customer service Archives - Page 2 of 2 - WeGrowMedia

The Best Aren’t 10% Better, They Are 300% Better. Find Out Why.

Our last post talked about how you can spend 15 minutes per day to listen to your customers online, and how that can benefit your business. Today, I want to talk about using that same 15 minutes to learn what how savvy business people and companies are using the web to get closer to their customers and extend engagement with their brand. I’ll share two examples:

How Twitter Can Bring Value to Your Business
Perhaps your company became active on Twitter 4 months ago, and you have a junior-level person maintaining the brand account, and one of your manager also Tweets on their own. Where can you go from here?

Why not simply watch how Zappos uses Twitter for 15 minutes a day? Take a peak at the Tweets in their Customer Service account, directly connecting with their customers. See how the Zappos CEO uses Twitter in an entirely different way on his account. Or maybe you want to follow a few of the dozens of Zappos employees who Tweet. To make it easier, the CEO actually selected the best Zappos employees to check out.

What are you hoping to learn by doing this? That there is no single best way to use Twitter, just a way that stands out with your customers and serves their needs; That an entire organization can embrace the service in different ways; That it can serve core business needs, and yet also deliver personal and random connections as well.
How LinkedIn Can Bring Value to Your Business
What is interesting about LinkedIn is that it doesn’t just give you a vague sense of sentiment, but you can see the complete details of those who you are connecting with. So, if you go to their amazing Answers service, click on a category on the right (I’ll pick Finance & Accounting) and then pick a subcategory (I’ll pick Risk Management), you are now shown two things: open questions and experts.

Open questions gives you a sense of what people want to know and how people answer those questions. Many of the discussions are fascinating, sharing a variety of viewpoints on an issue. Use the search box up top to find specific questions/answers for your business. See which discussions have a lot of commentary.

Now, going back to Experts section – take a gander at who is answering a lot of questions, their background and what their answers consist of.

At the very least, you are seeing how an online business community can operate, and how individuals can deliver value. Use this to shape your efforts online.

I think you’ll find that the best users aren’t doing things 10% better than the average user, but doing things 100 or 300 times better. They seem more engaged, more authentic, more passionate, more helpful. This is not to say that you need to be doing things 300 times better than you are. But don’t be satisfied with doing things 3% better, especially when talking about anything that connects directly with customers.

Find ways to enable customers, to amaze them. Use tactics that make you stand out from the competition in ways that make your employees proud. Find a new way to matter to your customers.

Listening to Your Customers: 15 Minutes a Day

Yesterday I wrote about “having a customer strategy, not a social media strategy.” Today I want to address how to do that in practical terms.

Whenever I speak with people about leveraging social media, the primary challenge for them is not understanding that there is value, and not even a huge barrier in skillset. The problem is often time – feeling that they have any time to either shift their brain into the social media world each day, or physically find a half hour to operate within it.

For those folks (which is most folks), I suggest this:

Don’t think of social media as something new, think of it as a way to do what you already do: focus on learning about and serving your customers.
Set aside 15 minutes a day to find and listen to your customers on social media.

So off the bat, we are trying to accomplish two main things here:

Take the pressure off creating content, which takes more than 15 minutes for most people. While engaging with customers is the ultimate goal, we’ll just take that off the table for the time being.
Create a simple process to find those who you feel are your existing or potential customers. This is not simple for many brands. Likely, it may take a few weeks of ’15 minutes per day’ to find an intriguing example of your core audience and their activities within social media.

How can you begin listening to your customers? Here is one way to consider:

Go to Twitter.com, and search on a few keywords. Ideally, you could search on a phrase, because just like searching in Google, you will get more specific results. So if I were a plumber, I could search on the term “sink leaking” and would find these results: days worth of people in their worst plumbing moments. What can a plumber learn from this? Right here is the basis of their future marketing materials and advertisements. You are seeing exactly how people around the world react to a plumbing issue. If you can use their words, their sentiments to find an engaging message – you have the basis for a successful marketing campaign. What’s more, you can interact with these people. Through @replies, you can follow up and find out how they went about finding a plumber or addressing the issue, and how satisfied they were with the process and solution.

