Customer Service | A Sales Guy

In Sales Reality Doesn’t Matter

Focusing on reality just doesn’t matter. All that matters is what your customer thinks.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve won JD Power customer service award 10 years in a row. If your customer thinks it’s terrible, it is. It doesn’t matter if your product has more features than your competition, if the prospect doesn’t think so, it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter if you implemented the project one week early, if the client felt it was late, it was.

In sales, what you think doesn’t matter. It’s what the customer thinks.

In sales there are two choices. Sell to perception or accept your customer is wrong and walk away.

What you can’t do is convince them they are wrong. That’s a fools errand.

In sales perception is reality. Address the customers perception, regardless of how different it is from yours.

When your food sucks it doesn’t change your mind to hear Wolfgang Puck prepared it with fresh seafood, flown in today, using the best cutlery forged by hand.

All you know is your food sucked.

Addressing the fact your customer thinks their food sucked will get you somewhere. Addressing why it doesn’t will get you somewhere too, just not the sale.

August 17, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service,The Chase | View Comments |

The “Ators” of Sales

There are two types of “ators” in sales; manipulators and facilitators.

Manipulators manipulate the information, the people, the process, and the environment to make things work for their benefit of themselves. They work the sale for their own benefit.

Facilitators facilitate the use of information, the people, the environment, and the process to make things work for the benefit of the customer. They work the sale for the customer.

Both can drive revenue, but only one is selling.

July 25, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service,The Chase | View Comments |

The Check is NOT in the Mail

Chase Bank just updated their new iPone app and it’s exactly the kind of customer experience all companies should strive for.

The new Chase app does a few cool things. It allows you to transfer money, pay bills, send money to anyone with just their email address, pay credit cards and more all from your iPhone. It’s a pretty slick app. But the killer new feature in this app is the ability to deposit a check right from the phone.

I used it today. I deposited a $10 check and a $150 check. It was a fairly easy process. I logged into the app, typed in the amount of the checks, took a picture of the front of the back and submitted. That was it. About two minutes later I had an email confirmation that the deposit was made.

I am a Chase customer and I love this type of customer experience. In an industry many consider commoditized, Chase is creating ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

It’s this type of creativity that drives differentiation. More companies need to do this. I would have love to been sitting in the meeting or around the table when the Chase employe with the idea said, “What if we allow people to deposit checks from their phone?” How would your company respond to such a creative suggestion that challenges every notion of what your industry considers secure? Such outside of the box suggestions are too often met with –”yeah, great idea but.” The but is then followed with every reason why it can’t be done.

Way to go Chase for getting rid of the “yeah buts”.

This app is game changing. Right now you can only deposit a check up to a thousand dollars and no more than three thousand a week. I suspect as they work out the kinks the limits will go up and I will have one less reason to go to a branch . . . and one more reason to stay with Chase.

Chase iPhone app lets you deposit checks by taking pictures (intomobile.com)
Chase Bank Customers Can Deposit Checks Using an iPhone App [IPhone Apps] (gizmodo.com)

July 3, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance,Customer Service | View Comments |

Customer Needs First

Nothing drives me more crazy than when companies don’t appear to know their customers. You’d think this wouldn’t happen too often, because those that don’t wouldn’t last too long. Unfortunately it happens more than you think, which just amazes me.

One of these places is Gordon Biersch in the San Jose Airport. I fly in and out of San Jose a lot. Gordon is right next to Gate 10. Gate 10 is where United flights to Denver depart, so it’s not uncommon for me to get some grub from Gordon Biersch before my flight. They are convenient enough that I am the Foursquare mayor. Despite their location being convenient, their service is anything but.

People in airports are coming or going. They have time constraints. Any shopping or eating must function with in those constraints. Leisure is NOT the mindset people in airports are working from. They are transitory. They need to get in and get out. They have a plane to catch.

Understanding this, everything a restaurant or store in an airport does NEEDS to operate from this perspective — in, out. The check out process, items for sale, the menu, the preparation process, the staff, the layout, everything must operate from the understanding that your customers are under a time constraint.

