THE +1% RULE – Secret Number THREE – (part 2 of 2)
In the previous post I shared with you the importance of delivering your Customer Service with CONSISTENCY, which serves the need for trust and reliability your customers crave for.
However, the thing is that as much people are creatures of habits, they also like to be amused and their subconscious minds are always on the look for SOMETHING NEW. And here comes the +1 RULE. The Rule of +1% is simply defined as adding to your customer service one percent at a time.
Watch out, though – Before you can do this you must have your consistency perfected or it will never work.
This one percent may seem small, but if you approach the vision being created for your company with baby steps, you will find a huge increase over a solid chunk of time.
REMEMBER – This is not a sprint. This is a MARATHON.
- Avoid doing too much at once. Give yourself and your staff a task for the week. Focus on one sequence of procedure and repeat until comfortable. Think of the confidence you and your employees will have when you improve one percent each week. By the end of a year, you’ll have improved more than 50%!
- As much as rules and standards are necessary for growth, always be flexible with your best customers. Most retailers only allow a set number of items into a dressing room to reduce the risk of shoplifting, but it generally restricts the large percentage of people who are not stealing from you.
FLEXIBILITY is the key to what you deliver to your customers and CONSISTENCY is the key to how you deliver it.
The bottom line is customers rely on you to deliver what you promise and give them an experience that makes them feel good about themselves.
Focus on your vision and baby steps to turn your satisfied customers into Raving Fans.
I hope you’ve learned a lot about good customer service in this and the previous three lessons and how it’s essential to your overall success.
If you need help with any of the steps we’ve gone through over these four lessons let me hear of your specific challenges – leave your comments and questions.
and here is the SHORTCUT – GET IN TOUCH AND lets get YOU the strategies that will work for you.
Dedicated to Your Success!
The THIRD Secret Revealed – HOW TO DELIVER + 1 (Part 1 of 2)
I was somehow surprised last week when it was announced that Vodafone was fined by £4.6 million for POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE and thought how could such a huge corporation let the ground slip beneath their feet? What was it they missed to act on?
Recently I spoke with a business owner who lost 8 major clients in just 10 days blaming the Brexit asking for ideas how to manoeuvre better in the new set-up. After some in-depth conversation with him and directors it became clear that the fail was in providing their customer care service.
The thing is that this IS A PAIN ISSUE and if you think your customer service operations are up to scratch – well, CHECK AGAIN – before it costs your business some profits.
In the last posts I shared with you two of the secrets that make a strong customer service foundation of a business. After all without customers businesses can not be and those who understand their customers best – succeed. We also talked about how to understand what your customers want out of a positive shopping experience.
Today I will share with you the third secret – the concept of Deliver +1 and how this concept can take your customer service to the next level. I’ve decided to split up this post so the next one will cover the +1 Rule.
The key to any great customer service experience is Consistency. If you want to take your satisfied customers to Raving Fan status, you have to go above and beyond the average customer service experience.
There are three ways to develop consistency:
- Avoid offering too many customer service options.
We sometimes get so caught up in giving customers what they want that we get away from our original vision. Instead, stay true to your vision and offer one or two solid customer service techniques that will set you apart from the competition.
You need to fine-tune and perfect the current systems you are using before you can add anything to the mix. There’s nothing worse than launching a new program when you haven’t even worked out the kinks of an old system.
- Put solid systems into place.
Once you know what you’re going to offer, you need to have a system in place to execute it flawlessly every time. This system needs to consist of the right people in the right roles with clear responsibilities and technology that guarantees a positive experience every time. Emphasis needs to be placed on the results, which ultimately is the satisfaction of the customer.
- Good training is the key.
Once you have your system into place you need to train your every member of staff to use it properly and efficiently. Never underestimate the potential of your staff to attract or deter your customers. This helps your people deliver the results your customers are looking for. Also while training is essential for the system to work and for all your people to work together cohesively, appreciation will go a long way.
I hope this has given you a look into what you need to do in order to have a quality customer service system in place.
I would love to hear about your challenges – leave your comments or questions.
