An Experience of a Life-Time

My wife Patty and I spent almost all of April on a vacation in Australia, Indonesia and Singapore. Eighteen days were spent on board The Crystal Symphony cruise ship. Crystal is and up-scale, up-service and up-priced cruise line. Fares are at least double Princess, Holland America, Norwegian, etc.

If you’re smart, you’re NOT trying to be the lowest priced alternative in your business in your market. That’s a great way to go out-of-business.

While you don’t necessarily need to be the most expensive choice, you should be offering a premium product or service and giving exceptional customer service that warrants a premium price.

When you deliver a premium product or service
to your customer it’s hard for them to go back to ordinary

Note that word experience in the title of this article.

I’ve been on about eight cruises and I’ve enjoyed them all, but NONE was close to the emotional experience of Crystal.

Can you make what you do an emotional experience?

Go to the internet. Google Louis Armstrong’s, “What a Wonderful World” and start playing it now.

Picture this. You grew up in a lower income family. Vacations were great. You loved them. You got to see your cousins, every year.

I certainly never pictured myself on a luxury cruise ship in Bali, Indonesia.

You’ve been aboard for seven days now. You’ve been served by wonderful people from all over the globe. People who learn your name, find out something special about you, know when it’s time for you to switch from iced tea to a martini, ask where your brother and his wife are when they don’t see them with you, people who give you a sincere smile that shines from their entire face.

You’ve just had a wonderful time ashore discovering a exotic new land. You’re dressing for a casual dinner. You realize you’re leaving port so you step out onto your balcony as the sun sets and you hear Louis Armstrong’s, “What a Wonderful World” playing over the ships speakers.

“I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They’re really saying I love you

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world”

Now you hear a winsome single cry from the ships fog horn.

By the time we left our last port, everyone was outside to hear Louis Armstrong and wiping away tears. No one on that cruise will ever hear that song again and not think of their Crystal Cruise.

The ship’s captain said it well on the last night with an old Irish toast.

Here’s to tall ships.
Here’s to small ships.
Here’s to all the ships on the sea.
But the best ships are friendships so
Here’s to you and ME!
Until we meet again.

And yes, we made new friends. With only 850 passengers, verses up to 6,680 on the biggest ships it was easy to meet people. We plan to visit Willie and Elaine Montgomery in Ireland in two years.

Yes, Crystal does some BIG things that help build that emotional experience. Their ships are smaller. Their food is 5 star every night. You can dine in the main dining room, or four specialty restaurants, and not pay extra (OK, you paid thousands EXTRA up front – but don’t miss the free specialty restaurants). You get free premium alcohol (free?).

But the reality is, it’s the little things that made the emotional difference. The waiters in the restaurants. The servers by the pool and lounges. The maids! The maître d’ who knew your name by day two, knew waiter and table you wanted, and then joked with you when he saw you at specialty restaurant rather than his main dining room.

What did it cost to play Louis Armstrong over the ships intercom – nothing?

What did it cost for the captain to give his wonderful toast – nothing?

What does it cost to hire and train staff the delivers Make-You-Happy Customer Service? Yep, there is a cost for this, but I contend hiring and training to deliver exceptional customer service has the biggest cost benefit ratio of anything you can do.

Click here and discover how to create customer service so good that people come back time and time again and enthusiastically tell other about you.

Who’s Your Competition

The Competition is Anyone the Customer Compares You to

I learned this from Disney.  One of the ways people experience Disney is by telephone. Disney gets thousands of calls every day.  Many of the calls are from the same people who call businesses that are known for their great telephone service.  Businesses like LL Bean, Cabela’s, and FedEx.

So when the same people who call Cabela’s or FedEx, or anyone with superior telephone service, call Disney, Disney understands that they are being compared to the service people get when calling Cabela’s or FedEx.  Disney then does what they need to do to “compete” with FedEx’s telephone service.

So the lesson is, don’t just think of your competitors as the businesses that sell the same things you do.  Think of the competition as anyone who deals with your customers in any way. Learn the best practices from anywhere you can, determine how you can use them in your business, and implement them.

Here’s an example of how we did this in our business.  Many years ago, we did what everyone in our industry did.  When we got an order for a stock item it shipped two to four days later.  I happened to call Cabela’s to get some fly fishing supplies and they said the order would ship that afternoon.  So, thinking of what I learned from Disney, I said to myself, “We need to do that,” and we did.  Today if an order is received within 30 minutes of our FedEx pick up, it ships that day.

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

Exposed!!! Owner of Company Named, “Best Business To Work For In Washington State” is a “Ruthless Manager

It was reported today that Keith Lee, the owner of American Retail Supply, which was named the Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State by Washington CEO Magazine is a Ruthless Manager.

How is that?  How can the owner of the company named “The Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State” now be revealed as the co-author of the New Edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits?

It was revealed today that Dan Kennedy, the author of numerous No B.S. books, chose Keith Lee as the co-author for his newest edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits.

Our intrepid reporter, Lois Lane, caught up with Mr. Lee as he was sneaking into his office today and asked him how he could head the Best Business to Work for in Washington State and be a Ruthless Manager.

Mr. Lee replied… “I don’t choose the names for Mr. Kennedy’s books, and Dan and I don’t agree on everything, but when it comes to managing a business and the people in it; we agree much more than we disagree.”

Keith pointed to page 14 in the No B.S. book where Dan Kennedy writes about business owners, “And one thing they all have in common: gripes, complaints, disappointments, frustrations, pain and agony with regard to their employees.  Much of this has to do with unreasonable expectations and a misunderstanding of the actual nature of employer-employee relationships.  Some of it lies squarely at the fault of the business owner for failing in one or more of the Three Requirements for Having Employees: Leadership, Management, Supervision.”

Mr. Lee continued, “While I don’t think the nature of the employer-employee relationship need be as adversarial as Dan, the expectations and the nature of the relationship needs to be addressed during the employees’ first day of employment.  With our DVD training business owners who use our Make-You-Happy Management System set those expectations during the first hour of employment.”

