Look at the specific ways in which you compete in the marketplace as well as what makes you unique. Then decide how technology can redefine the way you compete. For example, when was the last time you bought something from the Polaroid Company? At one time, they were the king of instant photography. But then technology and digital photography changed their industry, and the way they competed (instant photography) changed…but Polaroid didn’t change with it.
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Posts Tagged ‘Customer Service’
Always Take Competition Seriously
Take a Moment To Understand How Technology Is Affecting Your Customers
Look at how technology is affecting your customers in your industry right now. But don’t just look at productivity. Look at the overall customer experience as well as who is buying your offerings.
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INCREASE YOU COMPANY’S TRUST FACTOR (PART 2)
Trust mishaps don’t just happen with external customers and the public; they also happen internally with employees. A few years ago one major company laid-off a few thousand employees. Rather than meeting with people individually, laying them off with dignity and providing support services, the company had their security guards tell those being laid-off the bad news, gave them their paperwork, watched them clean out their desk, and then escorted the former employees out the door. The employees still working there learned one important lesson that day: Never trust upper management.
Last month, I shared two strategies to increase your company’s trust factor to enhance the bottom line. This month, I would like to share two additional strategies to help foster trust in your organization.
THINK IN TERMS OF THE OTHER PERSON’S PERSPECTIVE.
No matter how hard you try, sometimes mistakes will happen and trust will decrease. But rather than accept the lower level of trust, see this time as an opportunity to raise the bar on trust with those who are feeling less of it. For example, suppose you have a major disagreement with one of your key distributors.
You both think the other is wrong. This is when you need to step up and say to the distributor, “We’ve had a long and trusting relationship with you and we don’t want to lose that. What can we do to make you happy?” The answer you’ll hear will likely be more than fair because the conversation has now shifted from a confrontational to a relational one. Everyone will come out a winner.
SURVEY CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES ABOUT TRUST.
Have employees, business partners, and customers rate you on trust. You could even have them fill out the trust meter for you. With this feedback, you will know where you stand and can make adjustments. All too often, trust is undermined and the company and its leaders are the last to know, and this can be disastrous. If you are the first to know, you can make corrections before it is too late. This also shows everyone that relationships and mutual trust are not just words, they are imperatives.
TRUST PROVIDES A BIG ADVANTAGE IN ANY ECONOMY
Too often, customer service and support are cut back when the economy heads south. People are laid-off with no warning or support. Face-to-face customer meetings are cut back or canceled. But this is a time to do the opposite. When things are bad, relationships become more important! Doing things better stands out more. Becoming a trusted advisor versus a sales person stands out. Going the extra mile is more unique.
When you increase trust, your relationships will deepen and your business will improve.
Increase Your Company’s Trust Factor
With billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout money, how much do you trust the leadership of the banks that, after record losses, gave themselves unprecedented raises? How much do you trust the leaders of Wall Street? How much do you trust our government’s ability to manage the money they have given to the banks or the auto industry? How much do you trust the leaders of the auto industry to do the “right thing” with the bailout money? This growing lack of trust can have serious consequences as we try to reverse the economic meltdown and bring about positive change and growth.
The one thing every business professional should be certain about, regardless of industry, is that the future is all about relationships. And the one thing all relationships need to survive is trust. In fact, trust is the glue that holds the net-enabled knowledge economy together. The more trust you have with someone, the more powerful the relationship. The less trust you have, the weaker the relationship.
In business, trust is something you must earn. You do so by displaying three universal values: honesty, integrity, and delivering on promises. In fact, no matter where you travel around the world and regardless of religion or culture, those three values are the same. Because people worldwide place such a high emphasis on trust, many companies cite “trust” in their list of organizational values. And by nature, most people are indeed trusting of others. But because trust is assumed, many companies have a tendency to implement strategies that undermine trust. They fail to make trust a conscious part of their strategy. Instead, trust stays in the back of their mind, and that’s when problems begin.
For example, call your Telephone Company or Internet Service Provider today and tell them you’re going to cancel your service and go with a different provider. Chances are that in order to keep you as a customer, they’ll respond by offering you a lower rate. Does that make you trust them more? No. In fact, you’ll probably feel that you’ve been getting ripped off all these years and should have gotten that lower price all along. Policies such as these train customers to distrust the company.
