The Business World's Biggest Wasted Opportunity
There are hundreds of thousands of retail stores in the world. Today, millions of customers will walk into those stores and interact with owners or employees. Within hours, most of those interactions will have been forgotten by those millions of customers. Why? Because most of the retail interactions that occur today will be flat, uninspired, perfunctory, and transactional. Most interactions won't create sales, and an even greater number will not build a relationship between the store and the customer.
This represents millions of missed opportunities. Imagine if thousands of these retail interactions could be improved, so they are not flat, but instead, interesting, enthusiastic, engaging, and memorable. Would more sales be created for today? Would more relationships be created for tomorrow?
I happened to meet an interesting retail salesperson a few days ago. His name is Jacob Lahr, and he is a manager at the CUSP store for women at Water Tower Place in Chicago. "Even when the store is filled with tourists, who we may never see again, it's possible to clientele," Jacob explained.
"To what?" I asked. "Did you say 'to clientele'?" "Sure," Jacob continued. "It's always possible to clientele. It depends on how you relate to your customers."
Well, that's certainly my favorite new verb of the week. I asked Jacob if he coined the phrase "to clientele," and he couldn't remember if he did or if he had heard it when learning to work in retail. I googled "to clientele" and only found it listed as a noun, so I'm willing to give neologism credit to Jacob. Here's how I'll define it: "To clientele is to create a relationship-building encounter with your customer, so that the customer's relationship with the store is better when she leaves than it was when she came in." Notice that the definition doesn't say anything about making a purchase.
Jacob doesn't want to waste retail interactions. He knows how valuable they are. Not to clientele is to let a precious opportunity slip through your fingers.
So, when you enter stores this week, see if the person who interacts with you is doing a good job "clienteling," or is he/she just going through the basics of serving you. If you work in retail, how often are you able to clientele?
Just imagine how much loyalty stores could create if they were better at clienteling? Too bad most aren't very good at it. Yes, the retail encounter may be the business world's biggest untapped, wasted opportunity.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 10/13/09.
50 Million First Dates
You have shopped at a local clothing store for twenty years, visiting the store about five times each year. Today, you walk in the store again—it's your 101st visit. A sales clerk approaches you and asks, "May I help you?"
In the 2004 movie, 50 First Dates, Henry (Adam Sandler) and Lucy (Drew Barrymore) meet, have a great first date, and plan to see each other again. But the next day Lucy acts like she doesn't know Henry. Lucy has a short-term memory loss problem, so each day is a new "first date," in which Henry has to attempt to rekindle the relationship.
Most people think of 50 First Dates as a romantic comedy. Not me. I think it is a business movie.
Isn't this what it is like to do business with most companies?
You can be a long-time customer of retail stores, restaurants, dental offices, and all other sorts of businesses, and still be greeted as a stranger each time you walk in.
We live in a "land of plenty," where it is increasingly difficult to differentiate your company solely on products and services. Want a customer to think you are different? Help her focus on her relationship with you, not just on your products, and she'll think you are unique in a meaningful way. Relationships are the best differentiators available in our crowded, competitive marketplace.
A relationship is like an ongoing conversation with a friend; each time you talk, you are able to pick up where you last left off, enabling each conversation to be a relationship-building encounter. If you have to reintroduce yourselves each time you meet, like Henry and Lucy, your relationship will go nowhere.
How many businesses focus on creating an ongoing conversation with you, as their customer? How many times, as a customer, do you feel like you're in 50 First Dates?
How well does your company create ongoing conversations with customers? Does your organization suffer from Lucy's memory problems? Do you go on thousands—or millions—of first dates every year?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 10/06/09.
In Your Next Sales Call, Don't Go for the Close
Most successful sales conversations don't end by closing the sale.
This may not be true for you if you're a timeshare salesman, a clerk in a retail store, or an airline reservations agent. But for most everyone else it is true.
Examples:
- You are an independent graphic designer and you meet someone at a party ... the sales conversation is successful if the future customer enthusiastically remembers the conversation, and goes to your website to check it out when he returns home after the party.
- You sell large software projects and you have finally been invited to meet the CEO of a company you are trying to sell ... the sales conversation is successful if the CEO tells his team he really likes you and your offerings, and tells them to move forward with you.
