April 29, 2009 - Do You Pay Attention Like Inspector Clouseau?

Main Idea

Do you ever research a product before you buy it? Or read reviews on a restaurant before you consider eating there? We all use investigation to some degree in our personal lives, probably without even realizing it. How often do you research your prospective customers before you attempt to make the sale?  More importantly, do you know what is important to your customers?

Expansion of Idea

Investigative skills are simply the ability to gather information to solve a problem, conduct a research project, or make a decision. All business owners need to use these skills to succeed in their respective trades. You might ask your customer what they like or dislike about your company, but they may not feel comfortable enough to tell you how they really feel. By asking open-ended questions to learn more about their lives, you will get a new picture of who your client really is.

Sometimes, customers will not answer your questions honestly.  (How many times in a restaurant have you told the manager that everything was fine when in fact the meal was cold or service was slow?)  Instead you need to pay attention to clues.  Those clues may be the tone in a voice, the customer’s buying patterns, the questions that the customer asks or the lack of a response to your service.  That, in turn, can help you provide the best service possible.

Area to Start

1. Keep your Sherlock Holmes hat handy at all times!

2. Play I Spy with your team about your customers.

3. Pick a customer and try to determine why they deal with you.

April 15, 2009 - Do You Finish Strong?

Main Idea

What is one of the secrets of top golfers, basketball players, tennis players and also business people? 

Expansion of Idea

A key to a lot of activities is finishing strong.  Golfers have to follow through in their swing.  The same is true for basketball and tennis players.  They have to stay with their shot until it is finished.  It sounds easy until we try to do it.  The same is true in business.  We have to make sure that we stay with the project or customer until it is completely finished.  We just completed a successful tax season that I have to give all the credit to my team.  They stayed focused until the end.  (They are pretty quiet today.) 

But it is critical to stay focused until you finish your work.  This is really critical in customer service issues.  How many times do you know that you should send a thank you to a customer and you fail to follow through?  Or, a customer may have a problem and you sent in the fix to the problem but you did not check and make sure it was fixed.  These little things at the end of a sale or a customer interaction can make the difference between a delighted customer and a marginally satisfied customer.  And that difference separates the surviving companies from the dropouts. 

Suggested Areas to Start

1. Identify one thing that you can add to an internal or external customer interaction.

2. GO DO IT!!!!!

March 11, 2009 - How Do You Increase Customer Sales Frequency?

Main Idea

Are your customers loyal? Do they come back to your business time and again? If not, why not? What measures do you have in place to track client retention?

Expansion of Idea

Increasing the number of times a customer chooses to deal with you is an important factor to increase your profitability. Some argue it’s the most important factor. According to Frederick Reichheld (author of The Loyalty Effect), a 5% increase in retention (of the right customers) can produce as much as 125% increase in profit! 

How do you retain customers?  If you can deal with them on a frequent basis, it is significantly easier to retain them as customers.   You have an ongoing connection.  Too often, we ignore our existing customers for the new customer.  When we focus on our key customers and their true needs, we will find additional ways to serve them.  It may not always be a sale, but keeping the constant contact will help sales in the future.  This may require a little creativity.  It also may cost a little.  However, you can compare that cost with the cost of acquiring a new customer.  Which is cheaper?  The hidden costs of customer turn can get fairly big.  Part of your marketing budget should be dedicated to increasing customer transaction frequency.  This is probably the part that will pay off immediately. 

Suggested Areas to Start

1. Get a baseline on how often customers deal with your organization.

2. Compare a loyal customer with one that does not deal with you as often.  Brainstorm with your team on how to improve the connections with the customer that deals with you less frequently.

3. Get feedback from your customers regularly.

4. Pick one customer and try to improve your personal connection.

January 29, 2009 - Do Your Employees Own Their Jobs?

Main Idea

When was the last time that you dealt with a customer service representative who really took care of you?  What was the difference between that person and someone who failed miserably?  Is there any difference in technical training?

