When we are looking to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty through customer intimacy, it again boils down to asking questions of your customers.  You know you have a good quality product.  You know you provide pretty good service.  But do you really think it’s a case of “Build It and They Will Come?”

You need to really be in tune with your customers.  You need to ask them the right questions to determine what it is about your products that brings them back to you.

Ask these questions…

What is it that they like about your product or service?  What is it that they DON’T like about it?  How do they benefit by using your product?  If you are business to business, how do your customers make money with your service?  What challenges do they face when using your product?

Now, a lot of you may think that you already do a pretty good job of asking these or similar questions of your customers.  If that is truly the case, then congratulate yourself because you are already ahead of 95% of your competition.  They are still lagging behind in the “Build It and They Will Come” mentality.  Really, that’s so 1989.

If you want to be even smarter about the way you do business and tailor it to your customers, take this next step…

Ask those same questions, but instead of asking about your product or service, substitute the word “business” to get a better gauge on how your business itself is serving your customers.  How is your response time?  Are your salespeople really helping solve problems or just trying to sell product that your customers don’t really need?  Are your customer support staff knowledgeable enough about  your products and services?  Are there any obstacles that make it difficult to do business with you?

There was a saying that I used when I was young to defend my constant question asking.. “The one who asks the most questions learns the most.”  As a business leader, you could use this same premise with a twist…

“The business that asks the most questions and acts on them EARNS the most.”

What do you think?

Do You Know Who Your Customers Are

Increasing customer satisfaction through customer intimacy depends on one very important thing – How well you know your customer base.  Who is it that is doing business with you?  This may seem very basic and rudimentary, but it is actually one of the factors that most businesses have taken the time to ask themselves.

We all know that customer are the ones who bring dollars into our company and sustain us financially, but who are they really?  It’s time to discuss this point with your leadership team.  You need to clearly define who your customers are in order to take the next step toward customer intimacy.   You can’t get to know someone intimately on a personal level without getting to know more about them.  The same holds true in the professional world.

By clearing identifying who your customers are, you’ll be better able to decipher how to serve them better.  Discuss your customer base with your leadership team, front line staff, and sales staff.  What type of customers do you have?  Are they individuals or businesses?  Are they large companies, small businesses, or solo-prenuers?  How long have they been in business?  What field are they in?  What are their similarities?  What are their differences?  Ask yourselves these questions in order to open up the discussion to dive deeply for knowledge.  You must determine who your customers are before you can go about improving your business for their benefit.  If you don’t know who you are serving, it’s really just a shot in the dark.

Improving customer service and satisfaction requires an appreciation of the people that are currently coming to you for your products and services.  By doing this exercise, you may even discover that the people who are keeping you in business are not the ones you originally thought would ever do business with you.  You never know unless you ask.  By asking, you understand. When you understand, you are in a better position to serve and increase customer loyalty, as well as profits.

Why are some small specialty stores having their best year ever?  Because more consumers than ever are putting an emphasis on customer service to determine where they do their shopping. The smaller stores recognize that they may not be able to beat the larger stores in price, but they can more than make up for the difference with the service they provide. Younger adults are now more than twice as likely to choose stores based on service.  This shows that delivering excellent customer service is more important than ever before and shows no signs of fading into the background.

There is tremendous competition based on prices, so the smart retailers are focused on providing an experience, not just a deal.  The Mom and Pop stores, small retailers, and specialty stores are finding their niche in delivering something that the big box stores just aren’t providing – an enjoyable shopping experience that engages the shopper.

Readers of this blog know that there are three ways to differentiate yourself in today’s market:

• Price
• Product
• Service

Service is the easiest, cheapest, and provides the largest return on investment and effort.

Read what a small retailer in Kalamazoo, Michigan has to say about providing a unique shopping experience that sets them apart from the larger stores.

“Certainly there is tremendous competition,” said Vicky Kettner of Downtown Kalamazoo Incorporated . They’ve gone to battle for your buck, placing billboards miles from downtown and right on the front lines of its big box competitors.

Their idea is to sell a holiday experience that consumers say is lacking in modern retail.