Mr. Lee agrees wholeheartedly with Mr. Kennedy’s statement that business owners failing in one or more of the Three Requirements for Having Employees is the cause of many of their headaches.

Mr. Lee says, “Business owners usually lead, manage and supervise as they were led, managed and supervised, or how they learned in business school; neither of which work very well.”

Performance Reviews Suck

Mr. Lee pointed to Performance Management.  Every business owner knows that they need a Performance Management System but the only type of system they know about is Performance Reviews and they know that Performance Reviews Suck.  With this the business owner continues with Performance Reviews knowing that they suck, or they stop them altogether, and are left with no Performance Management System.

Mr. Lee informed this reporter than Dan Kennedy agrees that Performance Reviews are “like looking in your rearview mirror to drive your car.”  Mr. Kennedy’s tells the story of how the late Mike Vance, who worked personally with Walt Disney on the original Disney University and other projects, laughed and scoffed at standardized annual or quarterly ‘performance reviews.”

Mr. Lee’s management system replaces Performance Reviews with Personal Development Interviews.

Mr. Lee went on to explain.  “Just listen to what they’re called.  Which would you rather give… a Performance Review or a Personal Development Interview?  Would you rather review someone’s performance, or develop someone?

What if you’re on the receiving end?  Would you like your performance reviewed or would you rather have someone work proactively to develop you?

Which do you think gets better results, developing people and coaching them or reviewing their performance after the fact?

Traditional management focuses on catching people doing things wrong.  If every time I do something wrong the boss catches me, but he doesn’t catch me when I do things right, my creativity is stymied and I stop using my creativity, stop stepping out front, and stop helping the organization grow by using my creativity.

Conversely, when we start catching people doing things right, we encourage empowerment.  People start to do things in the organization.  Productivity improves on an ongoing basis.  Improvement doesn’t just come from management but from the whole organization interacting with each other and picking each other up.  The organization is permeated with a motivating environment.

Another benefit of this type of management is you create a learning organization.  Researchers tell us that as we move forward, people are going to stay with organizations where they have an opportunity to grow and learn.  There are going to be many more skilled positions than there are people to fill them.  And if there are a lot of skilled positions and not enough people to fill them, money isn’t going to make the difference.  Money is going to be a given.  You’re going to have to pay in the competitive market to get good people.  But they want to work in a place where they can grow, where they can enjoy themselves, where they can use their creativity to help the organization grow, and that happens in a learning organization.  That’s exactly why my company, American Retail Supply was named the Best Company to Work for in Washington, by Washington CEO Magazine.”

You can get Keith’s hardcopy book (not an e-book), How to Control Your Business and your Life, Proven Secrets to Creating Highly Productive Teams at www.HowToControlYourBusiness.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

Think Upside Down

Think about growing your business. What are you going to do to grow your business this year? Take a minute right now and think.

If you’re like most people, when you think about growing your business you think about getting new customers. The mega retailers spend millions of dollars each year trying to get new customers to come into their stores… and it continually amazes me that once they get me into their store the customer service is often so bad I won’t ever go back.

I’m suggesting that when it comes to growing your business Think Up-Side-Down. In order to grow your business, rather than thinking about getting new customers first, think first about keeping your existing customers.

Let’s look at the numbers. Assume that “Their Store” wants to grow by 10% next year. Let’s further assume that their customer service is typical of most major retailers and 2 out of 10 customers decide they are going to take their business elsewhere because of the lousy service. Let’s assume another 5% go somewhere else for a multitude of reasons. So they lose 25% of their business each year. So now, rather than growing by 10%, “Their Store” needs to grow by 35% to hit their target growth rate of 10%.

Now let’s look at “Your Store”. You also want to grow by 10%. But because you and everyone on your staff understands that customers give each and every one of you your paycheck, and your vacations, and your raises, and everything else you get; you simply do not lose customers due to poor customer service. You do lose about 5% of your customers each year for a variety of reason – they move, they die, misunderstandings, whatever. So after you take into account losing customers, you need to grow 15% to reach your 10% growth rate.

So the morale of the story is… It’s a lot easier to grow your business if you take care of your existing customers.

When you think about growing your business Think Up-Side-Down. Think in this order:
1. What can I do to keep my existing customers?
2. What can I do to increase business with my existing customers?
and finally…
3. How can I get new customers?

Concentrate on keeping your existing customers and doing more business with your existing customers and you’ll get the Happy Customer Bonus… dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people selling for you. You’ll have Happy Customers telling others about you. And then you’ll have the absolutely best kind of advertising – advertising that money can’t buy – “WORD-OF-MOUTH ADVERTISING”… and you’ll have those new customers walking into your store.

  • Here are ideas in Out-Nordstrom Nordstrom, Creating the World’s Best Customer Service that will help you keep existing customers, increase business with existing customers, and get new customers.
    Be sure everyone in your company understands Who’s The Boss. See secret #40 in Out-Nordstrom Nordstrom.
  • Be sure everyone in your company understands How To Take Care Of Upset Customers – Secret #43.
  • Can your business pass the acid test of Exceptional Customer Service? Are the huge majority of customer complaints resolved by the first person who talks to the customer? Secret #23.
  • Does everyone in your company know what exceptional customer service is? Secret #4.

You can get my hard copy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

A Pleasant Customer Service Surprise

I’m often amazed at the places where I expect to get Make-You-Happy Customer Service and don’t get it, and the places where I would expect less-than Make-You-Happy Service and get great service.

Where would you expect to get Make-You-Happy Customer Service?

  • At a Denny’s Restaurant or,
  • The Expensive 5 Star Resort Hotel on the beach?

I’ll let you decide which actually had Make-You-Happy Customer Service.

The first morning, at the hotel, I got up and headed out for breakfast.  I asked the guy at the bell desk if the Denny’s was still across the street and down a couple blocks.  He replied, “It’s just across the street.”

