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With an
over saturation of purchase options, coupled with the fact that consumers
today are more sophisticated and educated than they were a few years ago, it
is absolutely imperative that companies are connected at their customer’s
hip in terms of understanding their wants, needs and expectations.
Consumers
continue to demand much more, are more impulsive and less patient than in
the past, and are much more sensitive to disparities in service. This, among
other factors explains why the rate of customer defection is increasing.
A study by
MOHR Learning, a New Jersey based consulting firm, found that 20% of
customers will immediately walk out of a store when confronted by bad
service and 26% will warn their friends and family members not to shop
there.
Obtaining Customer Insight
To succeed
today you must become both customer-focused and customer-centered. Market
leaders possess foresight and vision that begins with the customer. If
you’re to achieve your business goals both now and into the future, you must
be able to clearly see and anticipate significant trends and shifts in
customer behavior, and extract meaning for future business practice. If you
haven’t done so at this point, then you must begin the journey in obtaining
superior knowledge on your customer’s needs, wants, and expectations.
You want
to determine the type of shopping experience your customer’s desire. And the
type of shopping experiences will vary in direct proportion to the different
types of customers you have. The role of your frontline employees in
identifying your customers and effectively interacting with them has become
more critical.
Why spend
a boat-load of money on some consulting or market research firm to come into
your business to communicate with your customers about what they want and
don’t want, when you have already made that same type of investment via the
labor line on your P&L: employees!
Companies
today need to generate a better return on their employee investment than
simply just having them show up for work. Employees who are at work
physically, and simply going through the motions without turning on the
greatest computer known to man: the human brain, will prevent you from
taking your business to the next level. After all, the majority of customer
contact today is done by someone other than the owner or company management;
it’s your frontline employees:
Frontline Customer Research
Here a few
low-cost approaches to get into your customers heads by better utilizing
your frontline employees:
1. Talk To
Customers:
No, I’m
not trying to be funny, but let me ask you: of all the places you go to
spend your money as a customer, how often do employees actually take the
time to speak to you in a meaningful way? And “Thank you have a nice day”
doesn’t qualify. Simple conversation with your customers delivers two
powerful outcomes that will benefit your business:
- improve
customer service, and
- reveal
customer insight/data that you can act upon to profitably grow your
business.
2. Monthly
Surveys:
If your
company operates retail stores, a quick, easy, and painless 5-question
survey that your customers can complete. Each month select a different
customer buying experience aspect to evaluate:
·
customer
service
·
product
selection
·
store
design
·
appearance and retailing, etc. Keep in mind the customer WIIFM: What’s In It
For Me. A complimentary low-cost item like a cup of coffee can do the trick.
Now you
might be saying to yourself, this is it: talk and monthly surveys? Not very
elaborate is it? Of course not, why do you think consultants and market
research firms charge so much? When it comes to the frontline, simple wins
every time. Besides, you’ve already made the investment!
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For a free report: “Motivating
Non-Performers: 20 Do’s & Don’ts of Employee Motivation” go to:
www.eps-i.com
Terry McKenna is an
internationally acclaimed author, speaker and consultant to Fortune 500
companies as well as smaller regional chains. Principal and co-founder
of Employee Performance Strategies, Inc. (EPS),
http://www.eps-i.com Terry
helps companies become the customers’ brand of choice by becoming the
employer of choice. Terry is a well-known and respected author on a wide
variety of business topics. Terry was featured in The Wall Street
Journal for his expertise in brand differentiation, as well as the
Harvard Business School corporate training video: “Benchmarking Outside
The Box", for his leadership role in the development and implementation
of a national customer service strategy with ExxonMobil Corporation. To
learn more about Terry and EPS visit
http://www.eps-i.com |
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