Through the Eyes of the Customer: Customer Knowledge

Customer Knowledge

12/24/2014

The Value of Asking Questions

Have you ever been to a party full of strangers? Was it easier to have an enaging conversation with some people, and more awkward with others? Who asked you more questions? The easier people or the awkward people? Asking questions - good, thought-provoking questions - trigger deeper, engaging conversations, even with total strangers.

What works at a cocktail party also works in building customer relationships:

Asking people questions about them makes them more willing to spend time with you.

Asking people challenging questions causes them to think more deeply. When people think more deeply, they become mentally stronger.

Asking questions leads to answers which lead to new ideas.

Asking questions leads to discussion which leads to new knowledge.

Be the person that builds better relationships, spends time wisely, causes people to think deeply, come up with new ideas, and creates knowledge.

Be the person that asks good questions.

Posted at 02:44 PM in Best Practices, Customer Knowledge, Reputation, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

04/17/2013

3 Ways to Make your Satisfaction Suveys more Customer-Centric

Last week, I received seven customer satisifactoin surveys from companies that I did business with the previous week. Those surveys ranged from the Dunkin Donuts Satisfaction Survey from a $2.21 coffee purchase, to a Delta Airlines Satisfaction Survey for a $721 flight.

The Problem with Most Surveys

There's something that I've noticed about most of these surveys: they're more about the product, than about the customer.

In a customer-centric world, this isn't right, is it?

Of last week's seven surveys, most contaied a lot of detailed questions about things I didn't even notice during my use of the product or service.

The survey I received after a two-night hotel stay asked me to rate my satisfaction with the following:

The friendliness of the receptionist at the front desk
The availability of towels at the pool
The variety of food in the restaurant

Those questions are more about the product, than they are about the customer. Here's why I say that:

When I stay at a hotel, especially for business, the friendliness of the receptionist at the front desk isn't that important to me. What matters is how fast and how efficient they are in getting me checked in.

When I stay at a hotel, the variety of the food in the restaurant isn't that important to me. If I go to the hotel restaurant, I do it for more for the convenience, and less for the menu.

The best surveys that I've seen - the most customer-centric surveys that I've seen, are the ones that ask me what's important to me.

Here are three characteristics of satisfaction surveys, that make them customer-centric:

They ask me what's important to me. Each question that asks me to rate a feature (on a scale of 1 to 5, or 1 - 10) will also ask me to rate how important that feature is to me (on that same scale). You don't want to invest in improving features that are not important to the customer!

They contain open-ended questions. No survey can cover every possible question (Don't even try it, because as the number of questions increases, the number of quality responses decreases.). So, ask an open-ended questions, to allow the customer to you what's important to them, and how well you executed on it. After all, that's the stuff to focus on.

They ask the "Ultimate Question." And remember to ask the Ultimate Question: would I recommend you? if yes, why. If no, why not. Because when all is said an done, knowing what you need to improve upon (or continuing doing well), in order to generate word-of-mouth marketing, is what surveys should be all about.

What's the most "customer-centric" satisfaction survey that you've received, and what made it that customer-centric?

Posted at 05:00 AM in Best Practices, Customer Journey, Customer Knowledge, Customer Service | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

11/28/2012

If you're going to survey your customers, go the distance, and close the loop!

I'm one of those people that almost always completes those satisfaction surveys after making a purchase, taking a flight, or staying at a hotel. Customer feedback is an important link in the customer experience chain, so if I don't give it, I probably shouldn't expect to get it (the improved experience, that is).

About ten days ago, I stayed one night at the Hilton Garden Inn Denver South/Meridian in Colorado. Two days after checking out, I received an email from the hotel, asking me to complete a brief satisfaction survey. I finally got around to completing and submitting the survey yesterday.

Today, I recieved an email from the General Manager at that hotel thanking me for staying there, and for taking the time to share my feedback. And then he asked me a question about one of my responses.

Here's why I felt this was an event worthy of a blog post - of all the surveys that I complete, surprisingly few companies acknowledge them, and those who do usually do it through an impersonal, automated email.

It's rare that a company actually follows up personally to close the loop on a customer's survey resposne. But those who do, are very often the leaders in their industries, with the highest levels of customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty.

Is that a coincidence??!

If you ask a customer a question, and the customer answers your question, would you ignore them, or respond in kind? Why should a survey be any handled any differently?

Posted at 05:33 PM in Best Practices, Customer Experience, Customer Knowledge, Customer Loyalty, Marketing Best Practices | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

06/17/2011

View Every Transaction through a Lifetime Value Lens

One of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes is "The purpose of a business is to create a customer, and to grow that customer."

No one will argue with that. But the problem is, many people - particularly commissioned sales people - allow the transaction to obfuscate the customer. That is, people inside the business can become overly-focused on the transaction - the sale of the day - and less so on the long-term relationship with the customer. As a result, customers are often not treated as you might a life-long partner, but rather, a shorter term relationship, or worse, a one-transaction stand.