So I went out to the street, looked across, and didn’t see a Denny’s.  So I thought, OK it must be somewhere in that shopping area across the street.  So I went across the street and into the shopping area and eventually found that the Denny’s was actually, through the shopping area, down the alley and over another 1/2 block.  It certainly wasn’t anywhere near, “just across the street.”

When I finally found the Denny’s and entered the restaurant, I was greeted by a nice clean wooden sign that said.  “Welcome to Denny’s.  It Will Be Our Pleasure To Seat You.”  I thought, they really understand Make-You-Happy Customer Service Secret #28.  Are Your Signs Positive or Negative?

I was, almost immediately, greeted by a lady with a sincere smile and greeting who showed me to my seat, gave me a menu and took my drink order.  Within seconds I had my coffee and orange juice.

When I ordered my breakfast the waitress told me that I should get a different item on the menu because it was the exact breakfast that I ordered but it included coffee and orange juice and my bill would be less.

She then proceeded to give me great service during the rest of my breakfast.

When I visited the restroom on the way out I saw a sign that said, “Please tell any Denny’s team member if this restroom needs attention.”  It didn’t say what I usually see in restrooms, “Please notify a manager if this restroom needs attention.”  “Ya sure, I’m going to ask for a manager and wait around until (s)he shows up to tell them their restroom needs attention.”  But if the restroom needed attention, I would have taken the time to tell a team member on my way out.

Secret #29 in The Happy Customer Handbook is “Are Your Signs Positive or Negative?”

Signs are not passive.  They are capable of delighting as well as disappointing.  Review each of your signs and ask yourself, does the way it is written create a feeling of delight for the customer?   If the answer is “No”, change the sign to produce the intended emotion.

Minimize the use of words like “no”, “don’t”, “can’t”, “policy”, and “prohibited”.  Instead, tell people what they can do.  Instead of “No refunds after ten days” maybe “Refunds gladly accepted up to ten days after purchase.”

Rather than “Two forms of identification are required to pay by check.” How about, “Please share two forms of identification when paying by check – Thank You.”

Getting back to the question of, who would you expect Who’s The Boss Service from, The Denny’s Restaurant, or the 5 Star Resort.

The next day I got done with work early enough to make it down to the pool for an hour before it got dark.  When I got to the pool I found that it was closed for a private party.

“OK, no big deal, I’ll go for a swim in the ocean.”  When I got out of the ocean I found that not only was the pool closed but towel kiosk was closed for the private party.

“OK, no big deal, I’ll just rinse off and dry off in my room.”  Well, you guessed it the showers were turned off.  “So, I’ll just walk through the lobby with my sandy feet and salty body dripping wet.”

Like I said, I’m often amazed at the places where I expect to get Make-You-Happy Customer Service and don’t get it and the places where I would expect less-than Make-You-Happy Service and in fact get great service.

Remember, according to the Harvard Business Review, if you can prevent 5% of your customers from leaving you, you can increase your profits 25-93%.

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

11 Customer Service Lessons from One Phone Call

Phone call

I called one of our very good clients who has a brick and mortar store, excellent mail order business, superb telemarketing organization, and a top notch web site.  They don’t have a retail store in my area, so I usually order online or call them.  I order from them for a number of reasons:

  • They are a very good client of ours.
  • Their products are superb.
  • Their service is almost always at the Make-You-Happy level.

 

But even the best businesses fall short, and that’s why we need consistent and persistent reinforcement of Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  One of the areas that continually amazes me is how often people assume they know what you are going to ask and therefore don’t really listen to what you’re saying.

 

I had ordered top quality expensive wading boots from them – I use them for fly fishing in rivers. When I got them, they were too narrow.  I looked through their catalog and saw that the only boot they had in the catalog that was available in wide widths was a lower price model.  Now, I’m not snobby, but my feet are old enough that I need the support and extra sole thickness that most low price models don’t have.

 

So I called the 800 number to ask if they had any higher quality boots in wide widths.  A very nice, good customer service person told me that was the only boot that actually came in a wide width, but suggested that I call back in the morning and ask for a “boot product specialist” and see if one of the boots “ran” wider than the model I ordered.

 

I thought that was a great idea!  I buy New Balance Tennis Shoes for that reason.  I don’t need to get a “wide”, their shoes just “run” wider.  So I called back the next day and asked for a product specialist.  I told him that I had already found out that the only boot they carry in a wide was their inexpensive model and that the customer service person suggested I call back to see if any of the more expensive models “ran” wide and might work for me.  He said, “Let me check.”

 

It was quiet for a while, so I thought he was “checking” with someone else to see if any of their boots “ran” wider.  But then I heard him mumbling on the phone.  He was reading from the web page.  I told him I had already read everything on the web and none of the other boots came in wide widths and asked again if he or anyone there knew if any brands “ran” wider.  He just went back to reading the catalog.  Finally, I just said, “Never mind” and hung up.

Keith Lee's Free Book

I went to the local fly shop that is not very convenient for me to get to and found that they didn’t have any boots that came in wide widths either.  But they did have a great boot that ran wide.  I bought a $139.00 pair of boots.  And yes, you guessed it.  The company I called in the first place has the same boot.

 

The “product specialist” was very nice and polite and I’m sure he had customer service training.  The company’s customer service is consistently too good to think it just comes about without training.  With that said, there are at least 11 lessons to learn from this one call.

 

  1. Train your team to truly listen.

    Pay particular attention to people in your organization who tend to answer questions from you and others before they listen to the entire question. Pay particular attention to those who like to finish questions for others.  Truly listen and don’t assume that you know what someone is going to say.  You know what happens when you assume.  You make ass-u-me.

