Make Your Customer a Fan
In his article “Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service,” Joel Spolsky suggests that the company “will make our customer a fan.” He tells a story about ordering shirts for a trade show. When the shirts arrived, were the colors of the logo and they were not acceptable. The error was not the company that made them, but they let him back for full credit, yet the order has shipped FedEx so there would be in time for the trade show itself only two days away. Spolsky continue on with the words:
If customers have a problem and fix the error, they are actually going to go to even more satisfied than if she had never been a problem in the first place.
It has to do with expectations. Most people experience with technical support and customer service is used by airlines, telephone companies, cable companies and ISPs, who generally see all the horrible customer service. It’s so bad you do not even no longer required, right? So if someone calls Fog Creek, and immediately becomes a human, not voice mail or phone menus, and that person turns out to be nice and friendly and actually solves their problem, they are likely to think more highly of us to as someone who never take the opportunity to contact us, and just assume that we are average.
Well, I would not go so far as to actually go wrong with something, just so we have a chance to demonstrate our excellent customer service. Many customers simply do not call, they will still smoke.
But if someone does not call it, consider it a great opportunity, a fanatically devoted customer, one who prattle on and what a great job, has created you. ( “Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service,” Joel Spolsky, 19 February 2007)
“Fanatic” given what a great slogan of exactly what we are with the promotion of Consummate Customer Care If you are successful, your clients a fan, then have gained a loyal customer, not only will your product or service buy, but you have to make a relationship with the customers that it will promote the spread good word about you. This positive stamp on your product or service is invaluable, and you have not really done anything other than an excellent “care” to the client.
Sports enthusiasts “fanatically devoted.” There are many sports clubs, their places are to be filled even if they continue in terrible season. Sometimes the fans are devoted for many, many years, just because it such a “fan” of the team that it would be inconceivable, can not be supported. I spent the last two years of high school in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, all between the months (August and January in fact the whole year!) Turns around the Green Bay Packers. When I was living the glory days of Bart Starr was fresh in the minds and the team was in a crisis. I will never forget how the fans stayed “with” the team. They were rabid. I was always on the fervor with which the fans support a team that was losing all the time amazed. The Packers have been sold out for well over forty years, it is almost impossible to get to see just a ticket to a game in Green Bay. The most amazing thing is that they are not always good, they do indeed have had some very bad years in its history, but they were able to create such a loyalty in their fans, they were the bad weather year, and tickets continue to sell really unbelievable.
Not to show that professional sports is a business (we all know very well that it is safe!), But if the above mentioned project mechanism for regular run of the mill company, it provides an amazing parallel, which would be achieved if open to ensure success. Consider only benefit to the rewards that would be your business if all your customers telling others what a great job you are doing.
Cell phone providers are notorious for poor customer service. We all know those automated phone systems and the long wait to enter the conversation with a man, often many of us, before a person can do it! My son has gone to the same phone company for over ten years and you could never convince them to change it, even if their prices, and programs a little more expensive than the others on the market. The reason is simply that they are excellent customer service. Each time he has had a problem, they have responded quickly and without reservation, and it cared for him. He is really a “fan” of his cell phone provider, and it is anyone who asks him to say why. This is the kind of customer loyalty, companies must try to fulfill.
Sam was in real estate in Florida part-time for 20 years in the education of their family. Like her character, Consummate Customer Care has always been her top priority. She was very successful, but limited in their success, because she balanced a husband and children, who were necessarily their first priority at the time. She loved the interaction with their customers and found it very fulfilling for families with homes they could afford to meet and enjoy. She felt the Real Estate profession demanded the very best in customer service had to offer at any time, whether listing or selling, because home purchases and sales are so important and personal to the people. It is typically buy the highest ticket item most people ever buy or sell.
Sam no longer works in real estate but has recently been overcome with a very real problem with the industry. She owns a house in the northeast and listed it with two different companies, one after the other. She could not believe, given the lack of service and support. The list was compiled, both times at best in a careless manner, contact with her was not there, and nothing happened. Sam and her husband was always amazed when they moved to this area about the lack of work ethic and customer service in all their dealings and this attitude is certainly lackluster showing with the house listing.