Earlier this week, I was listening to a podcast while out on a bicycle ride (hey, it was safe - there was virtually no traffic on quiet quiet coastal byways!). Coincidentally, this "Blog Talk Radio" podcast by featured Chris Zane, the founder and CEO of Zane's Cycles which has achieved an average annual growth rate of 23% annual since 1980 when it opened.

There were plenty of lessons in the podcast, but one that really resonated was the way that Zane gets his employees to look at every customer in terms of their lifetime value to the business, instead of the the value of the single bicycle they buy on a given day.

According to Zane, the average customer will purchase $12,500 worth of bicycles over the course of their lifetime. Zane, through a series of customer-focused tactics, is committed to have each of those bicycles purchased from his store in Connecticut.

So, when employees are hired and trained, they are taught to treat every sale as if that sale is a $12,500 sale. Now, that would be a HUGE single sale for a bicycle shop, so when an employee sees a sale through that lifetime value lens, they're more apt to treat the customer like gold.

What is the lifetime value of your average customer?

Can your employees recite that figure coming out of a sound sleep?

Do they engage each customer from that perspective?

Zane's has achieved a 23% average annual growth rate every year, since they opened in 1980. Do the math - that's powerful stuff. And so is the Customer Lifetime Value Lens, if every one of your employees looks through it.

Posted at 07:00 AM in Customer Knowledge, Customer Service | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

03/25/2011

How LL Bean has grown by catering to the customer

When companies pay attention to their customers, and offer an experience on the customers’ terms, the customers pay them back. Over and over and over.

When Leon Leonwood Bean began making and selling boots in Freeport, Maine back in 1912, some customers would bring the boots back to Leon, if something wasn’t quite right. Leon always gladly accepted the returned boots, fixed them, improved them, replaced them, or gave the customers their money back.

Whatever the customer felt was fair. No questions asked.

While the business grew to become a 1.5 billion dollar outfitter with customers around the world, LL Bean has never wavered from its focus on the customer, and more specifically, the practice of doing things the way the customer wants; providing the experience that the customers asks for.

Three strategic decisions in LL Bean's history show why doing what's right by the customer, is also good for business:

1. The no-questions-asked return policy.
It's the hallmark that made LL Bean, well, LL Bean. If the customer's not happy with what they bought, refund, replace it, or fix it. Don’t hassle the customer. Make their lives easier.

2. More retail stores.
From 1915 until around 2000, LL Bean had only one retail store. Around that time, many companies began to close their brick and mortar operations to save on costs, and migrated to more on-line business. LL Bean began to do just the opposite – they opened more retail stores in the US, as well as Japan and China.

Loyal LL Bean customers loved to visit the famous retail store in Freeport, Maine. So Bean made their customers’ lives easier by bringing the retail store to the customer. They opened stores in geographic locations there were high concentrations of loyal catalog shoppers. So again, LL Bean made things better for the customers, by bringing the beloved Bean retail experience right into its customers' backyards.

3. And now, Free Shipping.
On March 25, LL Bean announced year-round, no-strings-attached free shipping. According to the Portland Press Herald, and David Fuller of LL Bean, "In research after research, the customers said, 'This is how we want to shop.'”

"Three-quarters of consumers say that they will abandon their purchase when they can't get free shipping," according to industry analyst comScore, Inc.

LL Bean responded to the customers by giving them free shipping. Of course, the financial side of Bean has its motive: an upside potential 75% more orders.

Throughout its history, LL Bean has consistently responded to its customers' desires, even if it mean doing things that were, well, the opposite of what other retailers were doing. Listening to the customer has clearly been a key to LL Bean's growth in revenue and customers over the years.

Why don’t more companies listen to their customers, and act on what they hear?

Posted at 05:42 PM in Customer Experience, Customer Knowledge, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service | Permalink | Comments (6)

03/21/2011

Customer stories can make everyone more customer-focused.

Everybody loves a good story. And the best stories are true stories. And every customer has one.

Every about how your product or service has improved some aspect of their life.

When a customer tells their own personal story, and you hear it directly from the customer, you’ll begin to see all customers differently; you’ll see them as real people, and begin to develop a stronger sense of empathy. And this can have a strong ripple effect.

I used to work in a soup kitchen, where we would feed meals to the homeless people in the city. One particular night after the meals were served, I sat down at a table where five homeless men were quietly drinking coffee. I asked the man to my left where he was from, and how he found his way to Portland.

The man told me his story – slowly at first, but as the conversation went on, he opened up, and became more eager to share his story; his background and how came to become homeless. I started to see him as a another adult who simply had more misfortune than I.   Hearing him tell his own story caused me to see him differently, and develop a stronger sense of empathy.

Once you hear a person tell their own story, you see them differently, and treat them differently. You feel a connection, a connection you can act on.

So, what does this have to do with improving customer focus?   How can you use it to improve the customer-focus within your organization?

