The 8 crimes against the customer

As Nancy  Georges mentioned in her talk on connecting with the connected customer, it's all about customer engagement! It's all about making the customer feel loved and gaining their trust.

 

Below are 8 crimes against the customer - little things that can change the customer perception of you and your firm from zero to hero!

1. Being Rude, Impolite, Offensive or Unfriendly –  Your customers or fellow team members have a choice. They don’t have to buy from you. And, if you treat them with disrespect they won't..... your company needs to build a culture of respect. be nice 
2. Lack of Employee Knowledge – If you want to destroy credibility, put untrained people on the front line. Employees may not have all the answers, but make sure they are properly trained to know who to ask or where to find the correct information. Ensure that your team gets trained adequately and goes through a proper induction process before they start. BSI E'learning helps organisations develope comprehensive bespoke online induction and skilled training  programmes. Upskill your team 
3. Not Being Easily Accessible – How easy is it for your customers to contact you? Answer a phone within 3 rings and respond to an inquiry or customer complaint or query within 12 hours.  It could be on the phone, via email, or social media. It is unacceptable to be inaccessible. Make it easy to find your contact information. Have your contact details and phone number on every page. Don't make the customer have to search through your company’s entire website to find an address or phone number. Make it easy for the customer to connect with you! 
4. Not Valuing Their Time – Don't be late! When people show up late, it implies that they believe they are more important than you, or that their time is more valuable. Show that you value and respect your customer’s time. Answer the phone after 3 rings, don't keep them on hold for a long time, make it easy for your customer to engage. How cool is it for Qantas to offer to call you back if there is a wait? Be repectful if their time 
5. Over promise and under deliver  – If you can’t fix a problem on the spot, agree with the customer a plan and time frame to solve the problem And exceed that expectation. It doesn’t have to be by much. If it turns out that you will unavoidably miss the proposed time, let the customer know about the delay well beforehand. Under promise and over deliver 
6. Not Giving Them Opportunity to Solve Issues on Their Own – Many people find that self-service is quicker and easier than the traditional call for support. This can start with a simple Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on your website. Maybe   “crowd-source” your customer’s inquiries with a forum for other customers to help answer questions. 
7. Ignoring Them on Social Media – It’s important to respond to all comments in a timely manner , not just complaints or support issues, but compliments as well . Engaging with your customer is a great public relations strategy. Respond to them where they are 
8. Not Appreciating Them – Be sure to show to just say  thank you. Maybe even a "wow" thank you, like a public acknowledgement or a ticket for 2 to the movies! Customers want and expect to feel appreciated. 

Extract from Shep Hyken - Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations. As a customer service and experience expert, he help organizations create amazing customer and employee experiences. His books have appeared on bestseller lists including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and others. In 2008 the National Speakers Association inducted him into their Hall-of-Fame for lifetime achievement in the professional speaking industry.

 

The Doctor of Customer Service

 

Dr Catriona Wallace, customer experience futurist and entrepreneur, exudes the sexy-swagger of a rock star. Confident , gorgeous, polished and magnetic..... and she relates to the need for having a clear vision, setting defined goals and having people that you know like and trust.

Have a Clear Vision

"Our team understands our vision for the business is more than making money, it is to make a significant difference to the well-being of people"

Identify the Pain and Finding a pain killer 

“I am an entrepreneur ... I listen to markets, identify an opportunity and a pain that is out there - then build a company that can solve that pain  with experts - providing a pain killer... not just a vitamin!"

Setting goals and smashing them out of the ballpark 

"success is setting goals that most other people did not think possible and then smashing them out of the ballpark."

Define outrageous success specifically

for me, success will be 

• building a global business and exit in 5-7 years , so I can reinvest in social enterprises and add value to lives that we touch! 

• And that my family are happy and healthy."

• And getting laid occasionally… OMG, did I just say that? Yes.”

Key ingredient - People that you know like and trust. 

You need a high performing team. How do you get the best to work with you?

• By  building a brand with a strong reputation that is aligned with your vision. 
• By having a clear set of behaviours that you expect people to adhere to and live by. 
• By having programmes rewarding those behaviours 

Catriona's business has been based on customer service 

She coined the name Fifth Quadrant - customer experience - sitting alongside sales & marketing; operations & IT; finance and HR,” Catriona says.

It's all about the customer

It's about building strong relationships and trust with the customer . With competence, character and being of service. 

It's about adding value to a customer 

“Design and deliver high quality products and services then make it easy for the customer to deal with you, says Catriona.

According to Catriona, 60 per cent percent of a customer’s rating of a business will be an emotional response, how they feel about a company. 

Cariona conceived Flamingo - a software platform  helping customers design the experience they want, within the parameters that business could deliver.

If you want to use technology to build strong customer relationships, remember “it’s about creating value”.

Don't think of customers like cattle! 

Most businesses are still stuck in traditional models of mass segmentation of customers,” she says.

“Think about the language used when referring to customers. Usually customers are in pipelines, are segmented, tagged, flagged, made sticky, made captive, branded and given terms and conditions. This is how we treat prisoners…or… cattle…These models will not be relevant in the age of individualisation; which is now.”

Turn a lemon into lemonade 

Poor customer relationships can be salvaged

“So never dismiss a customer or ignore a customer who has had a bad experience. Take responsibility for it, even if it was not directly your organisation’s fault. Own it, fix it, be apologetic and give the customer something for free or of value to them. They should become loyal advocates and this is invaluable.”