If the second entry was near the end, Sam was confused about how to find an agent with excellent support and work ethics that will do their best to sell her house. Exactly how is expired in the collection, Sam received three mailings from real estate companies soliciting the list. She thought about it and decided to “interview” all three companies had at least the power to promote their business. So she made a list of questions on their computer, making three copies. These questions are as follows:
· How long have you been working as a broker?
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· How many properties you have listed in the past year?
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· How many of your own listings they have sold in the past year and how many of your ads have been sold by another agent this year?
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· How many of your company listings you sold last year?
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· How many total of properties sold, you have in the past year?
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Everything is like the average time spent on the market of the tenders of your company?
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· Where and when are you advertising?
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· How often do you do an open house and where you advertise it?
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Everything is like your effective and duration of the contract and are negotiable?
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· What will you do to sell this house that we are not being addressed?
This completed, Sam had her home freshly washed and ready to show and called all three companies had contacted them. She told me that they each survey has been real estate on this day, and if they see coming into the house and visit with interested, she had an opening at such and such time. Sam also told them that they have some questions for them would. Each of the three accepted the invitation and everyone arrived on time in order to adjust the time. She showed the house, sat down with them at the table with a comfortable discussion, and then they went out and asked them the questions above. All three were on the various issues were very surprised, but with the forthcoming answers. Sam was with all three of these representatives because of their quickness, readiness for an appointment with such short notice, are impressed with her straightforward answers to their questions and their professionalism.
Of course, a decision had to be done through one of the three. She told each of them she would call them one way or another in reaching their decision the following Monday and thanked them for coming. Sam then to carefully weigh each interview and the answers to their questions played a huge role in their decision. The broker, with whom she decided to list her home was very prepared for it when she and her partner and she was accurate with the information provided on the property of their research. The answers to the questions were immediately positive. The advertisement was on a fixed schedule and a copy of the advertisement Sam would send in the mail every time an ad was placed, the team assured her that she would be in regular contact with her, she would make a complete virtual tour of the house, yard could not feel and lakeshore, and she agreed with an original maturity of 3 months, so they sure they would do what they said they would. The Commission also heard a few percent but still higher than the other two. Sam felt worth the extra. It also adds to the professionalism of the interviews with them and said that they have never experienced before. They said that usually the main thing people want to know is the amount of the commission.
As I write this, Sam is still in the process of selling their home, but so far she has chosen agents have kept all the promises and she is a fan of the decision and she chose the company happy, because Consummate Customer Care, which she wanted and this is the only company. When the house was not because the market is one thing to sell, but a complete bust, because people do not do the right care to have their customers is ridiculous. There are good people and organizations who care and work hard, and others who really do not care, but had as a client, Sam, a decision that this election, and they can also decide that the election invalid. Because of their experience with their broker of choice, they will not patronize that only companies, but will spread the good word about them with lust and power. No one could ask for a better advertisement for their business.
The above example should be a “heads up” to all entrepreneurs and managers. Treat your customers with complete customer care and make it a “fan” offer for the excellent service! There are tons of companies for customers to choose from and a viable losing customers because of the lack of customer care when it is usually your “only edge” is catastrophic and expensive! You probably could not win them all, but you will certainly gain a lot more customers with “constant” care and attention.
I hesitate to tell the next story, because it is one of my most amazing crashes and injuries today, so you say, but what is life about if we do not learn from our mistakes.
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Several years ago, my wife and I had a photo studio. We photograph in the family. We had opened the studio after we had stopped the removal and sale of photographic campaigns for a company that has the church directories. We were small and really knew nothing about running a business, but we were there pretty well and are making ends meet. Since we specialize in family photography had spread the word about what to disclose a great product that we delivered and we began to make a good reputation for ourselves.
I got a call from a lady who called us by happy customers, and they said that they have a family reunion in a few weeks ago, and she wanted while all of the photos was a family together. They said they would have nineteen people for the main picture and asked if could handle our studio that many people. I assured her that we can shoot and posted. The day before filming, I had my film for our studio, when the man said, save in photography, he had a used camera that he would sell us at a discount. It was one of the best cameras on the market and the price was amazing. I told him that I try it first, and so on Friday I have the camera would return to the studio with me. I shoot the camera to a family reunion that I had booked for this Saturday.
