Rather than repeat what Seth said in “Winning on the Uphills” post, I just wanted to share this with you and add my 2 cents.  The key in this to me is hat we all have the “moments of truth” many call them where things are in a shambles and look like there is no light at the end of the tunnel (except the oncoming train) and we don’t know what to do.  The key here is to “rally the resources” and demonstrate what you are really made of – delivering a great customer experience.

It reminds me of my days back at IBM when something would go wrong with a system or an installation (I was in sales and sold their big iron to big companies).  They didn’t sit around and blame or point fingers or try to convince the customer it was their problem, NO, they put “people in planes” and flew them in to solve the problem.  The customers LOVED it and we earned more LOYALTY that day than all the other days where we just kept them happy.

Morale of the story – use the worst of times and the crisis to demonstrate what it is your customer wants – focus on their issue and resolving it in the heat of battle.  And you don’t have to do this very many times – only once in a while and you earn a lot of Loyalty Points in their eyes.  So “man up” and show them what you’ve got…

Customers are EXACTLY THE SAME!  How many times have you woken up and found out a customer has “defected” and left for the competition.  You rally the troops, do an analysis of what happened and why and then go back to the way you were doing business with the rest of the customers until it happens again, and again, and again.  Why not stop this in its tracks.

I was talking to a prospective client the other day after he was lamenting about how hard it was in these difficult times to keep a customer.  My question to him was, “what are you doing today that was any different from a year ago?”  His answer, we do the same things today we did then and now they are leaving because of price and other issues (so they say).  I said, EXACTLY.  Changing the game, getting closer to your customer, understanding their needs on a “real-time basis” is critical to staying in front of the competition.

I encouraged him to have us do some interviews of his customers and let their “voice” be heard.  Half the battle is won when you reach out and just tell your customer you are interested in their opinions as you make changes or modifications or enhancements.  Who out there doesn’t want to be part of something new and exciting and improved – no one!  So don’t just assume that your customers are happy, put together some great questions, go ask and then report back what you learned.  You will be amazed what you will learn and your customers will start to understand that you really do care about them in ways other then them spending more money with you.  GIve it a shot – what do you have to lose – another customer???

Blaine

OK, sometimes this might be true and out of your control.  But from my experience and what I have seen for many years, and even more so these days, these aren’t the real reasons at all – it is the lack of a consistent and desirable customer experience.  The lack of a consistent and “customer-focused” customer experience is the primary reason customers leave companies and go to the competition.

Remember, everyone basically hates change.  We drive the same way to work, we get dressed the same way in the mornings, we do a lot of activities because they are consistent and we feel comfortable with them – the same way your customer feels (or should feel) about you.  Because of this phenomenon of human behavior, the key is to understand first hand the experience your customer wants (ask them) and then design the way you operate to consistently deliver these experiences.  If you do, amazing things will happen – they will actually stay with you even though the competition lowers their price.

Learn about your customer – in depth.  Ask the “right” questions to get the “right” answers that they really want you to know to serve them.  Forget the survey process (topic of another blog) and build (or hire) a process to get the “good stuff” from them – this will give you a much stronger advantage and lead over your competition – more than cutting price by a few bucks.

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

twitter: @BlaineMillet

Why was I there?  They were interested, like many other CEO’s in the area, in learning more about the Social Media Revolution and how his new phenomena of communications could impact their businesses.  They were eager to hear my message about what the “tools of Social Media” are and how they fit together to become this powerful business communications force.

I shared the concepts and advantages of blogging, social networking (myspace, facebook, LinkedIn, and twitter) and the other elements that make up this powerful suite we call Social Media.  By sharing a number of examples about how companies are using these today, they were able to understand how Social Media will be changing the landscape of how we communicate, build relationships, improve the customer experience and achieve business goals faster and cheaper than ever before.  The group responded very favorably and asked some excellent questions.

The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, led by Betty Nokes, CEO and President, is really looking ahead to how they can personally use Social Media to build even more value for their members and the businesses in the Bellevue community.  I commend Betty for her willingness to allow us to share a somtimes shocking message about how dramatically this landscape is changing.  I also want to personally thank Jim Frank of Human Capital Resources, a human capital solutions company, for introducing me to Betty and the Chamber.  Jim attended one of our early seminars and became “enlightened” and felt this was an important message to share with his fellow EBRT members – thanks Jim, the members are all a little better off today because of your willingness to share our message.

