Forget About Customer Service

Forget about trying to deliver great customer service.  No customer wants service. What they want are results and that comes from creating a positive personalised experience.

Positive because the customer wants to enjoy themselves and feel valued while they do business with you. There are enough things that happen during a day to make us feel miserable. We do not need to go shopping to feel like that! Positive also because the customer gets results because you give them the assistance, and perhaps even the solution, they need. After all, that is why they came to you.

Personalised because business is a social activity between human beings. None of us wants to feel like a number or an object. Do not think about providing a service, making a sale or transacting with a customer. Think about being with a friend or a member of your family. Would you treat them in a robotic manner or with indifference? Remember, we do business with people we like. Do your team members behave in likable way?

Experience because that is what your customers have when they deal with you. They do not just make an enquiry, complete a purchase or acquire a product. They have an experience. If it is poor, they will not come back. If it is good, they might. If it is great, they will. Do you manage your customer’s experience to maximise the chances they will return or do you leave it to chance?

To understand how to deliver a positive personalised experience, it is useful to divide the customer experience into three parts: The beginning, middle and end. I know this sounds simple but, hey, business may be tough but it is not complicated!  

As any musician will tell you, to be successful you need a strong beginning and a strong end. The middle should be less intense otherwise the customer will feel they are getting the hard sell. Nevertheless, the middle has to have substance to it or the customer will have wasted their time.

The objective at the beginning is to attract the customer to the business and keep them there. It is the opportunity to build a relationship between yourself and another human being. Here are seven steps to creating a strong beginning.

Step 1

If you are not already near the customer, a strong beginning starts by approaching the customer. I recently watched saw a salesperson call out a greeting to a customer from the other end of the store and then walked even further away, leaving the customer to “browse.”

Step 2

Acknowledge the customer. I stood for several minutes in front of a sales assistant the other day and watched him put price stickers on CDs. He even looked up at me once and then returned to what he obviously thought was his real job.

Step 3

Make eye contact eye and smile.  The smile needs to be warm and genuine, not lukewarm and false. Look like you are pleased to see your customer. After all, you should be. They are paying your wages and producing your profits.

Step 4

Say, “Good morning (afternoon, evening),” “Hello,” or “Hi” in a firm voice with some enthusiasm so once again it looks like you are pleased to meet the customer. Please note, a strong greeting does NOT come from saying: “Are you right?” “Please hold.” “How ya goin?”

Step 5

Warmly welcome the customer into your place of business. After all, is that not how you want them to feel? The best way to welcome somebody is to use the word, as in: “Welcome to our store.”

Step 6

Personalise the greeting by introducing yourself (even if you are wearing a name tag), asking for the customer’s name. Then use it throughout the time you are with them. Always treat the customer with respect. Do not assume everybody wants to be called by their first name. When in doubt, err on the side of formality. Note: “mate,’ ‘doll,’ ‘buddy,’ ‘pal,’ and ‘bro’ are not people’s names.

Step 7

Show a personal interest in your customer. This is done by engaging the customer in small talk before getting down to business. This is a useful step because it breaks the ice and gets the customer accustomed to talking to you. The key to doing this successfully is to have an interesting opening line. Try to say something a little more imaginative than: “How’s your day going?”

These seven simple but often overlooked steps will create the impact needed to (a) establish rapport with your customer, (b) win their confidence, (c) set you apart from your competitors, and (d) make your business somewhere they would like to come to again.

Imagine a team member walking up to you, making eye contact, smiling and saying enthusiastically: “Hello. Welcome to Acme Consolidated. My name is Peter. May I ask your name? … It’s nice to meet you Mr Robinson. Isn’t it great to see the sun shining after all that rain? I was beginning to think I would need to grow webbed feet. I see you’ve been shopping for clothes. What did you buy?” Would you think that was a strong beginning to a having personalised positive experience? Would you already be thinking, this place is different?

Next month we will look at what you have to do to create a middle with substance and an ending with impact. Meanwhile, here is a tip for helping your team members understand how important these steps are. Turn the seven steps into a five point rating scale where 1 is very poor, 3 is average and 5 is very good and ask them to use this scale to rate how well the places they shop do each of these seven steps. After they present the results for a given business, ask them whether they would want to go back there again.

Until next time, good luck creating a positive personalised experience for your customers.