“100 Little Things”

One of my favorite restaurants is a little Mexican place in Utah called El Chubasco. I’ve often eaten there twice in a day, and once (it’s true) ate there three times.

It’s always crowded. Sometimes people wait outside, in the cold, even though there are plenty of alternatives within walking distance. So, what’s the secret? Why is it worth a drive and a wait?

No specific reason. The energy of owners Jill and Craig is certainly part of it, but most customers never encounter them. I think it’s the hand-fitted gestalt of thousands of little decisions made by caring management out to make a difference. Usually, when a business like this gets bigger or turns into a chain, marketers make what feel like smart compromises. The MBAs collide with the mystical, and the place gets boring. “Why do we need 14 free salsas when we can get away with six?” or “Perhaps we ought to stop handing out huge tumblers of water for free–our bottled water sales will go up.”

This turns out to be the secret of just about every really successful enterprise. Sure, you can copy one or two or even three of their competitive advantages and unique remarkable attributes, but no, it’s going to be really difficult to recreate the magic of countless little decisions. The scarcity happens because so many businesses don’t care enough or are too scared to invest the energy in so many seemingly meaningless little bits of being extraordinary.

Seth is right, the magic happens in the magic of the countless little decisions. But, the scarcity doesn’t happen because so many business don’t care enough or are too scared to invest in so many seemingly meaningless little bits of being extraordinary. The scarcity happens because being extraordinary is no longer the goal.

When companies get “big” or become a chain the goal is no longer being extraordinary, it’s to be as profitable as possible. It’s not that businesses don’t care enough, or are too scared to invest, it’s they have a different goal. Carrying 22 free salsa’s will rarely be as profitable as carrying six. Does 22 salsa’s make for an extraordinary experience? Yes. But it also creates a lot of waste.

There is a curve to extraordinary user experience and profitability. At some point the return on investment of being extraordinary diminishes. (which I am not smart enough to demonstrate here, but I’m sure the MBA’s and the mystical can help. If any one in this community can help illustrate please share) Is being extraordinary profitable? Yes! Is it the most profitable? At some point, no. And that is why things change.

I love the small restaurant my self. I love the boutique ski clothing brands. I love the special attention of the extraordinary. But being extraordinary means targeting a passionate group, and moving away from the middle. When we move away from the middle, we reduce the pool of customers. Growth and expansion come from appealing to as many people as possible and 22 free salsas isn’t extraordinary to most people. They just want one good one.

When great restaurants like El Chubasco get big or become a chain, they haven’t stopped caring, they just change their goal from being as extraordinary as possible to being as profitable as possible and there is nothing wrong with that.

I asked the person on the phone why his was so much more expensive. I asked if he had nicer cars or something. His response; “That’s our listed rate.”

That answer pissed me off. It was absolutely no help. I attempted to bail him out and said; “I know, but is there something more I’m getting for that extra 32 dollars? Are you cars newer, nicer etc?  Why so much more for you than the other guy?”

His response, “I don’t know, if he’s an independent he can afford to charge less, but I have to pay my drivers, gas, maintence etc. so that’s my price.”

Basically what he was telling me was his operating expenses are higher and therefore I’m paying more. Really? It was completely lost on him to explain to me what I was getting for an additional 32 dollars.

No, I’m not spending an extra 32 dollars to subsidize his inability to run a his business.  I’m going to go with the other guy.

I have a friend who works for a telecom company. She is constantly losing deals to the competitors over price. I asked her what her customers get for paying more. She said pretty much nothing. It’s resold Centurylink, so the network isn’t differentiated. Her company is trying to differentiate on service.  With commodities like telephony services, your customer service better be frickin’ laced with gold and free massages if you want me to pay more for POT’s, VPN, IP etc. If not, I’m going with the cheaper guy.  I posted about this a little while back. The lowest price is a business model, not a sales tactic.

If you want your customers to pay more give them something worth the additional money. It’s really that simple!