Gordon Biersch doesn’t seem to get this concept. Every time I’ve eaten there it takes just as long to get my food as it does in a non-airport restaurant. Sometimes it takes even longer. It can take 20 minutes to get your food. This is too long. Today I had 30 min before I had to board my flight. From hello to the time my food came took 30 minutes. I had to take my food to go. This is too long for an airport restaurant.

If I break down the process it went like this:

1:15 Sat myself
1:16 Waitress greeted me and asked what I needed (this was great, but unfortunately not the norm, usually I wait at least 3-5 min before I’m greeted)
1:16 Waitress takes my drink order, I ask for a few minutes to look at the menu.
1:19 The waitress returns with my drink and I give her my order.
1:33 The waitress let’s me know my food will be out shortly. I ask her for it to go, as now I don’t have time to eat it there.
1:35 I ask the waitress if she could check me out now.
1:37 She takes my credit card, and checks me out.
1:42 My food arrives in a to go box. I ask for a to go for my soda and the waitress tells me they don’t have to go cups. (really?)
1:43 I walk out, still haven’t eaten and no soda to drink with my meal.

Almost nothing about Gordon Biersch at San Jose airport is structured for speed. They aren’t structured to get you in and out, the most important thing for most people in an airport.

There aren’t a lot of options at SJ Airport, especially near gate 10. I have to believe that is why they can get away with it. But just because they can get away with it, doesn’t mean they have to.

The best companies build business that fit their customers.

A play place for kids in my neighborhood has little tiny toilets in the bathrooms. Everything in Build-a-Bear is kids eye view. These places understand who they sell to.

Build your business with your customers perspective in mind. The product or service is only part of it. It doesn’t matter if Gordon Biersch has the best food on the planet if I don’t get time to eat it.

I’m the Foursquare Mayor of Gordon Biersch. Yet, I’m not a big fan. It takes too long to get my food. It feels like they don’t really care about what I need . . and that’s food fast.

June 25, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service | View Comments |

United Airlines and WITCE (What is the Customer’s Experience?)

One of my favorite new improvements at United Airlines are their new gate screens. United has rolled out large flat screens at their gates which display the departure time, the destinations weather, the arrival time, the standby list and most importantly for me, upgrade information.

In the past, the line at the gate counters would be a mile long with people wanting information. We’d all file in waiting patiently to find out if the flight were on time, were we on the standby list or if we had been upgraded. The majority of gate agent inquiries were for information. The requests weren’t actionable.

There was no need for this. It just clogged up the line for people with actionable needs, like seat changes, flight change requests etc.

Even worse, it creates a terrible customer experience. I hated waiting in line just to ask a simple question. I know I’m not the only one. How many times have you been in a really long line when someone cuts to the front and says; “I only have a quick question.” I hate it, but it is legit, why wait in a line for 20 min. for something that can be answered in 5 seconds.

United’s new screens are great. I can walk up to the gate, see the if I’ve been upgraded, where I am on the list if I haven’t been and most importantly, if I have a chance in hell of being upgraded. I can see the weather of my destination and how long the flight is. It’s great. I almost never talk to a gate agent anymore. I almost miss them.

If I’m not talking to gate agents anymore neither are others and that is good for United. Gate agents can now focus on serving people with actionable, pressing needs. I don’t know much about gate agent scheduling, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they can now schedule fewer agents per flight saving on labor costs.

The new information screens are win- wins for everyone– those of us who don’t want to wait in line for information, those who had to wait in line to change a flight and for United.

Focusing on WITCE is always a win-win.

WITCE is a question. One start-ups and Fortune 500 companies should ask regularly.

As a mentor to a few start-ups, it’s one I will ask more often. By asking about WITCE answers are found and that moves the business ahead and that’s good for everyone.

Who ever at United asked about the gate “WITCE”; thanks! This customer loves your answer.