- You are a CPA, and you have breakfast with a long-term client ... the sales conversation is successful if the client shares his fears about his own business, and gives you the name of a friend desperately in need of your services.
The common thread in each of these examples is that your relationship with the customer was better at the end of the sales conversation than it was at the beginning. Successful selling is usually not about going for the close. It's about advancing your relationship.
Try it today ... don't go for the close!
[Read more by Cool Friend Steve Yastrow at his website.]
Steve Yastrow posted this on 08/25/09.
Be Irreplaceable
In your next interaction with a customer, try this: Be irreplaceable.
If you wait tables, make sure that the customer's experience depends on you, and who you are, and would have been different with another server who served the same meals.
If you are a technology consultant, make sure that your client's experience would be totally different if another consultant were delivering the same advice.
If you are a doctor, make sure that your patient's experience is made special by who you are, and would be different if another doctor delivered the same diagnosis.
Relationship-building encounters don't happen between "waiter and customer," "consultant and client," or "doctor and patient." They happen between human beings. It is, of course, critically important to treat your customer like a full person, and honor what makes her unique. But that is only half the equation. Make sure that you represent yourself in the encounter, not as a representative of your job role, but as you. Interact with your customer in a way that could only be done by you, a way in which another person could not substitute for you without making the experience different.
Early in my days as a consultant I had a breakthrough moment. I realized that I didn't want my clients to think of me as "our marketing consultant, Steve," but as "Steve, our marketing consultant." This is not a subtle distinction. It's the difference between being replaceable, and irreplaceable.
In one sense, being irreplaceable isn't easy. But in another sense it is, because there's no one else on earth like you. Be you. Be irreplaceable.
Stop
Telling Stories
What
does it feel like to be engaged in genuine dialogue?
I
have asked this question in many workshops and speeches lately.
Audience members have given very rich answers. "It's like a
flow." "It's learning from each other." "What
I say depends on what the other person says."
In his 1930 essay, "Dialogue," Martin Buber distinguished
between genuine dialogue and "monologue disguised as dialogue,"
which he as "characterized ... solely by the desire to have
one's own self-reliance confirmed by marking the impression that
is made."Monologue attempts to confirm, through pronouncement,
what the speaker already knows and believes. Like a radio, it speaks
but does not listen.
A
true conversation, however, does not confirm. It explores. When
two people open themselves up to genuine dialogue they do not presuppose
the outcome of their conversation. It is as if they fly together
into new, exciting, uncharted territory.
Dialogue
is not only key to all human relationships, it is at the essence
of successful marketing and sales. Advertising, elevator pitches,
sales pitches, press releases, billboards, and brochures are, at
times, necessary, but we have to recognize them for what they are:
Monologues that make for very imperfect ways to connect with customers.
If it is possible to be in dialogue with a customer, it's always
preferable to speak with them than to talk at them.
Marketing and sales are not about telling stories. They are about
engaging customers in shared stories. The biggest changes in marketing
and sales are not about the Internet, expanded database capabilities,
or Tivo. Yes, those things count (a lot), but only in the way they
help us deal with the biggest change of all. Today's customers do
not want to be told what to think. They are much more likely to
become interested in doing business with you if you are able to
engage them in dialogues that help you both learn how you can work
together.
Stop
telling stories. Start co-creating stories with your customers.
Please
visit my website, also, to share ideas on other topics, at www.yastrow.com.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 07/28/08
FDR:
Master of Marketing Technology
I
just finished a wonderful book, The Defining Moment, by Jonathan
Alter. The book focuses on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first 100
days in office, during which FDR successfully lifted the hopes of
the American people from the depths of Great Depression-induced
depression.
There
are many facets to the story of FDR's first 100 days, but the one
I want to focus on here is FDR's interest in creating an intimate
conversation with the American people. Alter tells the story of
Roosevelt sitting in the Oval Office writing his radio address,
his first "Fireside Chat," less than a week after his
1933 inauguration. He looked out his window and saw a worker taking
down the inauguration platform, and said to himself, "I want
to give a speech that worker will understand." Then, while
on the air, he imagined he was speaking one-on-one with this person.
Often, just before giving a radio address, FDR would visualize a
construction worker, an office worker, or a girl working in a store.
The White House received thousands of letters from people who said
they felt like the president was speaking directly to them as they
sat by their radios.
