How Do You Define Great Service?

While many people were celebrating the long holiday weekend, I was almost chained to my desk trying to finish editing the second edition of The Retail Business Kit for Dummies.  Just when you think you are finished writing a 400-page book, your editor sends it back to you with questions, queries, and edits to address. For the last 10 days I have been correcting, defending, and rewriting 24+ chapters.

So I thought this might be a good time to give you a sneak preview of a chapter in the book that is due out in the fall.

The Secrets of Extraordinary Customer Service

Great customer service can set a retail business apart. However, if you were to ask ten people what great customer service is, you would get ten different answers. Here is a list of the ten most common ways that customers define extraordinary customer service.

1. Thank Your Customer for Coming In

Over the years, I have tried almost every possible opening line from “Can I help you?” to “How are you doing?” I now believe that there is only one way to go, and that is “Thanks for coming in.” It’s effective because it aligns with the customer’s thinking. When customers walk into your store, they believe that they are giving you an opportunity to sell to them.

Thanking your customers for coming in is the ultimate greeting. You’re not just saying hello; you’re acknowledging, on a fundamental level, that you’re happy to see them, thrilled that they’ve come to see you, and grateful for their presence. Everyone likes to be acknowledged and appreciated. Why not start the customer’s experience off on a high note by making them feel both welcome and valued?

2. Anticipate What Someone Wants To Buy

The better you know your customer, the better job you will do providing him customer service. Knowing his name is just the first step. Develop a relationship with him to the point where you’re able to anticipate what types of products and merchandise will appeal to him and make recommendations accordingly.

3. Give Each Customer Unique Service

Every single one of your customers is a unique individual who comes to you with her own perspective, experiences, and thoughts. Providing customer service to such a diverse group means paying attention to many different factors. One customer may want your sales staff to know absolutely everything about a given piece of merchandise, while another is more concerned about the fact that you’ll gift wrap and ship purchases.

4. Let Them Like You!

Be likeable! We all like to be around friendly, happy people. When you’re around someone who’s upbeat and cheerful, you tend to feel better. That’s a concrete way to improve the customer’s experience in your store. When your customer comes in and sees smiling faces, when the sales staff is friendly and chatty while helping him select merchandise, when the cashier compliments what he’s chosen to purchase (and, by extension, his taste), it all adds up to a warm, likeable atmosphere. That atmosphere will bring your customer back.

5. Meet and Exceed Customer Expectations

We have all heard this customer service mantra for years. But when was the last time you had a meeting with your employees or did a focus group or survey of your customers to determine what they expect when coming into your store? When you know that, it becomes easy to exceed their expectations.

Understand what your customer expects from your store. This is an essential part of your brand: What mental image does the customer have when she hears your store name? Great customer service means providing the experience to meet that mental picture, and then going the extra mile to provide more.

6. Reach Your Customers on an Emotional Level

To truly provide great customer service, you need to connect with your customers on an emotional level. You have to know and understand what motivates your customers, what will resonate with them, and what type of emotional response they’ll have to given situations.

Community involvement, signage, holiday and seasonal promotions, and even the choice of merchandise that you feature will help you forge that emotional connection with your customer. When you demonstrate to the customer that the things that are important to them are also important to you, you’re forming an emotional bond.

7. Remember That Signage Is Great Service

We don’t often think about it, but signage is really great customer service. The signs that help your customer find the store easily, the signs that identify sale merchandise, the sign that helps the customer locate what he’s looking for, the sign that points out the bathroom, the sign that lets the customer know that he can use a certain credit card–all of these signs allow the customer to enjoy the shopping experience without having to ask any questions.

Good signs help sell merchandise. You’ll realize higher margins with good signs. But the primary purpose of signage is to make the customer’s life easy. That’s great customer service.

8. Keep in Touch with Your Customers

We can’t take loyalty for granted anymore. We must earn it every day. Keeping in touch with your customers is not just telling them about a sale. It is informing them about merchandise and events of interest to them. It’s also educating customers and informing them about changes that may take place in your store or your industry. Sometimes, it’s just a friendly reminder that a certain type of merchandise they like has come in.

9. Educate Your Customers

Every time your customers come into your store, they should have the opportunity to leave as smarter people. Information is the hottest commodity going: People value the opportunity to learn.

Every retailer should offer seminars or classes on topics of interest to their customers. These classes don’t have to be directly tied to the merchandise you sell, although they can be. Make sure your sales staff is informed about your merchandise and able to advise customers knowledgeably. You can even provide education with signage, using signs to explain benefits, teach how to use a product, or explain the difference between similar products.