Despite their actions, companies that violate trust are not evil. Rather, they’re simply not thinking about trust when they lay out a course of action or outline policies. Therefore, in order to foster trust in your organization, consider the following strategies.
NEVER ASSUME TRUST
Whenever you’re bringing about any change, either internally or externally, create a “trust meter.” Think of this trust meter as an old fashioned gas gauge: On the far left is no trust, and on the far right is full trust. Before you implement any change, ask yourself, “Between us (the company) and the people who will be impacted by this decision or policy, where is trust currently?” Mark it somewhere on your trust meter. Then ask, “If we implement this change in this way, what will happen to that trust?” Mark whether you think trust will go down, stay the same, or increase.
If trust will go down, don’t implement the change in that way. This doesn’t mean don’t enact the change, decision, or policy. It simply means not to do it in the way you’ve outlined. Change how you implement the decision or policy so trust stays where it is. And if anyone on your team can come up with a way to get the trust meter to increase when implementing the change, reward that person openly, because you want that behavior repeated. Remember, when you raise the bar on trust, your organization will thrive.
OFFER MORE VALUE TO REWARD LOYALTY
As you decide what policies and changes your company will implement, think in terms of adding value rather than giving something for nothing. For example, one newspaper publisher sent out a $190 yearly renewal notice to customers. Those customers who didn’t renew by the deadline received a phone call about the renewal. The newspaper employee offered the customer a deeply discounted renewal rate of $90. This is “something for nothing” mentality, because now the customer sees less value in the product (and feels ripped off for paying the higher renewal price in the past).
A better strategy would be to offer the customer a few additional months of newspaper delivery for no extra charge. So now instead of getting twelve months of newspaper delivery for a certain price, the customer gets fifteen months of service for that same price. When you think in terms of rewarding loyalty with more value rather than a lower price, people feel that the company is giving them a genuine “thank you.” They feel appreciated (something everyone wants to feel) and will actually want to keep doing business with you. Therefore, pinpoint what your customers will perceive as added value and make that a part of your policy change.
Next month, I will share two additional strategies that will allow you to bring about change faster and more effectively, and improve your business.
TAKING SALES TO THE NEXT LEVEL, PART II
Last month, I covered the Golden Rule of Sales—give people the ability to do what they currently can’t do but would really want to do if they only knew they could have done it. This month, I would like to cover some additional areas to help take your sales to the next level.
REDEFINE THE VALUE YOU DELIVER
Always remember that you’re not simply selling a “thing”; you’re selling the competitive advantage of the product. In other words, part of your job is to help your customers use the product you sell to gain competitive advantage. No wonder margins are slim. Most companies simply sell the product, deliver it, and then leave. It’s then up to the customer to figure out specific guidelines for maximizing the use of the product organizationally. Is it any wonder why so many customers underutilize their purchases?
Obviously you can’t share secrets or proprietary information you learn about any of your other customers, but you can go beyond the guidelines and actually help customers figure out how to get a competitive advantage by using your product. By offering that kind of knowledge, you could possibly even charge more for your product because now you’re giving business value that far exceeds the value of the individual product.
REDEFINE PERCEPTION OF THE SALESPERSON
You need to shift from being a vendor to being a trusted advisor. A vendor simply supplies a product. A trusted advisor supplies true advantage. For example, a trusted advisor will recommend what is best for the customer, not best for the salesperson. When you seek that higher ground and become a trusted advisor, your clients trust you more.
Remember that the future is all about relationships. Relationships are all about trust, and you gain trust by earning it. So never teach people to distrust you by stretching the truth or hiding some pertinent information. To differentiate, you need to raise the bar on trust.
REDEFINE YOUR LEVEL OF SALES SUCCESS
When you focus on redefining what you already have you can take your current offering and leverage it to new levels. That’s when you become a sales leader, not because of some fast-talking sales pitch, but because of your commitment to your customers and their true needs. So focus on these four elements of redefining today and you’ll be able to give your customers tools and solutions they never dreamed possible. As a result, both you and your company will attain new levels of success and realize the profit potential you always knew existed.
TAKING SALES TO THE NEXT LEVEL, PART I
As a salesperson, you’re trained to ask customers what they want in terms of your product offerings. That’s wise advice. However, if you only ask customers what they want and then give it to them, you’re missing the biggest opportunity that has ever come in front of you.
