Chasing Customers Is
Like Herding Cats.
Why Attraction is the
Heart of Customer Service.
So much of customer service emphasizes the
needs, values, and perception of the customer. Obviously, getting feedback from
our clients and customers is essential, but I’d like to introduce another
perspective, not to replace but to embellish upon the more traditional notions
of how to provide outstanding customer service. In my book, Why Cats Don’t Bark,
I discuss the heart of peak performance through change from the “insight” out.
The answers do lie within, yet learning to access that inner knowing, wise-mind,
or intuitive intelligence seems to remain a mystery for most people. The same
principles of emotional and intuitive intelligence that increase peak
performance are also effective in improving customer service. In addition to
understanding the customer’s needs, wants, and perceptions, you must also become
clearer on your “internal stuff.” Once you are crystal clear on your personal
and professional or business mission, you will attract customers who share the
same core values, creating a personal alignment, synergy and other positive
elements of a relationship. You will develop a synchronicity that motivates and
invites rather than chases and captures.
Whether we are discussing stress or time
management, sales, marketing, or customer service, we are all given only so much
time, energy and money, which is often a reflection of how our time and energy
have been spent. Rather than frantically chasing after every waving flag
disguised as opportunity, I am suggesting a more centered and focused approach
that creates natural synergy and alignment. The latter obviously produces
greater results and success with less effort and time. It’s the old 80/20 rule
in action. If 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your
customers, how are you productively investing that other 80 percent of your
time? We all know that if you hire the right people for the right job, their
performance will be outstanding and they will be your most loyal employees. The
same is true with customer service. If your service or style of service is not
what the consumer wants, you will never be good enough. You can’t drive a square
peg into a round hole! As you become clearer on who you are, what your mission
is, and whom you best serve, customer service becomes a natural by-product. This
strategic alignment is the foundation of all business success. It’s based on the
laws of attraction: people love to buy but hate to be sold. In the field of
marketing, the books on positioning by Jack Trout and Al Ries and research on
branding illustrate the power of clarity of image as opposed to marketing mania.
By dissolving differences and focusing on a
common ground, a deeper connection evolves through a sense of cooperation and
collaboration. When you stay “in tune” to your customer’s expectations, you stay
in alignment. People’s needs may remain quite consistent; their expectations
vary with perception. For example, a customer’s expectations of service and
amenities are not the same of a Motel 6 as they may be for a Marriott. Nor do
customers expect a discount store to provide the same level of service as
Nordstrom’s. From Southwest Airlines we expect lower prices and understand that,
in exchange, we forfeit a few amenities, such as reserved seating and meals.
It’s all about alignment. You may have a great product and superb service, but
if it is not consistent with who you are or what you promise, and thus what your
customers expect, they will move on. Reality isn’t real, expectations are. Make
no casual commitments.
There must also be congruency between what is
efficient and what is effective. Traveling efficiently at 70 miles per hour but
in the wrong direction is not effective. Another example of good intention and
process but unfulfilling results is climbing the ladder of success only to
realize that the ladder has been leaning against the wrong wall. What is your
direction, mission and vision, and who are your ideal customers? What are you
doing to focus and attract that perfect customer who shares your core values and
competencies? You can’t hurry love nor can you force “chemistry” or romance.
Some things just click and some things seem to naturally repel. Your job is to
use good judgment and wisdom in determining with whom you connect best and
synergize. What is your market and whom might you best serve?
Customer expectations are both vertical and
horizontal. A lateral expectation is not about the level or degree of service,
but the type. It is about “what” service is rendered. For example, if a customer
is more concerned about saving time, not money, and you are taking more time in
order to save that person money, you may be projecting your values into the
situation and not hearing what is requested. Vertical expectations are focused
on “how” the service is performed and the process or degree of excellence. Once
you are clear on the customer’s intention, then your attention to detail makes
the process complete and successful.
