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

What would enable your organisation to flourish? What differences in the way you could operate would help with this aim?

For those of you interested in wikis the origins of the phrase are interestingly penned out here

So what’s the connection between generating tribes and your organisation flourishing?

We can spend so much time thinking about how to connect with our customers and our Brand image that we overlook the need to connect with our staff. Your people are your biggest tribe, and the largest group who can help you make that connection in every transaction they perform on behalf of your company.

What single action could you initiate that would start to develop a tribe within your organisation?

Quick check to help you decide whether this is important to you or not.

As the ‘human face “ of your business, are your people talking passionately about where they work and recommending their company to friends and family to join them as an employee or to buy their products?

If we can develop our internal tribe not just so they like their work, but rather that they love their work and shout about it, if we translate that sense of engagement to outside of work with our friends our community wow we really could be ‘ Cool Britannia’ again!

In this Youtube video Seth Godin, challenges you to create a movement in 24 hours, to step up and be the change you believe in… will you do it?

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.

So what can we learn from this programme (did I say you simply must watch it). Two things:

1. Lessons from Perry – Dr Doofenschmurtz is so obsessed with showing off to his nemesis Agent P (Perry) that he never manages to fulfil his evil intentions. How much time, money, and resource do you and/or your organisation spend looking at your competition and trying to outdo them? What could you more fruitfully achieve if you spent that time creatively asking and listening to your customers instead? I hear the constant obsession by some organisations with enticing customers from competitors through early deals and seductive promises that we forget the thousands/ millions of customers with whom we already have a relationship. Research shows that businesses are doing everything in their power to make it as easy as possible to switch but are they deploying the same amount of resources on helping customers to stay? Which leads me nicely to the second learning from Phineas and Ferb
2. Each day they invent the impossible. Each episode starts with “Hey Ferb, I know what we are going to do today!” With conviction, passion and enthusiasm their inventiveness has rubbed off on the most unusual bunch of children who gather to help. If you started each day with that same mantra with the same energy and conviction, what new ideas do you think you and your team could have to help your customers stay. Often the boys create inventions to thrill their friends and has nothing to do with their own motives. They get their kicks simply by helping or creating something for others. So why not spend the next week just talking to your customers, delving a little deeper and showing that you really care.  Ask your staff too also. You never know what you mind find out to help them stay loyal to you.

‘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

What I’ve noticed from my analysis is that every time I shop in Waitrose I look for Janet on the tills because without question, if she is working I will queue just to be served by her… the reason?

No, not because I’m a creature of habit … It’s because Janet provides that extra little bit that always makes me leave the store with a smile.

Now, take nothing away from the other employees in my local store – they are all extremely polite, efficient and always provide great service… but there is something slightly different about Janet.

What I’ve noticed is that she always does the following – with what seems to be any customer who comes to her checkout:

1. Asks you how your day is going, and genuinely listens to start a conversation
2. Smiles – and genuinely smiles… she truly looks like she is enjoying what she does, so you cant help but smile with her
3. Treats you with real care

And as a result she gets me returning to her checkout time and time again, because of the way I feel after my interaction with her!

So, how many of your team members create repeat customers like this? What could we all learn from Janet?

Enjoy your customer interactions this weekend!

Carly x

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