How do you Perceive Good Customer Service?
One of my favorite quotes about customer experience is from Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus. He said, and I paraphrase as best as I can remember, “The hardest part of customer service is the customer. They’re not always right, but they’re always the customer.”
In part one last month, we explored sales and selling. Specifically, how our behaviors as sales reps help customers buy goods and services. The sales interaction represents a two-sided coin. On one side, the sales rep, skilled in the art and science of selling. Flip it over. On the other side, the customer, driven by purpose, on purpose, for purpose to buy stuff.
Customers are…
A simple working definition is customers are people who buy goods and services, and in doing so, supply revenue to the organization. Organizations can have a vision to provide amazing goods and services by the best people possible, but none of that matters unless someone shows up. And when they do, a few things immediately stand out.
First off, customers don’t just show up, they have a purpose for showing up. They made the choice to let whoever is in the store – maybe they know each other, maybe not – to serve them. Second, regardless of how they show up; ready to buy, inquisitive about something they need or upset about something that may have happened…they are giving us a chance because they need us as much as we need them. Lastly and most importantly, our goal is to meet them where they are, not where we are.
Everything is too expensive.
That is, until value has been established. Regardless of what the customer’s buying…it doesn’t matter what…it’s all expensive until the value (desire, need, solution) becomes greater than the price of the thing. When the “want” becomes greater than the “wallet”.
In selling, figuring out the balancing act of price and value is all about discovery. To figure out what’s driving the customer’s wants, needs, desires, and solutions. We then align that information with the information we have about the goods and services that make up the best options.
I have found that customers don’t buy so much what the stuff has (features), they buy what the stuff does (benefits). That cause-effect relationship is driven by our ability to know enough about the product to make the connection of value to and for the customer.
“Value is not determined by those who set the price. Value is determined by those who choose to pay it.”
Simon Sinek perfectly sums up the correct point of view and then directs our goal of discovery. To figure out the customers perspective and create a “value bucket”. To discover what’s driving the customer’s decision making and then put things in that bucket.
It begs the question, what are things that can add value?
It depends and it varies. One of the first key components in adding value is brand, or company perception. Specifically, how an organization is seen as having a positive reputation for delivering excellent service and known for the best wireless experience, caring community engagement and best in class products.
Another component is the quality of the retail ecosystem. How we do what we do in our stores and with our call centers with a focus on finding the right solution for the customer. Providing personalized care within a seamless process making it easier for customers to buy our goods and services.
And lastly, a tremendously valuable component, the people who sell and support selling. The greatest asset of any business is its people, and it’s the front-line team members who represent the drivers for adding to the value bucket. Seen each day in how we interact and care for every person. This represents our outlook, mindset, passion, and purpose in what we do and how we do it. With every customer, when we deliver our best self, we demonstrate the ultimate quality customer experience.
I’ll end with this…
If selling is what we do to achieve sales, then the price is what customers are willing to pay to enjoy the value in the thing they buy. Customers buy as a result of the sales rep selling. We need both sides of the coin. Which side needs your attention?
Just like last month, as an individual or sales team, consider the following questions and how your answers have the possibility to shape all the next steps.
- Define Customer…what does this mean?
- What are the different types of customers? What does each need from you?
- Does personality play a part in selling? How does that factor with each type of customer?
- Think about all aspects of the retail experience and interaction, what creates value?
- How do you create value with your customers?
- To what extent will you make that happen with every customer, every time?
- Same question from last month, would you buy stuff from you? Why or why not?
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