10. Focus on Store Layout and Organization

Have you every gone into a store knowing it sells what you want, only to get frustrated because you cannot find it? That’s bad service! How your store is laid out and organized says a lot about your dedication to customer service. Can customers find what they want easily? Can they make their way down the aisles without having to navigate around awkward displays? Do you have logical departments, where customers can locate what they came for without having to devote a lot of time and thought to the process?

A store that makes it easy for customers to find what they want–a store that’s organized, carefully laid out, and designed with the shopper in mind is a store that’s providing great customer service.

Hope you all enjoyed.

How Do You Motivate Your Employees?

One of the biggest problems facing just about every retailer today is attracting good employees. It seems as if it is easier to get good customers than it is to get good employees. The strength of your business is dependent on the people that you hire. Too many retailers are focused on attracting people to the business as opposed to working to improve the employees that they already have.

So why do good employees stay?

#5. Interesting work or put another way, they love the type of merchandise that you are selling. For example, people who work in a jewelry store love jewelry. People who work in apparel stores generally love apparel. Retailing is made up of people who love a type of product and work at that type of store.

#4. A feeling of appreciation. What have you done to show appreciation for the work that your employees do? Here are some ways:

• Do you thank your employees for a good job?
• Have you ever written a message on their pay envelope saying “great job this week”?
• Do you have regular meetings where you acknowledge in public the good work of an employee?
• Or have you ever had a meeting where you save the last 10 minutes to do the exercise where each employee must compliment another employee for something that they did well. This little exercise has amazing results. The one rule is that once an employee receives a compliment, that person cannot receive any more. By doing it this way, you will increase the number of people getting compliments. This will help make employees aware of positive behavior among other employees.
• Do you ever post performances?

#3. The Fun Factor. Your store is a fun place to be and work. You could have a joke of the day in the back room. Or it might just be a light-hearted attitude that’s contagious from management down to the newest employee. People will even work at a place for less money because it is a fun place to be. This is becoming more and more powerful all of the time because of quality of life issues.

#2. The employer cares. These employers look at their employees as more than just “warm bodies”. They will spend the time to talk to employees and better understand what truly motivates them. They will do things such as sending out birthday cards, giving flowers for various holidays, or showing real concern during difficult times such as deaths of family members or crisis situations with children. It’s all about an attitude of treating them as people not just employees.

#1. Convenience. As strange as this may seem, people will generally stay at jobs that are close to home. (And especially now with the cost of gasoline!)

So why do good employees leave?

• Feeling of embarrassment. No one likes to be embarrassed and if this occurs in your store too often, you will lose employees. Be aware of public criticism since this is a major reason why employees leave.
• Feeling of not being appreciated. Just as appreciation is one of the reasons why people stay, the opposite holds true when employees feel unappreciated.

One of my favorite quotes is the “The behavior that is rewarded is the behavior that is repeated”. Most of us do what we do because someone said that we are good at that. Fear motivation just doesn’t work anymore. The dictator died! Instead of looking for things to criticize employees about, start to look for things that you can compliment people about. People will never forget compliments that they receive from their supervisor, manager, or business owner. These are the things that employees take home and share with their families. The bottom line is to treat your employees as true assets of the business and understand that money is not the #1 motivator. If you do the 5 things well and offer competitive wages, you will have highly motivated employees.

Seducing the Customer

That got your attention, didn’t it?

I could have used the words “Romancing The Customer,” or “having your customer fall in love with you”.  Instead I used a word that increased the level of desire and interest.  For years we have always known that sex sells, but very few of us would ever even consider using it. I am no exception or at least I thought I was no exception until last week. I was getting ready to move back to the Boston area for the summer and I was packing up all of my reference books and journals. One of these journals had all of the best ads I had ever run in my store with the amount of times I ran it and the sales results from the ad.

For those who aren’t familiar with my background, I ran a high volume, moderate to better priced women’s apparel store with a specialty in special occasion wear. Our number one ad, which many of you have heard me talk about, was an ad with the headline “Mothers Are Our Specialty”.  We specialized in Mother of the Bride and Groom apparel but that was only 35% of our volume.  Any ad that says “ ________ is our specialty” (you fill in blank) is still a powerhouse because people want to do business with specialists.  But that’s not what this article is about.

It was the second best performing ad that made me take notice that had the following headline — “Love Me in Leather”.  This ad showed a provocative model wearing leather pants and a jacket with a very inviting look. Every time we would run that ad, we always did business. That ad out-performed any of the coat sale ads I had ever run.

The question is why?  First off, understand my customer base was primarily middle age women. So why did that ad work and what can we learn from it?  The headline had shock value. People just had to take notice or look at the ad.

It flirted with some very powerful emotions. The emotions are universal. We all want to be loved and we all want to feel younger and that headline says that. But the subliminal message that is so powerful is our want to be desired and desirable. For any of you who might think that this only appeals to the young, I strongly disagree. Age doesn’t matter here. A few years ago I had an 88 year old uncle remarry for the third time. His 80 year old bride told us she wanted to look “sexy for her wedding day”.

