the following three Ps (and this works with external customers too!), you cannot go wrong.
Prompt, Proactive and Purposeful Communication
Communicate in a timely, clear and concise way from the top down and in between is crucial to ensure employees feel included and valued. Information should not come out before disseminated correctly to all parties. This means that no one hears if third hand. People hear it at the same time and hear the full and accurate message. This stops muddling of information which does not help with motivation and belonging. I cannot underestimate the importance of this at all times. People feel included and part of a larger purpose when this happens. This then has a direct correlation to customer growth which in turn fuels company growth and even more happy staff.
I am not saying a company can get it right all the time. No-one is perfect. To err is to be human after all. However, create a plan with some goals and try to enact it faithfully. All your customers will be winners then.
19th January 2023
So every year, I do dry January. Why on earth do you put yourself through this misery during January, the dullest time of the year and of all months, I hear you ask?
Well, after the excesses of the Christmas period, I always feel my body (well my kidneys and liver especially) needs the chance to reset. I always feel I have more energy from doing this and I also tend to lose the weight I put on at Christmas.
This year, dry January is a lot easier. It used to be hard, but not anymore! There are really very good options to replace my usual fizz on a Friday and G&T whilst cooking talking over the week just gone. Non alcoholic equivalents are really very good and there is a raft of good mocktails to try during the dull January months. So all in all, this year my experience of Dry January is not that painful.
It made me realise, why not consider this in customer experience? What other options can we can consider in parallel to ensure a similar customer experience for our customers in the purchase process. Why not use this time to rest our customer experience plans for the rest of the year? Why don't we consider different ways of looking after the customer at each touchpoint? For instance if you have always sent an email to a customer thanking them, why not send them a personalised postcard of thanks and buck the digital fatigue we all have. Of the other way around!
Why not add value to the purchase process and send out a survey to find out more in depth questions about your customer and their purchase with you?
Why not look at new ways to apologise to the customer when something goes wrong and faster ways to solve it and put it right?
Use this time to reset your thinking on ways you can make yours customer experience better. I can guarantee the remainder of January for them - and the months beyond into 2023 - will be full of delight and definitely not dull!
12th January 2023
On occasion, I encounter a disappointing experience. I had one yesterday in one of my favourite brunch spots in the locality that I live in. The food and coffee was not up to the usual standards, with the bread looking a little stale and the coffee not as bountiful as usual, and to top it all off the room was really cold. I am afraid - although it may be quirky and charming - that is not enough for me to return considering also, that the price is above the usual.
So if I were to post a negative review. how should a business respond?
There are three things that the business can do to turn this around:
1. They should ask for the customer to directly message them to obtain contact details privately to discuss the experience and rectify it with a discount if helpful.
2. They should employ a mystery shopper to test the experience annually and ensure the levels of customer care and the experience is always five star.
3. They should ensure that all staff are trained in great customer experience to ensure the same high standards through change.
People are willing to try something again and see if changes have been made, especially if they hear good things from friends and neighbours.
This has happened to me actually when in 2009 I visited a local pub in a neighbouring village and the food was a rubbish. A few years ago, we were walking past the said pub and the outdoor seating was incredibly inviting just post the first Covid lockdown and we tried some beverages. They were right up our street, so we went back for food... and it was amazing. It's now our favourite pub in the area. Why? Amazing traditional food with a contemporary twist with some changes throughout the year to keep it fresh and new (although their core staples remain the same), excellent wine list, a warm welcome and roaring fire. Best of all the customer service is excellent. Overall customer experience... five star!
So it is possible to turn things around, with great customer service alongside a great product.
5th January 2023
Happy New Year to everyone!
As I start my fifth year of blogging (I know and I still love it!) I thought about 2023 and what it will bring. I thought I ought to start the year on a lighter note!
‘Tis the season to make lots of resolutions for the year about health and wellbeing, life and relationships, work and goals. If you have not come up with any yet, how about you use some of these… to aid your customer experience goals!
Resolution 1 – Listen to your customers – internal and external – more. Listening is the most powerful tool in the customer experience arsenal. By listening, we quickly get to the nub of what the customer wants and can action their need more efficiently and effectively.
Resolution 2 – Say ‘Thank you’ more. This is something I am going to do more to everyone I meet. It is such an underused word and has such power to elicit support and engagement from people wherever you go. Don’t forget also the other key words: ‘please’, ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.