It’s all about detail. When comparing the
quality of one suit to another, the details are like a subtle magnet drawing us
into a purchase. Although God is in the details, so is the devil. Your level of
perceived excellence and service will be determined by your attention to detail,
which is always a reflection of your intentions. In gift giving, we often excuse
inexpensive gifts with the assurance; it’s the thought that counts. Our thoughts
are our intentions and desires, which ultimately transform potential into
performance. Even in the severity of murder, we assess charges of first, second,
or third degree murder by what the jury determines as the intention, such as
whether or not the act was premeditated. Not only in customer service, but also
in every element of what we offer, our state of mind, thoughts, intentions, and
heart speak all determine the quality of results and outcomes. For example, when
the forever best seller, Chicken Soup for the Soul, was being written, no one
with a negative mindset was allowed to contribute or work on what manifested as
perhaps the best-selling series of books of all times. What might this same
approach and philosophy do for you?
To know if you are really “in sync” with your
customers, as in dating and your personal relationships, you need to have a
courting time. You don’t buy a car without a test drive nor do you buy a suit or
dress without trying it on. In a similar way we need to court, test-drive, and
try on our customers for a proper fit. Likewise, they need to try us out before
making a commitment. Our perspective of our potential customers and their view
of us is different looking at us from the outside. We get a different sense of
how things feel when we try it on and get a perspective from the inside out,
which is why we call it “insight.” The inner vision provides a greater
understanding and feel for fit. That doesn’t mean there will be no need for
future alterations to change with the times, but it does provide a solid start.
Just as your employees do a better job when they love their work because it is a
good fit, so also the right fit with your customers will provide a basis for
success.
True customer service is about making one
decision at a time both in whom we
attract as customers, whom we keep as customers, and how we realign ourselves
when we get out of sync with them. If you religiously follow the policy and
procedures manual and worship rigidity, your robotic style of customer service
will lack human touch and intelligence. A situation that illustrates the cost of
such inflexibility occurred when a large group of us had a close connection at
the airport in St. Louis. Although time was of the essence, we all politely sat
on a shuttle, waiting several minutes for it to depart to the other wing of the
airport where our flight would be leaving in just minutes. Like well-
conditioned mice, we all respectfully and passively waited for the shuttle
operator to turn the key. Finally, I got up and confronted the driver with the
seriousness of the situation, pointing out that, if she did not leave
immediately, the airlines would lose thousands of dollars housing all of us for
the night due to the fact that we were about to miss our connecting flight. The
response I received indicated the shuttle left every fifteen minutes as if it
were on an automatic timer, and there was no choice or hope for human
intervention and intelligence. There seemed to be little concern that we would
all miss our flights even though it was 11:00 p.m., and there would be no more
connecting flights requiring the shuttle service. Having little patience for
such a display of cerebral breakdown, I became quite proactive in the pursuit of
the lost art of common sense, convincing her that logic should supercede the
rules. She finally decided to deliver us to our destination. Only the physically
fit were able to make their connecting flights. Unfortunately, the driver was
caught up in the fear of losing her job should she bend the rules. There can be
no logic to your service unless you empower your employees to, above all, use
their heads! Actually, it was not just the shuttle driver who was programmed to
passivity, but all of the passengers who felt so totally helpless — they simply
resigned themselves to a phantom impossibility. The point is that most
outrageously positive customer service is simply making good judgments and
decisions that may require more than mechanical analysis.
Objectivity makes good sense in math but is
deficient in the service industry. It is essential that our decisions and
responses to each and every situation be a balance of input from both the head
and heart. We need to pay attention to the sensory feedback our body gives us,
which is often a gut feeling, also known as intuition, direct knowing, or
unconventional wisdom. All hybrid decision-making requires a development of our
intuitive sense of what is right and wrong. Much more sophisticated than a
computer, the mind weighs the emotional pros and cons from our emotional memory
of past experiences and provides feedback via a hunch or gut feeling.
