Serving Matters Old

Test

2008-06-28T18:22:00.001+10:00

Anti Service

2006-12-31T11:00:00.000+11:00

We have been on strategic retreats, done all the right things, the MBA checklist is ticked off, and yet, the company, department, or as individuals we veer off track. It seems to happen every year.

Problem: The company does not seem to have traction and keeps veering off course.

I am interested in helping companies, and people (individuals) move beyond ‘the vision thing’ to answer the fundamental questions of why it cannot cope with the road ahead. Essentially it comes down to examining how the company interacts with the outside world. This interaction is known as delivery, a.k.a. service. We will look at the problems, the causes, and how to diagnose them, and some solutions. Is service really a problem in your organisation? To find out, let’s look at the different types of service and how it can be diagnosed.

There are are quite obviously different levels of service, but beyong good and bad. I am a mad soccer follower. I have played since I was four.

Anti service is seen regularly in a competitive arena. As a player, or even coach I am trying as hard as I can to NOT serve the competition. I am not going to try to help them score a goal.

We do the same in business where we try to beat the competition. Sometimes we have the same competitiveness and anti-service towards people in our own organisation. We see this often with two car salesmen rushing towards us in a car yard, or two middle managers fighting for a promotion. We also see it in our interactions with customers. You will see examples in call centres.

The staff are measured on call response times, to turn the calls over as quickly as possible. You will also see this in some Banking Teller situations, or even airlines trying to turn the plane as soon as possible. The customer may require more time but the staff member is encouraged to do the opposite.

You can see the same behaviour in a Doctor’s surgery. At other times you will see Anti Service in companies that are self assured of their own importance. We have the best product and customers should be privileged to use the service. Sometimes you see this in Monopolies such as government services.

Next posting is Forced Service..... Steven

The Meaning of Everything

2006-10-22T06:28:00.000+10:00

Individuals, groups and companies all have a reason for their existence, a purpose. Rarely do you find yourself where you intended to be. Your goals went one way and reality went another.
In the famous movie City Slickers, when Billy Chrystal asks Jack Palance’s character the meaning of life, Jack commandingly holds up one finger and says “It’s one thing”, but Billy never gets the answer.

Our lives, and our companies all have a purpose. The only difference between people and companies is that companies get to choose their creation, their DNA. Once that purpose is found, we need to work on meaning.

For individuals, our purpose can be reduced to one word. We all seek one thing above all else, above fame fortune and family, we seek happiness.

We get meaning from our lives (have value) when our purpose is transferred to others. When we can transfer our happiness to others we create meaning.

Companies get to choose their purpose through mission statements, but critically, they are useless endeavours unless that purpose is transferred to the outside world. That point of transference is Service.

However, happiness is under attack! Service is under attack!

The next blog posting will indentify the elements that are attacking Purpose.

New Newsletter

2006-10-10T17:30:00.000+10:00

I'm about to launch a new newsletter with called Serving Matter. Launch Late October 2006.

Computer store is ending hard-sell

2006-03-28T13:29:00.000+11:00

I read this article in thisismoney.co.uk which may give another option as to how we can balance the arguement between agressive commission staff remuneration and a customer service mentality. This is an extreme case but it could be useful to consider a blannced approach.

Sean Poulter, Daily Mail
24 March 2006
SALES staff at a leading computer store chain will no longer be paid commission on top of their basic salary, to encourage them to give good advice rather than engage in hard-sell tactics.

PC World, part of the Dixons empire, says its employees will spend more time listening than talking.

Advice will be based on meeting customer needs, rather than which product offers the best commission for the shop assistant.

Traditionally, electrical store salesmen have operated on the basis that it is their job to harry customers into spending more than they had intended, thus generating more commission.

However, friendly and expert customer service is now being seen as the 'magic bullet' for High Street stores in their fight with cut-price Internet retailers. Under the new PC World scheme, labelled 'One Team', the store staff are rewarded for working together and offering good customer service, rather than the in-fighting caused by commission-based schemes.

The team bonus is based upon independent 'mystery shopping' surveys of customer services conducted weekly in every one of the 150 PC World stores.

Trials of the system in new PC World stores suggest that shoppers appreciate the change in tone. These found that 5% more customers were likely to make a purchase in a 'One Team' store. Managing director Keith Jones said: 'It required a leap of faith. But the sales data was so overwhelming it left us with very little choice.'