Resolution 3 – Be proactive and positive with all your interactions. Don’t let the mud swallow you in wallowing. I know customers can be trying but if you are in the business of customer service you should be seeing these ‘trying’ moments as opportunities to succeed and find solutions not challenges.
Resolution 4 – Be passionate and professional. Customers want to deal with people who love what they do but are still professional in all that they do! Don’t cross the line when looking after a customer. They are not your BFF. They are a partner in helping the organisation - you work within – grow. Professional friendliness is key!
And one more… look after you! Personally, I have never been more behind looking after your health and wellbeing than now and have been beating the drum for this for nearly two years now since I realised how important this was in 2021. I am a constant advocate for working hard and doing your best, but equally important is ensuring you have down time – balance is key to good health and wellbeing in our lives.
My wellbeing spaces are in the outdoors, in the allotment growing vegetables and being with our chickens or in our freedom wagon (camper van) exploring the world around us and watching the world go by or painting … and of course time in front of my AGA cooking!
Take time to find your spaces and places to be mindful. Time is priceless!
15th December 2022
Tis the season to be … out of office and enjoy some well earned family time and relax.
I have had an epiphany in recent years about switching off and ensuring I have time to recharge.
My well-being and mindfulness is much more important to me now, than it has ever been. In my youth and to my discredit, only a few years ago, I did not see resting and recharging as important. I wish I had come to this knowledge sooner sometimes!
My new work place is incredible for this and I feel very blessed to be part of an organisation that does look after staff and their well-being, ensuring staff take time off to fully recharge. Support staff have been given the full two weeks off from Monday 19th to enjoy some time away from work after a very full on term.
This does not mean that customers email should be met with nothing whilst you are recharging. It is important to set your out of office on even if no-one is available for two weeks. It means the customer knows what the situation is and can have their expectations managed with regard to a response.
It’s not good enough to just say, “I am away from the office.” (I have seen this before, I kid you not!) You need to say when you are away and include dates of leaving and returning and when you intend to respond if a colleague cannot (especially if everyone is off).
So for your peace of mind, and to support the customer remember to ensure a good OOO!
Happy Christmas and all good wishes for 2023, when I will be back with my next blog.
8th December 2022
Since it is Christmas and the ever popular twelve days of Christmas rings out everywhere, I thought I would do a blog on the top twelve skills a person going into customer service needs.
So here they are (in my order of important to least important):
1) Passionate and enthusiastic about the product / service and helping customers - as I mentioned in a previous blog, Disney only recruits a certain type of person to be a cast member and they want naturally enthusiastic and helpful people. It's probably a given that if you are not helpful or an enthusiastic person then customer service roles are not for you!
2) Good listening skills: I rate this joint first in key skills. You have one mouth and two ears so when you are with a customer, use these in proportion. It will ensure a smoother and faster customer experience.
3) Good communication skills - this is a mixture of listening to the customer and engaging with them through chatting and being...
4) Positive-ity: again, don't go into customer service roles if you are not a glass half full person. Customers can spot this a mile off.
5) Putting the Customer First: if you in a customer service role, you need to put the customer first over discussing your latest dating saga over the tills or planned night out over Christmas. I used to work at Harrods many moons ago and you had to acknowledge the customer within one minute of them entering the shop / room. If you are chatting, you can't really do this!
6) Empathy / emotional intelligence: you need to be able to put yourself in the position of the customer to ensure that you understand their needs and solve their problems efficiently and effectively.
7) Resilience under pressure: if things go wrong, you have to be able to think on your feet and be calm under pressure as the customer wants a smooth and easy experience. If you are out of a product, then you need to be able to solve their problems and make it easy for them. ie: you ring them to let them know when it is in and organise a purchase over the phone rather than them having to ring you.
8) Proactive problem solver: you have to be able to solve problems under pressure (and your company has to give you the freedom to do this too). if something is not available and the person is not in town again, do you offer them a good alternative and cross sell for instance. Consider all options to ensure the customer leaves happy!
9) Friendliness: be chatty and engaging but remember to be professional. Friendliness can always work alongside professionalism.
10) Good at relationship building / follow up: people want us to care about their purchase and when they spend money and we need to follow up and ensure that customers are happy before, during and after the purchase process. We want life- time customers to support our businesses and you can only do this through follow up and care.
