One Year of Blogging

As many of you know, I have been blogging off and on for over a year. Because I cannot remember what I've written about in the past, I just put together a list of all my blogs. It occurred to me that you might find it useful to look at too.

Here are the topics in order from the most recent to the earliest.

How to turn difficult customers into raving fans

The knife-edge we live on

Customers are outraged and managers delusional

8 Lessons form a winner

How easy do you make it for your customers?

Is the customer always right?

It’s not complicated

Unhappy customers threaten profits

Some key differences

Ask and learn

You don’t want customers

Are your "eyes" too close together?

Today I fired my insurance broker

Could I please buy something?

Customers as learners

Rising expectations

Businesses must dramatically improve the way they look after their customers

It’s not rocket science

It’s just common sense

Customer Service is a matter of personal choice

Now here’s an interesting thought

The laws of customer retention

Turn your customers into Believers

The power of a simple single idea

More evidence loyalty programmes need improving

Effective Managers know the power of repetition

How do your customers react to your actions?

Business is the activity of creating value

Your employees could sabotage your promotions

New World is New Zealand’s best supermarket for customer service

What business are you really in?

Around the world customers expect more but think they are getting less

Marketers don’t understand women

Word of mouth is the strongest influence on where customers shop

Make it easy for your customers to talk to you

Many loyalty programmes are ineffective

How to turn a good customer experience into a great one

How to Turn A Difficult Customer Into A Raving Fan

I am often asked the best way to deal with difficult customers. You know the ones I mean, those very demanding repeat customers you would rather do without but cannot afford to. They come in with a chip on their shoulder and a sour look on their face. They ignore your attempts to engage them in friendly conversation but are very quick to complain when you fail to meet their very high expectations. Indeed, nothing you do seems to please them. Consequently, when they walk in the door everyone tries to be busy or take a break to avoid dealing with them. And when they walk finally out, everyone left standing breathes a sigh of relief and asks: “What’s wrong with this person? Why do they always make dealing with them so difficult?” The view that the customer is the problem is so common there is an entire industry built around training courses showing how to deal with ‘problem’ customers. But perhaps it is not just the customer who is being difficult.

Noleen Turner, manager of the Port Macquarie branch of the Holiday Coast Credit Union in New South Wales recently discovered there is another way of dealing problem customers apart from battling with them or trying to manipulate them. For the past two years, the Holiday Coast Credit Union has been on a journey to become customer driven and Noleen has been one the first to be prepared to re-examine everything her branch does from the customer’s perspective. This has lead to some startling insights, significant changes, and some exciting and very rewarding results.

For several years, Noleen and her team have dealt with a long-term customer of advanced years who fits the description of a difficult customer perfectly. Before he retired, this customer owned a business and did all his business banking with the credit union. Any time there was a change to the credit union’s procedures, he would complain either about the credit union or the government depending on whom he thought had instigated the change. “Everything was a major issue,” says Noleen. “Although my team and I were always pleasant and treated this customer respectfully, we were never able to build any rapport with him.” Fuel was added to the fire when, as a result of the introduction of Anti Money Laundering Legislation, the credit union required customers to use a password of their choosing when doing account transactions. This customer just hated using a password and dealing with him became a battle to see who would break first. It even got to the point where staff would take it in turns to serve him. When Noleen spoke to her staff about their reluctance to serve this customer, they told her how difficult he was to deal with. “We explained to him why we had to ask for his password,” they said,  “but he just didn’t want to listen to what we had to say.” That is when it hit Noleen that perhaps this customer was always in a bad mood because he felt the credit union did not value his business enough to take the time to learn what was important to him.

The next time the customer came into the branch, Noleen invited him into her office for a chat. She learned that her hunch was correct. He told her he was usually in a bad mood because, although he had been a customer of the Credit Union for many years, it seemed staff treated him as if his business did not count for much. To him, the password issue proved that. Since he was a long time customer, he expected staff would know his password so every time they asked for it, it told him they did not recognise him or the value of his business. That is why he got so irritated he told her. It did not take long before he expected he would be having a bad experience at the branch so he came in expecting a fight.

Once Noleen got to know her customer, his expectations and grievances, the solutions were easy to find. She introduced him to each staff member and explained that he was a loyal and valued customer. Later she talked to them about how important it was they recognised him when he came into the branch. These days, whenever the customer walks into the branch, the person on the Greeting Desk greets him by name and walks him over to a teller he knows. Since Port Macquarie is a training branch, sometimes the only teller free is a new teller-in-training. In this case, the Greeter introduces the customer to the trainee and explains he is a valued member of the credit union. The Greeter then explains to the customer that the trainee must learn to go through some security checks as part of their training and that he would be playing an important role in helping train this new teller if he would go along with these checks. The customer really likes this as it makes him feel a part of the credit union team.