John Seely Brown, director of Xerox
Corporation’s Silicon Valley R&D facility, made it clear that rather than a high
IQ or GPA, he looks for people who have grounded intuitions and a passion for
making an impact. Thus it’s essential not just to attract our perfect customer
with whom we can create a natural synergy and alignment, but also to choose the
appropriate people as employees. Hire for attitude and teach the skills. To
provide service that is in sync and in alignment with your customers, you must
first hire employees who have personal alignment and self-awareness. You and
your employees must be aware and conscious of your own thoughts, feelings, and
actions and how they affect others. Our actions determine the response we get,
and, in attempting to realign ourselves with an angered, dissatisfied customer,
it is important to remember that what we give out is what we get back. Emotional
management is crucial to maintaining a symbiotic relationship that is mutually
satisfying and beneficial.
Where attention goes, energy flows. Your
thoughts are the seeds of the realities you create. We previously discussed the
importance of knowing the customer’s expectations as their reality. It is
essential to know and understand your own expectations, which must be purely
positive for positive outcomes. An obstacle is something you see only when you
take your eyes off the goal. “As you sow, so shall you reap.” Studies with sales
people have demonstrated as much as a 37 percent increase in sales when they
were conditioned to expect “yes.” Expect that every crisis is an opportunity in
disguise. Always seek what you can learn from every experience. There is a Zen
saying, “All experience is education for the soul.” No one is your enemy,
everyone is your teacher. Expect all breakdowns to be breakthroughs. Expect a
miracle!
Self-awareness is a prerequisite for empathy
and compassion, which Daniel Goldman refers to as our social radar. He states
the key to knowing others’ emotional terrain is an intimate familiarity with our
own. Empathy is not only reading another’s emotions, but also being able to
sense and respond to unspoken concerns and feelings. Lacking such sensitivity
makes us emotionally tone deaf. Anybody who thinks customers aren’t important
should try doing without them for ninety days! While computers may offer
economic efficiency, they have no soul. They do not feel and have no emotion and
thus cannot motivate or be motivated. With the primary needs of many customers
being interaction, participation, inclusion, and affiliation, customer care will
always require just that . . . care. Computers compute, but only people have the
capacity to care.
Since even good marriages will have a “falling
out” from time to time, so, too, we may fall out of alignment with our usually
in-sync customers. Here are a few tips for getting back in sync, creating an
even stronger bond, connection, and loyalty.
•
Listen. Listen. Listen. Your silence speaks.
• Be attentive. Affirm and validate
them. Offer empathy and understanding. See their concerns through their eyes,
hear with their ears, and feel with their heart. It’s difficult to sustain anger
when you are both in agreement.
• Resist the temptation to defend your
point of view. They will not hear a word you say until you have first given them
your ear and your understanding. In fact, an early defense will only escalate
emotions and increase the intensity of their anger. You want to open doors, not
build walls.
• Become “one” with them. Use “we”
language to regain a sense of alignment and reduce polarity and opposition.
Stand side-by-side to suggest a buddy relationship rather than a position of
direct opposition. Your body speaks!
• Ask
questions that direct attention to solutions and problem-
solving rather than allow customers to wallow
in unproductive anger, conflict, and negativity. Again, ask what “we” can do to
solve the problem and create a united front. It invites them to participate and
thus feel more empowered, transforming blame into a mutual sense of
responsibility.
• Reframe their perceptions. There are
two sides or pros and cons to every situation. For example, if someone is
angered because the wait has been long, acknowledge those feelings to get in
sync and alignment, and only then suggest the positive perspective of the same
situation, which may be that it takes time to give customers the attention they
need. You may even
wish to get their permission before offering
your suggestions. It is more difficult to refute that to which we have
concurred.
• When in a hole, rule number one is .
. . don’t dig! Never lie. People are forgiving. Ask for forgiveness rather than
offer phony excuses that may force customers to seek justice by creating bigger
traps. The nation forgave Betty Ford for her alcohol dependence and your
disgruntled customers will
forgive you, if you ask. Lies not only cause
people to feel betrayed and deceived but erode all trust, which is the glue in
every type relationship.
• Ask them what they would do if they
were you. Role reversal allows them to see with your eyes, hear with your ears,
and feel with your heart. It invites them to understand you, empathize with you,
and become one with you. What goes around comes around. If you recall, one of
the first points I made suggested that you see the world, and specifically
their problem, through their eyes.
