Through the Eyes of the Customer

Fight Inflation by giving more value to your customers.

Every once in a while, we experience an inflection point that makes us stop and say, “Holy %^*#!”

We’ve all been there, right?

It happened to me twice this week.  The first time was at the gas pump.  As I was filling my tank, I looked up and noticed the price per gallon: 

It was over $4.00. 

Granted, that was on the Super Unleaded, but I’d never seen that a price that high on a gas pump in my entire life!  Call me naïve, but it was still an emotional shock.

The second event was less dramatic, but still a sign of the times:  I picked up a bag of Columbian coffee beans – the same 12-ounce bag I always buy, and it had gone up over 50 cents since the last time I bought it – a week earlier.

It’s inflation, and it’s real.  Soon, looking for lower prices will be a futile effort, since rising prices are a moving target.

So what’s a consumer to do?

Look for greater value.   That’s right, instead of searching for the gas station with the lower price, look for the one with the added value – like the dollar-off car wash with the fill-up.  Or the coupon for the free coffee.

When prices climb, smart customers look for added value.

As a company, what are you doing about it?  How can you deliver greater value to your customers?  What can you do differently?  How can you get creative?  What other forms of “overhead” are born by your customer, in the process of finding, buying, using or disposing of your product or service?  How can you deliver additional value in those areas, to reduce the customers’ overall expense?

When you figure it out, don’t forget to promote it, because if the customer doesn’t know, that too, will have been a futile effort. 

Inflation is here.  Customers are feeling it.  Use the opportunity to be more creative, and more innovative, to create more value for your customers.  And remember to tell them when you do.

 
Thanks to the Norwak Reflector for this inflationary photo.

False expectations can kill a customer experience.

Last Friday, my wife and I planned to meet for dinner after work.

I was to arrive first and get a table. 

When I entered the restaurant, the hostess told me that I could sit at any table that was open.  As luck would have it, there was a single table for two along the back wall.  I grabbed it, and sat down.

I then sent my wife a text:  “Got a table.  On the bar side, back wall.  Will have dirty martini waiting.”

I felt like a true hero. 

Five minutes later, the hostess came over to my table.

“Sir, we can’t serve you at this table.  It belongs to the party to your left.”

Off to the left was a private party of twelve.

“Oh – are they expecting someone else?”

“No, but we promised them that they would have a private section.”

“Oh, I understand.  Can we slide the table over to the right, so that they can keep their privacy?”

“No, we can’t do that.  I’m sorry.  But if you’d like, we’ll put you on our waiting list.”  (Fat chance, I thought...)

Right about that time, my wife arrived, expecting her dirty martini.

I had to deliver the bad news:  No table and no martini. I was made wrong by misinformation.

False expectations can kill an experience before it happens.  Make sure that you nail the expectations by following three simple steps:

1. Think before you speak.  Don’t say “you can sit anywhere” if that isn’t 100% correct. 
2. If you do mislead the customer, inconvenience yourself by going out of your way for the customer, rather than having the customer go out of their way for you.  Move the table, or find another one.
3. Remove misleading messaging.  If a customer can’t sit at a table, place a “Reserved” sign on it, or remove the table from view – completely.

Improperly set expectations can trigger a bad customer experience, and ruin relationships and reputations. Think before you speak, go out of your way to fulfill what the customer heard, and be sure that all your messaging is clear and consistent.

 Thanks to "The Portlander" for this lonely-looking table. 
 

How "wrap rage" is hurting the Customer Experience.

 
Have you ever bought a product that came in that clear plastic packaging that required strong scissors, a sharp machete, or a sacrificial finger just to get the damned thing open?

If you have, you know what I’m talking about.    

Can’t the companies pack their products in this stuff come up with a package that’s slightly more customer-friendly?  Don’t they realize that opening that brand new product is part of the customer experience?