TUNE IN FOR THE SECOND PART WHEN I’LL TELL YOU ABOUT THE +1 RULE .
Antonina Manev
Helping business OWNERS DO MORE BUSINESS AND DOUBLE THEIR PROFITS
Always Dedicated to YOUR Success!
ANOTHER SECRET REVEALED
WATCH VLOG HERE
In the last post we talked about the first secret to building a solid customer service foundation.
Today I will share with you the SECOND SECRET in taking your satisfied customers to raving fans.
You must know what your customers want.
Know who your customers are and you will know better how to serve them.
Demographics are really important here. But Psychographics tops it all. A woman in her 30’s is going to have completely different expectations than a working class man in his 50’s when shopping from you. And why is that?- you may wonder.
Remember – People make choices based on their emotions! So learn to read, pace and lead their emotions right and you will have a loyal customer.
There are FOUR MAIN AREAS you need to consider and plan when figuring out what your customers want:
- Listen to Your Customers
- Ask Your Customers Sincerely
- Offer More than Just a Product/Service
- Know When to Ignore Them
These are all important when deciding what your customers want out of their shopping experience.
Listen to Your Customers
You need to listen to both what they say and what they don’t say. Customers may say they want one thing and really mean something else. For example, if your customers are begging for lower prices, you may find out their real priority is quick delivery.
Also, listen to your “silent” customers. These are the customers who don’t bother to complain because the service is so bad they’ve just given up and don’t feel like their voice matters. They feel unwanted and when a competitor shows up, they’ll be gone.
Lastly, you need to listen to customers who only reply with “fine”. These customers are similar to the “silent” customers in that they are so used to bad customer service they only give a monotone response.
Ask Your Customers Sincerely
If you aren’t sincere when you ask their opinion, they are going to see right through you. You may be thinking, “What about the customers who aren’t saying anything?” You need to ask them sincere questions that get them thinking about their experiences. Make them feel like you really care, and you should!
Offer More than Just a Product/Service
Your customers are looking for much more than a simple product or service, they are looking for an experience that makes them feel good. They gauge every step of the process with a value. When you take this into consideration and treat them like people, they will feel like they belong.
Know When to Ignore Them
You may think this goes beyond providing good customer service, but in reality you can’t give them everything and some people you will never make happy. You have to set limits and stick to them. If your vision and company don’t meet the needs of the customer, they will be best suited somewhere else.
These are the steps and tricks to figuring out what your customers want and how you can use them to work on your customer service vision and plan.
Don’t waste your chances to do MORE business, try out our vast knowledge library of strategies, tactics and let us help you through the process.
ALWAYS DEDICATED TO YOUR SUCCESS!
SHHH…I HAVE A SECRET! + VIDEO
WATCH THE VIDBLOG HERE
The foundation of a business is made up of number of elements – all equally important in making it successful and profitable.
When I ask business owners which is the most important of all – the most common answer I get is – The Product – and this is quite right, because indeed the product is the centerpiece of a business.
However, according to a survey commissioned in 2011 the reason for the fail and close down of 75% of new businesses did not turn out to be the product but inadequate Customer Service. So the customer service proves to be the Maker and Breaker of every business success.
75% failed – because of poor customer service!
Customer service is a pretty hot topic and can make or break your business. Consumers have little patience for lousy customer service and easily get tired of waiting in long lines, trying to get a live person on the line, going through an interrogation to return something or trying to communicate through a language barrier.
Today I will share with you The FIRST of THREE Secrets on customer service that you know about but sometimes miss to navigate correctly.
Here is a question – Why do you think some customers buy on regular basis from you?
- Is it the unique product? – i doubt it – there is competition for every single product nowadays
- Is it the price? – if this is the only reason – your business needs a health check straight away.
- or Is it the experience your customer gets when purchasing from you?
The right answer for 95% of returning customers is The Experience.
Secret Number ONE – people buy guided by their emotions in 95% of cases. If you understand their emotions right and provide them with simple, efficient and pleasant experience – they will not only re-visit your business over and over again, but they will go and tell everyone they know about it!