 

  1. Monitor your customer service.

    This seems almost too obvious, but while it may be obvious, almost no one does it. Whether you use secret shoppers, your own people, or recordings, don’t ass-u-me that your people are doing what they’ve been trained to do. And don’t ass-u-me that they do the same things when you or another manager are around and when you’re not.  You surely can’t monitor every customer service interaction, but in this case, over time, the business I called would certainly hear a similar customer service interaction and be able to address it in their training.

 

  1. Make sure your customers know what to do when they are not being served properly.

    This is included as Customer Service Secret #4 in The Happy Customer Handbook. Be sure your Customer’s Know Your Extraordinary Customer Service Expectations.  But they not only need to know your extraordinary customer service expectations, they need to know what to do when they don’t get Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  In as many ways as you can, tell your customers what them to do when they don’t get Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  Tell them when they are on hold on the phone.  Tell them in any communication that you send to them.  Tell them with signage.  At American Retail Supply we tell our clients to call us at 800-426-5708 if we ever let them down and if they are still not happy call me, Keith Lee, the owner of the company, at 253-859-7310.  If I had been told, “If we ever let you down, please call Bill at xxx-xxx-xxxx I would have likely called Bill who would have found out that they do have a great brand of wading shoes that runs wider.  They would not have only thrilled me, they would have me writing an entirely different story about their Make-You-Happy Customer Service and I would have told you their name and I would have spread a huge amount of positive word-of-mouth advertising!

 

  1. Know Your Product.

    I’m not going to harp on this too much because we are human and we can’t know everything. But I do think that a “boot product specialist” should have known if any of the brands “run” wide.  And if not he should have been trained to do #6 below.

 

  1. Know Your Customers.

    I am a very good customer for the company I called. Good enough that they send me a hard back version of their master catalog that is about an inch and a half thick. I believe in giving every customer Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  With that said, your best customers should be taken care of even to a higher degree.  Yes, the customer that buys $200,000 a year from us gets Super Duper Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  But you say, “How can they know that you’re a great customer?”  That’s Make-You-Happy Customer Service Secret #27.   Have a Great Data Base. I’m going to be blunt here.  With the price of computers and software today, there is simply no excuse for not knowing who your great customers are, and you are throwing money away by not marketing to and treating them differently.  And that difference should not affect giving your other customers Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  In this instance, the product specialist should have pulled up my account, saw that I was one of their best customers and done something special to take care of me. What could he have done?  He could have called someone in the company that knew my answer and called me back.  He could have called his manufacturers and called me back.  He could have gone to the warehouse and tried on some boots to see if any “ran” wide. He could have done something.  Should he have done those things for someone who buys $3.95 a year?  Probably not.  But he should have for one of their best customers.

 

  1. Train people to know where to go to get answers.

    I covered this a bit in #5. There are a lot of things he could have done to answer my question, but the biggest frustration was that he never seemed to listen well enough to hear the question properly. We have a lot of products at American Retail Supply. So regardless of how much training we give them, there is absolutely no way our new reps can know everything when we put them on the phones.  So we spend a lot of time in our training teaching them where they need to go to get answers.  When they start, we constantly remind our reps of the most important sentence to learn, “I’m sorry, I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you by …”  And then get back to them when you told them you would.

 

  1. Create loyal customers.

    In this instance, one of my favorite places to shop let me down. But that’s unusual.  Their service, products and delivery are usually superb and because they are, I’m loyal and I’ll continue to shop with them.

 

  1. You can learn multiple lessons from poor customer service in your business.

    The normal response to bad customer service is to simply blame the person who delivered the poor service. As you can see by the ten things we learned from this one phone call, you can learn a great deal from one instance of poor service and there are lots of things that could have been done so that this didn’t happen.  It’s not just the reps fault.

 

  1. If you truly believe in, and practice, Make-You-Happy Customer Service you will have multiple ways to catch and fix poor customer service.

    When you implement Make-You-Happy Customer Service, you have many more ways to identify, catch, and fix service that is less than Make-You-Happy. One of the basics of Make-You-Happy Customer Service is that you can only expect what you inspect.  In others words you need to have systems in place to inspect your customer if you expect Make-You-Happy customer Service.

 

  1. Your customer service will improve when you implement the Make-You-Happy Management System with the Make-You-Happy Customer Service.

    When you implement the Make-You-Happy Management System all team members are trained to recognize service that falls short of Make-You-Happy Customer Service. They are trained to not only recognize it, but also do something about it.  I don’t have room to go into the Make-You-Happy Management System here, but it not only reinforces Make-You-Happy Customer Service, it creates it!

 

  1. Three Fingers Pointing Back at You.

    I learned a lot of wonderful lessons from my mentor Dick Thompson. One of them is, “remember, when you point your finger at someone else, three fingers are pointing back at you”.  If I’m with someone else and we get poor customer service the other person will often say “I can’t believe how rude (stupid, incompetent, whatever) that person was.”  My response is always the same, “That’s management’s fault.”

 

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

Grumpy Must Have Been a Make-You-Happy Customer Service Fanatic

A story from a Customer Service Fanatic…

Often when I speak to a crowd, I ask people in the audience how often they get “Who’s the Boss” Customer Service” (See secret #40 in my book – The Happy Customer Handbook)  It’s the kind of customer service that shows they really understand that “you, the customer, are the boss.”

When I ask, “How many of you get that kind of customer service most of the time?”  No hands go up.  When I say, “Half of the time,” a few hands go up.  When I say “25% of the time,” most hands go up.

Frankly, I’m surprised that people say they get “Who’s the Boss” customer service 25% of the time, because for me it’s more like 10% of the time.  I think it’s because I’ve harped on exceptional customer service so long that maybe I have gotten a bit jaded.  Maybe my expectations of exceptional customer service have gone beyond what’s likely to happen.  Well, I do get it 10% of the time so I know it’s possible so I’m going to stay where I am.  I’m going to stay with my fanatical approach to exceptional customer service.