Expansion of Idea

How we service our customers is critical to our survival in this crazy economic environment.  I would contend that there are two types of people in our organizations, owners and employees.  The only difference between the two is an attitude of service.  If you own a business, you are going to make sure that customers are taken care of properly.  Truly great companies hire employees who have this ownership mindset.  They view serving their customers as a privilege that they want to keep.  They make sure that their customers are served properly.  And if there is a problem, they stick with it until it is completely taken care of. 

I just got off the phone with a representative of a major brokerage firm.  I have been trying to get an account transferred for three weeks.  I called last week and I thought it was taken care of.  Instead they did something completely wrong.  They were able to fix it, but the whole problem is a function of follow through by their representatives.  I have made five or six phone calls to take care of something that should have only taken one call.  Everyone makes mistakes.  The difference between great companies and everyone else is how you deal with the mistakes.  Do your employees own their jobs?  Do they take pride in what they do?  Do your customers get a thrill from dealing with your company?  What could a change in attitude mean to your business?

Suggested Areas to Start

1. Define ownership for your job.

2. Define ownership for the people who work for you.

3. Empower the new owners to take care of the customers.

January 7, 2009 - What is Your Strategy?

Main Idea

What are you good at?  Can your business or organization be the best in the world at something?  What is it?  Or do you just need to survive?  Should you sell anything at any price just to make a couple of dollars?  What do you think about a company like Macy’s?  What is it, a department store or a discounter? 

Expansion of Idea

Over the holidays, I went into Macy’s at West County Mall to return some clothes for my son.  The number of people in the mall and in Macy’s was overwhelming.  I do not normally go through the newspaper ads and I did not realize that they were having sales at such low prices.  It seemed like all of the clothing displays had signs saying 50-70% off.  And I think there were some additional savings if you used the Macy’s card.  The store has gone from a place where you could get nice things at a reasonable price to a pure discounter.  It seems like most stores have not figured out where they add value and, therefore, they can only compete on price.  Unless you are Wal-Mart and are set up to compete on price, this is a doomed strategy. 

Most of us have not done the hard work in evaluating our businesses and determining the key areas to focus on.  Until we get this right, we are going to continually lose market share, profits will evaporate, and we will see problems creep up in unusual places.  We need to ask ourselves what we can be the best at in the world.  What changes need to happen to accomplish that?  (Next week I will introduce a couple of other things to consider as you move down this path.)

Suggested Areas to Start

1. Ask yourself these questions:

   • What is your business?

   • Who are you serving?

   • Are you really good or just average?

   • Can you improve?

2. Read the book “Good to Great”

December 10, 2008 - Are You Willing to Refer Your Customers to Your Competitors?

Main Idea

Have you gone into a retail store looking for a particular brand or item and they did not have it?  And the store sales clerk showed you something that should be as good but is just a little different.  When you got home it worked okay, but not as well as it should have. 

Expansion of Idea

Most of us love the Christmas season.  There is activity and food and getting together with friends.  One of my favorite movies of all time is Miracle on 34th Street.  I try to watch it almost every year.  (Yes, I am a purist and I watch it in black and white.)  If you have not watched this, go rent it and enjoy it with your family.  I just love the part where Kris Kringle, who works as the Macy’s Santa Claus, refers customers to Gimbels.  The reason he referred the customers to a competitor is that they had a better brand of skates for kid’s ankles.  This created a furor within Macy’s because it is crazy to refer a customer to a competitor.  The sales manager was livid when he heard about the referral.  Yet, when customers started sending telegrams and showing up in person to thank the sales manager, he had to rethink the whole approach.  The team at Macy’s had stumbled upon one of the greatest secrets of customer service that can ever be identified. 

PUT THE CUSTOMER’S NEEDS AHEAD OF OURS AND YOU WILL HAVE A CUSTOMER FOR LIFE.