Realize that clients will always under-ask because they don’t know what is possible. Think about it…No customer ever asked for a fax machine. They didn’t know it was possible to send printed communication via a phone line. No customer ever asked for an iPod. They didn’t know it was possible to listen to music without some sort of CD or spinning device. People don’t ask for things that they don’t know exist.
Technology allows us to do things that were once thought impossible. So for salespeople, while it is important to ask customers what they want and then to give it to them, realize that by doing so you’re merely competing with your competitors. Chances are your competitors are asking customers the same questions, they’re getting the same answers, and they’re providing the same solutions. When that happens, you end up competing on price and not differentiating yourself.
Therefore, the Golden Rule of sales is to give people the ability to do what they currently can’t do but would really want to do if they only knew they could have done it. That’s so much more profitable than simply giving clients what they ask for.
The key is that you have to look a little bit further into your customers’ predictable needs based on where they’re going. Only then you can see unmet needs and new opportunities.
At this point many salespeople might say, “But I don’t create the products; I just sell them. How can I deliver what customers don’t know is possible?” The answer lies in how you can redefine various aspects of your offering. Consider redefining your product. Today, it’s not about high-tech; it’s about higher-tech. In other words, it’s not about your product; it’s about how your clients use it.
Think about the products you sell. Sure, your customers are probably using the product for what it was intended to do. But could the same product help in another department? Could it impact the effectiveness of the company in some other way? Could it do something else or something more for your customers? Analyze how people have always used your product and think of other creative applications. That’s how you redefine your product so it adds more value and does what no one ever thought to ask.
Next month, I will show you how to redefine your customers and the value you bring to them.
The Trust Factor
As you might guess, I review a variety of electronic newspapers and news sources every day, but after all these years, I still enjoy reading a traditional print version of the morning paper with that first cup of coffee. It might be because I spend so much time every day looking at a computer screen, that I just want to start the day unplugged, moving more than just my eyes.
A little over a month ago, the local newspaper I subscribe to sent me my annual renewal form in the mail. The annual renewal price was $190. I was in the middle of a speaking tour and didn’t have time to respond to the renewal notice. Another few weeks went by and then I received the marketing call. They said; “We noticed you did not renew your paper this year. If you renew now, it will only cost you $90. That’s a savings of $100. Will you renew now?”
I said yes. They didn’t know it, but I would have renewed at the usual $190; I was just too busy. There is something else they obviously don’t know. I will never trust them again. In just a few sentences, they taught me to never pay the bills they send me, because if I do, I’m ripping myself off.
THE REAL LESSON
I’m sure this is not what the management at the local paper wanted to teach me. How do mistakes like this get made? The answer is simple. We “assume” trust is there because we see organizations and ourselves as being trusting and trusted. Because trust is assumed in all that we do, we often fail to consider if our actions will undermine trust. In this case, the local paper taught me not to trust any of the offers they send me in the mail. I now know, there will be a better deal if I take no action and wait for the better offer.
NEVER ASSUME TRUST
Anytime you are introducing something new, a change of any kind, ask yourself what will happen to trust if you do it in this way? If the answer is that trust will go down, don’t do it in that way. I didn’t say don’t do it. I said don’t do it in that way. Change how you do it so that trust is maintained. And, if anyone in your organization can find a way to increase trust, reward those people openly because you will want that behavior repeated.
Another strategy would be to say they are offering me a one-time-only offer to renew at a reduced rate and this price would not be offered again. By emphasizing the one-time-only aspect of the offer, it is less likely to be seen as a rip off.
HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY
There are millions of AOL customers today who have a broadband connection and are still paying $21.95 per month for e-mail and access to their content. Millions have called to cancel and were then offered $19.95 per month for the same service. If they said no to that offer, they were then offered $5.95 per month. If this happened to you, how would you feel? My guess is that you would wonder how long AOL had been ripping you off at $21.95 per month. Trust would be undermined.
About a month ago, AOL decided to offer their e-mail and content service for free allowing them to better compete with Yahoo! and Microsoft’s free services. Did AOL notify any of their customers who are still paying $21.95, $19.95, or $5.95? No! Instead, they are hoping that they don’t ask so they can keep collecting the money. My guess is that the remaining, long-standing, loyal AOL customers will eventually find out, feel ripped off, and leave AOL forever. Is this what AOL really wants? I don’t think so.
The moral of this story is: never teach your customers to distrust you.