When something or someone is good we know it. We don’t have to ask ourselves; “was that good?” It’s obvious. We don’t need someone to point good out. We see it automatically. When we get good service or get a good product or have a good experience it speaks for itself.

We spend a lot of time these days telling everyone how good our products are, or how good our service is. I can’t help but wonder if we’d be better off is we spent that time and money on just being really good; — good speaks for itself.

I had a the voucher because I recently missed a connecting flight due to bad weather and had to pay for another airline to get home.  Good for United for making me whole, but a paper voucher that can only be redeemed in person, that’s a broken process.

I have Premier Executive status on United. This is my third year. That means for 3 years I’ve flown at least fifty thousand miles a year. That’s a lot of flights and lot of money. That makes me a valuable United customer.

United has a great online booking system. They have a good Miles Plus program online too. United has my credit card on file, my flight preferences, and more all in my profile. So, why can’t I have credits put in my profile too? Why do I have to go to the airport to use them?

United’s voucher process is broken. When customer facing processes are broken, customer promises are broken. For me, the promise of customer service was broken. There is no customer service in having to drive 80 miles round-trip to redeem a voucher from a flight I already paid for.

Broken processes are almost always attached to a “we can’t do this because: the system doesnt’ allow it, we don’t have the budget, we’re not integrated, etc.” response. When processes are broken there is almost always an excuse. What’s really happening however is something is not being made a priority.  When customer facing processes aren’t made a priority, the customer is NOT being made a priority.

Broken processes, create broken promises.  Billions of dollars are spent every year making brand promisses. Why not spend a few million making sure those promises aren’t broken.

Thanks for the 80 mile drive United. I have nothing to do during the middle of the week anyway.

I don’t see acknowledgment used enough. Often I see sales people ignore the clients position and move right into their own position. This is a mistake. When we acknowledge people we let them know we heard them, we validate their position, we diffuse defensive positions. Acknowledgement works great when it is inwardly focused. Acknowledging you and your companies mistakes, disagreements, failures, differences of opinions, shortcomings, changes, lack of support with clients and customers puts them at ease. It creates transparency. By acknowledging these things we are earning trust. We are putting everything on the table and saying “yes” I understand what is going on, I see the challenges, and I’m prepared to address them with you.

Acknowledging doesn’t mean admitting fault, if it’s not your fault. It doesn’t mean apologizing if you haven’t done anything wrong. It doesn’t mean agreeing with your clients position if you don’t agree. Acknowledgement is simply saying I hear you. I respect your position, whether I agree or not. I am taking this information into account in our dealings and interaction. I’m not ignoring you. I’m not discounting your position and needs. I’m considering you.

There is an ongoing discussion on whether sales is an art or a science. I believe it’s both and acknowledgment is in the art category. The best sales people are brilliant at acknowledging struggles, successes, differences and challenges with their clients, which in turn creates strong, safer, trusting, successful customer/client relationships.

Acknowledge first, it’ll change everything.

I spent 15 minutes of my morning running around the house trying to figure out what was wrong. I first tried from my phone, then turned on my laptop, after realizing it wasn’t a device issue, I went and reset the modem. Once that didn’t work I called Comcast, went through a few menus and finally got a message that says, the service is down in your area, press 1 if you want a call when service is restored. I pressed one.

With the majority of the country having SMS or email ready smartphones it seems to me Comcast could find away to notify a service area when the service is out. They could send out an automated call, they could fire off an SMS message or they could email; all of which would have saved me from some hassle this am.

There is too much technology available today not to keep in constant contact with your customers. If I can write a blog post from my IPhone when my Internet is down, Comcast can notify me that my service has been disrupted and when I can expect it to be back up.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this but; thank god for ATT 3G. Take that Comcast.

What’s the secret weapon of sales?   Taking care of the customer.