For
centuries, before the invention of microphones and public address
systems, orators had to speak very loudly to reach large audiences.
This stentorian style carried over into the early days of radio,
with announcers using their booming voices in the only way they
knew how. FDR was among the first to recognize the opportunity for
intimacy that the new technology afforded, and he used this opportunity
masterfully.
I
believe that there are two kinds of technological innovations (which
I describe in Chapter 1 of We): those that put barriers between
you and your customers ("please enter your 16-digit credit
card number") and those that bring you closer to your customers
(the Apple Genius Bar reservation system). FDR taught us an important
lesson. Instead of looking at the new tool of radio as a way to
talk to 60 million people at one time, he looked at it as a chance
to talk to one person, 60 million at a time.
[Read more by Steve Yastrow at yastrow.com.—CM]
Steve Yastrow posted this on 07/14/08.
Getting
Clear on We
My
post "The Downturn Is a Rounding Error" and Tom's subsequent
post on this topic generated some great discussion on the concept
of forming long-term relationships with customers—what I call
We relationships.
Here's how I define a We relationship: When your customer never
thinks of you without thinking of both of you. A customer can think
that your company is wonderful, as in "They do a great job."
But, when your customer can't think of you without thinking of her
relationship with you at the same time, then you've achieved a higher
level of connectedness.
Example:
There are 8 diners near my house that I can choose for a breakfast
meeting. They're all pretty good. But I can’t think of one
of them, Rhapsody Café, without simultaneously thinking of
my connection to this restaurant, and my relationship with Ramon
Abarca, the owner. Early on, after I first started visiting Rhapsody
with clients and associates for breakfast meetings, Ramon began
to acknowledge me and offer to find me quiet tables for my business
conversations. He showed interest in me, and, over time, we had
conversations and got to know each other. These short conversations
were relationship-building encounters, and, as I heard his stories,
I became interested in his success. Now, it's impossible for me
to think of Rhapsody Café on its own, without, at the same
time, thinking of my good times there and how Ramon and his team
have made me feel comfortable. That’s a We relationship, and
Rhapsody Café gets a disproportionate share of my business.
Consider
that your customer thinks about your product only a small portion
of the time. But she thinks of herself all day long. When she can't
think of you without thinking of both of you, you have connected
yourself to what she really cares about: herself.
How
often do you experience this kind of We relationship?
[See Steve's book on this subject.—CM]
Steve Yastrow posted this on 07/09/08.
The
Downturn Is a Rounding Error
The
U.S. economy is in bad shape. If, by chance, you haven't heard about
this yet, just turn on cable TV news for 30 seconds.
What
does this mean to your business? It could be terrible, but it doesn't
have to be.
How
can I say that?
For
the last few months, I have been asking workshop audiences the following
questions:
1. What percent of your customers are giving you all the business
they reasonably could?
2. What percent of your referral sources are giving you all the
referrals they reasonably could?
The
answers to these questions have stunned me, because they have been
so low. I knew they would be quite a bit lower than 100%, but I've
found that most executives estimate that only somewhere between
0 and 25% of customers are giving them all the business they could.
The numbers are even lower for referral sources.
So, let's say that the economic downturn has softened the market
for your products or services by 10—20%. Yes, that's a lot.
But it pales in comparison to the 75% of the business you are missing
if your current customers are only giving you 25% of their potential
business.
Here's
the cold, hard (but potential-laden) truth: For most companies,
the untapped latent profit in their existing customer relationships
is much greater than the magnitude of our current economic problems.
The downturn is real. But so is the amount of business you are missing
from your current customer relationships. How do you develop this
potential with your existing customers?
Customers
who believe they are in "We" relationships with you will
give you a larger share of their business. They are willing to pay
more, and they are less likely to leave you for a competitor. On
the other hand, customers who are in "Us & Them" relationships
with you are more likely to spread the business around among your
competitors, and will also be more likely to bolt to the competition
for a lower price. If you create "We" relationships with
your customers, one relationship-building encounter at a time, you
will go a long way towards making up for—and maybe even surpassing—the
effects of the soft economy.
Steve Yastrow posted this on 06/25/08.
Annual
Opportunity
I
happened to hang out with a lot of financial advisors this week.