11) Going above and beyond whilst still being a team player: when I was at Harrods, one of the departments I worked in had a group commission yet, we all knew our individual efforts would increase this at the end of the month. We would all work hard to sell to ensure we could maximise this and each would help the other to support in customer service if needed knowing it was a group outcome.
12) Be sincere generally and especially when apologising there is nothing worse than being insincere and inauthentic in the sales process and when apologising. Don't bother if you don't mean it.
So, there you have it - rather than the 12 days of Christmas, you have the 12 tips to great customer service skills!
1st December 2022
So, I am sure you are wondering why I have decided to use two burgers for this week's blog!
This weekend, we decided to go to Lincoln Christmas Market. During the week, I had popped into Sheffield for a work event and saw the Sheffield Market for a short while and 'Yorkshire Pudding Wraps' caught my eye in the food area. I thought at the time, what a clever idea (sorry if you already know about these!) as they do form the basis of my blog.
When my husband and I got to the market, I saw a Yorkshire Pudding Wrap van and knew that was going to be lunch. Even the lure of bratwurst and sauerkraut could not make me change my mind. Now if you don't know me well there are two things I am particular about (excluding amazing Customer Experience) : 1, good, healthy food is important to me cooked from scratch and 2, you will probably guess from this that I don't eat fast food. I am one of those people who have never been in a MacDonalds (I am only 45 too!) and the last time I was in my preferred Burger King was in 2011 - and i vowed after eating it.... never again! I occasionally venture into Subway but I know I can choose my own ingredients there.
So around lunchtime, we headed over to the Wrap Van.... to discover a very long queue which we joined as I was determined to try one. Another thing you may not know about me, is that expectation is generally more exciting for me than realisation (except for my AGA which has outdone all expectations!).
We then saw the price of these wraps - £14!!!!!! My Yorkshire husband nearly fell over at this crying out, "'Ow Much!". I persuaded him to stay the course to try out this new 'roast dinner in a wrap'.
We queued... and queued and finally got to the front. By this point, I had watched the wrap being fully filled with beef, roasties, vegetables, stuffing and gravy .... and then I thankfully saw the bowl of horseradish. I was not going to be disappointed when they chucked a load of this on too, all placed in a secure wrap bag.
So, what is the point of this story?
1 - people will disregard a bad experience (like queuing, in the cold and rain and being shoved by loads of people around you) if the promise of a product is good (word of mouth, similar to a favourite etc)
2 - Price means nothing if your product is that good
3 - Expectation is key ... don't build people up and then hand over a sub poor product or service - they will talk about it.
Conclusion: the wrap was amazing. A roast dinner in a wrap and I could not ask for more. It was so filling and worth the £14 that I had to skip an earlier idea to have a waffle aswell! Reality superseded expectation!
24th November 2022
Smile and the whole world smiles with you... someone said, and maybe you can find this in a song too.
This week I have attended a few open events at my place of work. One thing I know, is that a smile, a greeting and a positive welcome certainly gives people a boost. You can literally see people change their whole demeanour and posture when you speak to them and smile and welcome them. Why cannot people always be passionate about their product?
Enthusiasm and positivity cannot be trained. You either have it or not. I will have mentioned in previous blogs that Disney recruits a specific type of person to be a 'cast member' as they call it. The person has to have the right attitude, be positive and enthusiastic. Recruit for attitude, train for skill is key to Disney's staff recruitment programme.
But when you are front of house, enthusiasm and a smile is key in whatever business you are in. A lot of people do not want to welcome people or say hello in case they look stupid, or the person does not respond and they feel both stupid and aggrieved. In customer service, you need to take the 'you' out of it and focus on the customer. Many people I said hello to at the open days were shy or nervous or may not have heard me. I did not take this to heart. I kept on welcoming people and being positive because I know those who did clock it would feel welcomed to the event and would go away knowing they had a great first impression.
People want to engage with positive and passionate people. They want an experience in their decision making and purchase process and all these touchpoints and how they are treated are key to this overall experience. I never understand how people can be front of house if they are not happy with their job or the company they work for as they are just a detriment to that organisation and its growth. It's all about adjusting your attitude and smiling and being positive as ... to be blunt, the customer does not know what is going on in your life and does not care. They are there for a great experience and so we as staff need to adjust our attitude and be welcoming and positive, listen and support.
So remember... a smile travels around the world; so does passion and positivity!