I also wanted to recognize a few of the members of EBRT that I had the opportunity to talk with at the event.  Donna Shirey of Shirey Contracting, sponsors of the Zero Energy Idea House  (check this out – way cool), Nancy Cho, President and CEO of Oki Golf, Dave Ferguson, CEO of Click Engineering, Jim Hebert, Hebert Research, John Parkey, and George Bartell of Bartell Drugs - just to name a few.  What a great group of people.  I would encourage anyone to join the Chamber and in particular the EBRT group.  Definitely call Betty if you are interested.  This group will definitely make things happen in our area…

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

twitter: @BlaineMillet

This is an executive networking group that has been around for 90 years and has a very rich history and heritage for helping the members build new relationships in the community and help each other out in growing their businesses by sharing opportunities.  The executive Director, Glenna Thomas, was really looking out for her members by allowing us to come in and talk about a very leading edge and yet at times controversial topic – Social Media and Social Networking.  My hat goes off to her and Dennis Tyler of DialPro Northwest, for taking the chance on having us speak to their members and introduce some leading edge information. 

The group seemed to really enjoy being exposed to how Social Media is the next REVOLUTION in communications and how it can be used to help them in their businesses.  This was our 7th seminar on the topic of “Social Media for CEO’s” in the past few months and as usual, much of the information was very new to the audience.  I was very encouraged at how receptive the owners and executives were to how this could transform their businesses.

If you are in the Seattle area, I would strongly encourage you to contact Glenna and get more information about the group.  While we didn’t get a chance to meet everyone, we did meet a few great people afterwards, some of which were: Peter Frix of Frix Technology Group, John Kane from Kane Environmental Inc., Jim Conway from The Farwest Group, Diana Ehli, Dexter Barnes from Seattle Dental Associates and Linda Bianchi from both Windemere and the Vashon Island Chamber of Commerce - just to name a few. 

Again, THANK YOU Glenna, Dennis and The Seattle Executives Association for allowing us to crash your luncheon – much appreciated and very enjoyable.

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

twitter: @BlaineMillet

The key message from their study, “Giving Customer Voice more Volume,” was summarized perfectly, “Customer experience is one of the most critical determinants of brand strength and business growth. Yet most organizations and senior marketers suffer from major blind spots and gaps in the way they interact, handle and respond to customer issues or problems,” says council executive director Donovan Neale-May.

The truth be told, it is far easier than companies believe it is to actually understand the customer experience their customers want.  At least 8 out of 10 companies I talk with make this process far more complicated than it should be.  And as such, either delay the process or make it so difficult that their customers choose not to participate or contribute since they know it won’t do any good.  Are you one of those organizations?  If so, my free advice is STOP making it so complicated and your customers will reward you for your simplicity.  Hope this helps.

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

In this article, Tom said, “If you can’t get people to pay for what they love, we’re all out of business.” WOW – this was a great statement not just for Newsweek magazine but for the world of business.  Think about it.  If you don’t create a customer experience where your customer doesn’t “love dealing with you” how long, in this competitive climate called a recession are you going to last?  This is something i have espoused for years and years that is you don’t have a customer experience that customers love and they don’t absolutely love dealing with you, Trust and Loyalty are always going to an elusive goal. 

If you take anything away from Tom’s message it is this.  Get someone to honestly evaluate your current cusotmer experience from an objective perspective.  NO, ididn’t say do another lame survey.  I said understanding the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE and the PROMISES that go along with being able to deliver on this experience.  Get help in understanding the Promises your customers want from you and figure out how far off you are in being able to deliver on these promises and FIX IT or you run the risk of going the direction of the print media – extinction.

Understand what it takes for your customers to LOVE dealing with you and what PROMISES they want you to keep every day and you will have LOYAL customers that TRUST you and wouldn’t go anywhere else.  And in these difficult times, isn’t that what everyone wants?  Hope this helps…

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

By way of background, we had this issue several years ago in the Customer Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction discussions.  What I would do is get a room of people together (not more than 25) and I would ask them all to write down the definitions of “Loyalty” and “satisfaction” and a few other terms.  You guessed it – what came back were a whole host of definitions that were all over the map.  So then, what “is” the right definition?  The only answer was, it depends.

Fast forward to today and ask the same question about the word “Authenticity” and I’ll bet you a venti Starbucks latte that I would get the same results as I did with the words Loyalty and Satisfaction.  Big problem.  If you have one definition and your audience has another one, you will NEVER see eye-to-eye and thus won’t be able to deliver the “experience” they are desiring from you.  It is absolutely critical that you are on the same page with your definitions so you can deliver on these.

OK, so what’s the answer you ask?  Find a word or words that aren’t as ambiguous and that you don’t have to spend a lot of time and resources to make sure you are on the same page.  We came up with the word “PROMISES” to do just that.  No, we didn’t invent the word, we just decided to use it in the context of customers to make life simpler and more straight forward.  When I asked the same question of the group above and used “Promises” they virtually all got it right.  Why?  Because it is a simple and powerful word that everyone understands.  Is it dangerous?  Absolutely.  Anything powerful has the potential of being dangerous.  I will talk more about this in another post.