But I need to warn you…

When you get to the point where I am, you’re likely to be grumpy more often, because you’ll go into places wanting and expecting exceptional customer service, and you’re not going to get it.  Like today, when I went to lunch.  Most of the time when I go shopping or to a restaurant, I’ll say something to the clerk whether the clerk says anything or not.  But every once in a while, because I’m a customer service fanatic and a guy who writes customer service newsletters and gives customer service advice, I don’t say anything.  I want see what their customer service is like if I don’t saying anything.  I’m absolutely amazed at how often the clerk on the other side of the counter says absolutely nothing.

When I went to restaurant today, I did my little test and planned to not say anything until the clerk did.  The clerk came to the register and looked at me – no smile – not a word.  She just came to the register and looked at me.

I gave her my order, she told me the price – I gave her my money – she gave me my change – and said nothing.  In the entire process the only word that was spoken by the clerk was the price of the meal.  No greeting, no thank you… nothing – just the price.

While you may be Grumpy more often when you become a Make-You-Happy Customer Service Fanatic, it will also put a smile on your face when you realize how crummy most service is.   You’ll smile as you realize that the more people get crummy customer service, the easier it is for you to give what is perceived as Exceptional Customer Service!

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

You Will Increase Your Bottom Line Take Home Profits by 25-95% When You Stop 5% of Your Customers from Leaving You and Going to a Competitor

Save money and increase profits with excellent customer service

So 82% of people who leave one business and go to another do so because of a customer service issue!

Have you ever wondered why customers leave and never come back?

Most people think it’s because of price, the person moved, the person died, etc… Well you don’t have to look far to find out the REAL reason that customers leave.

A US News and World Report study found that the average American business loses 15% of its customer base each year:

  • 68% of customers who stop buying from one business and go to another do so because of poor or indifferent service.
  • 14% leave because of an unsatisfactorily resolved dispute or complaint.
  • 9% leave because of price.
  • 5% go elsewhere based on a recommendation.
  • 1% die.

The Harvard Business Review reported that if you can prevent 5% of your customers from leaving, you can increase your bottom line profit by 25–95%.

See Ya Later!But what’s really sad for you and me, is that most of those customers who leave don’t bother to complain.  They just leave and don’t come back. Then you’re stuck spending a bunch of time, money, and resources trying to get new customers when with some consistent and persistent messages and training to both your team members and customers, they would never have left in the first place.

It’s been shown time and time again that getting new customers is one of the most expensive things you can do to grow your business.  Once we get a new customer, we simply can’t afford to lose them.

Getting New Customers

But this is great news for you!

Every business category is seeing more and more competition every year.  Just about every category has a version of national chain competition, competition from discount franchises, price competition, and competition from the internet, all making it harder and harder for you to thrive.

But the great news is that in this most important area, the reason most customers leave one business and go to another, you can not only beat the competition – you can crush them. 

To illustrate this, lets talk about mindset for just a bit. Have you ever been asked the following question…

“What do you do for work?”

It comes up all the time, especially when you meet someone new. It’s a natural question, and most people answer almost without thinking. What would you say?

Well, if you’re like most people, you’re going to say something about the product or service you work with. You’re going to focus on the deliverable and there’s nothing wrong with that. But here’s the thing…

That is a large part of what you do at work, but that’s not necessarily the business you are in.

In just a bit, I’ll give you the powerful 2-step strategy to creating happy customers, but I need to go over something else first…

Before you start implementing these strategies in your business, it’s critical to understand that half the battle is getting in the right mindset. You can do all of the right things when it comes to customer service, but truly exceptional customer service  first comes from a way of thinking that is far to rare these days.

Let me explain a little bit…

I used to tell people that we were in the business of selling retailers everything they needed to operate their stores. But I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Make People Happy

In the early 1980’s I watched Tom Peters and Robert Waterman’s video In Search of Excellence.  The video shows first day employee training at Disney World. The trainer at Disney asks the new cast members, “What business are we in?  We know that GMC makes cars, and Whirlpool makes refrigerators.  What do we make at Disney?” The answer is, We Make People Happy.”

From that moment on I knew what business we were in: We Make People Happy. That’s why we call the customer service we provide and teach, Make-You-Happy Customer Service.

By the way, I explain this and more in detail in by newest customer service book. You can get a free copy of my book The Happy Customer Handbook by clicking here.

I’m often asked, “What is the #1 thing business owners can do to improve their customer service?” Another question I get is, “Why is customer service so poor?”

The answer to both questions is the same. To illustrate this, let me tell you about some results we get when talking to actual business owners. When I speak to live audiences I often ask this question…

“What SHOULD you be doing when it comes to customer service training in your business?”

Customer Service Survey

With every audience almost all hands go up for answer (E).

Sounds great right? Everyone knows that their team should have customer service training up front and also reinforce it. But there’s a catch…

We’ve surveyed thousands of business owners about customer service as well.  We ask them the exact same question, but we flip one word. We ask:

“What ARE you doing when it comes to customer service training in your business?”

Only 2% answer (E)!

Why is it that everyone knows their team should have customer service training up front and consistent reminders, but almost no one does it?

Here’s what happens in most businesses.  With the best of intentions, the business owner has a “rah, rah” meeting about customer service, and the service improves for a few weeks, and then without reminders you’re back where you started.

And it’s simple, the reminders don’t come because you’re a busy business owner and you have lots of other things to do.

But this may be even more amazing.  More than 75% of all businesses have no upfront consistent customer service training for new employees.

So the answer to both questions, “What can business owners do to improve their customer service?” and “Why is customer service so poor?” is the same, and it’s all contained in the 2-step process below:

Keith Lee's Free Book

 

The 2 Step Formula to Customer Service Success

1.  Train your entire team to deliver exceptional customer service.

At the very beginning, your entire team needs to get trained with your exceptional customer service expectations. This is the “rah, rah” training I talked about above.  But it can’t stop there.  You need to consistently and persistently reinforce those expectations.

Zig Ziglar says, “Repetition is the mother of all learning.”