The ad seduces us to another level and distracts us away from thoughts about price or even quality. It certainly goes beyond need; however it could be debated that we need to feel those emotions. What it is really talking about is the real and most time hidden benefit to the customer. I believe if we dig just a little deeper we will understand the most basic of emotions.  The need to feel important. We feel important when we are loved and desired.

So my question to you is: how are you seducing the customer to come into your store? You must make it more than price.  How will the product you sell and the service you deliver make your customer feel important? Are you appealing to the customer’s real desires and hidden wants? As the President of Rolex once said, “We don’t sell watches; we sell prestige for the wrist”. He gets it.  Lastly, are you daring enough to use a headline with just a touch of shock value that will have your customers talking about you, full of curiosity, and a burning desire to see what you are selling?  Be careful and even expect a few eyebrows raised but that’s OK.  If you aren’t raising a few eyebrows, you aren’t provocative enough.

Footnote: Don’t jump into anything yet. What I want you to do is to start observing the companies that are employing these tactics. Just watch the Cadillac TV commercial that says “the real question is, when you turn on your car, does it return the favor?” This is spoken by a beautiful woman and it is run during prime time TV.  This is just something to think about. Just think how desirable you (your store) will become if you do it right. Have some fun with it.

Some Simple Rules

I was rearranging the books in my bookcases last week trying to put the books together by category when a little, plaid, 4 by 5 inch book fell out of the bookcase. It was a book that many of you may have called Life’s Little Instruction Book that was first written in 1991. As I flipped through the pages I came across some interesting ideas that people in business need to understand. So I want to thank Jackson Brown for writing it and hope you find these lessons as thought provoking as I did.

Here goes:

1. Take charge of your attitude; don’t let someone else choose it for you.

We all get upset about different things that customers or vendors try to do or say to us. Many times they ruin our moods and we even take it out on the next customer, our employees, or our family. When you do that the person who aggravated you wins. Understand that you have the power to control your emotions. Program in some self-talk such as: there will always be people like that; forget about it, it’s not that important; or my classic, they’re part of the PLO (Pushy, Loud, and Obnoxious) which is only 4% of the people we deal with, and the rest of the people are perfectly fine.

2. Be prepared to lose once in a while.

Every buyer knows that every thing they buy won’t sell. Some items are going to be losers. If you don’t have any losers, then you didn’t push yourself enough or experiment  with different types of merchandise. We learn a lot more from losing than we ever do from winning. Celebrate your losses because they will make you stronger, tougher, and better.

3. Evaluate yourself by your own standards, NOT someone else’s.

So many times in business we use different stores, businesses, or people as role models, but be careful who you use. A store owner once told me that she copied everything this one particular chain store did. The only problem was this publicly traded company had reported their sales and profits the day before. Sales were down 22% and profits down 42%. Whose standards were right? I once closed a store that was very profitable at $400,000 in sales because the person who was advising me made me feel so bad because he kept on telling me that the store should have been doing more a $ million. The sad part was I listened to him. DUMB.

4. Don’t spread yourself too thin.   Learn to say no politely and quickly.

I have seen many great businesses fall because the owner or manager isn’t concentrating on the business any more. They have other interests. They are involved in community events (which are important but you can’t do everything). These people are opening additional businesses while trying to run their store.  This is only getting worse because there are so many opportunities today and the temptation is too great. Yes, if you can manage and delegate well, it can work. But some businesses just need time to develop before you venture off in different directions.  The old line says, “You can’t dance at more than one wedding at the same time.” Some business people have to understand that they just love start-up and hate the day to day stuff.  That can work but you need the right exit strategy.

5. Give yourself an hour to cool off before responding to someone who has provoked you. If it’s really important, give yourself overnight.

How many times have we said something in the heat of an argument that we have only lived to regret?  How many times have we needlessly insulted someone because we were provoked? How about when you tell someone off via email only to learn you read what they wrote incorrectly. It’s bad enough we said it, but now it’s in writing.

Many times the written word when spoken can have a different meaning. Just cool down and think it over before you do a thing.

Hope you liked this. It was fun and challenged me as well.

I do also want to add a comment about last week’s newsletter which asked you, my wonderful readers, to share ideas on how you will entice customers to spend their rebate checks in your stores. There were some interesting ideas given and you can review them at the following link:

http://www.RickSegel.com/Rebate

I am going to keep this link alive and will accept more additions to it. I did also initiate a contest for the top 5 ideas and these people will receive $100 credit for my products. The deadline for the contest will be next Monday, May 12th. I’d love to hear from you!