“When someone is looking for a relaxed environment, where experience is important, customer service is important and selection is important for the uniqueness of things, then we have a good story to tell,” she said.

To really provide a unique experience to increase your profits and loyal customer base, you’ll find all of the strategies and techniques right here at http://www.kristinaevey.com/products/5-steps-to-more-loyal-customers/

Successful customer service and football.  What do they have in common?  They both rely heavily on huddles.  Think about it.  In football, the huddle is when the play and strategy is discussed.  It’s when they make sure that everyone has what they need to make the play and score the touchdown.

Customer Service Huddles Increase Customer Satisfaction

The exact same thing goes down in a huddle at the office. The manager, supervisor, or team leader gathers everyone for just a short time and makes sure that everyone knows what is needed to make that day go well for both the customers and the company.

The leader needs to make sure that everyone knows what is expected of them.  All team members must understand their role in the big picture and needs to speak up if they need help or assistance.

It’s during the huddle that the day is mapped out and challenges are prepared for.

I strongly advise you to have 5-7 minute huddles DAILY with your teams. This should be part of the DNA of your business, team, or office.  The huddles need to happen daily and consistently.  As a leader, you need to ensure that they be short in duration and full of relevant information.   They should cover what is being worked on, appointments for the day, any current customer issues, anything that is required or needed for a project to be completed, and requests for information and assistance.

Remember, prepare your team for success by giving them a game plan for the day.  Find out what is needed, what should happen, what to do in case the unexpected happens, offer assistance to those who may need it, keep those working on projects  accountable.  Find out about the challenges facing your team.  Be brought up to speed on customer issues and internal department issues.  With huddles, these should essentially act as a game plan for the day.

Using huddles in the workplace makes everyone a winner.

Customer service and satisfaction consultants often advise clients to share and celebrate our successes.  It’s wonderful when someone on our team has done something far above and beyond their responsibilities to deliver excellent service for a customer.  I advise clients to do this on a regular basis during every staff meeting.

By sharing successes, it opens up the creativity of the other team members as to how to surprise and delight their customers.  Many of us stumble in our efforts to come up with a new idea, so I highly recommend repeating what someone else has done successfully.  Call it copying, but if it works in the best interest of the customer, everyone wins.

The challenge comes when we have a few team members who are not used to recognizing their strengths or something that they’ve done well.  While a herculean effort always makes for a good story, it is usually the smallest efforts and gestures made under the radar or behind the scenes that are  most appreciated by the customer.  So when we have those instances when no one can think of something that went well, I like to inject a little bit of fun.

“The Gummy Worm Award”

The Gummy Worm Award promotes Excellent Customer Service

When someone can’t think of something that they did well for a customer, give them an award of a bag of sour gummy worms. No one will want to have that bag of gummy worms for long, so the next meeting, they will most likely have more than one example of something they did well for a customer.

This is all in good fun, but reinforces the fact that we all need to recognize that simply by doing our jobs well, we make a difference in the  minds of our customers.  It doesn’t even need to be something directly job related.  It could be that you made a phone call to your customer’s next appointment and informed them that the customer is on their way.  It could be that you made an unscheduled  proactive phone call to a customer about an issue they’ve been dealing with.  Maybe you sent your customer an article that caught your attention because it relates to their industry.

I hope you get the point here.  The above examples are small acts that make a big difference to a customer.  None of them may seem monumental, but any one of them could be the difference that makes the difference to the customer and gets them to return to your business or renew their account with you. We need to reinforce to our teams that the small things count and will keep the focus on the positives, not the negatives that arise from time to time.

By having your teams share what has worked for them, it gets them to recognize what they do well, gives examples to others to follow, and keeps the focus on the positive aspects of customer service and the difference it makes to our current customers.  When they try some of the strategies that have worked for their peers, their level of customer service improves, as does their feeling of empowerment and ownership in the company overall.

I’d love to hear your comments and strategies you’ve found useful in getting your teams to recognize their efforts.