17th November 2022
A one team approach to customer service is vital in an organisation. I often refer to this statistic but not a lot of people believe it so here it is:
Which of the following is the biggest single reason a business loses customers:
a) competition
b) indifference of one employee
c) word of mouth
d) Dissatisfaction with the product
... well, its 'b', the indifference of one employee!!! I know what you are all thinking... how can it be? Well, I wondered this myself until it happened to me, and I resolutely did not return to the business in question after one employee and their manner. Competition is always there in the background and people don't want to move unless they have to. People thankfully aren't all sheep and so don't follow others and to a degree people will cope with a bad product for a few times. However, rudeness and an uncaring attitude at any point instantly turns people away.
This rudeness and uncaring always stretches internally within a team and create friction. Most excellent customer service people will not let this get to them and will put on a face after having a rude word spoken to them by a colleague, but others cannot and the adjusting of attitude does not happen when in the front facing role. So, rude internal customers can also create a stampede of customers moving to another product or service.
I have witnessed this time and time again in my career and my colleagues in the sector mention this too when an internal team do not act as one team.
It is vital that everyone is on the same hymn sheet whatever department within an industry you are in. Take mine for example - education - where the departments include marketing, curriculum, IT, domestic support, facilities and estates, finance, student support etc etc. Everyone on an open day - as an example - needs to be supportive of each other and no one department is more important than another. We all have the same result in mind, to ensure a successful organisation and that means working together. The cogs in a clock all need to work together to make the clock run and chime, and every person rowing a boat needs to row and work together to make it to the end and win. No one cog is more important than another and neither the cox nor the oarsman could win without each other. Teams need to work together which is why this blog is all about the 'we' and not the 'I'.
10th November 2022
I always love writing about this topic at this time of year. Why? Because the John Lewis Christmas ad totally proves the importance of customer experience with the marketing of their company. And it came out today!
Every year, they sell us a story through their highly anticipated advert and we all get drawn into the story. We experience what the heros and heroines are going through and feel their experience of the situation they are in through the clever marketing advert.
But it's just clever marketing ... right? Well, it's more than that. Its people in marketing knowing their brand and then upping that that in terms of experience, because customer experience is the new marketing battleground as I always say.
This is why 87 % of people say that exceptional customer experience is very or extremely important to them. Notice the word exceptional, not just customer experience on its own which by definition should be amazing, but companies demand this of their own.
So this year, John Lewis has upped the ante in terms of customer experience - exceptionally - by having great marketing: they sock their values through their adverts with huge punches: do right, all or nothing (I always feel that they give this in this annual advert), give more than you take, be yourself always and finally we, not me), a great experience for the watcher and they have added a third aspect... a cause that especially around Christmas will melt your heart. Talk about we not me and give more than you take!
Well, I was in bits actually, although it does not take much as I age for that to happen!
Adding a cause has really set them apart, especially at this time of year. I like the fact that for a moment, we can reflect on something and someone else, other than the cost of living as one example.
They make you feel like they are listening to what is important and that gives me a good feeling and a great experience so that when i walk into their store, I know I will feel the same.
So if you don't think that exceptional customer experience is very or really important, then watch the John Lewis Christmas advert!
3rd November 2022
Following on from last week's blog, the same definitely applies to staff. Communication is key. People need to know the key elements that are happening in advance to be consistent.
And then there are times when collaboration and communication need to move into getting the job done for the organisation.
Just like your customers externally, your staff need to see the fruits of the listening and communication and leaders need to make decisions and get the job done once communicated in advance.
Staff want to be part of the change but not acting on their feedback and communication when you have asked for it is not going to win friends and influence people in your organisation.
I am a firm believer in working together and collaborating but also getting the job done. Sometimes over collaboration equals procrastination and ultimately not making a decision. As Steve Jobs famous quote says, "if you want to make people happy, don't be a leader, go and sell ice cream."
I firmly believe in this because you will not please everyone. Even if you sit and listen to all the options and communicate why a decision has to be made in advance of the decision being implemented, someone is not going to be happy with the outcome.
Communication is important but remember it is not easy as with customers. If you try to focus on doing this from the top down as a start, you can really make head way and lead by example.
So as long as you communicate proactively and responsively to your staff as you do your external customers then everyone is a winner!
27th October 2022
I realised this week that you should not assume that your customers have had communications you thought they should have received or indeed that other people whose role it might be, have sent such helpful and useful communications.
Part of this issue is that we focus on the functional elements of our roles - because this is easier and safer than actually dealing with a customer. What do I mean by this?
