Word Of Mouth Has Become More Powerful
Social Web
The world is changing because of the internet, an obvious statement if ever one was made. What I am talking about is word of mouth has become more powerful than ever before. Numerous businesses particularly small businesses know that word of mouth is one of their best ways of garnering new clients. Unfortunately too many businesses don’t do enough to focus on this. They don’t systemise the process of ensuring that their customers do talk to others.
Presently Google is by far the most dominant search engine on the internet but it is also clear that with the advent of the rise of the various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc that what we know is real time search is becoming more and more important. We know that for a large number of service providers e.g. accountants, doctors, medical specialists etc we talk to our friends and family to determine to get their recommendation on who to use. The rise of the social media sites and also a large number of review sites e.g. Tripadvisor.com etc that we are putting out to these forums and asking people for recommendation for service providers, hotels, restaurants etc.
There is no doubt the internet is driving us more and more into recommendation based searching. I have utilised Twitter to ask for people I communicate with their opinions on things on microphones, monitors and other software tools. I have utilised this advice to then search further based on some of the links that have been sent to me and it has definitely affected my purchases. The likes of Tripadvisor and other websites that are providing reviews on hotels and restaurants etc these are having a profound impact on the various service providers people are selecting.
Unfortunately businesses aren’t necessarily what are happening because of the power of the internet. They are still locked in to the traditional way of marketing themselves by talking about their product and feature and trying to put up a glossy image or front as to what they do or provide. But the bottom line is that people who have experienced your product or service are writing reviews on websites and are telling their friends in a way that is so much easier than ever.
A business must focus more on being what they want to be rather than saying what they want to be. The future in this recommendation based internet search is for businesses to recognise they must provide phenomenal service to their customers, systemise the word of mouth marketing process and then drive the recommendations through the internet to other people.
Search is changing on Google to the utilisation of these other sites to review recommendations. It’s not just simply the book reviews on Amazon, these are reviews of restaurants, motels, hotels, airlines etc real-estate agents, plumbing, electrician every service provider you can think of.
Word of mouth marketing if it wasn’t important before has just become more important with the development of the web. How are you marketing to your customers? How are you providing fantastic service? How are you systemising the work of mouth marketing process? How are you reviewing the reviews of your products and services on the internet? Get ready for the recommendation optimisation internet. Not the search engine optimisation.
Photo by tobiaseigen
Are Putting Your Customers Through Unnecessary Processes?
In the last post I covered the issue of the unnecessary fees and charges that are being imposed by businesses small and large. Further on this line of thinking, too often businesses are making their customers or clients go through processes which may make sense from the internal operation of the business, but in no way make sense to the customer.
Recently I had to get a washing machine serviced and also an air conditioner fixed. I had a look at a website of a particular company (a small Brisbane company) that stated that they had a division for washing machine repairs and also air conditioning repairs.
So I contacted them and mentioned that I had these repairs and I was put through to the air conditioning division, where I then spoke to a person about the air conditioner and then I said “I need to also book in somebody to come and have a look at the washing machine repair.” To which my reply was “That’s not my division, I will need to transfer you back to the main switch.”
So back to the main switch I went and it was like calling for the first time. I then got transfered to the washing machine division and I go to go through all my information again because this was the washing machine division.
I had given all my personal contact address details, phone numbers and everything to the first person, but I was asked to go through the process again because their internal operations were obviously separate and they couldn’t, in any way, merge the two. It was an unnecessary process and this just happened to me very recently so I am highlighting it. However, there are many examples that I could utilise.
We need to think of business from the customer’s perspective. We need to understand what is success as judged in the eyes of the customer; how are they experiencing our business?
It is only through a deep understanding of the customer that is both understanding of the behaviour of the customer, through observation, but also understanding the numbers that come out of dealing with our customer base. We need to understand exactly what they don’t like about our processes and redesign it to remove the unnecessary processes. The end result of unnecessary processes is customers who are not completely satisfied.
The repairs to my washing machine and air-conditioner have been completed successfully. But what is the story I am telling people – it is the story of the first contact.
10 elements of outstanding customer service.
Here are 10 elements of good customer service. This is by no means comprehensive but these 10 points are very important.
