So what was different about this server?

He connected with us instantly, we felt he was on our wavelength, he was down-to-earth funny, he was sincere in his interest about how we were enjoying our food.  When I looked around at the other tables on our section,( curious to see how he was connecting with others), I noticed that he took the same sincere interest with each table but interacted slightly differently depending on who was at the table.  For instance, he showed compassion with a lady who was on her own with two children, one of whom was a very impatient toddler.  With another table next to ours were four elderly people and again he connected with them as if he were the same age but blended in with a different sort of respect.  Intrigued, I had to tell our server how much we appreciated his approach and I asked him what it was that drove him to be like this.

After thanking me, he said that he just loves having fun with people and making them smile.  He then said that he was very tired, they had been extremely busy but serving people with a miserable manner “…isn’t going to help anyone, is it?”

I guess the thing that struck me is something I believe to be fundamental in customer service and that is ‘attitude’.  This server may have had all the right things technically but the thing that set him apart from his colleagues was his attitude.  The other thing that struck me was one word that he said, “love”.  He said he loved to have fun, not likes, but loves.  This is a much stronger emotion which brings with it a different kind of energy – one that drives people to lift cars to save a trapped loved one, one that fuels people to run miles to raise money for a worthy cause etc.  So if we take any lessons from this server about really delighting customers maybe it should be to find ways to incorporate love into our approach.

What will you do today, on the day of LOVE to show people you really do love what you do?

Nominations open January 4th 2011
Closing date for nominations March 31st 2011
Closing date for entry submission 5pm March 31st 2011
Finalists’ announcement April 11th 2011
Finals & Awards July 8th 2011

If you wish to nominate someone, submit an entry, be a judge, sponsor or exhibit then please let Anne Marie Lose know right away. The pre-launch interest has been massive.
For further information or to submit your entry please go to http://www.customerservicetrainingawards.com/

I look forward to celebrating with you.

Caroline

This is the third blog in which we have chatted about creating a following. In this short blog we share our thoughts about getting going to attract your customers to you.

You can no longer push your products out there with the promise of free gifts, clever ads or the more romantic/ aspirational gestures. Customers are too savvy now. Just as the premise of the  marketplace for great employees has been blown away by new entrants with a promise of ownership, excitement and responsibility, so has your customer marketplace. You once spoke to your customer one customer at a time, in one home at a time, now you speak to millions all over the world at the press of a button. No longer are people happy with you controlling the agenda, they want to discuss the things that are important to them, with people who they respect, at a time and pace that is right for them. So pushing your products and services to the many waiting hoards is no longer an option but how do you pull them towards you? How do you start a meaningful dialogue with the people you need to buy from you?

They need to be courted, just like you before you started dating! You don’t just pitch up at a random house and knock on someone’s door asking for a date, do you? You go to the places that people who you think you’d like hang out. You start chatting to people, asking questions, showing you’re interested. You want to be guaranteed of a yes before you pop the question!

So as an organisation who is courting customers and great staff ask yourself:

1. Where should you hang out to start building that relationship?

2. What things do you need to be interested in to help galvanise their interest in you?

3. What questions can you ask to start the dialogue?

4. What do you need to offer your ‘following’ to keep them interested?

Love to know what you think.

Caroline

Seth Godin’s interview on training zone talks about the necessity of connecting and how can companies can develop tribes . Seth gave the example of Steve Jobs and Apple – Why does Apple have such a following? Because people see Steve Jobs as the human face of Apple and they buy the product as a symbol of being part of his tribe.

Which then got me thinking about my recent experience with two companies one large and one niche player. The large company is John Lewis where the sales assistant in the electronics department saved me around £100 by asking my telephone supplier to provide me with a wireless internet connection-how cool was that? I already regularly shop in John Lewis but that single action deepened my trust in them and confirmed the significance of their Brand promise.

The niche player is Lizi from www.good-carb-food.co.uk I love their granola cereal as it has a low gi affect on the blood sugar (being diabetic it helps). I emailed Lizi (as that’s what her packets tell you to do if you have any questions). I had an immediate response from her. I asked if they had any granola bars to provide me with a healthier snack when I travel. Lizi wrote back telling me they are working on it, however they do snack packs of granola and asked for my address. As if by magic, I had 18 packets of snack packs in the post.