Repetition

But learning something doesn’t necessarily lead to behavior change, so when it comes to customer service in your business I tweak Zig’s quotation to,

“When it comes to customer service, repetition is the mother of all learning and permanent behavior change.”

Let’s take a second at this point and look at the bigger picture. Why is customer service so important in today’s business world?

I own four businesses, and all of them are dependent upon small independent businesses for their survival and growth. My businesses can only thrive when their business thrives, so I’m dedicated to seeing that independent small businesses not only survive, but thrive.

At our American Retail Supply 35th Anniversary customer Appreciation Conference and EXPO, one of the speakers asked all 800 people in attendance if they had a unique product that people couldn’t get anywhere else. In the entire room, only two hands went up, and I’m betting their competitors think there is a substitute product.

Almost no one has unique products or services that people can’t get elsewhere, so we need to give them a reason to do business with us rather than someone else. 

The one area you can do that with the biggest return for your effort and money is with Make-You-Happy Customer Service.

I’m not talking about customer service in a box.

Customer Service In A Box This isn’t about the canned, ‘Thanks for shopping at Mega-Mart, have a nice day’ kind of customer service.

We’re talking about Make-You-Happy Customer Service in which, even if you mess up, the customer is going to come back because they like and believe in you and your staff!

We’re talking about the kind of customer service in which customers are not just satisfied, but loyal.  Customer service in which customers not only come back time and time again, but enthusiastically tell others about you.

Another great reason to give Make-You-Happy Customer Service is, it’s fun.

People love getting Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  But people also love, and have a huge amount of pride, when they give Make-You-Happy Customer Service. Make-You-Happy Customer Service is fun for you!  It’s fun for your team!  Your customers love it!  And the day goes much faster when everyone has fun.

Make-You-Happy Customer Service is not just great customer service when you’re watching, but all of the time. In the following video, I explain a few of the reasons exceptional Customer Service is critical to small businesses. After watching it, continue reading to find out the 2nd ingredient in creating exceptional customer service…

2.  Consistently and persistently reinforce your customer service expectations with your team.

First, lets go over consistency:

I spent eight years working in the grocery business.  I thought the company headquarters had consistent customer service messages and expectations, but those expectations were totally undermined when, in the break room, the business manager made fun of customers and joked about how stupid they were – even to the point of making fun of their appearance.

Is it any wonder, that with a few exceptions, our customer service was indifferent?

It’s also no wonder that when a new manager came in with respect for everyone, team members and customers alike, our customer service level improved dramatically along with the business sales.

You must never put down a customer in front of your team members.

Be sure that your signs respect your customers and are positive rather than negative.  Good Signs

Rather than, ‘No returns without sales receipt,’ how about ‘Returns gladly accepted with sales receipt.’  Or ‘Cash Refunds allowed with your sales receipt’ instead of ‘No cash refunds without sales receipt.’  Or ‘Checks gladly accepted with two forms of ID’ instead of ‘You must have two forms of ID to pay with a check.’

So we know we have to be consistent in our customer service messages. But what about persistence?

One day a newspaper reporter asked Zig Ziglar about the “motivation stuff” he was talking about.  The reporter asked, “If someone attends this seminar, would they be set for life when it came to motivation?”  In other words, they were asking, ‘Is motivation permanent?’

Zig’s reply, ‘No, motivation is not permanent, but then again, neither is bathing.  In fact I recommend that people bathe daily, and get a dose of motivation daily.’

The same is true of customer service; I recommend and in fact, Make-You-Happy Customer Service requires that you – company management – are persistent with your customer service message.

You must find as many ways as you can to reinforce your customer service message persistently to both your customers and your team members.

Here are a few ways we’re persistent with our customer service message:

Every contact with a customer that comes from me ends with the sign off, ‘Only Happy Customers Come Back.’ 

Whether it’s a letter, an email, the Retail Tip of the Week, invoice stuffers, or a message to customers in our monthly newsletter, I always sign off with ‘Remember, Only Happy Customers Come Back.’

On eight walls throughout our offices, we have a stenciled quotation from Walt Disney that says, ‘ Do What You Do So Well That People Can’t Help Telling Others About You.’  In addition, we have over thirty Disney prints throughout the office to remind people of the Disney quotation and that our job is to Make-People-Happy.

Disney Quote

On the mirror above each sink in each bathroom, we have a small sign that says,

‘The next person using this sink may be the person who makes your mortgage payment… OUR CUSTOMER. Show him the pride you have in serving him by leaving this restroom spotless.”

We have eight different versions of this with different colors and different sayings.  For instance, a red one says, ‘The next person using this sink may be the person who puts your kids through college – our customer…’  A blue one says, ‘The person who will buy you your next car…’

They are in different colors so that when changed, our team members are more likely to see and read them.  In addition, to ensure our team members see them, we periodically move the sign to a different spot on the mirror.

This not only reinforces our customer service philosophy with our team members and our customers who use our restrooms, but the restrooms are actually kept cleaner.

Here are just a few other ways to be persistent with your Make-You-Happy Customer Service message:

  • Your on-hold phone message
  • Signage throughout your business
  • In your advertising
  • On your web site
  • In emails

So that’s the two step process:

1.  Train your entire team to deliver exceptional customer service.

2.  Consistently and persistently reinforce your customer service expectations with your team.

“So that’s great,” you might say, “but how do I do that? Where do I start?”

It all starts with the little things. In my book, The Happy Customer Handbook, I give 59 secrets to creating happy customers who come back time and time again and enthusiastically tell others about you. These tips are a great way to get started implementing customer service in your business right now.

 

Keith Lee's Free Book

 

So there you have it. You have the 2-Step Process for Customer Service Success and 5 action tips that will help you start this in your business RIGHT AWAY.

Remember, Only Happy Customers Come Back
Keith Lee
keith 2012 shoulders up
www.keithlee.com

P.S. If you want to see the other 54 secrets, you can get them in my book The Happy Customer Handbook. And you can get the book for FREE by clicking here.