The family arrived and there were even nineteen of them. There were five generations, and the matriarch of the family was terminally ill, this would be the last time that it would probably be able to make a complete family photo. The shoot went smooth as silk. I could have been the creation of some remarkable shots and a whole series with the whole family and the quantities involved did. It was really great. This was not only involved a great opportunity for them to do the family photo, it was a great opportunity for our small studio, since so many families were. I have probably one hundred and twenty pictures and they took leave. I was excited and anxious for the film back from the developers and could not wait to see how the shoot came out. Family photography is complicated and with a shooting that many people are aged from eight months to more than eighty, is remarkable in itself.
To my shock, when the evidence came, I realized in horror that the mask was not centered on the camera. I would not have known if I had done a few test shots, and she had developed before the shoot. I was with this new camera and I falsely assumed that the man placed in the camera shop I had a piece of goods that has been properly retrofitted. Big mistake! Most of the smaller family shots are preserved, but the images of the whole family together so far to the left that two family members were cut off heads moved. I was sick! I have tried everything to get them to shot, but there was no feasible way to make it work. Remember, this was in the old days before digital cameras and the ability to conjure up in Photoshop so basically I had completely missed the family picture that these people probably never have a chance to create again. Not only that, but I shoot from zero revenue to get and I would not pay sitting fee because of the size of the group, I was screwed.
Presentation of evidence, the family representative was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Since the family had literally traveled around the world for its reunion, there was no possibility of any type of do-re done. I ended up giving evidence and put the negatives, the family does something to them and not for the photo shoot. I gave them the name of a photo developer who might be able to save the photos from the negatives, but as I have several, I was not very optimistic. Needless to say, the customer was very satisfied with the results.
I use this example because it is teaching an example of the absolute antithesis of what we are trying with perfect Customer Care. It was not making sure a fan of this customer, in fact just the opposite has occurred. I have always regretted this situation. If I only had the foresight to run a test roll of film, I would have discovered the problem, and I used my normal camera for those all important shots. In retrospect, was the decisive mistake. I have to destroy not only what was to be a big family for my clients, I also destroyed the reputation of my studio. As it turns out, was the main initiator of the family photos to know everyone in the city, and I began to think it is very difficult to get new paying customers. I know the reality is that no one could spread so much negativity, but the occasional turn led to my enormous sense of failure, finally, folding the combined company as a whole. Catastrophic circumstances of the act.
All of the above would have avoided had my focus entirely on making that customers use a fan What a dunderheaded decision to an unknown camera in a shoot-out, so was very important. Had I really concentrate on my clients, I would have made a test run, discovered the glitch, and everything would return to the outside too great. My focus instead on the future possibilities and to think that the new camera to be better, without really would be taking into account the enormous importance of this event for the customer. I know this may be an extreme example, but I think it is really beyond the point.
Employees must be trained to create fans of the customer. I used a quote from Jeff Bezos of Amazon. com, when he declared: “If you could make customers unhappy in the physical world, they say, 6 Friends. If you can make customers unhappy on the Internet, say they are 6000 friends.” This quote is worth repeating in connection with your customers a fan of your company. Now that we are the Internet and instant communications have in our mainstream society, have to say it so incredibly important for the customer of good things about you. I can not count the amount of time that I’ve gone from a particular undertaking because of a bad comment I heard, either personally or controlled via the Internet through the company. Customers want to be able to trust the company not do business with them. Customers want to be able to positively about what you speak for them. Have the unfortunate problem of all companies, however, is that it is human nature to easily share the bad experiences and not the good ones. That’s crazy, but the nature of the beast.
Create customer, the fans of your company. Create customers who are loyal, no matter how hard the times are. If the economy is bad or when things are south for whatever reason, has become a loyal customer base willing to work with you because, as they have been treated, have in the past, stick, a commodity so precious that it hardly can be expressed. Sports teams to remain in business because of their fans. Sports teams fold, if not support the fans. The companies are exactly the same. Create success for your business by creating an environment and an atmosphere that the fans from your customers perpetuating.
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At the risk of being repetitive, I must again point out here that it is impossible to ‘fans’ of your customers if your representatives are not constant in their Consummate Customer Care Many companies hire people who have a nice personality over everything but sometimes moody and show their ass to whoever happens to cross their path, the days! If you are hiring and put up with “part time” in your Consummate Customer Care program, you can “un-safe” that your “fans” are quick to switch teams!