• If the answers lie within . . . so do
the solutions. However, you must ask the right questions. I would recommend
asking your disgruntled customers, “What would you like me to do?” Simple
questions often yield profound solutions and resolution.
• Love your customers and they will
love you. We all mirror each other. If you want it, first you must give it.
Having lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of
the infamous Green Bay Packers and cheese heads, I have witnessed customer
loyalty and enthusiasm at its best. Their zealousness is second only to the
excitement of the Badger fans at the University of
Wisconsin where, win or
lose, the fifth quarter is always a celebration.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is home of another group of
fanatically devout fans. If you don’t own the “hog,” you don’t own a motorcycle,
according to customers and family of the Harley Davidson clan. Talk about
kinship. Every size, sex, and sector of humanity is represented in this loyal
group of fanatical fans. They all own, drive, and love their Harleys and
religiously celebrate a very special common bond. Now that’s turning your
customers into raving fans! By the way, there is a shortage of these machines so
if you want to join the club, you will have to take a number and wait your turn!
Customer service is thus much more than giving
service, it is about being a
servant. Service is a transient act, while being a servant is a state of mind
and a way of being. It reflects more than core competencies and skills; it
integrates core values and the soul of your service. What is your core ideology?
What do you stand for? Phrases like “mark my word” and “you have my word” along
with a handshake were once honored as if written in stone or sworn on a stack of
Bibles. Perhaps we need to get back to the basics such as please, thank you, be
polite and other good manners. A personal benefit of please and thank you is
that please helps us clarify and focus on what we desire, and thank you
maintains an attitude of gratitude, which supports a feeling of abundance and
attracts prosperity. We also need to bury blame and resurrect responsibility.
Remember, even though a situation may not be your fault, it still may be your
responsibility to fix it. Honor also needs to be revived. Try greeting each and
everyone you meet with a sense of reverence, regard, and respect and begin to
make miracles. All change begins from the inside out. It all begins with you.
It’s your call. Life is a feast and most poor fools are starving.
Opportunities are everywhere. Chasing
customers is like herding cats. Peter Drucker states the purpose of business is
not to make a sale, but to make and keep a customer. In other words, when the
sale ends, the selling begins. Customer service is selling with integrity and
making a commitment to the relationship. When Vince Lombardi said, “Winning
isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” he was referring to football, not
customer service. Customer care is not about competition, but cooperation and
collaboration. The rules in sports are not universal laws. Know your game, the
league you’re in, what balls you’re hitting and where you want them to fall. Be
a risk-taker, not a risk-wisher who merely goes with the flow. A risk-taker
creates the flow. Unlike a couple of decades ago, bigger is not necessarily
better or more beautiful. Stay in your niche to avoid the ditch! Know who you
are, what you want, and whom you want to attract as customers to best fit your
niche. Believe in yourself and your customers will trust and believe in you.
Lombardi also said, “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” How we
view others is a reflection of our own thoughts, feelings and behaviors. All
change begins from the “insight” out. Ignite your intuitive intelligence and
tune into your wise mind to hear your inner voice of wisdom and direct knowing.
The choices are yours. As Kenny Rogers sings in The Gambler, “You’ve got to know
when to hold them, you’ve got to know when to fold them, you’ve got to know when
to walk away and know when to run. Knowing what to throw away and what to keep.
Every hand is a winner.”
Honor the winner in you, the winner in your
employees or internal customers, and honor those customers who give you life —
and your job! A greeting from India, namaste, sums it all up. It means the
light, the love; the God in me greets the light, the love, the God in you.
Namaste!
All of us have a 'core genius'. This
extraordinary book shows how you can master change from the "insight" out by
discovering and expressing your authentic self. Why Cats Don't Bark gently
nudges you in the direction of your own powerful intuitive abilities for optimal
performance.
"READ THIS BRILLIANT BOOK... With aha’s on every page, this
enlightening book will compel you to walk your talk and transform your success
into significance."
- Mark Victor Hansen
co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series.
“Edie Raether encourages us to stretch our
thinking about what’s possible in leadership and life."
- Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D.
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