PINCH ME MOMENTS

Moments that tought me something about business, customers, brands or life

Great Customer Service is a gift, but it isn’t about the present

When my kids were young I had an interesting customer experience. Santa had delivered my son a bike that was a bit too big for him and had hand brakes not a foot brake. After some tinkering I was still having trouble getting the brakes to apply hard enough to stop quickly, and safely, and not just slow the bike down.

I took the bike to the local bike store. As soon as I walked in the owner looked at the bike and recognised it wasn’t one that he had sold (remember Santa made it, and quite cheaply too) and a wall was up before the conversation had started. I stated the problem and the first thing out of his mouth was “Well, cheap bike, cheap brakes, I can’t do any more than you have.” I was stunned. Not even a “Let me take a look at it” or any sense of compassion for the kid that had just walked in with his dad to see if ‘the bike shop man’ could fix his bike. He clearly knew it to be a very ordinary bike and seemed determined to make us feel bad that we had bought a bike “that he would never sell”.

The owner didn’t know that I had been into his store researching for Santa in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The bikes in his store were in the vicinity of 5-6 times the cost of the bike Santa delivered. Clearly Santa was inclined to deliver a cheaper bike that may only last a year or two until my boy outgrew it. The inability of this guy, a local small business owner with a customer in front of him that could be a customer for the next 10 years, to recognise the opportunity in front of him surprised me. But then I thought about it. It wasn’t surprising at all.

Every day I see businesses forget that customer service and customer experience is not about the present transaction, but about the opportunity to turn that into future business. The apathy toward putting in an effort ensure a positive experience is set aside for the immediacy of getting a sale or just simply putting an event on. It’s a challenge the world over and a challenge every area of business.

There are many great customer experiences out there and I think a lot of the apathy comes from businesses thinking they have to spend up big to have the latest services available. They don’t. They just have to walk in the customers shoes for 10 minutes around their venue or store and ask “What do I want at this point?”

It can be a small discount, it can be a pleasant greeting or just a smile, it can be a comfortable chair, it can be a colourfully painted wall, it can be anything. But it has to be something. And you never know what it is that will make the experience great for each individual. That’s why you can’t have one-size-fits-all offers or features. You need to have options.

Customer service isn’t about the customer before you, but the customer they might be in a week, a month or a year. It’s about the future growth of your business.

Consumers can smell spin from miles away and they are armed with information before they get to you than they ever have been before. Assume they know more than you – then show them they don’t.

EEEEK! Customers aren’t to be feared

Retail is daunting right? An industry changing faster than anyone saw coming, staff and cost pressures, needing to be ‘omni-channel’ and engage with customers in so many more places than your shop floor. It can be scary. But it doesn’t need to be. If you can take a step back and evaluate how you create your retail experience then you can take many steps forward pretty quickly and grow your business. There are many levers to pull in the CX machine but here are five every retailer should prioritise – and they don’t cost the earth.

Effective Communication
Clear, timely, and proactive communication eliminates uncertainty, a common source of anxiety for shoppers. In physical stores, as a first step your branding should be consistent across all channels so the customer knows they are in the right spot when they get to your front door. Windows, and homepages, should be uncluttered and tell a story, presenting the message you want the consumer to know then and there. On sale? Tell them. Got a new range in? Tell them. Keeping windows as a catalogue of everything you have in store on the off chance someone walking past may want one of those items doesn’t stimulate action from the consumer. It confuses them. Online, providing clear information about order status, promotions, and policies instils confidence and trust in your brand. Transparency fosters a positive perception and enhances overall satisfaction.

Efficiency and Convenience
This is highly underrated. Having just spent 5 hours in chat with Optus to simply upgrade an nbn plan it is front of mind for me. The ‘updating’ of payment information three times to the same payment information they have on hand for me now was the kicker. But I digress. In-store signage is critical. While this could form part of effective communications, ultimately it makes the shopping experience more efficient and easier. Take a look from your store entrance, or from the homepage of your website and ask yourself. It is easy to find ‘something’ if I am a consumer that doesn’t work in the store every day. You might want to force a consumer to engage with staff but not everyone wants that. Give them the option. Simplifying the purchasing process minimises decision fatigue, a psychological phenomenon where the abundance of choices can overwhelm consumers. You can ensure like products are grouped – by brand or use. Are your products needs or wants based? Need based – merch by use. Wants based – merch by brand. Then you can merch the opposite way at a secondary level. Streamlined transactions in store and online reduce stress, fostering a positive association with the brand. Consumers appreciate the ease of access and the time saved, making them more likely to return.

Engaging Visual Merchandising
Strategic visual merchandising captures attention and influences purchasing decisions. Appealing displays, product arrangements, and creative presentations stimulate interest and trigger impulse buying. Understanding visual psychology, such as colour associations and layout principles, enhances the attractiveness of products. This encourages customers to explore more items, ultimately increasing sales and creating a memorable shopping experience. If they spend their whole time trying to navigate a cluttered store they spend less time looking at products they might purchase. There are so many great store presentations out there, walk around and borrow the best ideas. Doesn’t have to be from your category. Look at the principals in use if the product is not relevant and you’ll take something away.

