Do you know what your customers REALLY think?
December 22nd 2011 11:44
Link: www.theprofitfrog.com
Have You Ever Taken Time To ASK Your Customers What They REALLY Think About Your Business?
It may not always be possible to develop the essential rapport for digging in and asking customers their deeper views on your business.
However, there are few business owners who can afford to dismiss the idea of "jaded" customers, tired of poor service and dismissive staff, with opinions that could critically affect cash flow.
Here's an example from my "daily grind".
On Monday a customer came in to the store after 5 pm - presumably after she finished work. I was working the floor of the garden centre, preparing to undertake a few hours of watering and other chores. Helping me out were two young women who were serving at the cash registers.
I noticed the woman walk in, and I let her "roam about" momentarily, to see if she was the kind who would come up and ask for help, or instead wander around and seek whatever she was looking for on her own.
I decided to approach her. I guess it's just what I do now.
I asked her if she needed help, or if she was just browsing around. My tone was bright and bubbly, and I smiled happily in her direction.
She paused for a second, then decided she would reply. The customer told me she was looking for a gift, and it took me about a minute to decider the overall gist of what she was shopping for.
Essentially, it was a Kris Kringle present for a colleague she didn't know that well, but whom she considered a "princess" with little interest nor time for gardening. So the idea of a garden centred gift was both funny and also a test for the recipient to consider a garden experience - made all the more funny because the colleague lived in an apartment and did not have garden space.
To best determine what gift would suit this "princess" I asked several questions. I needed to know gender, familiarity, budget, personality, and generally these questions aided me to consider what gifts I could suggest.
I considered potted orchids. I thought of seed packets in a basket. I wondered about flowers, or plant pots. As I asked questions I veered the customer over toward the seeds, and then suddenly I saw pre-packaged seed propagators and these are really clever. There was a sunflower kit and somehow after pointing this one out along with the kits for herbs, I asked the lady about the persona of the gift receiver. Was she inclined to practical or pretty? Straight away this generated the answer of "princess".
Well, it enabled me to push the sunflower kit and the customer really gelled with this. So, I walked with the customer back to the registers and assisted my colleague to process the purchase all the while continuing to chat with the customer.
My colleagues and I were simply having fun, laughing and making light of things like gift wrapping... and I even went into the store to grab extra ribbons so we could ensure the gift looked really appealing. Once we had finished wrapping, the customer was quite honestly surprised, and so surprised us with what she said next.
"I have to say, girls, I have been sick the last few months, and I have had to deal with a lot of services and the level of service has been so bad. But you girls have restored my faith in there really being customer service. Thank you girls, I will be back to finish my Christmas shopping here. I only came here because you were open. Not because I planned to come to your store. But I'll be back."
Now, we didn't ask this lady for her opinion on the store or on our service. It was voluntarily provided to us as we engaged her in the act of making a purchase.
It begs the questions:
* Do you need to offer a survey in order to obtain the customer's opinion?
* How do you know what impact your store or service has had upon the customer?
* Have you ever just simply allowed your service to speak louder than any words, to demonstrate that you deliver the VERY best customer service that surpasses any service the customer has ever had?
If you're not exceeding customer expectation, with at least 90% of your customers, then you must STOP - and begin to question and evaluate your staff and your customer service. How can you improve it?
How do you respond to negative customer feedback?
When you do receive excellent feedback, what do you do about it?
Ask the customer to tell you how your service compares and take the response on board. Learn from it.
Think about whether you can improve your customer service, and what this might mean to your cash flow.
If you need help, consider how the Profit Frog can make things happen for your customer service. Click here
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