Well, it is much easier to sit in front of a screen and deal with your work - databasing, replying to emails, doing reports, creating spreadsheets and documents (all very static and predictable) - than it is to deal with a customer who is dynamic and not predictable. But this is a functional way of thinking. You won't be able to do your spreadsheets and documents and databasing and replying to emails if you did not have customers in the first place... if you know what mean. To spell it out - customers pay your wages to interact with them!
People hide behind their computers rather than get out on the shop floor and speak to people or in many cases rely on email rather than going to visit someone and creating a rapport and building a relationship with a base of face-to-face interaction.
I always like to meet people and visit new suppliers face to face and create a relationship built on a strong first impression built through being in front of someone rather than hiding behind an email or computer. It's like those people who do interviews and go to meetings and write notes on a laptop - it's such a barrier.... to communication, relationship building and just another aspect of hiding in my opinion.
Email is better than nothing though. Don't assume your customers know relevant details. Communicate with them and in fact create a plan for communication throughout the process or project so they feel included and know what's going on.
Focus on the communication with the customers - they pay your wages - over the administration and behind the scenes work - that can be done another time! Don't hide behind your computer - get out and talk to your customers. You will solve problems and issues faster and your customers will love this and feel valued.
Communication is crucial so ensure it is not just done via email - make the effort to get out from behind your computer and talk too!
20th October 2022
We don't like negativity and we don't like complaining if we are receiving it... although we are more than happy to dish it out!
Think about customer complaints as a good thing. If people are not taking the trouble to let you know how they feel then you should be worried.
When customers do make that effort, be grateful that they have not just jumped ship or moved into the 'churn' area but actually want to stay with you so give you feedback in the hope you will make the change and they can remain with you.
Customers are time poor. They don't want to switch and have to make time to find another company to buy the product or service from. People also don't like change in the main so to switch to another organisation is a big deal.
So be grateful for the feedback but worry about those that are not giving you feedback as they are most likely voting with their feet. What business can afford to have their customers vote with their feet in this climate?
How do you remedy this -? Three ways:
1 - Ensure you have a customer centric focused approach in your business and give a great customer experience
2 - Seek continual feedback from your customers
3 - Act on the feedback to ensure you show you are listening to your customers and are making the changes to keep them and make them feel valued.
Feedback, and acting on feedback, is crucial. Listening to your customers allows you to keep and recruit new ones... because of work of mouth!
So remember, feedback is good!
13th October 2022
Customer service is really not rocket science. I know there are articles that dispute this that focus on customer experience being harder and I think that is because people - who are all different and have different needs - are involved, but we are all people in the end and we all have very similar needs.
There are two types of people - those that naturally understand customer experience (and these are the types that Disney snap up!) and there are those that don't.
My husband has had a nightmare this week with a company that he has ordered a shed from. He ordered it over a month ago and the company promised delivery within 1-2 weeks. One of the staff members - every time we pop into the shop - always says that it's not their fault but the company that they deal with. We have never had the company contact details to pursue this but today after another day of not receiving the shed when promised, my husband decided to explain to this staff member the ramifications of the lack of delivery including organising someone to build it for us which we now had to cover part of a lost day as well as the fact that my husband had to work remotely to deal with the delivery. He asked the staff member whether she could work remotely, and she said no... and then realised the issue. Light bulb moment!
So, when you relate it to the person, they get it. We are all customers, and we all have difficulties. Put the person in the situation and they understand. Not only, this my husband explained that he had paid the staff members company for the shed and that means the contract is with her company and him and not the other company and thus the staff member had a duty to deal with and resolve the situation as it was the staff members company's reputation under scrutiny. The staff member became very apologetic as they understood the situation.
Explanations and adding them to the explanation - really do help to get people to understand a situation.
Then there are people who naturally get it because they put themselves in the place of the customer who ultimately wants to be listened to and have a smooth purchase process. Listening really helps this... as well as listening when something goes wrong - to understand!
So, if we consider putting ourselves in the position of the customer we can ensure we do what we would want in that situation! Simples..... it really is not rocket science!
6th October 2022
Retention of your customers is crucial. Why? Because you have spent all your money on these customers, and they should be your advocates.
It costs seven times more to recruit customers than it does to retain customers. With this cost in mind, why are you not focusing on the customer experience from the day they sign up / purchase? Because from this point on they should be advocates for your brand. They have bought from you, so you now need to ensure they gain customer delight each and every day they are with you. Whether that is to purchase more of the same or indeed new products.
