Most every frontline sales manager will agree that keeping staff encouraged when they have very price sensitive customers can be challenging. It becomes quite easy to fall into the trap of believing that by in large, customers are cheap. But here is the reality; customers are not cheap. They are value driven and want to know that they are receiving the best price and service available for their hard earned money.  Understanding and focusing on their need for value will allow for the message to be heard and more sales to be made. 

Here are a few of the many successful techniques to help your team command the attention of value driven customers:

-  When presenting a product or service, always focus first on the benefits of what the customer is getting, prior to quoting the price.  All too often the price is presented first and then the customer shuts down their listening skills.

-  Focus on the value of what they are getting vs. the price they are paying.  People remember most, whatever they hear last so when presenting a sale price, highlight the “savings”. For example: “It can sell for as much as $99, today it’s only $69, that’s a savings of $30!”

-  DO NOT PREJUDGE!!!!  Only assume every customer deserves the very best product or service you have to offer.

-  People buy from those they like. Focus on connecting with the customer and delivering a presentation centered on enhancing their experience – with you, the company and the products/services you represent. 

Most importantly, bear in mind that a salesperson’s perception of their customers will affect the presentation and ultimately, influence buying decisions.  It is critical that frontline managers do not “buy into” the same perceptions that can distract and dissuade their sales team.  How a salesperson feels about their customers and the sales opportunities determines how well those customers will receive their message.  Encouraging your frontline to focus their energies on ways to vary their presentation for the value driven customers instead of dismissing the opportunity will increase sales opportunities and generate more revenue.

Ken Stellon – Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group

Some of the best customer service comes from one word, awareness.

Too often new employees are told to provide excellent customer service and only given the old catchphrases when they come aboard.  They are given philosophies like “the customer is always right” or “treat customers how you would like to be treated”. While these are good philosophies, if this is all an employee is given it does not mean they will be able to provide excellent customer service.  As a matter a fact, many opportunities to deliver great customer service will be missed if an employee is solely focused on these philosophies. 

In a service and sales environment, awareness is your action plan; it is a level of discernment that best positions your staff to make win-win decisions for themselves and their customers. Employees that keep awareness top-of-mind will stay sharp and always have a better feel for the pulse of the environment they are in. Having a great sense of awareness may be the single most important factor in their ability to deliver great customer service and optimizing their performance potential. Awareness can reach beyond those old philosophies and in many cases it is awareness that allows them to deliver on those philosophies. 

So, how do you train awareness? It all starts by analyzing your environment and giving your employees examples of awareness. When you are sharing examples try replacing the words “great customer service” with awareness. Why? Ultimately, it is not your employee that will decide if they delivered great customer service; it is the perceptions of your customers that will determine whether the service they received was poor, mediocre or great!

Great customer service is the destination, awareness is the map. When you take a long road trip, do you focus on your destination or do you focus on how to get there? Awareness, being focused on the journey to great customer service, can create an efficient environment that feels seamless to customers even though every action has a purpose. 

Think about a busy hair salon with customers waiting and two stylists finish with their customers at the same time. Since they have only one cash register, one stylist allows the other to go first, utilizes that time to double check their work and finds a few spots to touch up. The touch up lasts a few minutes and the customer appreciates the extra attention to detail. Once completed, the customer proceeds to pay their bill, the register is free and the transaction feels very fluid. This quick awareness action created a positive final moment of experience for that customer. Without awareness, perhaps that additional wait time and the lost opportunity for that added sense of appreciation for detail would have resulted in that customer’s overall experience to change from a 10 to an 8.5.

Challenge yourself to look for how people use awareness at every customer touch point in their place of business and how it works for them. Even look for opportunities where better awareness would have created a better experience. Think outside the box … challenge your team to do the same and discuss them in your weekly meetings. Make it fun because after all, you are creating awareness to look for awareness.

Matthew Pietzak – Area Performance Manager, Frontline Performance Group

Fortune Magazine recently released their annual list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For. Here are some of the well-known names that earned their way on to the list:

• Wegman’s Food Markets - #3
• Zappos - #6
• Mercedes Benz USA - #15
• Stew Leonard’s - #18
• Whole Foods Market - #24
• Four Seasons Hotels - #53
• Publix Super Markets - #67
• Nordstrom’s - #74
• Men’s Warehouse - #87
• Starbucks - #98

Do you see what I see?  Not only are these ten companies on the list of Best 100 Companies To Work For, but each of these organizations have a strong reputation for providing outstanding customer service as well as sustained financial success. Coincidence?   I don’t think so.

In the book “The Customer Comes Second“, authors Hal Rosenbluth and Diane Peters discuss the philosophy of putting your people first.

“This is a formula that has worked for more than two decades, and has transformed his company from a small family business into a global industry leader, grossing over $6  billion.  In this classic on counterintuitive management practice, the entrepreneurial genius and visionary leader of Rosenbluth International shows you how to use exceptional service to win in any industry.” - Tom Peters

As I wrote in an earlier post, companies that say they’re “focused” on customer service are a dime-a-dozen.  Sadly, some companies “focus” on customer service at the expense of their own associates.  These organizations beat the drum of customer service while reducing staffing levels, cutting commissions and benefits and piling on extra workload all the while telling their people “you count” – as the associates add, under their breath, “for nothing”.

