Just ask the question!

Many times that I meet with business associates it will be over a cup of coffee at a cafe. The environment then tends to be fairly casual in many respects, but still allows for quite in depth discussion. I can even remember another couple at a nearby table praying for each other - they were simply looking at each other and around the cafe and it was only if you were close enough to hear them that you realised that their "conversation" wasn't specifically with each other!

I know I'm not alone in using cafes for business meetings and I'm sure many others who do would find these meetings can often run for over half an hour, perhaps even longer than a full hour.

But how many times do we simply have the one coffee?

Since I noticed this phenomenon every time I've been in a cafe for a business meeting I've seen the same thing. Regardless of how many tables are being used the cafe staff don't ask one question which would significantly boost their revenue:
"Would you like another cup of coffee?"

It would be simple to ask and I then have two choices - either I get another cup of coffee, or we wrap up our meeting and move on (and free up a table for another customer to buy a coffee). Even if the cafe is not particularly full, in many cases if I was approached in this manner I probably would buy the coffee, plus one for my guest. So it's an extra $6 - 10 for the cafe for us just to keep sitting there as we would have if they had not Just asked the question!

Aside from the extra revenue, it also is great service - looking after the customers' needs.

How in your business could your staff boost revenue and profitability by just asking the question?

When Sales = Service

In my personal time I absolutely love gardening. Getting out in the sunshine to grow our own produce is very satisfying, but also provides a lot of time for thinking. While we're heading into winter shortly, and all our summer crops have finished it is time for planting the few plants that will survive winter.

As such, this morning I took a trip to our local nursery. While it's a little more expensive than the big box hardware stores we have a short distance down the road, I knew which plants I needed specifically and that it would be simpler to get the seedlings here.

Even with my 3 year old son in tow, it was a quick trip. Straight to the seedlings, a quick bee-line to the seeds and then to the front counter. And a quick lesson in customer service.

The first question from the assistant as I put my plants on the counter was "Sorry, what was your name again? And your son's?" While I've not been in there for around 6 months (and I doubt that he would have remembered my name in that time even if he did know it earlier), he asked in such a way to show that he was interested in ME!

And the second question wasn't really a question the way he asked, but could have lead to a great question: "Make sure you put some *** product on the seedlings to keep the moths off them, there are still a few caterpillars around at the moment... " I can't remember the exact product name, but if I notice any caterpillars I'll be back there to ask him about it.

So the question he should have asked is along the lines of "Would you like to take it with you today?"

He got me thinking less of the garden and more about service. By selling me a product, he would have provided even better service than just simply having a nice smile and having my transaction completed quickly. But also, he wasn't just selling me anything - he was selling a product that clearly met my needs, and in a way that he was telling me about a need that I didn't even know about!

How in your business could you offer great service to your clients by actually selling them something?

Non-Profit Organisation Customer Service

I have a sister who is currently receiving treatment within a hospital run by a non-profit. I was amazed during my visit with her at the lengths that the hospital staff go to in ensuring that they follow high standards of customer service.

There are many motivational posters through the hospital (even in public corridors) referring to customer service, and also to excellence. In addition, there are also charts that the staff have worked on to develop simple strategies that will help them demonstrate customer service. The nursing and medical staff then follow through using these strategies with their patients.

For example, when the nurse enters a patient's room, their first statement is "Hello Miss/Mr ****, it's (nurse) here. I'm just going to ****. This way, if the patient is resting or not fully alert, the patient at least knows why this person's just walked in. And doesn't awake to a stranger who they don't think should be in the room!

I've mentioned in previous posts that my thinking is that non-profit organisations need to ensure that they are providing great customer service. What this hospital demonstrates is that patients (ie. the hospital's customers) will be willing to choose the services of this hospital over another when required in future. Originally my sister had planned on moving to another hospital, but now is extremely happy to stay and continue to receive excellent care.

The Link between satisfaction and customer retention

Today I was revisiting some academic readings about customer satisfaction and the effect it has on loyalty. While it is from an academic perspective, it highlights how customers need to be delighted (as opposed to "only" satisfied) to be extremely loyal. The study found that a truly delighted customer will become an evangelist of the business.

This model comes from another book (titled Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction and Value), however I've taken it from Lovelock, Patterson and Walker's "Services Marketing: An Asia-Pacific and Australia Perspective" (2007).Just to explain my thinking on this model, I'll use the airline industry as an example.

