“You said ‘two’.” These were the three simple words she spoke to me and they set the tone for our business relationship and a lasting first impression. As I write this, it is early on a Sunday morning in Vancouver. I am staying at a downtown hotel and reviewing the details of a workshop that I am delivering to a group of technicians on Monday. I had decided to take a break and walk a couple of blocks to get some fresh air and cup of coffee.

One of the topics of discussion at the workshop will be the power of first impressions and how they can set the tone for a business relationship. When meeting customers for the first time, a poor first impression can greatly hamper our technician’s ability to build trust and negatively impact their ongoing relationship. That is because, once an impression is made, we begin to filter the information we receive about the person who made the impression to fit our view. And, it works for both positive and negative first impressions. For example, if a customer’s first impression is that we are lazy, they will filter their observations about us and pick up on any evidence that may reinforce that view and ignore evidence to the contrary. For example, they may come across us taking a well-deserved coffee break and chatting with one of their employees. If they are of the impression that we are lazy, then they may think, “There he goes again, taking another break! And now they are wasting the time of one of our employees as well!” If we are perceived as hard working by another customer and they were to observe the same situation, they might think, “Finally, she’s taking a break. And look how well she gets along with our staff”.

That is why, when meeting customers for the first time, we should take deliberate steps to create a positive first impression. That first impression sets the stage for the ongoing relationship and may have a tremendous impact on whether we can establish the level of trust needed to make the service experience exceptional for the customer; which brings me back to my coffee break.

There is branch of a very popular coffee shop chain just down the street from where I am staying. My first impression and overall experience was less than positive. The person serving was wiping tables when I entered. I was the only one in the store at the time. There was no acknowledgement of my arrival and she continued to wipe the table and then moved on to the next. I was beginning to think that she didn’t see me. She did, however, and after yet another table, stopped wiping and walked behind the counter to face me.

She had not yet spoken a word to me. She simply looked at me in anticipation of my order. I said “Good morning, just a medium black coffee please.” She tallied it up on the register and said her first words, “$3.34”. The cash register had one of those screens facing the customer that provides details of the order and I looked down to see why the price was that high. The screen showed that she had rung in two coffees instead of one. “Oh, I only want one coffee.” “You said ‘two’”, was her reply. “Actually, I only said ‘one’”, I responded, perhaps a little too indignantly. She said nothing more. She changed the order and held out her hand. I paid my money, she poured the coffee and back to my hotel room I went to write this blog.

The experience got me to wondering why a coffee chain of this size would not do more to provide its staff with basic customer service training so that each customer greeting created a positive first impression. It would not be hard to teach their employees how to acknowledge the customer, the importance of a smile and a friendly greeting and how to deal with any differences that might arise with the customer while serving. With a few changes and certainly no extra effort, my experience this morning would have been quite different.

I think this is a great lesson for all service providers. Are we clear about what steps we expect our technicians to take when meeting customers for the first time to create an exceptional service experience and positive first impression? Have we determined what training we provide to our teams and what tools and processes are at their disposal to help them execute this first impression strategy? Have we defined what ongoing steps we want our technicians to take to ensure that every customer interaction positively reinforces the first? If we want our customers to experience a positive and consistent service experience, then it is up to us to define it. Otherwise we just leave it to chance.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.”

– Ronald Reagan

The post You Said “Two” – The Importance of a Good First Impression appeared first on jimbaston.com.

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Through the years working with Service providers across several industries, I have found that there are 5 common mistakes that service companies make when asking technicians to promote their services. These mistakes can cost the service company in lost revenues, reduced customer retention and higher technician turnover.

Engaging technicians in promoting services is a focus of many service organizations today – and for good reason. A program of this nature can be a significant differentiator in a highly competitive environment. Technicians who use their expertise and knowledge to recommend products and services that help their customers achieve their goals provide tremendous value. They help their customers recognize that they are better off for having known them. And, a customer who recognizes this value in the relationship is very unlikely to take their business elsewhere.