The scheme might be considered bad news for those salesmen who have done well under the commission system.

However, the blow has been softened by the fact that some 275 of these high-fliers have been appointed 'sales coaches', guaranteeing them a higher basic wage.

Under the new regime, staff in PC World's 150 stores can expect to earn £13,000 a year after 12 months' service. A team and store bonus is on top of this.

This compares with the previous system, where the basic salary was £11,000, plus commission worth up to 20% of pay.

Surveys of customer satisfaction at One Team stores give 8.3 out of ten, compared with the group average of 7.6. PC World's sister brands, Dixons, Currys and The Link, are expected to adopt the same regime.

What is 'Enough' Mystery Shops?

2006-03-17T12:37:00.000+11:00

I came across this article by Dr Ujwal Kayande, a senior lecturer at the Australian Graduate School of Management which is a high level checklist of Survey Design.

Are you getting inconsistent data, do great stores all of a sudden become terrible? Then read on.

Survey design checklist
· Understand the purpose of doing a customer satisfaction survey – this is critical. Many companies collect data but don’t know what to do with it.

· Use the data you have already collected to determine what you should do in the future; this will make future data collection efficient.

· Ask questions that find differences and, therefore, give you a better signal (or reflection of the inherent variability of the retail outlets, branches or other units you are surveying).

· Watch out for indications of high unreliability in your benchmarking data. If, over a year, you find that stores drop in and out of being good at customer satisfaction when you would expect a consistent pattern, then you need to reassess the number of customers or range of stores being surveyed, or the type of questions you are asking. Another indicator of data unreliability would be a situation where the stores which do well at customer satisfaction are the ones that have poorer sales.

· Recognise that good survey design will, in most instances, result in a correlation between satisfaction and sales over time.

*Dr Ujwal Kayande is a senior lecturer in marketing at the AGSM. He received the American Marketing Association’s Donald R. Lehmann Award for best dissertation-based article in Journal of Marketing Research or Journal of Marketing (1998), and he was awarded Researcher of the Year by the Australia New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) in 2000. He is continuing to work with Australian and US professors on improving survey design methodology.

Evaluating A Mystery Shopping Provider

2006-01-03T08:55:00.000+11:00

How do you decide which Mystery Shopping company is best for you?

The answer depends on more than the normal criteria you would use to evaluate service providers. The largest, oldest or best known provider may be the WRONG one for you.

Unlike other forms of research, with Mystery Shopping each and every result is dissected and scrutinized by each site, so you want to be comfortable the results are valid.

You will need to ask questions about Shopper Management, Quality Control, Operations, and Reporting before comparing costs.

The following guide describes some of the more detailed issues you should address when selecting a provider.

To obtain a free copy of the White Paper click here

2005-11-22T10:12:00.000+11:00

I realize you may not have enough time to read, but print this off and read it on the train, bus, or some other time when you have a spare 5 minutes. Perhaps while you are eating lunch at your desk. I recently received this email from a newsletter I receive each week and thought I should perhaps share it with you. There are some pertinent stories that relate to many different industries.

RETAIL IS TOUGHER THAN IT WAS A ONE YEAR AGO, SO ARE MOST OTHER INDUSTRIES. IT'S ALL ABOUT CONVERSION - WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE WALKS INTO YOUR STORE?

McDonalds make billions using this little strategy. ALL those annoying infomercial, mail order and internet businesses do it. Some retailers do it. And those pesky car dealers with chunky gold chains and bad breath are masters of it. So, what is it?

Before I tell you, I am going to share a story with you.

A few years ago, I came across an old manuscript talking about exactly this "riddle." It was written by a certain Mr. Wheeler. This old masterpiece shows how to you can make an extra $100,000 (or more) each year simply by using words that come out of your (and your staff's) mouth, in a more effective manner.

You see, when Mr. Wheeler was an advertising salesman some years ago at the Los Angeles Herald, and then on the Rochester Journal, the Albany Times Union and the Baltimore News- Post, he developed what to him was a fine sales presentation for retailers.

He would inform them, with considerable sincerity, and volumes of figures under his arm, that his newspaper had the largest circulation in town, and therefore more people who needed shirts, fridges, umbrellas, needles and thread, pots and pans and whatever else, would read the merchants' advertisements in his paper and come down to their places of business the next day to buy.

