Customer Service

Customer Service Patty Rai Smith, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Kentucky Barbara Cunningham, University Outreach and Extension, Missouri SBDC

Advocate Client Customer Prospect Suspect Customer Loyalty Ladder • Suspect • Prospect • Customer • Client • Advocate *One Stop Marketing by Jonathan Trivers

Customer Loyalty Ladder • Suspect Anyone who reads or hears an ad, looks at a brochure or encounters some other type of promotion is a suspect

Customer Loyalty Ladder • Prospect Someone who pays attention to your promotion

Customer Loyalty Ladder • Customers Those who buy your product or service

Customer Loyalty Ladder • Client A customer who buys a second time

Customer Loyalty Ladder • Advocate A customer who gives unpaid advertising for the products or services of a business

It takes a least 3 times as much money to attract a new customer via traditional forms of advertising as to re-attract a repeat customer

It takes at least 30 times as much marketing money to attract a new customer via traditional forms of advertising as to have a satisfied customer find new customers for you Traditional Advertising Satisfied Customer Referral

Most business owners spend less than 5% of their marketing dollars on their customers and spend 95% of their marketing dollars trying to find new customers

Advocate Client Customer Prospect Suspect Traditional Investment 5% Marketing $ 95% Marketing $

Customer Loyalty Ladder Goal: Invest in developing satisfied customers

Remember: It takes at least 30 times as much marketing money to attract a new customer via traditional forms of advertising as to have a satisfied customer find new customers for you Traditional Advertising Satisfied Customer Referral

How Can You Accomplish This?

How? • Know who your customers are • Know that your best customer is your most recent satisfied customer • Know that your best word-of-mouth advertising comes from your most recent satisfied customer • Act in a way that moves people up the ladder

Lesson Learned The most recent satisfied customer who has purchased products from you is the least expensive marketing way to find new customers. People love to tell if they are happy.

Lesson Learned Your worst customer, who will rip you apart to all their friends, is your most recent unhappy customer.

Advocate Client Customer Prospect Suspect Nontraditional Advertising A great marketing company spends money here Traditional Advertising

Recommendation 30% of your marketing dollars should be spent on keeping customers…..keeping them happy. Not 5%…..30%.

Advocate Client Customer Prospect Suspect Invest in Keeping Customers ToKeepCustomers: 30% Marketing$ To Find Customers: 70% Marketing $

Lessons Learned To climb the loyalty ladder, business owners must exceed customer expectations

FISH • Choose Your Attitude • Play • Make Their Day • Be Present

Sample Company First Guarantee Financial

Play Benefits of Play • Happy people treat others well • Fun leads to creativity • The time passes quickly • Having a good time is healthy • Work becomes a reward not just a way to rewards

Implementing Play • Post signs saying, This is an Adult Playground. Watch out for Adult Children • Start a joke of the month contest with its own bulletin board • Add more color and make the environment more interesting • Add more life with plants and an aquarium • Special events such as a lunchtime comedian • Form an ongoing play committee to keep ideas flowing

Make Their Day Survey results • Customers dread working with us • Quality of work is adequate but you never extend yourself • You treat customers like they are interrupting • You pass customers around • Your department is the subject of jokes • Customers believe the department should be replaced with an outside contractor

Make Their Day Benefits • It is good for business • Serving our customers well will give satisfaction • It will focus our attention away from our problems • It is healthy, it feels good and will unleash more energy

Implementing Make Their Day • Stagger hours so there is coverage from 7 am until 6 pm. This will be good for customers and some of us • Pull together focus groups to study ways we can be of service to customers • Have a monthly and annual award for service based on customer recommendations • Appoint a special task force dedicated to surprising and delighting our customers • Ask key customers to “come out & play” once a month

Be Present Benefits • Customers know if you are listening • Customers feel important • Important opportunities do not escape

Be Present • Encourage one another to be present. Ask: “Is this a good time? Are you present?” • Establish a code phrase: “You seem distracted” to signal a present moment issue

Choose Your Attitude Benefits • By accepting that you choose your attitude, you demonstrate personal accountability and proactivity • Choosing your attitude and acting like a victim are mutually exclusive • While we may not be able to do what we love, if we choose to love what we do, our work area will become an oasis of energy, flexibility and creativity

Implementing Choose Your Attitude • Purchase copies of Personal Accountability: The Road to a Rewarding Work Life for Everyone. Organize discussion groups around the book - follow with similar topics • Prepare an attitude menu to post in the office

FISH By: Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D. Harry Paul John Christensen www.fishphilosophy.com

Tired of Smile-Free Service? Article - Newsweek – March 6, 2000 • Employers having difficulty finding good people • Managers have no control over workers who give poor service – pointing out deficiencies leads to high turnover

Research • Turnover is higher in companies where employees have a poor view of customer service • Employees are good predictors of customers’ perceptions

Conclusion • Increasing the quality of service can increase both customer loyalty and employee retention significantly • People may “job hop” because they haven’t found acceptable work environments

Customer Service