Too often we will do whatever we can to make a sale instead of focusing on what the customers need.  We need to put our customers first and then we will be taken care of.  We can only cultivate true customer loyalty by putting the customer’s interests ahead of our own.  Sustained profitability can only come from customer loyalty. 

Action Items

1. Watch Miracle on 34th Street.

2. Read a book called “The Go-Giver” (It is a 2 hour read.)

3. Ask your team if you are selling or serving.

4. Ask your customers how you can serve them better.

December 3, 2008 - What are Your Company's Inconsistencies?

Main Idea

How often have you gone into a supposedly nice restaurant that has paper placemats?  Or have you gone into a home improvement store that does not have some basic things like normal light bulbs?  Or you call a company that allegedly has great customer service and you have to wait 15 minutes on hold?

Expansion of Idea

All of us have seen instances where there is a huge disconnect between the business’ stated policies or marketing brand and the reality of the business.  You have probably gone into businesses that have a formal mission statement on the wall in the entrance area.  It says that the purpose is to serve the customer and then you have to wait 25 minutes for your appointment.  (At least you have plenty of time to read the mission statement.) 

I recently decided to clean up my own firm by eliminating audit services. This was a remnant of being a compliance-oriented CPA firm.  The core of my business is to help clients with financial statements, tax returns, and information systems for decision making. The audits were inconsistent with providing the consulting and advisory services that compose the majority of my business.    It sent the wrong messages to my team and to my customers.  I want my team to focus on helping small business clients. 

Only when we truly specialize can we really serve our clients.  The problem is that we tend to hold onto the past.  This prevents us from embracing the future.  Spend some time looking for inconsistencies in your business.  Decide what you can change and then do it.

Action Items

1. Ask your spouse.  You will get an honest answer.

2. Ask your team.

3. Ask your customers.

4. Observe how you do business.

October 23, 2008 - Are You Easy to Do Business With?

Main Idea

How open are you to new business?  Are you really open?  Is it a pain to deal with your organization?  Are you making policies based on you looking out to the world?  How often do you make policies based on the world looking into your organization?

Expansion of Idea

I recently had to open some trust bank accounts for two clients at three different banks in order to spread the deposits.  Do you want to guess the differences in times?  The quickest time was about 20 minutes.  The longest was 75 minutes which made me late for a meeting.  The middle one was 30 minutes.  I had never dealt with the one that only took 20 minutes.  They were very efficient and I moved in and out easily.  The middle bank was very professional, but I think their computer program was not as user friendly.  The bank that took 75 minutes had an inexperienced person opening the accounts and we had to redo the paperwork a couple of times.  She was very nice and apologized for being slow.  The problem is that I did not have unlimited amounts of time.  Other people in the bank could have helped the situation.  This created a barrier in my mind about using this bank in the future.  Even though this bank has had great service in the past, I will think twice about opening a new account there. 

Are there barriers that you have created in your business?  Your job is to remove the barriers and make it easy for customers to do business with you.  These barriers could be time as noted above or hours of operation.  It could be credit or shipping policies.  It could be that people have to learn a secret handshake. 

In my office one of the barriers that we have to constantly work on is the fact that because we understand accounting and taxes, we assume clients understand our language.  Each client has a different level of understanding.  When we are not communicating properly with our clients, it is very frustrating for our clients.  We need to always monitor their level of understanding and then fill in the gaps.  Sometimes we do that well and other times we don’t. The point is you have to constantly look for ways to make it easy to do business with you. 

Action Items

1. Talk to your team about the barriers. 

2. Talk to your customers about any barriers.

3. Identify one barrier that you and your team are going to work on.

October 16, 2008 - What Are the Little Things that You Can Do?

Main Idea

What is your view of the stock market?  How is your business?  Do you have friends who have lost their job, their house, or are having trouble getting loans?  Do you read about people committing suicide?  How bad is it out there?