A convincing sales argument, he thought, but Mr. Merchant would always shrug his shoulders and say, "So what?". He would then point to the people already in his store and inform Mr. Wheeler that perhaps he did represent a newspaper with plenty of circulation that may get people into his store, but people just didn't buy. The merchant called them "shoppers", "lookers", and "walk-outs".

This sales obstacle had Mr. Wheeler perplexed for many years, because as a newspaper representative, he thought his only job was to get the people into the stores. Then one day it occurred to him that maybe this wasn't the end of his job, but really just the beginning.

Therefore he set about making a careful analysis of the products sold by the stores. It was the right merchandise, sold at the right price and at the right season. On going over the store's advertisements, he found that they were usually reasonably effective. He then narrowed down the problem of why people came to stores and purchased so little, to the salespeople behind their counters.

The Sales Staff: This was the weak link in the set up of most businesses.

To get definite proof of this fact, Mr. Wheeler approached Erwin Huber, then director of advertising for the Baltimore News Post. Together they selected twenty reporters and gave each of them one hundred dollars with instructions to go to one of the clothing stores and buy as many of the men's advertised shirts as the $100 would purchase and the clerks would sell.

When the reporters returned from the store, fifteen of them hadn't bought a single shirt, informing Mr. Wheeler that the clerks had made no attempt to sell them one. The five reporters who did buy shirts purchased only one each, explaining that the clerks did not suggest a second, third or fourth shirt.

It was evident, according to the reporters, that the clerks figured that after all a man wore only one shirt at a time, so if he bought one, why try to "load him up" with several?

Armed with this important evidence, Mr. Wheeler then approached Mr. Wilbur May, head of the May Company store in Baltimore at the time, explained what he had done and produced his findings. Mr. May was most interested. He realised that he had a multi-million dollar establishment, with millions of dollars worth of merchandise on the shelves, yet the real control of his business was in the hands of his eight hundred sales staff, whose main two worries were . . .

1. "I can't wait till my break and
2. "Gee, I wish it was 5.30 – my legs are aching!"

Mr. May further realised that the suppliers were only good at getting goods up to the counters. The store manager was good teaching the clerks how to stack the products, fill out cheques properly and place advertisements in the papers each week. And that the most the newspapers were doing was bringing the people in alive.

In the final analysis, the sales were made or lost by the sales clerks in his stores, and what they said and how they did it, determined, to a great degree, just how much merchandise was sold in his stores each day.

Upon hearing this story and seeing the facts, Mr. May suggested that Mr. Wheeler be commissioned by his newspaper to go behind the counters of his store and really make a study of what his sales people should say and do. This study, which ultimately went on for ten years, resulted in the formation of the "Wheeler Word Laboratory".

The purpose of this unique laboratory was to measure the relative selling effectiveness of different words and the way they are delivered, to determine, with a great degree of accuracy,what formation of words and techniques makes the most sales at the greatest profit.

Since then, hundreds of businesses supplied the Wheeler Word Laboratory with thousands of selling sentences to be tested. They also opened their doors wide as a laboratory so that Mr. Wheeler could get authentic testing of the scientific selling ability and techniques. In the end over 105,000 words and sentences were tested on 19,500,000 people. And the results . . .

Huge sales increases were recorded every time certain words and techniques were used.

Whenever a salesperson is given a "Tested Selling Sentence" with its proper "Tested Delivery Technique" to replace a time-worn statement, sales increases are made. Over ten years of study of salespeople - ten years trying out formulas, rules and principles – testing some over others - have brought forth some sound, sensible methods of salesmanship and I'll reveal some of them to you now.

A shoe store assistant selling Indian moccasins would place them in front of the little boy and say "These are the same kind the real Indians wear!" This actually sold 3 out of thirteen people a pair of extra shoes.

Another way to use this technique in selling high price sports shoes would be to ask, "What
sport do you like" and then say "These are the same ones XXXXX (famous sports athlete) wears in all his games".

In a department store, an opening sentence increased the sales of a men's electric shaver by 300%. That sentence was . . .

"How would you like to cut your shaving time in half?"

This same sentence sold 58 out of 71 people who bought a particular shaver brand over 4 other brands, even though this brand was more expensive than the others.