—————

WITCE: What is the customers experience? Is a term I learned from Rob Strickland former CIO of T-Mobile USA. He built WITCE into the culture of the IT organization and it was at the core of such efforts as 5 minute activations. It’s a powerful question.

June 16, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service | View Comments |

At the Speed of Nothing

I was at the Gordon Biersch restaurant in the San Jose Airport getting lunch before my flight home. Behind the bar the bartender was flying around, telling people he’d be with them in a minute, grabbing stuff off the bar, filling beers, and working the register. He was moving fast and clearly in the weeds. What caught my attention was it wasn’t very busy. Despite his gyrations and sense or urgency, there wasn’t much going on. Even though is wasn’t very busy, people were waiting a long time, me included, to place their orders, for their food or to check out. He was over working the environment and failing at it. He was working at the speed of nothing.

I see this a lot in business; people, teams and leadership running around with a sense of urgency yet, little is getting done. These environments do little for the company or the employees. Stress, anxiety, are created with little return for the business. Don’t confuse being busy with being productive.

Effort does little without results. Bureaucratic organizations live in this world. Focusing on effort allows everyone to be percieved as being successful without having to do anything. It gives failure an out.

Working at the speed of nothing is a waste. The ideas, energy, and effort wasted on nothing could have been used on something and that’s too bad.

Are you getting things done, or are you working at the speed of nothing?

I finally did get my lunch. The bartender never slowed down. What a waste.

April 17, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance,Customer Service | View Comments |

Salesforce Chatter; Coming Soon

Many of you know I am a big fan of enterprise micro-blogging. Think Twitter for your company. It is by far the most efficient way to share information, exchange ideas, collaborate and engage people in your company. Enterprise micro-blogging tools make companies more agile and improve performance because they capture the invisible.

Salesforce.com is going to launch their own micro-blogging tool called Chatter (now in private beta.) Chatter will compete with Socialcast, Yammer, Socialtext and all the other microblogging tools out there today. It’s a crowded space, but they will have an advantage because of it’s integration into their Salesforce.com platform.

Chatter provides all the typical features you would expect from traditional micro-blogging tools. You can create groups, follow the people most interesting to you, filter feeds to easily find things that are important, respond to specific users directly, share documents and links and more.

But, Chatter also has a few unique features. The most interesting is, unlike Yammer, Socialcast and other pure play micro-blogging tools, Chatter gives you a home page where all of your Salesforce data and important information is laid out for you to monitor. Think of it like a business application dashboard. Another unique Chatter feature is the profile page. The Chatter profile page appears more informative than Yammer and Socialcast from what I can tell. It provides your experience, skills and other personal information so others in the organization know who you are and what you do. It has more of a Facebook profile feel.

Another unique feature Chatter has is its ability to allow you to follow a document. I like this feature a lot. You can follow a PowerPoint presentation, a spreadsheet, a word doc. anything. I like this feature because it makes updating, and managing versions super easy. It also allows you to see what others think of the information and make corrections on the fly. Beyond documents and people, Chatter allows you to follow other applications, including non-Salesforce.com applications.

Chatter also gives you the ability to bring information in from outside social networks like Twitter. The value here is you can create a Twitter search for a specific company or customer and anytime time that company or customer is mentioned on Twitter, everyone in your Chatter group can see it. This is a powerful way to manage a customer and stay ahead of the competition.

One question I do have about Chatter that concerns me is integrating an entire organization. Traditionally, only sales, and marketing and the executives use Salesforce.com If Salesforce wants it to be a ubiquitous tool for the entire company they will have to create licensing pricing that makes it worth it to have everyone in the company to use it; including those who normally don’t use Salesforce, like product, finance and HR. The real value in micro-blogging comes from connecting the entire organization. Not just a few functional groups.

If you are a Salesforce.com customer, Chatter is a compelling tool to bring your organization together. If used appropriately, it has the ability to create proposals faster, identify useful information faster, improve customers relationships, increase sales, accelerate product development and more.

Whether it’s Chatter, Socialcast, Yammer, Socialtext or any other micro-blogging tool, your organization will benefit from their use. Find one and use it. They are about more than chattering, yammering or twittering, they are about getting business done.