Expansion of Idea

Right now, a lot of people are afraid to even turn on the television or look at a newspaper or internet.  Some people don’t face reality.  Others still don’t see the problems because it hasn’t hit them hard.  One of the key truths that Jim Collins wrote about in the book “Good to Great” is that truly great companies all faced adversity during the transition from being good to becoming great.  The difference between them and merely good companies or even bad companies is that they were completely honest with themselves in their analysis of whatever adversity they faced.  They also had unwavering faith in their ability to survive the situation.  Only by truly understanding their situation could they determine how to fix their problems. 

Obviously, we are in a pretty severe economic period.  All of us know people who have either lost jobs or homes or businesses.  There is no easy fix.  However, this is a great opportunity for creating relationships.  You can improve your relationships by doing positive things for your customers and employees.  Look for synergies with vendors, other businesses, and maybe even competitors. 

Action Items

1. Put a smile on your face.  You cannot provide great service with a frown.

2. Look for opportunities to get closer to your customers. 

3. Brainstorm with your team about how to add value to your customers.  Sometimes you can add value with minimal cost.  For a great example, go to http://www.stservicemovie.com/ and watch the 5 minute movie on Johnny the Bagger.

August 29, 2008 - What are Your Fundamentals?

Main Idea              

When was the last time you went into a restaurant and you were not greeted promptly, you sat at the table for 10 minutes before the waiter came, you had to wait to place your order, you can’t find your waiter for 15 minutes at a time, it took forever (1 hour) to get your order, or the food was not very good? 

Expansion of Idea

All of these happened to my family in one evening a couple of weeks ago, except for the not so good food.  (We paid our bill and left before we got to that point.)  The only complicated part of the night is the preparation of the food and frankly that is not the number one reason I don’t go back to restaurants.  If they can’t get the simple things right, I really don’t care how good the food may or may not be. 

Are there fundamental things that you positively have to get right?  These things may or may not be related to your core part of the business.  I realize that I have to get your tax returns right.  But I can lose clients really fast if I decide not to return your phone calls for a few weeks or if I give your financial statements to another client by mistake.  At the core of my business is a fundamental focus on customer service.  And I would suggest that it is not much different from your business.  As a follow up to last week’s coaching suggestion, this would be a good place to start.  You could work with your team and discuss some fundamentals of your business.  Are you clear on what is expected?  Have you communicated that with your team?

Suggested Areas to Start

1. List out 3-5 fundamental things that you must get right in your business

2. Post them on a bulletin board at your offices

3. Discuss them with your team

4. CATCH YOUR PEOPLE DOING THEM RIGHT (VERRRRRY IMPORTANT)

July 31, 2008 - Is Your Product the Best It Can Be?

Main Idea

Why do your customers choose you? How are you different from your competitors? Do you charge less money? Do you have superior customer service? Do you add value to your products and services? What areas should you focus on when trying to differentiate? In the past 5 years, what have your competitors done to increase their game? What has your company done in the same period?

Expansion of Idea

Regardless of what product or service that you sell, there are more than likely ten or more competitors in the same industry. Consumers in today’s market are overwhelmed with propaganda tactics and cheaper alternatives.

Perhaps instead of over spending in areas such as advertising, a better solution to set your company apart would be to continually invest in innovating your products and/or services. Invite everyone in your organization to join you in developing a better company, and gladly welcome great ideas from anywhere.

One of the leading search engines, Google, uses an “idea mailing list,” which is a company-wide suggestion box allowing associates to post and rate ideas. To sum up the teachings of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, “use the minds of every worker and make sure the person with the best idea wins.” Once you figure out what puts you ahead of your competitor, don’t hesitate to tell everyone about it. In the business world, sincerity is the key, modesty is not.

Areas to Start

1. The mind of your customers- What do they want?

2. The mind of your competition- What are they doing?

3. The mind of your staff- Are they encouraged to share ideas?

4. Set and stick to your goals – Strive to be the industry leader.