What is more important than the customer

Two events this week that I want to use as our coaching time.

The first occurred in a convenience store. I stopped in to get a bottle of water and a energy bar. Obviously, there was a problem at the store with a supply shipment that had just been delivered.

As I was paying for my items, the only words that were said to me was the price of the item. The rest of the time, the clerk was talking over her shoulder to other employees trying to get the problem fixed.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea of these blogs. I didn't leave there thinking, don't they know who I am? I left there thinking, I wonder how many times we allow our problems to get in the way of serving our customers.

I am not talking about the customer is always right. In fact, I don't subscribe to that theory. What I am talking about is sometimes we get so busy with doing what we are supposed to be doing, we forget that it always comes down to the customers. Some questions to think about:

1. When customers enter your store, are they greeted? I don't mean people muttering welcome "x mart". I mean someone who looks them in the eye, thanks them for coming in and sees if they need help?

2. When customers need help, do you tell them or show them. I love to ask someone where something is located and have them say, I will be happy to show and then they take you there. Sure beats the answer, it should be about half way down Aisle 237 on the top shelf.

3. Do you have a ten feet rule? If you come within ten feet of a customer, do you greet them?

The other occurance happened in a big store. A big store with big overhead and big advertising budgets. The store was busy and I was shopping for some boots. In fact, I was trying on boots. (hello, buying sign) The store associate walked by me three times and did not say a word.

To his defense, he was waiting on a customer. I did not expect him to leave that customer. All I wanted was, Sir, I will be with you in just a few minutes or I have help coming. Anything would have been great. Instead, he walked by the third time, look me in the eye and gave no greeting, I put my old boots back on and walked out.

In this economy, in any economy, we have to take care of the customers. And with today's customer service, it is not that hard to raise above the pack. You have to do the following:

1. From the first interview to your employees final day, you have to make sure that they know that without customers, there is no need for employees. This has to come from the top.

2. Train it, live it, coach it. Customer service has to be a priority and the employee has to have freedom to provide that customer service.

3. Coach up when you see bad customer service, praise when you see great customer service.

If it is in your culture you will win.

People Remember

Here is the scene, a customer talking to convenience store employees near Kansas City.

Customer: Is this store under new ownership?
Employee: No, why?
Customer: You girls are so nice, and I was in here a couple of years ago, everyone was hateful -- if I wasn't so low on gas, I wouldn't have ever come back.
Employee: (Looking at each other) We have been here for the past 10 years.


So, Willoughby what is your point?

The customer had not been in the store for two years and remembers how she was treated. It is vitally important that we train and explain to our team how to take care of the customer, because they do remember. Here are some tips.


1. Truly explain to the entire team how important each customer is to the bottom line and their paychecks.

2. Ask your best customer service people to help the rest of the team. It is much easier for me to write about great customer service than it is to give it.

3. Reward great customer service -- use them as examples and make sure they know how much they are appreciated.

4. Be specific with your team what you expect. Great customer service means one thing to one person and a totally different thing to someone else.

Now, go take care of the customer

If all else fails, tell the truth

There is no more effective way of dealing with customers than telling the truth and backing it up. The best recent example is Toyota.

They have gotten a lot of publicity in the past few weeks and none of it has been good. Their TV ad to handle that negative publicity was excellent. If you have not seen it, they basically say three things:

A. We have missed the mark. We are not living up to the quality that you have come to expect from Toyota.

B. Everyone from management to the front line workers have stopped production and we are working on getting this problem fixed.

C. We will hit the mark and you will be able to trust us.

No excuses, no clever ad trying to divert your attention, just the truth. It worked for me, I salute Toyota. The elephant in the room never goes away until you talk about it. You can try to divert attention, you can say that it is not there, you can be silent, but the elephant is still there.

People love a great story, tell yours in your advertising. Make sure it is true, make sure it is something you can back up when they visit your store, but tell your story and tell the truth. It works.

The CustomerCorner, Volume 6

How would you defeat you?

Here is a great exercise to improve your customer service.

Spend some time with your team and put yourself in your competitors shoes. Act as if you were a new competitor coming to town and they wanted to blow your customer service away. What would they do?

It may take some time to get your team going on this, but once they do, let them go. Don't argue with what they are saying, just write it down, preferrably on sheets of paper that you can hang up around the room.

Once everything is written down, let everybody vote on the top five threats. Once you get it down to five, put your hats back on and figure out ways to combat that threat before it arrives.

Congratulations, your customer service just got a lot better.