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The Ultimate Customer Service Toolkit

Written by: Leigh Farnell

Article Overview: Here is a collection of Customer Service articles to reprint, use in your customer service staff training sessions. Do the exercises, ask the questions, talk to customers and unlock great ideas with the Million Dollar Questions.. They really do work.. Without Customers (no matter how annoying some of them can be)we don't have a business.. It's the Number One Sales Secret in Business... Serve Your Customers Better and Your Business will get Better..

The Ultimate Customer Service Toolkit

“Bloody Customers - Who Needs Them?”
The Hidden Secrets of the Million Dollar Questions
-by Leigh Farnell

‘The right way to think about any problem is from the standpoint of the customer.”
Adam Smith. (1723-90) Radical Scottish economist and philosopher.


When Adam Smith wrote this statement over 250 years ago the concept of Customer Service was not a major priority or even a glimmer in a management consultant’s eye.
McDonalds hamburgers hadn’t even been thought of...
And now 250 years later one can only assume some business people still haven’t got Mr Smith’s message when we hear:
“Ok, so we’ve got a few customers complaining... what’s the cheapest way out of it?...”
“...So many of our customers wouldn’t know what they wanted...”
“...Bloody customers, life would be so much easier without ‘em...”
If Adam Smith were still here I’m sure he’d reply “Try doing business without ‘em...”
Anyone in business knows “no customers mean no business”.
Many businesses in the past in bother private and public sectors have dealt with both short and long term problems with little or no regard to the needs and wants of their present or future customers. Often we see decisions being made based on the whim of a manager, or even worse, the whim of a committee.
‘We can cut back in that area...”
“We need to increase staff for sure, but market research... I don’t see any real value in that...”
“We’re still in business aren’t we, we must be doing something right...” or in the case of the government sector “it looks like we’ll have to put taxes and charges up...”
When sales are declining, when market share is down, when growth is plateauing or on the way down, it’s not time to start blaming the government, the latest strike or some other stock excuse.
That’s the time to get your key managers in a room and take a good hard, honest look at your operation from the standpoint of the customer. One way to put yourself in the shoes of your customer is to ask the following million dollar questions.
The answers you come up with can revitalise and reinvent your business (if you listen and take action on them..)
Beware of the ‘we can’t do that’ gremlin.. excuses and comfort zones are the enemies of change..




The Million Dollar Questions

‘All change begins by asking a new question’
- Anthony Robbins. American motivator and success coach
The starting point for any Customer service champions is to ask their champion teams the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS.


The million dollar questions for all businesses are:
Q1. Who are our customers? Who are the 20% who give us 80% of our profits?
Q2. What do they want?
Q3. What would make them ecstatic with our service yet not cost us an arm and a leg? What ‘little extra’s’ can we include to add value to our product or service?
The secret to continued growth in market share and profitability is to leave your customers feeling not just good but ecstatic about the fact that they are doing business with your company.
The trick to all this is to get inside the heads of your customers - to think like your customers think.
Then step into your customers’ shoes on a very regular basis “walk a mile or so in their shoes”, then step back out into your own shoes and ask:
“How can we make a profit whilst still providing the level of quality and service our customers want?”
Wayne Cooper of ABC Home Securities turned his struggling (almost bankrupt) company into a worldwide success story by doing just that. Wayne developed his MAGIC MOMENTS STRATEGY by:
asking the wives of his installers what would make them ecstatic with service delight... or put another way.. What annoyed them about service levels from other installing companies.
Things like:
• arriving late
• walking on clean carpets with dirty boots
• leaving a mess when the job was finished
• not really knowing what they were paying for..
became opportunities for ABC to:
• promise to arrive at the agreed time - or your money back
• take off work boots and put on slippers before installers entered the house
• use a drop sheet then vacuum not just the installing area.. but the whole house
• explain the work done, how the system works, the benefits of the system and how easy it is to use... before they present the bill
• then GO EVEN FURTHER.. and offer to clean the windows and the guttering while they were there...
DO YOU THINK THE CUSTOMERS WENT WOW.... then proceeded to tell their friends and relatives..? Of course they did...
(As part of the selling system, after installers have done the ‘Little Extras..’ they then ask the client if they know anyone else who might need home security... do you think the now delighted customer feels OK about giving names... YOU BET..) Its just another example of how outstanding service is a springboard for growing YOUR business.
How can you use this idea?
One of my clients is in the surfwear industry. Their major customers are 12 to 22 years of age.
The challenge for them is to keep in touch with the thinking of the 12 to 22 year olds - and they do it... cleverly... using a range of techniques to find out what their market wants and how they want to purchase it.
For example a 14 year old would rather buy his gear from a surf shop than a major department store ...”it just isn’t cool...” Get it, you’ve got to think like your customers.
And there’s more... to really get into your customers’ shoes, to gain an edge on your competition, ask these million dollar questions in your next management meeting.