1. Finish strong. We often have heard of the saying “First impressions count”, however with customer service last impressions count more. The final customer interaction is what resides in the memory of the customer. That is not to diminish the service throughout the experience but just put particular emphasis onto the last impressions.
2. Get the bad experiences out of the way earlier. Save the best for last. Get the unpleasant side of business out of the way early in the process. It is often found, particularly with professionals ,that they like to leave the fees to last or don’t discuss it all and just send a bill. So the last impression that they are leaving is the nasty bit. Freeing the customers of the bad experiences early allows them to focus on the positive aspects of your service.
3. Combine the pain, segment the pleasure. Our time perception is linked to the number of breaks in the experience. Smaller chunks of pleasant experiences will be perceived as greater than one large segment.
4. Build commitment through choice. Providing your customers with choices in the product or service delivery can assist in customer service. A study has revealed that blood donors experienced less perceived pain when they had a choice of which arm the blood would be drawn from. However in this aspect of choice it is also important to be aware that too many choices end up confusing the customers. It is a fine line but if you only have one option then it may be worthwhile considering giving the customer the choice in the matter and this will assist.
5. Give people rituals and stick to them. People find comfort in regular repetitive rituals. However it is imperative to note that if you set the rituals you must stick to them because missing them has a massive hit on customer service.
6. Attention to detail. It is all the little things that add up to a perceived experience. Usually these little things surround the core service or product. Immaculate attention to detail on the liitle things that matter will lead to a superior customer experience. The core product or service must also be of high quality. This is the starting point. If we can get the little things right the customer will believe that we can not anything right. On this matter I often give the story of Rod McGeoch, the head of the Sydney 2000 Bid Committee for the Sydney 2000 Olympics when the delegates came to Sydney he always organised that every traffic light would be green whenever they were travelling around Sydney. The purpose of this was to show the delegates that they could do it, that they could actually change the lights to suit so they could easily hold an Olympic Games sized event. It was this attention to detail that assisted the bid being successful.
7. Choose your audience. You do not have to accept all customers as customers. Not everybody will want to deal with the business the way that you will want to deal with them. Not everybody will want the service or the product in the manner that you wish to deliver to them. Not everybody therefore is a suitable client for your business.
8. Empower your team members. The Ritz Carlton, which has achieved an extraordinary reputation for customer service, gives all its teams a card which has a message that in essence says that a customer’s concern is their concern and it’s their responsibility to fix it. And in this respect they are given significant power to fix a customer’s issue. No matter what grade of team member, they are given the power to deal with the customer’s issue. It is these people who are dealing with the customer that need to be able to provide the customer service that gives your business the reputation. They cannot do that by always having to check back to some superior. If you care for your team they will care for your customers.
9. Encourage complaints. The Marriott did a study some time ago that discovered that the likelihood of a customer making a return visit increased dramatically if they encountered a problem and it was resolved. Their survey showed that :-
(a) if there were no problems encountered during the stay, 89% of people would return
(b) if they had a problem during the stay and it was not corrected to the customer’s satisfaction, 9% would return
(c) if however they had a problem during the stay and it was corrected to the customer’s satisfaction ,94% of those customers returned.
If a customer complaint is properly handled you will actually build a more loyal customer. Sometimes customer complaints are seen as some threat or judgement on an individual’s self esteem. Complaints should be viewed as valuable information and opportunities to increase customer loyalty and good will. If you go the extra mile in correcting any problem the customer will remember this outcome long after the original error has been forgotten. Also if you examine the stories of great customer service that people relay, you will often find that it is about a situation that went wrong and how that company was able to rectify it and fix it on their behalf.
10. Personalise. Remember that profit is a result of behaviour and the behaviour is what is going on in the customer’s head. Every customer is an individual human being. So whilst we will have service standards in a business, we must have the team empowered to personalise the service to each individual within sensible guidelines. If you were caring for your customer, your team will be aware of what matters to that particular individual and how to deliver that. If we feel that it has been personally targeted, personally directed for us then we will feel that that company, those individuals serving us, have taken the time to care about our needs.
These are 10 elements of customer service – what do you think? Have I missed something obvious?
Until next time
Steve Major
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