Since so many companies use these plastic blister packs and clamshell packaging, I thought that maybe those marketing mavens and Chief Customer Officers already thought through this stuff, and that maybe I was the one with the problem… 

…until I did a quick web search, and found out  that I’m not alone.  In fact, this phenomenon is so widespread that there’s an actual term for this kind of frustration…

It’s called “Wrap rage.” 

And when an affliction has an official name, doesn’t that mean that it’s widespread enough to warrant some corrective action by the very companies that caused it?

And this problem isn’t new.  According to the Jewel Case blog, The London Daily Telegraph began reporting on it back in 2003.

In 2006, John Laumer blogged about Costco’s replacing the infuriating plastic clamshell with a new paperboard-based product that’s much easier to open.

And in his blog, Peter Fauer recommends a solution  for it.

Investigative reporting by The Early Show on CBS indicates in just one year in the UK, over 67,000 people were injured while trying to open this infuriating packaging.

So clearly, wrap rage is a problem that’s acknowledged by at least one big retailer, many bloggers and over 67,000 bloodied customers.

And here’s the point of it all…

Isn’t opening the product part of the entire customer experience?  Shouldn’t companies be making it easy for us to feel their products in our hands for the very first time?

Why don’t these consumer product companies think more clearly through the end-to-end customer experience, to recognized the issue, and act on it, to make our lives easier?

 

Opening the product shouldn't be a bad experience. 

What gives Zappo's and Best Buy their Customer-Centric DNA?

Some companies just seem genetically wired to deliver a great customer experience. 

Run a DNA test on employees at companies like Zappo's, Best Buy and Disney, and you’ll probably find the presence of a certain gene in their DNA.   Let's call that the  "customer centric gene," or CCG for short.

What is it about these companies that causes them to find and attract employees that with the Customer Centric Gene?

They all follow a three step process: 

They design each position around the customer, hire people with a natural desire to serve, and place the customer at the center of the onboarding processs.

1. Define the job around the customer.
Make the description about the customer your serving; not the products or services that you’re selling.  Check out this recent Job Posting from Best Buy – one of the top electronic retailers in the country -  for a Product Process Assistant Store Manager Job.

The first paragraph is all about the customer:

“At Best Buy, retail is a business that requires constant innovation, new ideas, new ways to delight our customers and new ways to work together. To meet the unique product and service needs of our customers, our stores and operating models are being transformed to shift our focus from product-centric to customer-centric - a move that poises Best Buy to truly offer the entertainment and technology solutions that meet our customers' needs, end-to- end."

Hire people that care.
Hiring right is a no brainer, right?  Then why do so many companies get it wrong?  Why is turnover so high among entry-level customer-facing employees?  It probably has something to do with the selection process. 

Zappo’s has uses a unique method  to separate the applicants that want a job from the applicants that want to serve customers.   After their first week of training, each new employees is presented with two options:

1. Continue the training program, and become a Zappo’s employee. 
2. Accept $2,000 cash to not work at Zappo’s.

Very few employee accept the $2,000 offer.  It apparently works:  Zappo’s employee turnover rate is five times lower than the industry average, and their customer satisfaction rates are through the roof.  Hire people that care.  Your customers and employees will pay you back, for years to come.

Onboard new employees with the customer in mind.

Onboarding processes are meant to help new employees feel like a valued part of the workforce and get them up to speed on the job requirements so they can start producing quickly. Onboarding helps companies retain the talent they worked so hard to recruit, and keep them motivated and satisfied with their decision to join that company, in the end saving costs in training, turnover and bottom line revenue.

But onboarding should go deeper than that – it should include the customer, in order to establish a customer-centric culture.   

My first job in sales was with a company that marketed inventory software to auto parts distributors.   Every new hire spent two weeks working for one of our customers, in order to understand the customer’s business, and how our software helped them solve problems.   That process gave me, and my colleagues a deep sense of empathy for the customer.  And nearly all of us stayed on with the company for a decade or more – and our customers stayed longer!