Empathy
Service that demonstrates empathy creates a strong emotional bond. Putting yourself in the shoes of the mum trying to find shoes for their energetic child that won’t sit still to try anything on, or the nervous customer just wanting to improve their fitness, or the dad trying to help his son with his gaming set up but not knowing where to start (yes, personal experience) can really make a consumer feel understood and significantly ease anxiety. This emotional connection builds trust and loyalty, as consumers appreciate the effort to understand and solve their problems.

Knowledge
A former employer drilled into me that “Product is King”. It is still 100% true. Have your staff really know your product (or service), know your policies, know your competition, know your place in your retail ecosystem – both physical and online – and be honest and straightforward with customers that have taken the time to enter your world. They have given you their attention. Respect that and don’t waste their time. This builds trust and in turn loyalty. All staff won’t know everything so cultivate a culture of curiosity and empower your staff to find the answer if they don’t have the answer. Trying to find the answer for a customer will do nearly as much for their perception of your store – and their experience – than actually having the answer.

I could go on with option after option for enhancing customer experience, but then that would ruin the first letter of each lever spelling out EEEEK now wouldn’t it? However you choose to do it – just start with a review of current practices.

Prioritise your customer not your catalogue, your shoppers not your stock, and you’ll see the results almost immediately.

Grow Their Care Factor to Grow Your Brand Value

As marketing or business leaders we often hear that we need to think about our brand as a person. What would they wear to a party? What music would they listen to? How would they speak? This is critical to undertanding how you can connect with your audience and helps to align brand values with those of your customers.
We need to be deliberate in what we are saying to those we interact with so that we add value to the relationships however brief, embyonic or established they may be. We have to get consumers to care.

Engaging a customer can happen in any number of mediums or channels – in-store, advertising, digital content, published content, events…the list goes on. Whenever you get a chance to engage a customer – i.e. give them information about your business – make sure your content (what you say) does one or more of a few key things;

EDUCATE – ENTERTAIN – INSPIRE – REWARD – HELP

Using this framework will ensure that you add value to customer interactions with what you say and begin the process of having them care about your business. How much a consumer cares about your brand is your brand value and growth in brand value with consumers leads to greater value drived from those customers.
Using this framework will ensure that you add value to customer interactions and begin the process of having them care about your business

As far back as 1895 John Deere was doing content marketing through the main channel at their disposal, print. The Furrow was their own publication and it was full of content that spoke to their core customer – the farmer – and was meaningful and HELPFUL. I am sure there was a product promotion or two in there as well but it was native and relevant. Can you say the same for your content today?

During WWII they did a feature edition that celebrated the ‘No.1 War Worker’. Now you’d think that would be soldiers but they chose to celebrate their consumer as the workers keeping the country going while the soldiers were off fighting the good fight. It REWARDED their consumer with feelings of importance and INSPIRED them. It may well be the world’s oldest form of content marketing and is still in production today. It (John Deere’s The Furrow) may well be the world’s oldest form of content marketing and is still in production today.

In 2006, the Socceroos, Australia’s Men’s Football team, was headed to the World Cup for the first time in 32 years. A Nike sponsored team they were footballing outsiders, ridiculed by European and Sth American countries. Nike’s positioning for that year was Joga Bonito or Play Beautiful. The Socceroos did not play beautiful, their style was more physical and ‘workmanlike’. The positioning of thier kit sponsor did not work for the team and the brand of Australian football.

So Nike Australia flipped the script. The team was up against history, not just other teams, so like a good Aussie team they said Stuff History! A series of commercials, as part of an integrated campaign where an anthropomorphised History taunts the Socceroos, were embraced by football and sports fans, and the general public. The campaign ENTERTAINED and INSPIRED by embracing the Aussie underdog spirit.

Nike Australia flipped the script. The Socceroos were up against history, not just other teams, so like a good Aussie team they said Stuff History!

One of the most satisfying campaigns I have ever worked on was at GRV when we tried to significantly lift the number of greyhounds bing adopted post-racing. The athletes that put on the show for punters were also beautiful pets but there were many misconceptions about them.

Our research told us that the public thought greys needed acres to run around in. They reality is they just need a walk like other dogs and they will sleep for 20 hrs a day, they are fast twitch athletes, not endurance athletes.

The public thought they need lots of space and big houses. The reality is people had adopted greys into all sorts of household situations – apartments, families with kids, elderly retirees, singles, couples the list goes on.

We engaged phtographer Josh Robenstone to capture greys in all these situations. We exhibited the work in a gallery installation in Melbourne’s CBD and amplified it through PR and digital marketing to tell their story – because Every Greyhound Has a Story. The goal of the engagement with this campaign was to EDUCATE the public about the traits of greyhounds, the variety of households they suite and HELP potential adoptees find their grey. I am prorud to say that over the course of the year this campaign ran we doubled adoptions.

They reality is they (greyhounds) just need a walk like other dogs and they will sleep for 20 hrs a day, they are fast twitch athletes, not endurance athletes.
It doesn’t matter where you are engaging your customer, what you say must EDUCATE, ENTERTAIN, INSPIRE, REWARD or HELP them in order to be meaningful and add value to their interaction with you. It can be as simple as ensuring your staff greeting in a store does one of these things, through to a full blown integrated campaign.

No meaning = no catre factor = no brand. It’s as simple as that.

PINCH ME MOMENTS

Great Customer Service is a gift, but it isn’t about the present

EEEEK! Customers aren’t to be feared

Grow Their Care Factor to Grow Your Brand Value

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PINCH ME MOMENTS