What Do Customers Want?

What Do Customers Want?
A survey of 1 million consumers provides valuable insight for today’s marketers.

By Keith Lee

This article was adapted from an article Murray Raphel wrote.  You can find out more about Murray and his works at the end of this article.

In the immortal words of Andy Rooney, “Didja ever wonder…..?”  Today’s question is whether or not you read those weekly polling reports from The Wall Street Journal, ABC News or the bottom left-hand corner of USA Today and wonder how accurate they are?

If you look at the tiny print at the bottom, most say they are based on interviews with about 1,000 people and have a plus or minus factor of 5 percent.  One thousand people?  To tell me if we should have a health plan, how the President’s doing, how many diet Cokes are sold in one day, and how many angels fit on the head of a pin? (Only kidding.)

How can that be?

And so I always look askance at the results of this small sampling.

But when I ran across a survey taken by Brit Beemer and America’s Research Group, I sat up, took notice and read everything very, very carefully.  What made me sit up?  This sentence: ‘The statistics are based on over a million interviews giving valuable insight into consumer behavior and how stores match the needs and values of customers.’

“Whew” — 1 million interviews.  Now is the time for all good merchants to come to the aid of their business by knowing what the customer really thinks of your business — well at least one million of them…

Here are some conclusions from the interviews:

“Customers decide if they feel comfortable to buy in your store.”

And: “4 out of 10 customers judge how much you know by how professional you look.”

What does that have to do with your store?  What is the first impression your customers get when they walk into your store?  What is the first impression they get when you mail them something?

“Most customers know very little about the product you have to sell.”

We recently went shopping for a DVD player.  We asked the salesman in the appliance store this question:  “This VCR is $89.  And this one over here is $149.  What’s the difference?”  And he said, “fifty dollars.”  (now you can’t make that  up).

What does that have to do with your store?  The old adage of, “the more you tell, the more you sell” works for your business.  The more specific you are about what you sell, stressing the benefits you offer, the greater degree of comfort you give your customers.  The same is true with your direct mail advertising.

Years ago, Murray Raphel did a mailer to his customers on children’s yellow raincoats that had a place to write the child’s name on the inside collar.  Since most children at the time wore yellow raincoats to school they are often mixed up and switched.  We emphasized this benefit in a mailing and sold out the coats in three days.

“Most customers say all consumer ads look the same.”

In his advertising class Murray would often place five ads from local supermarkets, with their name cut out, on the board.  Each student is given a sheet of paper with the names of the five supermarkets.

“Match up the name of the supermarket with the ad?” Murray asked.

No no one ever got it right!

What does that have to do with your store?

You need to avoid what Dan Kennedy calls Marketing Incest!  In almost every industry everyone copies everyone elses advertising so it all looks the same and nothing is effective.  Get a Free Trial to Dan Kenndy’s newsletter at www.nobspugetsound.com to find out how to avoid Marketing Incest.

“Customers expect a specialty store to have the largest selection in their chosen product area.”

Many years ago when Murray first started in business, his annual volume was around $20,000 a year.  He couldn’t afford to advertise… anywhere.  But he knew people would shop with him if he had the biggest selection of… something.  He chose children’s hats and gloves because they were so inexpensive.  He put hand-lettered signs on his windows: “We have the largest selection of children’s hats and gloves!”

He soon became known as the store to go to for children’s hats and gloves.  Not big sales, but once in the store the customer might buy a snowsuit – which was like selling 20 pairs of gloves.  They became important, well-known, and business grew.

       What does this have to do with your store?

Be a specialist in what you sell.  It does not have to be merchandise… it can be service.  Murray once asked an elderly woman why she shopped the local pharmacist when the chain store’s prices were lower.  Her explanation: “They say hello to me when I come in.”

The customer is reassured when you offer an in-depth selection of any item.  It makes them feel you are an expert in that field and gives the perception you are an expert in other areas as well.

When Murray bought clothing in Europe the total inventory was less than 10 percent of what he carried.

He promoted, advertised and talked about the European clothing so much that it became the main emphasis of his inventory.  Soon the customer felt everything in the store was imported from Europe.

“Half of America buys with credit, half buys with cash.”

Some of the best and smartest marketers are the credit card companies.  First came the cards.  Then came the affinity cards.  (When you use your credit card you are giving money to your alma mater.  Or the humane society.  Or building mileage on your favorite airline.)  Now there’s co-branding, where the name of your business appears with the name of the credit card.

What does that have to do with your store?

This: The more ways you offer the customer to pay, the higher the return.  Offer cash.  Or check.  Or credit card.  Or lay-away.  Or monthly payments.  Or your own co-branded card.  Better: offer them all and then be sure to include the internet.

“A private sale flyer must scream value.”

Retailers have negatively impacted between 25 percent and 40 percent of their core customers by sending false pretense private sale mailers.  Many businesses are mailing more often and giving less value.

Here’s what customers see as real value: real lower prices.  Deferred credit promotion.  Free delivery.  Free vacation promotions.  Free gifts.  First choice at a warehouse or clearance sale.

What does this have to do with your store?

An old and works-every-time adage: “Make sure the story isn’t better than the store.”  Another one (Cont. P.6 – What Do Customers) to remember: “Promise a lot.  Deliver more.”

If your product has six good selling points, only tell five.  Have the sixth featured when the product arrives at the house or is purchased at the store.

This gives the customer even greater confidence that their purchase is even better than “what you advertised.”

Some other guidelines from the survey:

  • “The number one reason for buying a big ticket item is No Down                      Payment.“
  • “The number two reason for buying is No Interest.“
  • “A very low interest offer will beat out a ‘6-month interest deferred’ offer.”
  • “Radio reaches the youngest audience, newspaper the oldest. Radio is the best medium to create a personality for your store.”
  • “The word ‘FREE’ in an ad has the greatest impact.”

How much attention should you pay to all this information?  A lot.  Remember the basic rule in selling is only one sentence: “Find out what the customer wants… and give it to them.”