This is just one example – but the start of an overall process of integrating your customer’s attitudes and needs into your daily workflow. For those who spend your entire day dealing with customers, it reshifts you to considering the needs of those who are not yet your customers.

After a month’s time, you will have spent 5 hours leveraging social media to better understand your customers and how you can serve them in new ways. That small commitment can have a profound effect on your business.

Stand Out From the Competition by Helping

There are some compelling statistics that show how keeping an existing customer is cheaper and more profitable than trying to get new customers:

Acquiring a customer costs 5 to 10 times more than retaining one.
A 5 percent increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent.
Repeat customers spend, on average, 67 percent more.
Twenty percent of customers account for 80 percent of total revenues.

So how does a business keep existing customers coming back, create powerful word-of-mouth marketing, and stand out from your competition?

How One Starbucks Store Stood Out From the Rest

I go to a lot of Starbucks stores, as well as a variety of other cafes. In college I managed a cafe, so I am always mindful of how well they operate and how the customers react to the store design, service and products.

Stopping into a Starbucks at Penn Station in New York City during morning rush hour is never a good idea. But I had a remarkable experience recently that showed how a single store can enable customers goals even in the worst of situations:

Heavy competition.
Within Penn Station – there is another Starbucks several stores down from the one I went to, plus other bakeries, cafes and stores where you can get coffee. And that is just inside Penn station. Once you walk out on the street, there is practically a Starbucks on every other corner, plus other competition.
A distracted and apathetic customer.
At 8:30-9am (when I was in this Starbucks) the place is crowded with a long line of customers who are in the middle of their morning commute, about to step onto a subway or walk to their office. They just got off a long train ride, and need to get to the office to start their long day. The store is not all that big, and it is packed with people. They are wearing their winter coats, scarves & hats inside and carrying their laptops, purses and bags. It’s worth mentioning that New Yorkers don’t have the greatest reputation in the world for being patient!

How did this Starbucks stand out and create a remarkable experience? It wasn’t by offering a free sample, installing a TV to entertain customers while they waited, creating a poster with their mission statement, making employees wear ‘fun’ pins or hats, or hand out coupons. Instead they focused on satisfying the core goals of their customers:

Fast service
Quality product

This is how they did it:

Put Customer Goals First
Someone who had to be the manager, greated each customer when the GOT IN line, not after they waited for 5 frustrating minutes. Why do I think this employee was the manager – because he hustled.
Create a System That Adapts to the Situation
The manager took their order almost immediately when people got in line, and used a headset to relay the order to another employee behind the counter who began working on it and communicated to the other baristas preparing orders. It should be noted that there were at least 12 other people in line ahead of the newest customer. So, while they are waiting for those 12 people to be rung up, their order is being prepared. The opposite is usually true at Starbucks – you wait in line to order, then wait in a separate line while they make your beverage.
Make it a Pleasant Experience
This system allowed the cashiers to do what they do best – great people, collect money & give change, and say farewell. Despite the rush, the cashier I went to was incredibly friendly and noticed he was to everyone on line ahead of me. Not only said thank you, but told people to enjoy the rest of their commute. Big smile too – you just don’t get this kind of service during rush hour in New York City!

I would bet that many cafe owners would read the above description and think that they do the same things: put customer goals first, serve them efficiently and in a friendly manner. But again and again I am at cafes where the employees don’t look customers in the eyes, never smile, mess up basic orders, and stay behind the counter and chat other employees even when the store is a mess.

I have rarely seen any Starbucks operate so efficiently, in such a friendly manner, ESPECIALLY in such a crazy situation.

Core Goals vs Ancillary Value

So many businesses front-load their investment in their business plan – working to get people in the door, but then delivering an average experience beyond that. How is a business supposed to stand out? This is where the brand promise of a business falls apart.

Stand Out by Helping

Many businesses try to stand out on price, trends or advertising. But each of these are a race that is hard to win, and impossible to sustain. Customers are fickle. If your key differentiator is based on price, trends or promotions, then you constantly have to fight to win this week’s battle, and are training customers that the key value you offer provides no unique value over what the competition will be doing next week.