Becoming a customer centric company requires employees who continually focus on the customer.  The best way to get there is by designing every position around the customer, using creative methods for hiring the right employees, and including the customer in the onboarding process.

There's plenty of customer-centric DNA out there; customer-centric companies have just figured out how to attract it into their culture.Thanks to Electronic Retailer Magazine for this photo that proves the Customer-centric gene makes CEO's smile.

What really determines the level of Customer Service that a company delivers?

I asked that question on LinkedIn, to get some more feedback to a blog post from last week.

Some insightful answers were posted, and in the spirit of sharing the insight, here they are:

Service quality is a really a function of Leadership – not size.
Smaller businesses display better service more often because the leadership is longer lasting, better connected and more passionate - especially in businesses that are directly managed by the owner.
(Thanks, Derek Wiliams.)

Capable  managers are required to relay the Leader’s vision to the front lines.
“But, in the layers of staff below the Leader, which needs to communicate to frontline, you could have a weak link that is not capable of sharing that vision and providing that consistency.”  Without capable middle management, the Leadership can be lost in the translation.
(Thanks, Patricia Modgling) 

Not all organizations need or want to deliver great service.
Boy, it took some real guts to type that!  But it’s true -
“What we have to remember is that not all organizations want to focus on giving great service. The beauty of our world is that each business owner can make their own decision about strategy and how they want to run their business. “  If your value proposition is based on price, availability and distribution (Hello, Walmart!), your customers may expect low prices, but care a lot less about service, as long as they get  that low price.
(Thanks again, Derek!)

Serve different customers differently.
“Larger companies have the luxury to personalize service for larger accounts which offer greater financial returns,  and offer generic process-driven service to smaller clients, according to the financial impact of losing an account”  In other words, treat different customers with different service, based on the financial return.
(Thanks, Ruth Watakila!)

So there you have it - 

While smaller companies have a tendency to deliver better service than larger  companies, the quality of service is really a function of factors other than company size; it’s about Leadership, management, and ultimately the role of service relative to the company’s overall strategy in delivering its value proposition to the marketplace.

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why smaller companies deliver better customer service.

My neighborhood hardware store kicks Home Depot’s butt, when it comes to customer service.  

Everyone that works in the store acts like they own it.  In fact, some of them do, and even those who don’t  are related to those who do!

It’s the family business, so everyone from the owner and his wife, to their son and daughters, to the in-laws that work there, all have a stake in the success of the business.  And it shows, by the way the treat the customers.

Call this the "I'm related to the owner, so I'm gonna make sure that you love doing business with us" factor.  

Or if that's too long, you can call it the “Proximity to the Shareholders” factor.

The closer an employee is to the actual shareholder, the more likely he or she understands the importance of delivering a great customer experience, and how that affects the health of the business.

In a recent blog post “Does Size Really Matter?” Bob Champagne explained how research indicates that 90% of the really poor exchanges occurred in larger, more established companies, while 60% of the really positive customer experiences occurred in smaller “Mom and Pops” or specialty stores.

In other words, smaller companies tend to deliver better customer experiences.

So, what is it about smaller companies, that causes them to deliver better customer service than larger companies?

Let’s go back to my local hardware store for the answer...

The person that helps me find the right size carriage bolts for my project is usually the son or daughter of the owner – or the owner himself.  The woman working the cash register is usually the owner’s wife – the other owner. The point is this: The front-line employees that deliver the service are so close to the financial beneficiary of customer loyalty; they are emotionally and financially connected to the success of the business.

   In the small company - my neighborhood hardware store -  the person that interacts directly with the customer also interacts directly with the owners/shareholders on a regular basis.

And because of this proximity to the shareholder, they’re more vested in, or have a greater understanding of the connection between customer satisfaction, and the financial success of the business.   

So the question for the large business that wants to match the customer experience delivered by their smaller competitors, is this:

 How can they reduce, or improve the proximity to the shareholder?