Go the extra mile.  Don’t argue over the little stuff.  Understand what’s important to them and provide it.  If they want something figure out a way to give it to them.  Be creative, do unsuspecting things, create an unparalleled customer experience.   When customers feel special, when they feel they matter, when they trust you have their best interests at heart, they buy more, spend more, visit more, return more, tell more people and leave less.

Treat your customers like they matter — because they do — and sales is that much easier.

Don’t make sales harder than it is, use the sales secret weapon.   (OK, it’s really not a secret, yet I’m constantly amazed at how many people don’t seem to know about it — do you?)

Related articles

• Marketing’s New Secret Weapon: Customer Service (customerthink.com)

Having a conversation with your customer about their business is the holy grail.

We think we know about our customers business, we talk as if we do, but do we really?   Where did we get our information?  If we didn’t get it from the horses mouth, we may not know as much as we think we do.

Ask your customer (all the different stakeholders) to breakdown their business for you.  Ask them to school you on everything they can in how they run their business.   Once you’ve done that you can say you know.   Once you’ve done that ask yourself, is there anything I should be doing differently?   I bet there is.

Do you know your customers business?  Yes?  Why?  Because they told you so?

I don’t know if it’s because the economy is putting stress on sales teams and companies or it’s because competition is becoming more fierce, but I’ve been hearing a lot of stories where sales organizations are making commitments they can’t keep and the ramifications are devastating.

I’ve heard stories where the account manager, with the full support of the organization, told a client the software would be ready by a specific date and he could count on it.   The client banked this information, told his organization it would be ready, they managed their customers and their business around the account executives commitment.  Yup, you guessed it.  The software wasn’t ready in time.  It started an entire chain reaction that put the clients customer base in jeopardy, almost cost the person in charge of the effort his job, and devastated the business plan.

Sales is a powerful organization.  Those of us in it have others livelihood in our hands.  We need to treat it that way.   I think it’s too easy to forget that people and organizations rely on us, what we say and commit to.  Sales has always been known to “stretch” an organizations capabilities.  I like this.  I think it’s good to push and stretch.  Everyone wins when we reach.  But, it’s not OK to stretch too far and not be able to deliver on what you commit to.   I’m not talking about lying.  It’s never OK to lie.  There is no place for dishonesty in sales.  But, stretching is not only OK, but a good thing.

When a sales person and their organization makes a commitment to a customer it needs to be met.  If you say the software will be done, it has to be done.  If you say the product will arrive, it needs to arrive.   When a customer chooses to go with you and your company, they are making a commitment to you.  That client then in turn makes a commitment inside their company, to their customers, to their finance team, to their IT department etc.   These stakeholders then make commitments to the street, to the budget, to marketing, to the employees and more.  A sales commitment is more than a simple commitment it starts a domino effect.

Sales wields a lot of power.  It impacts a companies, top line, bottom line, customers and employees.  When sales makes a commitment peoples jobs are on the line.  When commitments are made sales needs to remember this.  Sales needs to know they can’t be missed.  If they are, the dominoes begin to fall and sales will be responsible for pushing first the one.

The other day we needed to resolve an issue with a client.   They were cooperative and working with us but we needed things to move faster.  We asked to accelerate the effort and in asking I explained exactly why.  I told the client we needed the revenue for this fiscal year.  I didn’t hide our motive.

No matter the motivation, I always tell clients what is behind our requests.  I tell them we need the revenue, we screwed up at the factory, we lost an employee, we handled the order wrong, our assumptions were wrong, etc.  It doesn’t matter to me what the motives or reasons are, I am always as transparent as I can be.

Being transparent builds trust.  It lets clients be part of the solution.  It gets us all working on the same page.  It removes all sense of us vs. them from the relationship.

I don’t hold back information from clients.  I am as transparent as possible.  It’s served me well and the clients I’ve had through out the years will tell you it’s served them well too.

Holding back information may feel like the thing to do, but it rarely is.   Relationships rely on transparency, without transparency is it really a relationship?