Wouldn’t you want to be associated with these companies who care? I am firmly part of their tribe now.

What can you do to encourage your tribe to grow?

We are still in the grips of an incredibly tough trading climate yet one of the positive things to come out of these times is our focus to challenge existing practices and explore better, more cost effective and simpler ways of working. Please share your stories with us and others so that we can all make the difference that will help us steer a stronger, more sustainable course in  the future.

‘I love you more than my dog’ by Jeanne Bliss is all about the decisions companies make that lead to extremely loyal customers. It is about the companies that as customers we just love – they are beloved. (I think in the UK we’d call them national treasures!!)

It’s only currently available on pre-order at Amazon but you can download the first chapter for free from the author’s website here..

Just reading the first page rang so true for me in terms of how we aim to do business at Leaps and Bounds.
This extract sums it up:

“Customers admire the beloved companies for how they are treated, not for how they are handled. And they love these companies because of how they feel when they come into contact with them. The language on the packing slip seems as if an old friend wrote it, not a computer. The voice on the other end of the line asks about your mom for whom you’re buying a sweater. And there’s no “corporate” pomp when you walk in the door. How beloved companies make decisions inspires acts that transcend normal business practices to create an emotional connection with their customers.”

Jeanne then goes on to discuss the 5 decisions that beloved companies make:

Decision 1: Beloved Companies Decide to Believe.
“We trust our customers. We trust those who serve them.”
Decision 2: Beloved Companies Decide with Clarity of Purpose.
“Our iron-clad integrity and clarity guides the direction of our decisions.”
Decision 3: Beloved Companies Decide to Be Real.
“We have a spirited soul, humanity in our touch, and personality that’s all ours.”Decision 4: Beloved Companies Decide to Be There.
“We must earn the right to our continued relationship with customers.”Decision 5: Beloved Companies Decide to Say Sorry.
“We act with humility when things go wrong. We will make it right.”

Simple but powerful decisions and I’m looking forward to finding out more about the companies that have implemented these successfully.

So enjoy the read – great to have access to the chapter and I’m planning on pre-ordering my copy already.

Gill

Or

When you ask the assistant in another store why is there a difference of £25 between one shirt and another, which from the front look the same, the assistant shrugs his shoulders and replies, “I don’t know”.

Now let’s be clear I’m not a shopaholic but sometimes I just like to go to enjoy the experience especially when it’s in a new shopping centre like Westfield in West London.

So how can it be that a person within one store has the authority with his clipboard to tell you where in the queue you are but guides me to the competition instead of thinking to himself “I’ve got an immediate sale here what to I need to do to make that happen?”

Alternatively, that the assistant in the other store has not enough interest in me or in the products to answer my question and so ensure I will come back in the future.

Learning from the independents

This is where the big chains have a lot to learn from the independent retailers on the high street who put the customer at the heart of the relationship. They take the time with you to discuss your requirements and then help you find something that best suits your needs. This is what I experienced at Lodger footwear and my hat goes off to Clement in the way he handled my questioning and the length of time it took me to make a decision, so much so he offered me a coffee while I made up my mind! And also worthy of praise was Nathan Brown the owner who had just that moment walked into the shop with 3, what looked like very important, people. He still made the time to talk to me and in the space of 5 mins we got to know each other quite well.

Thank you Nathan and Clement.

So whatever business you are in don’t take your eye off the basics because it is these little things that will get your customers having a great experience and wanting more!

Here are three things to check in your business this week to help you stay spot on with the basics:

1. Make sure your systems are designed to make the experience better for you rather than the customer. Talk to your staff regularly and listen to their suggestions
2. Then allow and actively encourage them to do what it takes for every customer.
3. Remind your service teams that they serving people not processing orders. It’s the emotional connection they make that will turn a routine encounter into a positive and memorable experience for the customer.
Dilesh

Here is our weekly update of our favourite twitters and blog posts for the week:

1. 10 Branding and Marketing Trends for 2010 – http://tinyurl.com/ycadk8x

2. Reading Oxford union debate on e-learning. http://bit.ly/2tUor4

3. Top tips for a customer service culture from Marketing Donut http://bit.ly/3NApbB

4. Employees as stars – how do you shout about your talent? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLPHrCQr2I&feature=player_embedded