A little while ago we had to fly with one airline in Australia who fell well short of what we expected of an airline. My wife and I have always taken a car seat for our daughter and son to sit on while we're travelling by air, and despite having taken her on around 20 flights, with about 7 airlines in total, one airline refused to permit us to take a car seat on board (even though we'd paid adult fares to be able to reserve seats for both children (our son was six months old at the time, our daughter 2 years). Anyway this airline I wouldn't even rate a 1 out of 5 in terms of their service. The model predicts I would then be a terrorist - in real life I very much discourage anyone from flying with this airline, and even with all the travel that we undertake, we will also never fly this airline again.

We've also flown some other airlines, who while they weren't providing over the top service we at least hospitable, and got us from A to B. These airlines I wouldn't actively promote, but am happy to fly with them were their schedules or pricing works well for us.

Then there are two other airlines that have gone over the top with providing great service. These airlines will always be our preference for flying (Singapore Airlines for international travel, SouthWest for US domestic), and we will always recommend to our friends and family (and now, blog followers!). I would definitely rate both these airlines as a 4.5 or 5 out of 5 in any customer surveys.

While a 4 out of 5 may seem like a good rating for a customer to give (in action, I prefer using a 10 point scale to give customers the option of giving a 9 to allow for "room for improvement" as some customers like to), the reality confirmed by this model is that those customers are just satisfied with the service received (not delighted) and are less loyal and less likely to promote your business.

Great Phone Service

I know that when we look at customer service, it's very easy to take note of poor service and sometimes difficult to recognise good service.

I'm in the process of buying a new car at the moment and amongst a number of companies that weren't replying to emails and phone calls, there was one mechanic that was excellent with their responses. I was just calling to get quotes for some work that may be required, and one business answered promptly and one of their (non-mechanic) staff were able to provide a quote, let me know all the information I needed and suggest a time to book it in. Since everything lined up, it just made sense to book it in and if I buy this car, they've earned $3,000 for a simple phone call. I'm still waiting for return phone calls from other companies...

I also needed to call a technical help desk to reset our TV today. The steps in the manual weren't working, so I was ready to throw the remote at it (my technical skills aren't very high), but I thought that I'd give the customer service line a call. The gentleman on the phone was able to clearly step me through what was required and resolved the issue very promptly.

In many businesses electronic communication is a great asset that can help improve revenues. However, they do also create a higher sense of expectation with the customer as many users will simply assume that if it's electronic communication it should be immediate. Being able to respond promptly to phone calls as in these cases goes a long way to ensuring that you meet the customer's expectations.

Grocery Shrink Ray

I was reading The Venture (a blog on The Age website) today about the Grocery Shrink Ray - when companies reduce their product size, but maintain their retail price. While this saves the manufacturer having to increase their prices, it can create a significant consumer backlash.

Along with highlighting some (Australian) cases in which this has occurred, he also offers a list of ten pricing mistakes for small business start ups to avoid.

My Job Would Be Easy Without Customers

"My job would be easier without customers."

How many times have you heard your staff or colleagues use that phrase (and many would also add "or staff...")? Generally it is when there are problems in our dealings with a client, or the commercial pressures of trying to gain sales when many staff may feel that "sales" is not their thing.

Over the last few days we've been dealing with a situation kind of in reverse to this. Our hot water service wasn't installed correctly by the builder, however none of the service people in the chain required to fix it are really taking any ownership, so I've had to push our position a little more (5 days of no hot water for baths, showers or doing dishes gets a little draining).

The builder isn't interested since the owners (we are currently renting) have paid their final payment, so the builder isn't responsible for the upkeep. The property manager looking after our house has called the appropriate people, so is following her manuals (but not following up). The manufacturer has subcontracted a plumber to check the hot water system (so the company is saying that they've done what they can). Meanwhile, the plumber contracts for a number of different companies, with many commercial contracts amongst us residential clients, so we're pushed to the bottom of his list.

Any time that I try to complain about having it fixed, each person will simply refer me on to the next person, who then will pass the blame to the next person. It all does a loop back to the builder (and given the state of some of the other aspects of the house, it doesn't surprise me that the builder has cut corners with the hot water system).

Thinking about this today, I realised that form a customer's perspective some times it would be easier to deal with organisations if the organisation's didn't have staff.

While many staff do a good job, the customer will often get different information by asking different staff members. Also, when there's an issue, it usually only gets fixed when the customer is left to arrange for it to be fixed themselves. Everyone just assumes that the person who needs to fix a problem knows about the problem, and that the problem will just magically disappear.

Unfortunately, this doesn't happen. I won't get started on the "but that's not my job" line today (I'm already worked up enough!), but if everyone in the organisation simply helped resolve the issues that the customer in front of you (or on the phone etc), then our customer's would be much happier. In this way, they'd be receiving Platinum Class Service.