Some More Million Dollar Questions

1. What motivates our customers to buy our type of product or service?
2. What would make them choose our product over our competition?
3. How could we provide even more MAGIC MOMENTS and WOW’s for our customers?
4. How could we be faster, friendlier, more convenient?
By understanding your customers’ motivation and buying psychology, you can then design strategies to make sure you’re operating on their wavelength...
It’s no use you promoting your product on channel 5 if your customers operate on channel 8...
One good example of this is Ikea, the furniture manufacturer and retailer.
At some stage of their development they have asked:
Q1. Who are our target customers?
Q2 What do they want?
Q3. What would motivate them to shop and buy with us?
The answers they have come up with include:
A1. Middle class Australia (a healthy segment of the population demographic cake...).
A2. Quality, practical, fashionable, unique furniture and household appliances that are easily transportable (for this highly mobile market segment).
A3. Ample parking, somewhere to entertain the kids and shop in peace, see the furniture in situ, able to browse without high pressure selling, friendly staff, quality products, able to get a drink if want to spend time in the shop, no-questions-asked refunds etc...
In my mind, IKEA have asked these questions then designed their whole operation around Adam Smith’s principle rather than the principle of “spend as little as possible to flog off as much as possible”.

The WOW Factor
The objective of customer service is obviously to win customers, then keep them coming back for more. It’s about your whole operation geared around the goal of the WOW FACTOR...
When your customers walk out the door they say “WOW, that was terrific service...it was even better than I expected...”
The first step to surprising your customers with your caring service is for you and your staff to really know what it is like to be in your customers’ shoes, to think like one of the customers from your target market, then make decisions accordingly.
It’s amazing how many more fantastic, exciting and profitable ideas you can come up with when you look at the world from Adam Smith’s point of view...
It’s just a matter of taking the time out to start the ball rolling... Why not ask these million dollar questions at your next sales or management meeting? You might get some very interesting answers.



By Leigh Farnell, Business Development Consultant and speaker.
Phone 0412 945 402
leigh@bluerocket.com.au
Golden Tips for Being on Stage in Business
Managing Customer Perceptions
- by Leigh Farnell

‘As much as you may dislike it, people relate you to based on their perceptions of you, not how you think they ought to think of you.’

W
hat does your business audience think of your performance?
Bill believes his accounting firm Save Ya Tax Pty Ltd is innovative and customer focused, a team of real winners.
Wayne believes he is a great salesperson, that people just love to buy cars from him – it’s just that the recession that has him on the bones of his...
Andrea and Dean of Nice Drop Curtains believe their customers are blissfully happy, they just don’t have too many customers at the moment! Great actors with no audience...

Constantly on Stage
Like actors on a stage, every person in business is constantly creating experiences and images for their customers.
The Five Golden Questions

1. What are we doing well?
2. What do you like about our products and service?
3. What could we do better?
4. How could we improve our products and services for you?
5. If you were to be really happy with our company, what else could we do for you?

As an individual and as a company, we are all constantly on stage, constantly providing an impression to our customers.
Jan Carlzon of Scandinavian Airways called the moments that a business encountered its customers (and vice versa) ‘Moments of Truth’. These are moments when the customer is consciously or sub-consciously deciding whether they like doing business with us or not. Deciding whether to come back and do business with us again, or not come back – and perhaps tell their friends not to come back either!
So how do we manage the customers’ perceptions? How do we manage these Moments of Truth?