But has any of this made a difference? Late last year this customer deposited large sum of money into a Term Deposit following the sale of a property.  He knocked on Noleen’s door especially to tell her he had done that and then told her what a great young team she has. “Moreover, this grumpy customer is now a friendly, chatty customer who is a pleasure to deal with,” says Noleen. “He is now a one of the branch’s biggest fans and routinely tells people what a great place the Holiday Coast Credit Union is. You can’t buy advertising like that!”

The customer has not been the only one to  change, however. “As a team, we have learned we were the ones fuelling the confrontation,” says Noleen. “Now we are looking at every one of our processes as if we were the customer and asking ourselves how we would feel. It’s really enlightening!”

The Knife Edge We Live On

Are the people working in your business aware of the knife edge you live on?

Research shows that customers will give companies one, or may be two, chances to get it right and then they will dump you. And when you are gone, you are gone. It is almost impossible to get another chance in this crowded and competitive market.

Research also shows that if people have a good experience they will tell 9 others and about a third of the time they will recommend that company. If they have a bad experience they will tell 13 others and more than half the time they will suggest those listening avoid doing business with that company.

When they are dealing with a customer, do your people think that what they say, do or decide will determine whether the customer spends money or leaves, and what they will tell others about your business?

What would you have to do to make sure they do?

Customers Are Outraged And Managers Are Delusional.

Research shows that today’s customers, even in New Zealand, are not disappointed or dissatisfied. They are outraged.

Managers on the other hand, are delusional. They think they are doing a great job of looking after their customers but their customers do not agree. In one American study, 80% of managers said they were doing a great job of looking after their customers. Only 8% of their customers agreed!

This provides a wonderful opportunity for businesses which want to gain a competitive advantage. If these businesses were to provide a great experience for their customers when their competitors were providing an aggravating one, their customers would not see them as being better but as being different.

8 Lessons From A Winner

In June 2011,  Sian Adamson, owner of Beauté Salon in Dunedin, won the 2011 award for Best New Beauty Salon. I interviewed Sian to see what the rest of us could learn from her success.

IRB: What was the biggest factor leading to your win?

Sian: Having a 100% commitment to striving for excellence in everything we do, from the quality of our beauty treatments to the 'delighters' we strategically place throughout our client’s visit; and from our ongoing training to our marketing.

IRB: Why have you put a lot of emphasis on the customer experience?

Sian: Our industry is hugely competitive. So having a unique point of difference is very important. A lot of businesses talk about offering good customer service but in today's business environment you need to do more than that to be different. You need to WOW your customers each and every time they visit.

IRB: You see over 600 customers a month. What has been your biggest challenge in creating an outstanding experience for them?

Sian: Ensuring my team delivers a high quality customer experience consistently. As the owner, you need to have quality control checks in place because you can't serve every customer yourself, or observe every client interaction. The only way to ensure we are delivering service at the level I want us to is by following up with our customers.

IRB: You have six full-time team members. How do you get the right people doing the right things?

Sian: I start by finding out what they are really passionate about and where their strengths lie. Then I design a training plan focused on upskilling them in that area to build their confidence. This is also the time when I introduce the concept of, We are in the customer business. I truly believe if I can get my team members to understand everything we do has to be about enhancing our customer experience, then we have the foundation necessary to be successful.

IRB:  In hindsight, what would you do differently?

Sian: I would definitely have put our quality control checks in place sooner and I would have made my team members accountable from the start. I have learnt it's okay to want to WOW your customers, it's okay to want to

strive to be the best in your field and it's okay to hold your team members accountable for poor performance.

IRB: Has focusing on creating an outstanding customer experience made any difference to the financial performance of your business?

Sian: Absolutely. It takes time but the results do come, particularly in the form of client referrals.  When you focus on delivering an outstanding client experience, clients leave your business feeling incredibly valued and very happy to have done business with you. They can't help but share that experience with others.  That is the best form of marketing you can get and it grows your business.

IRB: What advice would do you have for the owners of small businesses?

Sian: Go for gold! Set high standards for your team and aim to create the very best customer experience.  Set clearly defined goals for EVERY aspect of your business, not just financial goals, and then measure, measure, measure.

This successful businesswoman’s experience teaches us eight lessons for business success:

1. Strive for excellence in everything you do.

2. Set high goals for every aspect of your business.

3. Aim to WOW your customers not just provide them with good service.

4. Put quality controls in place.

5. Find out what your team members are passionate about and where their strengths lie.

6. Follow up with your customers. To make sure they are getting a top-rate experience.

7. Measure, measure, measure.

8. Hold you team members accountable.