The obvious answer is to offer stock options, or some other incentive compensation tied to the company’s profitability.    But let’s face it -  that lone employee is no fool – he knows that his actions are a mere grain of  salt on the sandy beach of 2,242 Home Depot stores.   So as long as he does the bare minimum, he keeps his job, and his benefits.

If financial incentives aren’t feasible, or incentive enough to do whatever it takes to deliver that small-store-like-service, what is?

Practice the “Customer Experience Golden Rule for Employers.”
Treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers.  Acknowledge their efforts, and cultivate an environment to encourage others to make life great for your customers.  Give your front-line employees lattitude to make what they feel are the right decisions to delight a customer on the spot, without getting a supervisor or manager involved.

Increase transparency throughout the organization.
Share “results” with your employees.  Make employees aware of the impact of their actions, on the overall health of the business.   Transparency promotes accountability. 

Emphasize the right soft skills in hiring.
People with a sense of caring and empathy have a great sense of customer-focus.  They recognize when an individual needs help, and they have an innate way of bonding with that person, and establishing a sense of trust and caring.  And that’s the foundation for a great service experience.

The statistics show that has a business grows larger,  the quality of service, and customer experience suffers.  But by taking steps to either improve the proximity to the shareholders, or create an environment that mimics that of a smaller organization, a growing company can compete with the smaller, more collegial businesses.

 
Big companies can have bigger problems delivering customer service.

Three steps to a clear and compelling message

Saturday night, my wife and I had some friends over for a beer-tasting.  We had nine different microbrews, and voted on each beer in a bunch of categories, including “most memorable beer bottle.” 

With micro-brews, the bottles are often as creative and complex as the beer that’s inside.  But the bottle that won was the bottle that was anything but complex.   The bottle that won was the simplest. 

If you read last Friday’s blog post, you remember how Oracle has used simple, “basic messages” to communicate the nature of its products to its customers.   A simple message is a powerful message; a message that resonates in the marketplace, and helps potential customers identify with your value proposition, and what you have to offer. 

Even Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

So, how do you make your message simple, while still communicating what makes your solution great, and better than the alternatives?

Identify the real desire.
Your message should  focus on what the customer is actually buying.  And nine times out of ten, it’s not your product, even when it is your product.  Customer buy your product for the benefit they receive from using the product; for the state of mind they have, once their problem is solved.    George Silverman  says a key factor in a simple and effective message is to direct the message to the buyers’ deeper desires. 

Make it personal.
People care about themselves, and the problems that they’re trying to solve to throughout their lives.  The more directly your message speaks to the person, the easier it is for the person to hear the message and  respond.  The blog post, “Make your Marketing Messages Simple,” references the personal factor as an impotant element of simplicity.  When you message speaks directly to the person, there are fewer layers that get in the way of what matters most, to the person receiving it.

Get rid of the extra words.
Keep your message simple.    Eliminate extra words.  Sculpt your message down to the pure essentials.  Chisel away at the message, removing all extraneous words until all that remains is the core meaning.  How do you know a word is extraneous?  Remove it, then re-read the message.  If it hasn’t lost its meaning, its safe and smart to keep the word out.

When you’re creating a message to captivate your audience, do them a favor by keeping it simple.  Keep it simple by appealing to their core desire, speaking to them on a personal level, and doing it with as few and simple words as possible. 

Simple messages are easier to digest, and easier to remember.

 

The UFO Beer label:  Clear, simple and uncluttered.  And above all, easy to remember.
The smiling faces: Eight friends, nine beers, and infinite memories!

Once secret to Oracle’s success, that any company can afford.

Customers crave simplicity.

The April 11 issue of Fortune Magazine welcomes Oracle back to its list of the World’s most admired companies, and cites "Three Bold Moves" that did the trick:

"Smart Acquisitions, The Right Message, and Big Hires."

Acquisitions and Big Hires typically require Big Investments, and are therefore beyond the budgets of most companies.

But “The Right Message” doesn’t require capital; just focus.

