Michelle Rust | Regional Director, South Yorkshire | 07901 547595

‘We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job to make the customer experience a little better’.   Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon

In This Edition:

●    Where Is Your Customer’s Moment Of Truth?

●    Shopper Anonymous Summer Conference

●    Why Is Big Business Still Failing At Customer Care?

Please feel free to call us if you would like to chat or find out how we can help you to improve your customer service.

Have a great month!

Michelle

Where Is Your Customer’s Moment Of Truth?

How many times have you walked into a business or store and had an immediate reaction to something that made you turn around and leave, or at least hesitate and lose confidence? How often do you start an internet search and click the close button within seconds because you find the site unfriendly, unengaging or lacking the information you need?

For a customer to move from point A to point B in their decision-making journey to engage with you, they must feel confident that you are capable of building a relationship with them which will ensure their needs are met. So, as a business, it is logical that you would invest time in identifying any friction points or obstacles that could break that initial development of trust.

The point at which the potential customer feels that they want to engage with you is often referred to as the moment of truth. It is the beginning of the 'sales' process; the time at which the 'potential customer' becomes a customer. It is an emotionally driven response; the spark that helps transform wary or sceptical people into strong and committed brand followers. And because it is an emotionally driven response, which involves that touchy-feely concept of love and feeling good, so many businesses still refuse to prioritise it, focusing instead on sales funnels, profit and loss balance sheets and staff-to-customer ratios.

(In 1981, Jan Carlzon became CEO of the problem-ridden Scandinavian Airlines. Before he left the company in 1994, Carlzon turned the airline around by focusing on what he later called “moments of truth,” the various points at which people with the airline came into contact with airline customers.)

Transforming the way a business responds to its customers requires a complete mindset change in many cases. Sadly, the ‘customer’ remains just that in the eyes of many executives, managers or business owners – the ‘customer’. Only when there is a complete shift in attitude can the ethos permeate throughout the whole business which means that EVERY employee will make an effort to delight the customer, in the hope of earning a lifelong loyal and dedicated fan. When the whole team understand their own responsibility in delighting customers, from the Manager or CEO to the receptionist, you can be assured of providing moments of truth within every interaction or touchpoint within the customer journey.

By giving precedence to the customer’s emotions, in addition to satisfying their needs, the outcome can be a lifelong loyal and profitable customer; a customer who trusts you enough to return, to bring friends and to advocate your services to others.

You cannot create powerful moments of truth unless you have examined your customer journey in detail. This means literally walking through each step of the customer journey and identifying exactly what is good, and could be better, and what could be an obstacle or a possible ‘turn off’. Even if you think you know your customer’s expectations, nothing is quite as effective and revealing as using a third-party account of the customer journey. We can certainly help you with this: http://www.shopperanonymous.co.uk/customer-surveys/

Our Top Five Tips For Creating Powerful Moments Of Truth

1.     Go internal. Creating moments of truth within your own team should be a priority. If your own team are happy and feel valued they are much more likely to impress customers and offer powerful reasons for your potential customers to stay and feel valued.

2.     Cover all areas or possible touchpoints with the same consistent message of customer love. In our diverse digital age, there are multiple opportunities for the customer to engage. In every instance, are you wowing your customers and creating a positive impression? Do you measure your brand promise against your customer expectations on every platform and possible encounter?

3.     Make the customer feel valued; offer more than just the product. This could be a newsletter, education or information that may be relevant to them, family or social events, loyalty schemes, discounts and advance sales options. By creating a well-rounded relationship with your customer and interacting on more than one level, you become a part of your customer’s routines and habits, giving them less opportunity or reason to defect to another brand.

4.     Do you have a flawless and smooth contingency plan for when things go wrong? It is inevitable that things may not go to plan on occasions. Go beyond fixing the problem and offer something additional; give the customer a reason to come back and ensure they feel happy with the outcome.

5.     Create a complete circle of ‘moments of truth’. From the very first ‘hello’ right up until the aftercare, ensure your customer has multiple moments of truth so that the message is consistent and powerful. Give your customers faith that you care, you will deliver, you are genuine and you are there if things should go wrong.

The defining moment of truth for each customer will vary according to the unique circumstances of each individual’s requirements. Ensuring your whole team deliver more than just honesty and integrity is complex and sometimes unquantifiable; but the measurement of your team’s performance is very quantifiable. Start there. Walk the customer journey, use a third party to truly analyse your customer’s views and then train the team consistently, regularly, continually!

Create moments of truth that endear you to your customer and lock in their loyalty.

The mantra is simple – delight your customer.

Shopper Anonymous Summer Conference June, 2017

Twice every year we are fortunate enough to meet up with all the Shopper Anonymous Regional Directors throughout the UK. This is valuable time for us all as we learn about new developments and plans for our business brand and spend time sharing our own personal experiences.

We welcomed four new Regional Directors to our team this summer, covering areas from Devon to Birmingham to Scotland, meaning we can now share our expertise in the customer service feedback arena with even more business’.

Our conference this summer was at Mallory Court where we were delighted to be on the receiving end of excellent customer care (read more in the blog below!)

Why Is Big Business Still Failing At Customer Care?

The news headlines are screaming poor customer service from every corner this month, but the airlines have won the award for ‘leaving customers in the lurch’. Speaking to a friend over the weekend, he related to me first hand, his experience at Gatwick airport recently; he was one of the unfortunate ones to be told he could not fly off to his much-anticipated five-day break with his wife in Dubai due to a British Airways software malfunction.

What struck me, and him significantly more, was not the delay itself but the appalling lack of customer care and communication in the wake of the problem.

British Airways had a similar publicity disaster in 2013 when Hasan Syed, a hair-care entrepreneur based in Chicago, used Twitter's self-service ad platform to post a promoted tweet, which read: "Don't fly @British_Airways. Their customer service is horrendous." He had flown business class with his father on a trip to Paris when BA lost his father's luggage and failed to respond to his complaint on Twitter. He then took matters into his own hands, spent money on a smear campaign and thousands of social media users became privy to BA’s lack of customer care.

This is one of countless examples of dismal customer care for BA. Although, to be fair, all airlines, including EasyJet, RyanAir and others have similarly lacklustre reputations.

Consider the advertising budgets of these very large businesses and you have to question how much value they place on customer loyalty if they do not invest in ensuring they have contingency plans for when things go wrong. Because things do go wrong. Most customers who have experienced a problem or defective product/ service agree that if the issue is resolved promptly and with patience and consideration, they will remain loyal.

Read more here……… 

We Love Feedback

As a business specialising in feedback, of course we LOVE feedback. Please let us know whether you enjoyed this month’s newsletter or not and whether we can help you by writing about specific topics.

All feedback gratefully received by email: deborah@shopperanonymous.co.uk