If you were selling disposables you could simply say . . . "This one will cut your shaving time in half - - without cuts or nicks". Any man who uses a razor hates getting all cut up and bleeding and this would sell them instantly on that particular brand.

Have you ever stopped at a food store or restaurant that serves drinks in cups? Here are two little words that guarantee to increase sales. When a person asks for a drink, instead of saying: "Large or small?" - the salesperson should simply say "Large one?"

Tests on five thousand people showed that seven out of ten people would say "Yes"! If you own a franchise that serves soft drinks, this means a lot of extra profits each week! McDonalds make over $200 billion a year with their "Would you care for a drink or hot apple pie?" line.

The same thing would apply if you sell cakes and have ice cream as an extra. Rather than saying nothing or "Would you like some ice cream?" using the words "Would you like an order of chocolate or vanilla ice-cream with your cake?" will mean a happier customer and a fatter bank account for you. And the words

"Would you care to order a red or white wine with your dinner?" or saying "Would you like tea or coffee to finish with?" At the end of the meal, doubles the sales of these items. All these give a positive choice. No matter which one the customer picks you win. This is much better than a Yes/No question such as, "Would you like a dessert?"

Do you need to approach business owner with your product? If so, here's an approach which worked wonders for a butter and egg company.

"Hi, I'm from the Butter and Egg company. I have been sent to get your opinion on how we can help grocers increase sales of butter and eggs".

Asking for opinions is a sure way to get people to want to talk to you about what you have to offer! (I'll tell you more on this next week)

Here's one for people who are busy and get unexpected people dropping into their office. A politician handled it with these tested words. After five minutes with any one person in his office, the secretary comes in and says,

"Don't forget your appointment."

This usually causes the visitor to make a quick exit.

Here are some ideas for a pharmacy. Once the clerks find out what the problem is, this approach will sell lots of remedies. The clerk simply picks up the bottle he wants to sell and hands it to the customer with these words, "These will give you quick relief." And the customer buys!

One brand of the humble toothbrush was totally sold out in a week with this approach. At the end of any sale the clerks would say, "Have you ever used a scientific toothbrush?" The customer would ask what sort of toothbrush it was. The clerk then holds up the brush he wants to sell and says. "The bristles are adjusted to clean between the teeth to prevent decay."

And the opening sentence, "Are you on your feet much?" to customers entering the store, got 9 out of 12 people to say yes they were. With this great opening the salesperson would hand them a shoe innersole with the word "These will ease your feet. They are made especially for people who are on their feet a lot." Hundreds of these innersoles were sold each week with this approach.

Want to know how millions of dollars worth of motor oil was sold? From one hundred methods of approaching car owners at a service station to sell oil, this one worked the best.

"Is your oil at a safe driving level?" These eight little words were tested for one week on 485,000 motorists. Over 250,000 opened their bonnet. Much better than the tired, "Can I check your oil?" This question makes it easy to say no.

And here are two gems from the door to door brigade. The one used by the Hoover and Kirby people is, "I'm here to show you how to shorten your cleaning time."

And the one used by lots of successful door canvassers is to hand the lady a booklet with the words, "Here is your free copy of 17 ways to improve your home." Or "Here's your free copy of 15 ways to cut your xxxxxxx (heating, electricity, maintenance, shopping, etc.) bill this month."

This will work for a number of businesses. And the final one, which I love, was the hotel that had a problem with guests stealing the small pictures they had on the walls. They totally solved the problem with eight little words. Now, whenever a guest takes a picture from the wall, they find a blank space with bright red lettering saying . . . "A picture has been taken from this wall"

The point is that what you say in your ads and when talking to customers face to face or on the telephone is worth a fortune to you - if you know what to say and how to say it.

When it comes to cross selling, our shoppers tell us they expect it as part of everyday business. Source http://www.betterbusinessinstitute.com.au/

We are helping more and more clients solve these important questions. Often it just takes a different view, the view from outside.

Steven Di Pietro

Exceeding the Customers Expectations - NOT

2005-11-07T07:15:00.000+11:00

How many times have you heard a Manager tell staff that the company is all about exceeding expectations. Board set this axiom in Mission statements, Marketing Managers espouse it in advertising, and staff even share the philosophy with customers. However....