Additionally, if you make an error, solve it to their satisfaction because this is customer experience gold. Why? Well, everyone makes mistakes - we are all human - but don't focus on the error, focus on the solution and solve it well. Your customer will be impressed because we all love a happy ending after a bit of drama and this makes for uber good customer experience and actual brand elevation when they talk up your ability to handle an issue well.
So, if it costs less to keep customers, who will help elevate your brand with feedback on their purchase process and any excellent customer experience after an error, why are you not creating customer retention champions in your organisation to focus on this important set of people?
Shep Hyken always says that the goal of an organisation is to recruit and keep customers. I would say customer retention through an excellent customer experience is key and I know that as soon as my purchase process goes out of kilter, as soon as I feel I am not valued as a customer and as soon as I feel that an error has not been handled correctly, I find someone else.
I know this is hard to do (although I don't feel that this is the case), but many brands manage to do it because they put a value on the customer; in fact they are just customer centric organisations.
Customer service and customer experience in my opinion are not rocket science. It really is easy to focus on putting the customer first. Listening to them and then responding proactively whether they are a first-time customer or a repeat customer. And that's how you will retain customers.
29th September 2022
I have created a number of Service Level Agreements (SLA) throughout my career and I find them to be invaluable.
They allow everyone to know exactly what is expected of them internally when dealing with a customer as well as a customer knowing what they should expect of an organisation and if they are not happy what they can do to gain redress.
What should an SLA include?
It should include a statement of objectives for the SLA as well as the scope of services that are to be covered. Additionally, it should include a list of service provider responsibility and response times/performance metrics and finally what to do if the contract / SLA is breached.
It is worth knowing at this point that these can really help organisations meet customer expectations.
Did you know for example that 43% of people expect a response to an email within a day.
It is also worth noting that when it comes to social media, customers expect brands to get back to them within four hours, but the average brand time response is 10 hours!
SLAs can help organisations to achieve and realise customer expectations and ensure they are responsive and proactive to all forms of communication.
If customer experience is the new marketing, you cannot afford not to have an SLA in place!
22nd September 2022
Recently, I have heard a lot about what the competitors are doing from various directions both in my working life and online, and I ask myself should our focus not be on our strengths and what we do best rather than watching what the competitors do and do that?
Competition is all about being different and focusing on your strengths. After all, customers want to see choice and differences to see what is right for them. Also, if you focus on what the competitor does and emulate this are you not diluting / ignoring your brand values and what you stand for?
Because is it not true that truly good brands focus on what they do best, focus on promoting their values and strengths and vision and do what is right for them?
And also because we are in the age where Millennials hold the buying power and want authentic brands to buy from and these super savvy people can see a knock off and copy cat from the moon. Surely brands should be authentic and focus on what they do well like Patagonia have done recently? I don't think they looked at a competitor and decided to do what they have done have they now? That's because they have focused on what makes them authentic and believable and because the focus on the customer and their brand and not on the competition because in the end you should listen to your customer and not the competition.
I saw this a lot with the response on social media to the death of her Majesty the Queen. Rather than consider what was right for the organisation and brand or take advice and guidance from key organisations, people checked on what the competition were doing to get it right. Now is this brave or authentic no? For many they were tone deaf too in what they thought was right rather than following their gut instincts (crucial in marketing to knowing your customers).
I have never been one of those marketers that worries what the competition does. The more you worry about your competition, the more likely you are to fail. You will end up focusing your attention on what other people are doing and not on delivering impact for your clients and customers. You will start to base your decisions on what other people are doing, not on what you do and on what your clients and customers need.
At the end of the day, YOU are the main person you should be competing with, not your competition.
It matters how fast you grow against your goals, not how fast your competitors grow. So as long as you can see that you are progressing, growing, learning, increasing your income, building your brand and making an impact, that is what matters.
Shifting your mindset to this and away from constantly comparing yourself to other organisations and looking at what they do will make a huge shift in how you deal with competition.
You also need to switch your focus to what makes YOU unique. To stand out, you need to worry about your own voice and your own brand. To grow in a competitive market, make sure you are focused on who you are and who you want to be in your chosen market.
Stop comparing yourself to others – the one thing your competition cannot do is to be you. So embrace how you are, your power and message and embrace the unique impact only you can make.
As Oscar Wilde said, 'Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken.'