5. Planning ideas for National Customer Service Week http://www.nationalcustomerserviceweek.com/Ideas.aspx

6. A lovely short film/poem helping remind us that we CAN control our attitude http://www.danceintherainmovie.com/

7. How to make customer service fun! Some simple tips to apply today – how many of your customers do you treat like new friends? http://www.ehow.com/how_2066026_make-customer-service-fun.html

8. And finally – just for fun a song to make sense of the connection between your phone and everything else! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjJSWoGbKKI

Enjoy clicking on as much as we did!

Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to sign up to our FOC 12 Week Managers Development Journey! http://tinyurl.com/yaqyjtq

In a nutshell it was a link to a blog by Paul McCrudden about a personal experiment he conducted where for 6 weeks he recorded the time and money he spent as a consumer of various brands – from TfL to Pret a Manger.  In his words ..”…it provides a fascinating insight into how I live my life as a consumer, and which brands steal my attention.”

He then wrote to all these companies with an invoice for the time he spent with them.  The blog featured the response from Pret…

There are so many ways they got it right in their response – which was to reimburse him in full, with interest,  in a personal letter from Julian Metcalfe, Pret’s founder.

Here are my top 3

1. Whoever opened the letter had the instinct to see this as an opportunity. With the speed stories like this spread then this would be £62.80 very well spent. Ask yourself do your people take every opportunity to promote your brand?
2. The tone of the letter was perfect and written (if the blog is anything to go by) in the spirit of whole experiment. And at the same time in seemed completely in keeping with the Pret brand – absolute respect for the customer with that same tongue in cheek sense of humour you see all the time in stores. So, can all your people represent your brand and still offer a really personalised service to all your customers?
3. At the end the PS asks for feedback on anything else Pret can do to make the service even better. The question here is are you always looking for ways to improve your products, services and the way they are delivered?

I now can’t wait to read the rest of the responses.

And, sorry to keep you waiting, here is the link to the blog

http://www.paulmccrudden.com/sixweeks/pret/pret_response.htm

Looking forward to some more comments – off to get breakfast in Pret

Gill

Now, perhaps everyone was in a pretty chilled mood that day, or perhaps they were in an airport induced stupor as queuing is so much part of the experience these days, but suprisingly no one complained. We waited in line like well behaved sheep. Perhaps that’s why they think it’s ok to make us wait – I can’t quite believe that any of the major supermarkets would be able to get away with that even on the busiest Saturday. What was even more surprising is that no one complained despite the fact that we didn’t get a single apology (I was actually scolded for being in the wrong queue but still didn’t complain for fear of being sent to the back of the right one) or that they must have known how many cars had been booked as most people were clutching on to pre-booking forms.

Now, I didn’t make the booking but they must have had a good deal as all the other desks stood empty as our queue snaked almost out of the door. But how much is 50 minutes of our time worth when we almost missed our meeting – the main reason for the flight to Scotland? If it was up to me I’d go elsewhere but I guess the person who books will do so with a more rational head on and give them another chance I’m sure.

So ,why are reluctant customers much more dangerous than happy ones or complaining ones? Well firstly they tell lots of people – I’m not so discreet about the name with friends and family!  Secondly, they have no goodwill towards you or your front line teams who will sooner or later bear the brunt of their frustration. Thirdly, they don’t give you the opportunity to do anything to redeem yourself. And I haven’t even mentioned that they wil sooner or later simply and quietly take their business elsewhere.

Now, I know non of this will be news to those of you in the customer service industry, but very often it is neglect of the simple things that can in the long run lose you customers. So here are my three top tips to avoid falling into the ‘reluctant customer’ trap.

1. People may be wooed by great deals – but if you can’t meet demand then you might lose as many customers as you gain

2. Train your staff to respond to the signs of ‘silent frustration’ – the raised eyebrows or heavy sighs. It’s simply not good enough to say nothing for an easy life

3. Say sorry when you need to – it’s simple, it’s easy and sadly quite rare. Providing you fix the problem for next time it will really build loyalty

Gill