Manage the Customer’s Expectations Up Front

Patient Care Requires Rapport

This morning I took my seven year old daughter to the oral surgeon for a frenectomy. While it is a relatively easy and painless outpatient procedure, the fact that it involved a needle was enough to get my daughter a little nervous. It didn’t help that her big brother did his brotherly duties of scaring her about the laser that would be used. Needless to say, she was a bit apprehensive about the whole procedure.

All of my fears were immediately alleviated when we checked in at the front desk. The receptionist greeted me, then stood up so she could see my daughter and looked her in the eye and welcomed her to the office and told her how nice she looked. I then took the necessary paperwork and we both sat down in the waiting room. My daughter looked at me and whispered “Mom, she talked to ME, not just you! They have very good customer service!” It really was pretty cute, but it resounded with me that people notice everything. Even kids have a perception of being treated well or not.

Throughout the visit, all of the assistants were very kind to us and explained everything in layperson’s language to me and then again in “kid friendly” terms to be sure that we both understood what would happen.  The best part was when they made it fun to wear the goggles and the bib, turning her into a superhero.

The point of this anecdotal post is that customer service, patient care, whatever you want to call it is about connecting with the customer.  It’s about building rapport, trust, and relationships to make the experience beneficial, if not enjoyable at the same time.  In this case, it was all about making my daughter feel comfortable and important.  This particular oral surgeon’s office did that successfully. When considering the areas for improvement in your business, make sure you consider things from the perspective of the customer and what will make the biggest impact for them.  Often, you’ll find that it is the little things like goggles and a cape turning a small child into a superhero that will turn an patient visit, or customer transaction, into one of the highlights of the day.

Customer service training should always include the personal touch and being on the lookout for the little things that make a difference to your customers. I interviewed a fellow attendee at a recent conference about the things that bring her back to a business and the things that will drive her away. Lain will tell you, from a customer perspective, what wins her business and what will make her take her spending dollars elsewhere.

The personal touch goes a long way in making sure that your customers don’t feel that they are one of the many “transactions” that you have to “get through” everyday. When you engage personally and surprise your customers even in small ways, it makes an impression on them that keeps them coming back for more.

What are you doing in your business to train customer service and keeping the personal touch in the forefront?

Train Your Staff Like Athletes Do - Continually

When athletes break their own records or win that “big game”, do they stop training for the next event?  No.

Should your customer skills training stop once the staff member has started working in their position after the initial training?  Absolutely not.

In order to keep your staff at the top of their “game,” continual training is necessary to reiterate the importance of focusing on the customer.

Unfortunately, many businesses try to skimp by not investing the time and resources into their staff.  Your staff will only be as good as they currently are should you accept the status quo.  Your customers won’t accept the status quo and you, as the small business owner or leader, shouldn’t either.

Customers are becoming more and more sophisticated and savvy each day.  They know that times are tight and that everyone is fighting to keep their current customers, much less trying to market to and attract new customers.

You must train your staff to deliver excellent customers skills continually and consistently. This demonstrates the commitment that your organization has to deliver superior service each and every time to each and every customer.  Training must be a part of the culture and DNA of your organization and be known as one of the foundation blocks of constant quality improvement.  Companies that train consistently on at least a monthly basis, whether a formal training session or a discussion as part of their regular staff meetings, recognize the level of service continually improving among their staff.

Staff working in continual improvement companies realize that the focus is always on the customer and look for ways to implement their new strategies with customers.  They look forward to sharing the successes and occasional failures with the rest of the team.  Failures are perfect opportunities for discussion to explore what went wrong and why.  How much was in the staff or company’s control?  How much was due to the personality of the customer involved?  Were there outside factors at play?  Any discussion involving strategies and skills for the customer’s best interest works to bring the group together and improve as a team.

So for the businesses and companies that are looking to cut back on expenses and not train their teams to be at their best when interacting with their customers, I offer a word of warning.  You may have adequate skills now, but one of your competitors is looking to “up their game” and woo your customers away.  Keep in mind that 70% of the time, your customers are leaving only because someone in your company didn’t treat them well enough.  How much money does that customer bring into your business over a lifetime?  My bet is that a small investment of time and resources to improve customer service skills won’t even come close to the dollars that are walking out your door.