Create a forum where your customers can tell their stories directly to your employees. Invite one or two customers to a weekly meeting with your service team, so they can tell their stories to the group.   If it’s not feasible to have the customers on site, then record a short video, or do something to capture the customer telling their own story.

Repeat the process on a regular basis, and over time, by hearing the customers tell their own stories about how your product has made their lives better in some big or small way, your service team will grow closer to the customers, and act with stronger empathy, and sharper focus.

Posted at 07:54 AM in Customer Knowledge, Customer Service | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

03/17/2011

What can the public sector learn from the private sector about managing customer relationships?

Tell me that I have to do something, and I’ll object.

Tell me what’s in it for me, and I’ll listen.

Central Maine Power began installing digital smart meters last fall. It gave customers the right to “opt out” of the meter upgrade. Many did. But now CMP is being publicly criticized for bullying its customers into upgrading their electric meters.

So while CMP continues with the meter upgrade program, it also has to fix its reputation, and improve customer relationships.

What could CMP have done differently, to avoid this highly-charged situation? For starters, they could have more closely followed three basic customer relationship management practices:

Educate your customers on the benefits and value.
Offer incentives.
Capture , manage and use customer information.

What do we mean?

Tell the customer What's in it for Them.
When you want to get your customers to do something, you need to help them understand why it’s a good thing… for them. While CMP did publicize the benefits of smart meters, the public education process didn’t seem thorough enough; they put a greater emphasis on sticking to the installation timeline, regardless of what their customers understood about the program. The customer wasn’t at the center of CMP’s agenda – the meters were first; the customers were second. In the private sector, when a company loses customer focus, they lose customers. In the public sector you’ll lose your reputation. Always consider decisions from the customers’ point of view, regardless of your sector.

Offer incentives.
Time Warner Cable prefers to have its customers pay their bills on line, instead of pay-by-phone. To influence customers to pay on line, they offer a three-dollar savings. Had CMP done a better gotten a little creative, and structure an incentive based on their cost savings, they’d face less resistance. If there’re financial savings and advantages for you, get creative, and figure out a way to create a concrete incentive for your customers to receive some immediate value.

Capture, organize and act on customer information.
CMP gave customers the right to opt out. Over 2,000 customers did. But many of them continued to receive letters, and visits from installers to change their meters. Customer preferences should be captured in a customer information system, then used to separate your customers into different groups, so they can be treated differently, based on their preferences. Not doing this is poor information management, and worse, poor customer management.

Whether you’re a public sector organization delivering services to its citizens, a utility delivering power to those people, or a private sector company selling products into a competitive market, it’s critical to educate your clientele on the value you deliver, make it attractive to your consumer and properly manage customer information. Doing these things will improve the quality of the relationships, and the benefits that both parties receive.

Thanks to "Long Islander" for this photo, with its subtle green undertones.

Posted at 07:37 PM in Customer Knowledge, Marketing Best Practices, Reputation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

02/06/2011

M.I.T.'s AgeLab has created a better way to know the customer.

What if you could put on a set of clothes that would instantly transform you into your customer, so that you would see things the way your customer sees them, feel what your customer feels, and walk like your customer walks?

Would you then have a better understanding of what your customers like, dislike, and how to make them more loyal?

AgeLab, a research center at M.I.T. created a suit they call AGNES. According to an article in the New York Times, AGNES “is calibrated to simulate the dexterity, mobility, strength and balance of a 74-year-old.” By wearing the suit, you experience the physiological feelings that are felt by a 74-year old. Many companies are having their product engineers wear these suits in order to gain a better understanding of how to design solutions for their aging customer.

By seeing what your customer sees, and feeling what your customer feels, you’ll have greater empathy to make the right decisions to serve your customers in ways that will make them more loyal, and make your business stronger.

The concept is simple: Come up with a way to actually experience what it’s like to be your customer, and you’ll know exactly what you need to do to please your customer.

OK, so what are three ways that you can apply this same principal, short of designing and wearing a body-suit?

Be your customer.
If you’re familiar with the “mystery shopper” concept, you know this approach. Step on the other side of the counter, and go through the entire customer lifecycle, from evaluating to buying to owning and using the product that you now sell. What touch-points delivered a positive experience, and which touch points can be improved? By actually being a customer of your company, you’ll understand first-hand what your real customers feel.
Ask your customer.
Customer surveys and focus groups are another common approach for finding out what the customers think. Done right, these can be effective tools for gaining valuable insight about the experience that you currently deliver.
Capture their comments.
Customers constantly provide feedback, but much of it is never captured. During a recent post, I described my experience with Continental Airlines, their customer comment sieve. If you equip your customer-facing employees with the tools to capture feedback when it’s provided, you’ll begin to accumulate a rich trove of real customer feelings that can tell you exactly what you can do to delight your customers.

The best way to know your customer is to be your customer.
What do you think are the best ways to better know your customer?

Thanks to M.I.T. AgeLab for these images of AGNES "Aging Empathy Suit."

Posted at 11:20 AM in Customer Experience, Customer Knowledge, Customer Loyalty | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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