“If issues are resolved for a customer then they can become raving fans,” Catriona says.

You need to nail the 6 methods of communication with customers 

1. Voice – call and contact centre

2. Social media

3. Video

4. Online/digital

5. Email

6. Face to face

5 ways to manage and provide knock-out customer service

1. Focus on delivery of the whole of customer experience - communication, tailored product, process, channel, people & price
2. Ask customers what they actually want, even if you cannot deliver it right now
3. Develop both your digital channels and human channels and let customers choose how they want to interact
4. Be highly, highly responsive
5. Develop social media channels for customers to communicate with you

It is no wonder that Catrina had been inducted into the Australian Business Woman’s Hall of Fame, being involved with Springboard Enterprises Women Entrepreneur’s program and EY Entrepreneur of the Year programs as well as being a winner in the recent Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

The worlds greatest banker

Frank Brock, President, First Bank of Troy, Idaho

An Extraordinary Email

Bob Hemmings is one of the great men of direct marketing. Now in his 90s and proprietor of the Hemmings IV Direct agency in Pasadena, Calif., Hemmings is dapper, intense, powerfully built, immediately recognizable with his Adolph Menjou mustache and bone crusher of a handshake.

In his younger days, an employer of Hemmings was Frank Brock, president of the First Bank of Troy, Idaho. Troy’s population in 1960 was 514; 

Brock’s bank had 6,000 active accounts—12 times as many people who lived in the town. He had customers in 45 states, and around the world as far away as Pago Pago, American Samoa.

What was Brock’s secret?

Hemmings recalled that Brock knew precisely what business he was in.

 “I am in the financial services business to help provide finances for my customers—from the cradle to the grave,” he said.

Brock once made a loan to a man who had robbed the bank five years before. He was caught and served three years in prison. Brock said: “He has learned his lesson. I don’t hold past mistakes against him. He is a much more stable individual now.”

According to Hemmings, Frank Brock knew practically all of his customers by their first names; whenever a good loan customer ran into financial difficulty, the bank carried him—without dunning notices or pilling up interest charges—until he was back on his feet.

Brock’s entire day was spent in his office going over his list of customers and clipping newspapers. Whenever someone would marry, die, move away, give birth, etc., he would send a remembrance. All of his customers received a personal note or a telephone call at least once a month from Frank Brock. The current buzz phrase for what Brock did: 

Continuous Event Marketing.

When the child of a customer reached a certain age—let’s say seven—the kid would receive an invitation to come to the bank with his parents. There he would be greeted at the door by none other than the bank’s president, Frank Brock, and given a formal tour of the facilities (the vault was a favorite).

Whereupon, the family was brought back for a welcoming chat in the president’s office.

At the end of the conversation, Brock would take out a brand new crisp $1 bill, present it to the child and then lead the little tyke up to the teller’s window. With great ceremony, the child would give the teller his new dollar and the teller would present Brock with a savings account passbook. Brock, in turn, would present it to the child with a flourish.

Later, in high school, the kid would open a checking account. Later still, this young man would go away to college … go into the Army … get discharged, and get a job in a distant town or another country. But he always kept his accounts at that original bank.

He knew the president. If he ever needed to borrow money, he could do so on his name alone. If he ever needed cash, it immediately would be wired to him, no questions asked. If he ever moved back to town and wanted a mortgage, it was a piece of cake. Wherever that kid was in the world, Frank Brock was his personal banker.

Hence 6,000 active accounts in a town of 514.

Years later, Hemmings phoned the bank. Frank Brock had long since died, but Hemmings got the chief cashier on the phone with whom he had worked with many years before. The bank had been bought out by a larger bank.

“Is the new president still going over the customer lists the way Frank used to?” Hemmings wanted to know.

“Aw, hell, we’re so busy with paperwork and dealing with the computer—nobody has time for customers anymore,” the chief cashier said, and then added, “but, you know, maybe we should.”

An Email from Mrs. Littleton
I was so glad to see this article that you posted about the Bank of Troy. I went to jr. high, high school and college at Moscow, Idaho. I just thought I would add to your story. 

I certainly would like to see this kind of attention return to the business world! I know it was what my father taught as the Dean of the College of Business at the U of I. 

Here’s another story … when we moved to Moscow, Idaho in 1971, it was recommended that we go to the Bank of Troy for the mortgage of our new house. I remember walking in with my parents and we were introduced to the president of the bank. After a friendly exchange, my father shook his hand, and we had the money for our house. No papers were signed at that time … unheard of now. My parents kept their account there nearly their whole rest of their lives. 

And another interesting note — we traveled on vacation from Idaho to Pennsylvania, I believe in the early ’80’s. My mother loved antiques, so when we spotted an interesting store, we stopped. After shopping a while she acquired a couple hundred dollars worth of antiques, but when she pulled out her check book the business owner said he didn’t take checks … and then jokingly added, “unless you bank with the Bank of Troy because that is my bank.”

My mother exclaimed, “We wouldn’t bank anywhere else!” and he cheerfully took our check with no questions! 

So yes, I can believe, and know first hand, of people who had accounts that didn’t live there. I sure wish we could still have some local community banks like that again. I know my father said that we never had any trouble with our accounts because of the two little old ladies who were the bank’s accountants. “Never had any trouble until things started being handled by computers!”

Keep up the good work!
Mrs. Littleton