Tips for being on Stage in Business
BE AWARE: Have you ever been in a shop or bank where the people behind the counter seem to think they must be at home in the lounge watching TV? They forget we customers can see and hear them reading the paper, making snide remarks, turning up their noses while they talk on the telephone. They forget they’re on stage.
PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD - ALWAYS: Near enough isn’t good enough, even when we’re tired and haggard. Just because we might have dealt with 100 customers already today, doesn’t make the next customer any less important.
Yes, it helps if you like what you’re doing...so make sure you do, or make a change. Life isn’t meant to be lived with a scowl on your face.
LOOK GOOD: Your clothes, hair, face and breath all give a good (or not so good) impression. Manage it for positive impact. Set a high standard and stock to it.
TRAIN (AND RE-TRAIN) YOUR PEOPLE CONSTANTLY: People come to work in all sorts of moods. They also forget some of the basics. So make sure you run regular training sessions and staff meetings. Even if it’s for only 5 minutes at the start of each day. Get the brains in the right gear before they have a chance to tear up some of the profits.
GIVE SERVICE IN A WAY THAT YOU’D LIKE TO RECEIVE SERVICE: You know the proverb “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”. Good service pays handsomely. Watch out for your business Karma. Put out only good service and you’ll be O.K.
Design service standards and specific steps you want your people to take to attain these standards.
ALWAYS LOOK FOR WAYS TO IMPROVE: Be enthusiastic about finding ways to improve.
There are many successful business people who have an absolute passion about getting even better. They are excited about finding ways to run their operations more efficiently or more profitably. Others argue ‘till they are blue in the face why nothing new can be done...
ASKING YOUR AUDIENCE: But how do you know how you could improve your performance other than by looking at the bottom line? The bottom line is a reflection of your performance. It’s not the performance itself.
All of us could go broke believing we are terrific and still be none the wiser...
We need to ask the five golden questions ... often ...

The Five Golden Questions
1. What are we doing well?
2. What do you like about our products and service?
3. What could we do better?
4. How could we improve our products and services for you?
5. If you were to be really happy with our company, what else could we do for you?

Build in Systems to Know
The smart companies of tomorrow are already operating CUSTOMER FEEDBACK SYSTEMS to make them aware of what’s going on in the minds of their customers (and prospective customers).
Winning companies don’t assume ... they know that ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME.
Assuming we know what our customers want can be very costly and embarrassing (particularly when we have to explain it to our partners, investors, shareholders or the bank manager).
Winning companies know that it’s not how you or your staff think you are doing that counts, it’s how the customer thinks you are doing that counts.
Winning companies keep in touch with their customers’ perceptions in several ways:
Focus Groups: Get some of your regular (or not so regular) customers together for a morning tea or lunch and ask them the five golden questions...
Client Surveys: Send out a simple survey (with an incentive to return it to you...a prize, a reply paid envelope) with the five golden questions on it...
Telemarketing Follow Up: Follow up all your customers...and ask them the five golden questions...
Salespeople Feedback: Make sure your salespeople regularly ask customers...you guessed it, the five golden questions. Have a standard sheet to record the answers. At sales meetings get salespeople to feed back ideas and suggestions from customers.
Delivery People Feedback: If you have delivery of courier drivers, use them to gather intelligence by getting them to fill out ‘Golden Question’ customer feedback too. Often these people are greatly under-utilised sources of market intelligence.
Front Line Operative Feedback: Your front line counter staff should be asking the five golden questions automatically. These people are your number one source of market research. Make sure you use them.
As actors on the stage of business we’ve got to use every tool at our disposal. I won’t say good luck... (it’s bad luck in show business). Just break a leg... and give a stunning performance...today and every day.■

By Leigh Farnell, Business Development Consultant and speaker.
Phone 0412 945 402


Get more information and free resources at

www.bluerocket.com.au
www.leighfarnell.com
www.perceptionmapping.com

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