Imagine you order a pizza for home delivery. The order taker says it will be delivered in 20 minutes, so you take a shower whilst looking forward to eating your pizza during your favourite TV show, also due to start in 20 minutes.

Half way through your shower the doorbell rings. Your turn the shower off, wrap a towel, and drip a trail of water all over the floor to answer the doorbell. To your surprise, it's the pizza delivery.

The delivery driver is standing there with a big proud smile and says, we thought you may like the pizza a little quicker than promised.

You obviously don't have any money in your towel, so you create another trail of water to get your money, and back again. Your frustration spills over because you have to resart the shower and deal with a pizza sitting in the house going cold.

As a customer, these instances are repeated time and time again. The point is simple, don't exceed a customers expectations, simply meet them, and meet them consistently.

How Much Does Service Matter?

2005-08-16T09:57:00.000+10:00

A recent study conducted by Accenture supports our recent research to highlight the importance of service on customer retention.

NEW YORK; July 26, 2005 – Despite the increased use of new technologies intended to improve customer service, such as automated phone systems and live chat over the Internet, poor customer service is the primary reason that consumers switch service providers, according to results of a study released today by Accenture. See full article

Nearly half (49 percent) of the more than 2000 U.S. and U.K. consumers surveyed said poor service led them to change service providers in at least one industry in the past year. When asked to further explain their reasons for switching, the greatest number of these respondents (61 percent) identified poor service or product quality, to get lower prices (46 percent), a service representative’s lack of knowledge about a provider’s services or products (39 percent), lack of customized solutions (22 percent), company policies that create bureaucracy (19 percent), and technologies that delay or stop service (19 percent).

In addition, despite companies adopting technologies to help them respond more effectively to customer concerns, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of all survey respondents said they believed that customer service had not improved significantly in the last five years.

2005-08-13T07:23:00.000+10:00

My previous article raised the question of how a company proportionally spends it money. I have included a recent study conducted by Shop'n Chek Australia & NZ showing that Service and Knowledge are the most important aspects of service. A more complete breakdown is below.

The study was conducted in a July 2005 study of 324 respondents

Which is more important?

Store Presentation 8%
Service 92%

Store Location 22%
Service 78%

Cleanliness 47%
Service 53%

Staff knowledge 59%
Service 41%

Location 42%
Presentation 58%

Staff knowledge 87%
Presentation 13%

Cleanliness 41%
Staff knowledge 59%

Steven Di Pietro

2005-08-13T07:14:00.000+10:00

How do you stop customers telling untruths?

A perennial question for managers is one of relativities. How much do you spend on training compared to fit-outs, rent, or inventory control?

These are questions of data as much as strategy.

An airline employee with poor knowledge and a bad attitude may ruin a customer’s entire experience to the point where they not only tell 10 people, but they exaggerate the story and tell untruths.

Imagine an airline customer is running late for a flight, only to find a problem with the booking. The check-in clerk cannot fix the problem and has a poor attitude, thus souring the whole experience. The flight is delayed 5 minutes, the frequent flyer is seated in a middle seat towards the back, and their luggage is the last off the carousel. The story is relayed as follows: “They almost caused me to miss my flight,,. I was 15 minutes late… they made me sit at the back.. my baggage was almost lost”. In fact the story eventually gets shortened to the point where they say ‘the airline can’t get anything right!’ Let’s face it, some customers embellish and turn word-of-mouth marketing into an awful virus.

An employee may pass all your internal training tests, but does their knowledge and attitude translate to the front line when they are under pressure? What do you do?
Let the data talk.

1. Do not act too quickly. Anecdotal evidence is deceiving. Regular measurement will tell you if the event is systemic or a one-off.

2. Collect the service importance measurements for your customers. How important is service and knowledge? Do you know how much your customers value Service over Presentation?

3. Provide supervisors with tools to identify and manage behaviour. Do your supervisors know exactly what to do if staff attitude is waning or staff lack knowledge? Do they ‘know’ it’s waning?

4. Review your proportional spend. How much do you proportionally spend on your business drivers and how does that map against what your customer wants? This is not to say they should be in the same proportion, but understand the relativities.

5. You get the behaviour you measure. Are you still measuring throughput rather than service? Measure speed and you get speed, measure service to improve service.

In my travels around the country I have seen too many people base their decisions on gut feel. Let the data do the talking.

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