At two different times I found myself in conversations where advisors
were talking about their strategies for conducting annual review/planning
meetings with clients whose investments they manage. I was struck
by the contrast:
1.
The first firm was genuinely interested in using the annual review/planning
meeting as a chance to build their relationship with their client.
We discussed how to make the meeting a relationship-building encounter,
as opposed to a rote, obligatory, perfunctory process.
2.
The second firm described their standard process for an annual meeting,
in which an annual plan update is produced in such a way that the
advisor can easily sell additional products to their client at the
meeting.
All else being equal, which strategy, do you think, is more likely
to generate the most revenue over time?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 01/28/08.
Transaction
vs. Relationship
I've
been a Hilton customer and a Hilton Honors member for years. You
wouldn't have known it when I checked into Chicago's Palmer House
Hilton last week.
As
I left home in the north suburbs for day one of a two-day conference,
I threw a change of clothes into the car. A late-afternoon snowstorm
was forecast, and I wanted the option to opt out of a hellish commute
home. At about 4:30 p.m., I exercised that option and booked the
Palmer House on Hotwire.com for $93. That's a really low price for
a great hotel. Unfortunately, they felt the need to remind me what
a low price I paid.At check-in, I asked if my Hilton Honors number
was in my reservation record. The front desk agent said that I wasn't
eligible for Hilton Honors points. "If you book on Hotwire
or Priceline, you don't get points."
Hey,
I know the price is low. But that's not my fault. That's the Palmer
House's problem. In fact, it's not really their fault, it's their
fortune. I wish I had such an efficient business faucet when I was
in the hotel business—when I put up the first hotel company
website in 1994 for Hyatt Resorts, selling rooms and managing inventory
online seemed, literally, like 2001: A Space Odyssey.
If
a company wants to sell distressed inventory at a low price to a
long-time customer, I highly recommend that their frame of reference
is the relationship with the customer, not the price of the immediate
transaction. The Palmer House has to pay into a redemption liability
fund for each Hilton Honors reservation, but, I believe, it is a
percentage of the rate they receive, not an absolute number. (I'll
try to verify that—if anyone knows for sure, please comment.)
It's this simple: If they want my business at times when the market
rate for a room is $250, they should really recognize that it's
still the same "me" when I buy a room at the market rate
of $93.
(And,
notice that the front desk agent didn't say, "Mr. Yastrow,
since you booked on Hotwire this time, we can't give you points."
She said, "If you book on Hotwire or Priceline," which
translates, "If you're one of those people who book cheap."
Don't call your long-term customers "one of those people.")
Steve Yastrow posted this on 12/18/07.
What
Is a Customer Relationship? (Part Two)
Recently
we have had some very good discussion about customer relationships—thank
you for the comments. Last Friday I offered part one of a two-part
defintion of a customer relationship:
A
relationship is an ongoing conversation with a customer ...
Here's
the rest of the suggested definition:
A
relationship is an ongoing conversation with a customer, in which
the customer never thinks of you without thinking of the two of
you.
Comments?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 11/06/07.
What
is a customer relationship?
We've
had a great conversation here over the last few days about customer
relationships.
What
is a customer relationship? I will suggest a two-part definition,
but I would like to offer it one part at a time. Here's the first
part:
A
customer relationship is an ongoing conversation with your customer
...
Comments?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 11/02/07.
Relationships:
A Competitive Advantage
I
was eating lunch with an executive of a hotel company, in a restaurant
located at one of his company's hotels. He was talking about competitive
threats, describing how companies in his category are constantly
copying each other's innovations. I said, "If I were your competitor,
I could walk into this hotel and easily copy your physical product.
I could study your service standards, and copy them too. What I
could not copy are the personal relationships you have with your
customers. Those relationships would be impenetrable to me."
In
an age of interchangeable products and easily duplicated services,
customer relationships have become one of the most powerful competitive
advantages available to a business. Do you agree?What about your
business? Can your competitors copy your products and services?
What about your private relationships with customers? Are those
more difficult to duplicate?
We
all want our customers to believe "I can't get it anywhere
else" when they think of us. Relationships between you and
a customer are often the best opportunity to create something unique
and irreplaceable in your customer's mind.
Put
your "customer hat" on. Aren't you the most enthralled
with a business—or most upset—when the relationships
you have with that business is either really good, or really bad?