Here are three main goals you need to consider when working on your customer service creations:
- It needs to be easy for your customers to do business with you. You can do this with advertised discounts, kiosks, your website and other technology based programs to help them shop.
- Doing business with you needs to be a warm and pleasant experience. Your staff has to be knowledgeable, approachable, warm and patient. Your customers need to feel like they are getting a good value for their time and money. Perceived value goes beyond the price of the products and extends to their shopping experience.
- Change your mindset and ask yourself “How can I NOT afford to do these things?” This shouldn’t be a question of expenses, but making and keep happy customers.
With these thoughts in mind you also need to take a few things into consideration when deciding on the actual programs and standards you’ll put into place.
- Share your customer service vision with the rest of your staff.
- Connect your incentive programs and bonuses directly to customer service.
- Monitor the level of customer service your staff is putting out.
- Know when you can ignore what your customers want.
- Continuously focus on your goals.
Now that you know what the first secret is, you can start thinking about how to meet those customer needs and create a positive purchasing experience for them.
Let me remind you this – no one is born with the knowledge how to make business but everyone is born with the ability to learn.
And this is what we do at Visions Nspire Biz sSccess – educate businesses, show them what to apply and how to apply it and watch their profits grow!
If you are having hard time deciding what you need – get on www.visionsnspirebizsuccess.com and pick the tools, resources, training and advice to help you define and develop the matching customer service for your business.
Subscribe to our weekly training topics and videos – FREE
or
Why not become a member of our Biz Success program to start increasing your business profits NOW and enjoy the lifestyle you desire.
THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS – EXPAND
Let me take you back in the days when you started your new business…and ask you “Would you have started at all if anyone had told you how hard every step would be?”
You see, although most of you are grow ups you still act like any child and because of that the Universe protects you with the blessing of the enthusiasm ignorance, so that you can make it through and succeed – just like any child is!
Starting a business, Running a business, Sustaining a business, Evolving a business, Closing a business…. All stages and cycles of a lifespan of any business and yours, too!
The common thing is – they all REQUIRE your enthusiasm, curiosity and innovation at ALLtimes to give you in return what you ultimately want from your business – NEVER ENDING SUCCESS!
Today I’m going to talk about the life cycle of a business and how to get the most out of each cycle while also extending the lifespan of your business.
The four different stages of a business life cycle are:
- Infancy
- Adolescence
- Growing Pains
- Maturity
We’ll talk a little about what each of these cycle’s means and how they can each help expand your business’ lifespan.
Infancy
This is generally consider the technician’s phase, which is the owner. At this point, the relationship between the business and the owner is that of a parent and new baby. There is an impenetrable bond that is necessary to determine the path your business will follow. And you need all the advice and support you can get.
The key is knowing that your business must grow in order to flourish. You cannot stay in this stage forever. So – Focus, Focus and Focus! Also – Learn, Train, Apply AND REPEAT!
Adolescence
In this stage you need to start bringing your support staff together to delegate to and allow growth to happen. The first line of defense is your technical person as they need to bring a certain level of technical experience. This cycle really belongs to the manager though. The plan stage needs to start and a relationship should be built with the entrepreneur to plan for the future.
Growing Pains
There’s a point in every business when business explodes and becomes chaotic. This is referred to as growing pains. It’s a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless. You are often faced with a number of choices:
- Avoid growth and stay small
- Go broke
- Push forward into the next cycle
Maturity
The last cycle is maturity, though this doesn’t mean the end of your business. Your passion for growth must continue in order for your business to succeed. You need to keep an entrepreneurial perspective in order to push your business forward.
You see how all four of these cycles are connected and depend on a strong foundation for each one of them so that your business is and continues to be successful. All three of your key roles – The Owner, The Manager and The Entrepreneur must also work together to work through these cycles.
If you’re having trouble putting together your business life cycles and figuring out which of the key roles you fit into, try our FREE test drive and work with one of our amazing coaches.
Dedicated To Your Success!