What if the model flipped – that instead of forcing your way into their lives, you were the one resource that they welcomed into their lives. The business that your customers make time for, much like sports fans make time (hours a week) to follow their favorite teams, or how people will gladly wait in line at a Starbucks instead of ordering comparable products at less crowded venue.

Why would such a thing happen? Because you solved. Because you gave them an identity worth believing in. Because you created a unique brand story and you lived up to it.

How Can you Leverage the Web to Help Customers?

Here are two ways you can leverage the web to help your customers reach their core goals:

Information: Increasingly, people use the web to research products and services before they buy – even when purchasing a product in-person at business that is not on the web. Be there to help your customers make a smart decision.
Connection: Are your customers passionate about the products or services you provide? (If not, why not?) If so, find ways for them to connect with you, with like minded people, and with the types of experiences they value most. Social media is a key way to do this, and does not require you to build a platform or worry about how to train people on it.

If you don’t have a presence on the web, create a website, start a blog, and promote it anywhere your customers experience your brand.

Then branch off – connect with your market on social media platforms. Give existing customers a reason to connect with you and help non-customers find value in your brand.

Your customers spend most of their time outside of your store, not dealing with your services or products. Maximize your potential interactions with them by reaching them online.

What the Movie Avatar Taught Me About Committing to Customers, Employees and Products

Recently, I went to see the movie Avatar. My experience was far more complex than I had expected, and has left me considering how businesses make and break commitments to their customers. The story is in two parts, as I had to go to two theaters to try to see the film.

Theater #1: Making a False Commitment to Customers

I knew the movie was created to be viewed in 3D, so I found a local theater that offered that version. The movie had just been released, so I bought my tickets online and arrived at the theater an hour early. Four people had arrived ahead of me, I chose my seat, and by the time a half hour had passed, the theater was really filling up. Once 7:30 arrived, we were amped to see the movie, having held our odd 3D glasses for an hour, wondering if they would prove magical or not.

But, before the lights dimmed, two theater employees came to the front and told us there would be a slight delay, 5-15 minutes as they got the special 3D projector set up. Here is what followed:

7:45 further apologies, further delays and handing out passes for a free popcorn or soda.
8pm more apologies, and an outright promise that they would be showing the movie, and that we should just bear with them.
8:15pm even more apologies and more promises that they are 100% going to show the film, that they were almost ready.
8:30pm yes, even more apologies and an offer to go into another theater to catch the 2D version of the film that was starting at 8:30. Clearly, this means that even though you had waited an hour or two already, you would be getting the worst seats in the theater for a lower quality of experience (2D vs 3D)
8:45pm the same two teenage theater workers come back in, this time with a security guard, and inform us that the movie was not going to be shown. The offered a free movie pass as well as a refund for the expense of this one.

Now, let’s revisit how many ways the movie theater mismanaged this:

Hiding Critical Facts
Three audience members had managed to find one of the projector operators who explained that this was an issue at both of the previous attempts to show the film earlier in the day, and neither of those screenings could be shown. In fact, the movie had been downloading since the 3pm showing, and the theater operators were hoping it would be ready by 7:30.

When people are paying close to $15 for a ticket, perhaps another $5 or $10 on food, and sitting there with their friends, kids and loved ones with high expectations, these are things that should have been mentioned at the ticket counter well before anyone sat down with the expectation of seeing the film at 7:30 – or at all.
Setting False Expectations
Again and again, as the movie downloaded from the central server to their projector (a process that took 5 hours), they assumed they knew when it would be complete and that it would work. This despite the fact that this theater was new to using the 3D projector, and the projectionists admitted that they had little knowledge of the projector or the process of using it.

So when the computer said 90% downloaded, they told the audience “it should only be 15 minutes” even though they had no idea. So again and again they told us this, even though they clearly were wrong each time.

Once the movie did download 100%, it was “corrupt” and would not play. So their promises that they would absolutely show the movie tonight was based on a faint hope of what they would like to happen, not an experienced voice who felt an obligation to their customers.

Telling Outright Lies
The theater employees made a comment that they were having issues downloading the film from the central server, and that this was happening at theaters across the country. A few quick searches on Twitter via my iPhone left me without a single other example of people complaining about the film being delayed or not shown due to this issue.