Do
you agree—are strong customer relationships one of the best
ways to keep the competition away from your customers?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 10/30/07.
Hi,
My Name Is ...
Here
is a postulate:
In a retail service business (store, hotel, restaurant, hair salon,
etc.) it is always "better" when the customer learns the
service employee's first name, either from a personal introduction
or a name tag.
Is
this true? Always?
If
so, what can "better" mean?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 05/17/07.
Monologue
disguised as ...
The
great philosopher Martin Buber described three types of dialogue:
1. Genuine dialogue
2. Technical dialogue (explanations of things)
3. Monologue disguised as dialogue
I
loved that description of "monologue disguised as dialogue,"
where conversation is only a pretense for making one's self heard.
Buber
writes that monologue disguised as dialogue is where "two or
more men, meeting in space, speak each with himself in strangely
tortuous and circuitous ways." In other words, they are really
only talking to themselves, and not with each other.
Bad
sales pitches, bosses who pretend to listen but only talk, most
marketing copy writing ... all of this can be called monologue disguised
as dialogue. Have you spotted any of this lately?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 09/15/06.
Down
with scripting
I
see a trend going in the right direction ...
In
companies where front-line employees have direct customer contact,
it's common for there to be a "12-step process" or "19-point
customer service checklist" that tells employees what they
have to do when they meet a customer. Often, these companies hire
people to pose as customers and rate employee compliance on these
steps. I heard a story of a hotel front desk clerk who received
an apology at check-out from one of these hired "blind"
shoppers who said, "You were one of the best people I've seen
in this company, but I'm going to have to give you a bad grade because
you skipped a lot of steps."
Ugh.
Not surprisingly, when I work with front-line employees at companies
like this they tell me how silly the scripted processes are. One
company I worked with had a 38-step process. Luckily, none of the
employees I interviewed knew what the 38 steps were.
The
good news ... I'm starting to see companies realize the folly of
this rigid employee scripting. Recent comment from the operations
V.P. of a client company: "We don't need a 16-step process.
We need one step: Connect with the customer."
Is
this a trend that is really happening? If so, is it all good, or
am I missing something?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 09/06/06.
Relationships
What
are the characteristics of a great customer relationship?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 04/07/06.
"We"
A
few months back, I asked this question on a post:
When
thinking about themselves and you, how many of your customers think
"We," and how many think "Us" and "Them?"
The
readers of tompeters.com had some great comments and insights about
this concept. I've spent a lot of time since then thinking about
the idea of a "We" relationship. I've had hundreds of
conversations with people, integrated the idea of "We"
into my client work, and I'm deep into the first draft of a new
book on the subject.
What do you think? What are the features of a "We" relationship?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 11/17/05.
Don't
Throw A Wild Pitch
Follow-up
to our baseball blog the other day ...
A
radio interviewer asked me yesterday what I thought major league
baseball would do to address its image problem. I told him what
I think they would do and what I think they should do.
Baseball
has a big marketing/branding problem, and I won't be surprised if
they address this marketing problem with traditional marketing solutions,
i.e., try to advertise their way out of this mess.That would be
the dumbest thing they should do. According to an article in the
Stanford Humanities Review, 1 out of 25 Americans will attend a
major league baseball game this year, with many of those people
attending multiple games. Many more millions will watch games on
TV.
Instead
of trying to buy their way out of the problem with ads, MLB should
focus on creating the most amazing during—the—game experiences
they can for these millions of fans. Think "what would make
a 10 year old talk about this game for the rest of his life?"
and then do it! Then, ask the same question about 20, 30, 40, 50,
60, 70 and 80 year olds—and deliver on those dreams also!
Humanize the players—make them accessible, having every one
give at least 10 autographs per game. Put magic back into the experience
of a live major league baseball game.
Promises
can't fix their problems. The best thing to do counterbalance the
idea of heroes who cheat is to create WOW! memories through real
live, genuine WOW! experiences. Great brands are built with great
brand harmony, and baseball should take advantage of the millions
of fans who will be spending afternoons and evenings at ballparks
this year, creating incredible experiences of brand harmony that
create incredible memories—diluting the effects of the steroid
crisis. But will they?
Steve Yastrow posted this on 03/25/05.
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