Salesforce Rolls Out a Facebook for Businesses (mashable.com)
Salesforce.com gets social with Chatter beta (news.cnet.com)

February 20, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance,Customer Service,Enterprise 2.0,What I Think! | View Comments |

Content Is Useless: It Needs Context

My friend Paul Dunay had a great post the other day on the importance of content in today’s marketing world. He says B2B companies need to create a content creation engine.

“Building a solid content creation engine is critical to B2B marketers today. Why?

Its the content that gives you the opportunity to have a discussion with the Media, its the content that gives you the opportunity to create conversations socially, its the content that gives you the opportunity to re-engage with leads in your system that you may be nurturing on that sames topic, and its the content that allows your sales team to start a conversation with their accounts about that topic.”

Paul is right with this. Content creates the engagement. It’s what connects us to our customers and prospects. Content creates the conversations.

To do this I think B2B marketers and companies need to go a step further. Context needs to be provided.

Content has never been a problem for B2B marketers. Chucking case studies, creating collateral, static websites, etc. have all been part of B2B marketing’s bag of tricks. What they haven’t done well is create context for the content.

Creating context is about providing information in a manner that people can use it. Providing information in a way that creates value. Call it “free” information.

A while back I posted how my favorite ski resort, Vail was missing a huge opportunity with it’s ski school. They provide information, but it has little context for visitors.

Some context to think about:

Teach
Educate
Inform
Contradict
Challenge
Inquire
Expand
Incorporate

Dunay is right. Create a content creation engine. But, don’t stop there. Make it valuable. Give it utility. Create content people and companies can actually use and benefit from. That’s creating a content engine with context.

February 16, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance,Customer Service,Marketing | View Comments |

Six More Weeks of Winter . . . I Think

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and the little guy saw his shadow. Therefore; it means we have 6 more weeks of winter. I think.

As a kid this made no sense to me. It was confusing as hell, actually. To me, the logic was backward. If the groundhog saw his shadow, it meant the sun was out. If the sun was out, it was warm. If it was warm, spring must be close.

From my point of view, being from Boston, it was cloudy and cold all winter and sunny and warm in the spring. Therefore, the idea that seeing his shadow (made possible by the sun) meant spring was further away was backward.

Selling is similar. Often what makes complete and logical sense to us, is the complete opposite of how the customer sees it. We need to make sure we understand how are customers are looking at the problem. Their point of view my draw very different conclusions.

Don’t be quick to assume your customer is following what you’re saying, they maybe just as confused as I am with Groundhogs Day.

Can anyone explain to me why if he sees his shadow, spring is further away? I still don’t get it.

Groundhog Day (dcrblogs.com)
Punxsutawney Phil 2010: Did the Groundhog See His Shadow? (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)

February 3, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service,Random,What I Think! | View Comments |

It’s Attitude and Acknowledgment

Customer service is an attitude not a check list. Just because we offer to help, say thank you, return the food, provide a refund or fix the problem doesn’t mean we’ve provided customer service.

People want to be acknowledged. People want to be heard. They want to believe you understand them and their situation. Customer services is the connection between you and your customer. It’s the emotional engagement. Check lists can’t create emotion.

Training your employees to say thank you, have a nice day, or how can I help you, isn’t customer service. Creating automatic return policies or having a good refund process isn’t good customer service either.

Taking back a broken toy with a bad attitude only makes the problem worse. Getting a customer who didn’t like their food a different meal with a sarcastic attitude just makes the customer more angry.

The problem is no response will solve the problem without genuine acknowledgment and a positive attitude. The problem created a negative emotional response. To fix you need to create a positive emotional response. A smile, acknowledgment, and a genuine connection to your customers is where your customer service starts.

Customer service is like any type of relationship. People want to be heard, they want to be validated.

To provide good customer service don’t create checklists. Don’t teach your employees what to say. Get them to emotionally connect and that starts with a genuine smile and acknowledgment of their feelings.