Does “The Customer Comes Second” philosophy mean companies need to give their employees heaps of perks and benefits? Definitely not.  You can hold off on constructing the new gym with the indoor swimming pool and free daycare for your associate’s kids.  That’s not how you create a “customers come second” working environment.   The true foundation of an outstanding work environment is high employee engagement.

The folks at Gallup have done extensive research on employee engagement.

“The world’s top-performing organizations understand that employee engagement is a force that drives business outcomes. Research shows that engaged employees are more productive employees. They are more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and more likely to withstand temptations to leave the organization. In the best organizations, employee engagement transcends a human resources initiative — it is the way they do business.”

Through their research, Gallup has identified 12 key statements that best predict employee and workgroup engagement:

1. I know what’s expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last seven days, I have received praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone at work that encourages my development.
7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission or purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important.
9. My associates, or fellow employees, are committed to doing quality work.
10. I have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

What?  No game rooms or smoothy bars?  Nope!  Do some of the companies on the top 100 list have some of those perks?  Yes, they do, but that is in addition to creating a work environment with very high employee engagement.  So what is the “moral” to this story? It’s simple; create an environment with high employee engagement and you will be well on your way to a place on the Top 100 list.  The moral is simple.  Making it happen?  Not so much.

Lee Silverstein – Managing Partner, Frontline Performance Group 

The difference is night and day.  One transaction takes place where the salesperson makes an introduction by offering me their name and asking for mine and another takes place with no introduction at all and gets right to the sale.  In the first, I feel important and appreciated.  In the latter, I feel like just another schmo.  In more casual terms, “I don’t feel the love” if you don’t take the time and make the effort to build some rapport before you try to get in my wallet. 

Here’s a fundamental concept to remember about service-based sales; people like to do business with people they know, with people they like, and with people they trust.  But unfortunately in today’s “hurry up, let’s go” society, the civility in everyday exchanges has become collateral damage and the basic foundation in relationship building has been lost.  We’ve sacrificed an essential component in a customer-focused sales environment and in the process reduced our ability to maximize our revenue opportunities and maybe even more importantly, severely handicapped the potential to create a “wow” customer experience.  And the saddest part - it only takes a few seconds to accomplish.

Would you build a house on top of sand?  The answer is obvious but that is exactly what happens when salespeople don’t lay a solid foundation before beginning the sales process.  Take the few seconds it takes to let your customers know that you are a professional (by introducing yourself) and let them know you care about them and appreciate their business by asking for their name…before you do ANYTHING else.  Then use their name throughout the transaction and be sure to thank them by name at the conclusion.  Show them some love and I guarantee they will reciprocate.  The bonus is that it will make you feel good about what you do and how you do it.

Walter G. Rudd, Jr. – Performance Manager, Frontline Performance Group

Next to the sports world, no one can beat a cliché or “buzzword” to death better than the world of business. At the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s about the team and I’m just taking it one game at a time and believe we need to take a proactive approach and close the file on these over-used terms.  

One of the most meaningless words is “focus”. The word is frequently used as an excuse for when there is no formal plan or strategy in place to address an issue. “Focus” is too often used as part of the “marching orders” given to frontline management from above, as in “I need you to focus your team on customer service.” Sadly, that is the extent of many organizations customer service strategy; “we’re focused on it.”

“Focusing” on customer service is not enough. Your strategy needs to be meaningful, sustainable and simple. It should be treated as a company “mantra” where every member of the organization knows what it is – lives and breathes it.

I recently had the opportunity to utilize the services of Safelite Auto Glass and noticed this sticker on the window of their repair truck:    

 I thought this was quite powerful; a 12-point “pledge” for their technicians beginning with the words “I will perform the following for every customer …” Here are the highlights of what they “pledge” to do for their customers:

• Perform a safe installation as outlined in our installation policies, procedures, and SafeTech Installation manual. In other words, they promise to do the job according to the rules of the organization.
• Complete the technician call-aheads. They actually take the time each morning to call every customer on their daily schedule to confirm the appointment and let them know the approximate time they will arrive at their home or business for repair.
• Arrive within the time frame agreed upon with the customer. A service company that promises to be on time; wow! 
• Have a professional appearance, be in clean uniform and arrive in a clean vehicle. Another promise, to make a good impression on the customer.
• Communicate the minimum drive away time to every customer. In other words, tell every customer how long the job will take to complete.
• Protect the vehicle by using all recommended covers and mats. Be respectful of the customer’s property.
• Communicate with the customer and always thank them for giving us the opportunity to repair or replace their vehicle glass.
• Wash all exterior glass and vacuum the interior of the vehicle after each replacement or repair. Do a little something extra for the customer that they don’t expect.  
• Fix the problem if something goes wrong and take ownership for delighting the customer. In writing on every vehicle, “you are empowered to delight (not ‘satisfy’) the customer.”

Safelite Auto Glass is doing more than “focusing” on customer service. They have obviously woven it into the fabric of their company.

If you were to put up a similar sticker, sign or badge what would it say?

Lee Silverstein - Managing Partner, Frontline Performance Group