I just read Seth Godin’s latest blog titled, “Authenticity.”  Interesting discussion on this exact topic.  Why?  Because Seth uses the two words, “Authenticity” and “Promises” interchangeably!  He believes the definition of Authenticity is keeping your promises and “acting” a certain way rather than “being” a certain way.  Very interesting argument.  But if I asked all of you if you would have equated these two terms, I doubt I would have gotten much agreement – thus my initial point – definitions that are ambiguous NEVER, NEVER, NEVER result in easy to deliver experiences. 

When you use a word, make sure you feel it has the strength to be consistent among your audiences, especially customers and employees.  Otherwise, you run the risk of misunderstanding and delivering the “wrong” experience to your audience.  That is the reason we settle on the word “PROMISES” and live by the belief that if you understand what these are and can keep them with our audience (personal or professional) you will build TRUST which ultimately builds LOYALTY - it’s that simple.  Comments welcome…

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

With that in mind, I had to comment on a couple of his most recent entries.  Why?  Because I really liked where he was coming from and because I think he left a couple of things out along the way.  Let me explain.

On January 23rd, he wrote in his blog the following:

Easiest cheap way to dramatically increase sales

Call your customers. Or write to them.

“I know that times might be tough for you. Is there anything I can do to pitch in and help?”

You’ll end up doing a lot for your customers. Which is a wonderful privilege. Even for those that don’t reciprocate.

 

 

Seth, couldn’t agree more – almost.  I absolutely positively agree, as a customer experience evangelist, that you should be doing everything at this point in time to be communicating with your customers/clients.  BUT, rather than just leave it open ended of asking how you can help, be direct.  Ask your customers, “How can I help you be more successful in your business today?”  Now THAT will get their attention and elicit some responses that may offer you more specific ways you could help.  This usually is followed by questions and discussion – which is what your goal should be anyway.  The goal is to help “brainstorm” new ideas and new ways of thinking about the current environment we are in.  What you usually won’t get is “cut your prices” – that is what they will tell your competitors that didn’t ask the question.  Seth had the right idea for sure, just needed to push it a little further along. 

Seth also wrote on January 22nd, the following:

The five pillars of success

1. See (really see) what’s possible
2. Know specifically what you want to achieve
3. Make good decisions
4. Understand the tactics to get things done and to change minds
5. Earn the trust and respect of the people around you

It sure seems like we spend all our time on #4.

 

 

Again, couldn’t agree more – almost.  I would suggest another one – say 4.5 in the list.  I would suggest adding, “Keep your Promises – not matter what.”  Everything on the list is correct but it won’t lead to trust and loyalty and respect.  Keeping your promises, over and over and over and over again will do that.  So again, love the list – just with one minor addition. 

Thanks Seth – once again you are on target with relevant topics.  Keep them coming.  In the meantime, I hope you all have an awesome day!

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.

Two weeks ago my mother passed away.  While it wasn’t totally unexpected, I don’t know that it is ever “expected.”  She lived a very long life and actually was in pretty good health until the last couple of months.  The reason I am telling everyone this is not to be morbid but to be celebratory.  Yes, it is times like these that we should be celebrating life, not mourning it.  Let me explain…

My mom had a life that was full of everything we all have in our lives – ups and downs.  Some things worked out and some things didn’t – just like everyone else’s life.  However, she lived to a ripe old age of 90 (I was the youngest which is why I am still in my 30′s today).  How can anyone complain that lives that long – a chance to celbrate for sure.  She didn’t get cancer or alzheimers – another reason to celebrate.  Her children were all there during her last few days to say our goodbye’s and tell her how much she meant to us – another big reason to celebrate.  And she left a living legacy in all of us that will be passed along for generations to come – definitely a reason to celebrate.

I loved my mother and for these and many more reasons, I celebrate her.  I hope all of you get a chance to celebrate your parents, spouses, children, friends and anyone else that you are close to this holiday season and every day in the future.  Life doesn’t hand out anything certain, but it gives you a chance to celebrate every day and every moment you have with your loved ones – because it can be gone in an instance.  So don’t fret and frump and mourn everything going on today – celebrate it.  For in the end, all the toys, savings accounts, stocks and myriad of other tangible things won’t mean anything.  What will be valuable are all the “celebrations” you had with everyone in your life – that is worth remembering and CELEBRATING!!

Thank you all for your wonderful messages and thoughts with regard to my mother passing away – they were much appreciated more than you think.  And my gift back to you is to remember to celebrate every moment, like RIGHT NOW, with all those that mean so much to you.  Have an awesome day, week, month, year and life!

Blaine

Blaine Millet

Customer Experiences Inc.