After waiting for two hours and forty five minutes, I got my refund and left the theater. Let’s compare this experience with my second attempt to see the movie.

Theater #2: Living Up to Promises

For my second attempt to see Avatar, I went two days later to a theater that offered a full IMAX 3D version of the film. I purchased my tickets online that afternoon, and arrived at the theater an hour before the show time. Here are four key ways that this experience differed from my previous attempt:

Committing to the Customers
When I arrived at the theater (again – an hour before show time), there were already 100 people on line ahead of me. The usher clearly told me where to wait, even though the line was so long that it had to be broken into two halves. While on line, the manager walked around and chatted with patrons. This really got my attention. He wasn’t hiding, ordering underlings to tell people to be patient, he had nice slow civil conversations with people, setting reasonable expectations on the process of getting into the theater, explaining how good the experience was and why they were so excited to have Avatar in IMAX 3D. He really made you feel welcome and excited.

When he came up to me and a few folks around me, he talked about when we would be let in, how the line would move, and allayed our fears about not getting a good seat. He told us that the projectionists felt that being in the first third of the theater was the sweet spot for IMAX 3D, and that most of those 100 folks ahead of us would likely run right towards the upper seats as a matter of course.

He also went on to explain that some of the trailers were in 3D, and that they were quite stunning in their own right. He also told us the process of what went into installing the IMAX theater – where the extra speakers were, and how massive the project was. He really set an expectation that we were in for a treat.

Some folks around me asked him when a few new films would be coming to this theater, and you can tell he was a real movie fan talking about films he was excited about.
Committing to Employees
After that conversation, I still had quite a wait on the line. While I people watched, I kept an eye on the manager. It was amazing to watch him just chatting with folks all over the lobby. Always pleasant, always trying to make their experience a bit nicer.

He kept checking in with the employees in the IMAX theater, as the cleaning crew went in, as other members of his staff talked to folks in the front of the line.

Then I saw him behind the concession stand – SWEEPING THE FLOOR! He didn’t yell at anyone to do it, it wasn’t something that a customer would have even seen – he just saw some spilled popcorn or something, and quickly cleaned it up himself.

I soon realized that his real reason for being back there was to help another employee bring the cart with the sanitized 3D glasses from the back room, through the concession area, through the lobby and to the entrance of the theater. Every step of the way, he made sure things were done right, and never ordered anyone around.
Committing to a Technology
This is not a theater that went kicking and screaming into 3D – they renovated an entire theater, losing three rows of seats in order to install a full IMAX theater. They added a larger screen, extra speakers, and I assume other equipment like the projector. For the 3D glasses (which are much larger than non-IMAX 3D glasses), they are reused, and have to be disinfected between screenings. So this ads the cost of the disinfecting equipment, plus employee training on the process and the time-management to do this between two screenings. That is a big commitment. It should be noted that while this theater serves a very large region, it is not sitting in the middle of a high-income area. It is mixed-income, and requires a considerable drive for most patrons. So they committed to the concept that they would sell enough $15 tickets to this market.
Committing to an Experience
The end result is that this theater made a commitment to the overall movie experience. While its customers deal with making ends meet in a deep recession and competing technologies make it cheaper and easier to get a comparable experience at home, this theater did everything it could to elevate the movie going experience and reinforce the belief that it is indeed worth paying for.

And they didn’t need to offer Godiva chocolates or personal massages to do so. Just an attractive, clean and well-managed theater. It’s just that simple.

What is so interesting here is that I am not telling a story of a brand that exceeded expectations. All I wanted was for a business to live up to its promises and set reasonable expectations. For a $15 ticket to a movie, that is not a silly thing to ask.

In the end, it left me considering how many other types of businesses make partial commitments to their own products, undercut their employees and make false commitments to customers in the pursuit of revenue.

As I consider these same ideals in the online space, it reminds me of ways that some brands do a horrible job trying to connect with customers on the web, and others do a phenomenal job of leveraging social media in fun and meaningful ways that have a real affect on their business.

When you consider building your brand online, which type of business will you be?