Let’s take a quick look at how Fortune defined “The Right Message:”

"Oracle has become masterful at using  basic messages to communicate the complicated nature of its products, as well as its vision and overall mission, to customers. (The company's slogan: "Hardware and software, engineered to work together.") It's not rocket science, but when it comes to complicated technology, basic messaging can be highly effective -- and is one way the company has been able to amass more market share in database services than its next two largest competitors, Microsoft and IBM, combined."

It comes down to this:

Customers don’t buy the technology; they buy solutions.   And they love it when the solutions are simple, easy and uncluttered.  And by the way, Oracle isn't the only successful technology company that sells simplicity.  Here's another familiar name, that has grown successful by keeping it simple:
  

There may be a lot of complexity behind the solution, but your customers don't need to see it.  And they certainly don't need to hear about it through complex messaging.

Keep your messages simple.  It works for Oracle, Google, and it even this hotel in Bali, that relies on a simple message to communicate its message.

Keep your message simple, because simplicity simply sells.

The Brand of Jimmy Buffett is all about Customer Engagement

There’s nothing like a Jimmy Buffett concert.

If you’ve been to one, you know exactly what I mean.  But if you haven’t, my statement may seem a little out in left field.

Jimmy Buffett has been recording music since the 1970’s, and in nearly 40 years, he’s had a total of one song in  the “Top 40.”  But that doesn’t mean a thing, when it comes to success.  

Jimmy Buffett is more popular today than he’s ever been in his colorful career.  It's a mystery to many, but clear as the summer sun to anyone whose ever walked barefoot on the beach, left work early on a sunny day in May, or played loud music while driving a minivan and teaching their children the words to the song. 

 Jimmy's concerts routinely sell out in a matter of hours, he has a chain of successful restaurants, a clothing label, merchandise, beverages and books.  But what is it exactly, that fuels his empire?

  Jimmy Buffett connects with his fans on an emotional level. 

Everyone loves to have a good time, no matter how serious they may be in their buttoned-up adult lives.  Everyone needs an outlet; a way to live their fantasy life, and Jimmy delivers that.   

He delivers it with every song he plays, every novel he writes, every T-Shirt he prints and every restaurant he puts his name on.  He’s found his audience’s hot button, and he presses it over, and over, and over.

 

He’s found that element that resonates with his audience, and he taps into it with everything he does.

What’s your customers' hot button?  How many ways can you press it?

 Click below, for a quick fix, and feel the engagement! 

The Kayak.com secret to a winning customer experience.

Everytime  I need to travel, I make my reservations through Kayak.com   Their website is extremely easy to use, and because of that, it takes a lot of the pain out of booking travel.  Kayak.com makes my life as a traveler easier.

According to a Business Week Customer Service Podcast called “Getting Human with Kayak,” Paul English, the founder of Kayak, is obsessed with customer service.  So much so, that he staffs the customer support center with the same people that are the heart and soul of the Kayak.com website – the site developers.

By taking customer support calls, the kayak developers gain a keen empathy and understanding of  customer  frustrations, desires, and personal experiences using Kayak.com; the  developers hear first-hand what the customer s want, and what needs to be done to improve the customer experience.

Kayak has reduced the distance  between the customer, and the designer. 

The voice of the customer flows directly into product development, and the “experience development process.”   The people that support the experience are the people that create the experience. 

This direct connection between product support and product development gives Kayak the advantage of being able to incorporate the voice of the customer into the product.  The end result is a product that’s a direct reflection of what customers want.

In most companies, the people that design the experience are ironically removed from the people that live the experience.  This disconnect causes the product, and the experience to be two separate entities that are only indirectly related.  And that usually shows.

Kayak has found a way to join the experience design to the voice of the customer, to everyone’s benefit.

How can other companies do the same?  How can other companies reduce the distance from the people that live the experience, to the people that design the experience?

 
Thanks to Inc. Magazine for this image of Kayak's development team  reaching out to hear the customer!