For more great tips on customer service, go to TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com and get a FREE copy of my book. I reveal 59 secrets to creating happy customers who come back time and time again… AND enthusiastically tell others about you.

Remember, Only Happy Customers Come Back
Keith Lee

Murray Raphel has been telling the retail direct mail story as a columnist in Direct Marketing for more than 30 years.  He has developed Gordon’s Alley, a multimillion-dollar pedestrian mall in Atlantic City.   

       You can reach Murray at Raphel Marketing Inc., 12 S. Virginia Ave., Atlantic City, NJ  08401.  His phone number is 609-348-6646.

How to Work With an Upset Client

Upset Client

Train All Team Members Who Come Into Contact With Clients How to Work With an Upset Client

By Keith Lee

We’ve used this system to take care of upset clients in all my businesses since 1991.

I suggest you train your front line people to implement the LEAR Principle and the “Make-You-Happy Guarantee” (which I’ll explain later).  You don’t need to advertise this new guarantee when you start.  Simply implement it and see how it goes.  If it works, go with it.  If it doesn’t work, go back to what you have now.

Here is the LEAR Principle

L is for Listen

Listen and don’t interrupt.  There are a lot of reasons we don’t interrupt upset clients.  We don’t interrupt because, number one, it’s rude.  Another reason is that when we’re upset, you and I and everyone else do the exact same thing: We practice what we’re going to say.  And we practice what we’re going to say from the beginning.  So if you interrupt, you’re probably just going to have to listen to the whole thing all over again from the beginning.  Then of course we listen to the client because we respect the client and know that they are, in fact, the boss.  They pay all of our bills.  They give us every raise we’ll ever get.  They pay for our kids’ education and for everything we own.

E is for Emphasize

Empathize means to put ourselves in their shoes.  Say something like, “Wow.  I understand why you’re upset.  I’d be upset, too” or, “I’m sure glad you told me that so we can do something about it.”  Or simply, “Thanks for telling me.”

A is for Ask

Ask, “What can I do to make you happy?”  Now, most of the time you don’t actually have to ask.  Often times it is obvious.  But, sometimes you will want to ask.  The main thing though, is the idea and your attitude of “What can I do to Make You Happy?”  It’s your job to make the client happy.

R is for Resolve

You will want to give your team members guidelines as to what they can and can’t do right then and there to make the client happy.  If what the client wants is reasonable, and it is within the guidelines you give, your team member needs to make the client happy.  Train them to take care of the client right then and there.

I know if is easy for me to say without an angry person in front of me to implement this LEAR Principle.  It’s a lot more difficult to implement calmly and rationally when someone is possibly screaming at you or showing a huge amount of disfavor towards you.  You need to train your team members to understand that the client is upset at the situation and not with them.  Teammates need to be trained to not take it personally.  They need to understand that the client is upset with the situation and not them personally.  Train your team members to take a deep breath, and tell themselves, “This is not me. It’s the situation.”  Train them to talk to themselves and make sure that they are the person who stays calm and collected.  Train them that there is never an excuse ot get angry or short.

If the client is terribly abusive with swearing or something like that, your team member needs to be trained to say, “Sir, if you could watch your language I’m sure I can help you,” or, “Ma’am, if you want to watch your language I’m sure I can help you.”

Now, what if what the client asks for is above your guidelines or is completely unreasonable?  In this case you simply say to the client something like, “I’m going to have to get a manager to see if we can do that.”  Or, “Let me see if my manager can take care of that for you.”  Or, “You know, we don’t have a manager here at the moment who can approve that right now, but can I get your phone number and I can have them get back to you tomorrow morning or whenever is most conventient for you?”

In order to use the LEAR Principle effectively I suggest you empower your front line people with your “Make-You-Happy Guarantee.”  I believe “Make-You-Happy” is the best and least costly guarantee for your business.

Here’s our Make-You-Happy Guarantee:  “When a client has a problem, American Retail Supply team members are trained to ask, ‘What can I do to make you happy?’  In 43 years we have never refused a client’s request to make it right.”

Does this mean we’ll do anything?  Just about.  We’ve never refused a client’s request to make it right yet.  But my guess is that someday someone will ask for something so outrageous that we don’t do it.  Then I won’t be able to say, “In 43 years we’ve never refused a client’s request to make it right.”

I’ve given my seminar, “How to Compete with the Mass Merchandisers” to many different organizations.  Each time I ask retailers if any have a guarantee similar to ours.  In every seminar a few people raise their hands.  Then I ask them how the guarantee works.  Every person, every time answers, “Great!”

Then I ask each of these retailers with the What Can I Do To Make You Happy Guarantee, “How often do people ask for more than what you would be willing to give them?”  The answer is “Almost never,” or “Never!”

If people never, or almost never ask for more than you would be willing to give them, why ask them to jump through hoops, or talk to a manager to give them what they want?

This guarantee will most likely cost you less than a guarantee in which you make an offer to the client.  More often than not the client will ask for much less than you would have offered.  This savings will more than make up for the few times that clients are unreasonable.

You certainly will want to give your staff some guidelines.  Give them a limit as to what they can do without a manager’s approval.  Then, unless the request is ridiculous, train them to take care of the client on the spot!

Again, if the request is ridiculous or over their limit, train them to say something like, “I’m sorry, but I’m not authorized to do that, but if I can get your name and phone number I’ll be sure that our owner gives you a call tomorrow.”

So What Happens When Someone Asks for Something Really Unreasonable?

In my next blog post, I’ll go over some tips on what to do in the rare event that someone asks for something really unreasonable. Stay tuned…

In the meantime, are you wondering where these guidelines come from? And how do you handle other things like greeting customers, talking with customers on the phone and working together as a team to deliver better-than-average customer service? Click here to find out more about how we do this in our businesses.

For a limited time, you can also get a free copy of my book – The Happy Customer Handbook.