However rewarding providing this type of service might be, even with the best of intentions, engaging technicians in this manner is not easy to achieve. Here are the 5 most common mistakes I have found that service managers make that prevent them from realizing the full potential of this initiative.

Mistake # 1: Language tends to focus on the sale and not the service. Identifying ways a customer can make improvements that will help their business is a critical part of the service that we provide. When technicians recognize this, they are more likely to engage in conversations with the customer to promote services that will benefit them, even though it may be a bit uncomfortable at first. However, our language may suggest that what we are asking them to do is sell. (For example: “Next time you conduct a service, have a look around to see what other services we can sell them.”) When technicians perceive we are asking them to sell, they will be more reluctant to engage in this type of customer conversation.

Mistake # 2: Failure to follow up in a timely fashion. I am surprised by the number of service companies that tell me that they are embarrassed to admit that they do not follow up on all opportunities in a timely way. In fact, sometimes they fail to follow up at all. When an opportunity is brought forward, it is critical that it is addressed immediately. When we fail to do so, we are really just telling our technicians that we were “only kidding” when we said this was an important part of the service.

Mistake # 3: Providing no feedback to the tech. This mistake is related to Mistake # 2. During our workshops it is not unusual to hear techs comment that they rarely get an update on what is going on once they refer an opportunity to the office for follow-up. They often find out the status from the customer themselves. And, when a sale is made, many will lament, the salesperson takes all the credit. This Mistake #3 negatively impacts our efforts in two ways. The first is that lack of feedback can discourage the technicians from speaking with their customers. The second is that we miss an opportunity to shine in front of the customer. If a technician is apprised of what is going on, they can discuss the opportunity positively with the customer and explain what is taking place in order to put the proposal together. Contrast that with a technician who is not kept up to speed with the progress of the opportunity. How do they respond when the customer asks them how the proposal is progressing? What does it say about our internal communications?

Mistake # 4: Assuming the technician knows what you do. This is an understandable mistake. We are often so immersed in our company and our services that we assume that our people will also know about all of our services and be comfortable talking about them to customers. The reality is that our technicians rarely know enough about all of our service to be comfortable about bringing it up to a customer. And, when they don’t, they won’t.

Mistake # 5: Failure to reinforce and encourage behaviour change. Coaching and supporting new behaviors plays a critical role in new skills adoption. For some, taking a more proactive approach to discussing opportunities with customers is a challenging task. It takes time and practice to become comfortable. Without coaching and reinforcement, our technicians will simply revert back to their old ways and our efforts will be lost. Think of coaching as a form of maintenance. You would never expect a piece of equipment to run very long or very well without maintenance so why would you expect your service team to perform well and consistently at new skills without coaching?

For more suggestions and ideas on successfully engaging your techs in promoting your services, check out my book or some of the articles on my website.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

– Albert Einstein

The post 5 Mistakes Service Companies Make Asking Technicians to Promote Services appeared first on jimbaston.com.

1. Do our technicians bring you ideas that will help you operate more effectively?
2. Do you feel that you are better off for having known us?

The first question, “Do our technicians bring you ideas that will help you operate more effectively?”, goes to the heart of Proactive Service® – engaging our technicians in proactive business development. The idea is to ensure our technicians recognize that service is more than simply fixing things. Service also includes ensuring that our technicians use their experience and expertise to look for opportunities to help their customers and take the initiative to discuss their ideas with them. The response to this question will give you insight into what is really happening in the field.

The second question, “Do you feel that you are better off for having known us?”, (see my Blog of March 12, 2014) gives us insight into whether our efforts are valued by our customers. A customer that recognizes that they are better off for having you as their service contractor will be a delighted customer. A delighted customer will remain a customer, they will tell others and they will be willing to pay more for the additional value they are receiving.

A variant of the second question is also an excellent question to ask your technicians – “Are our customers better off for having known you?”. That question puts the technician’s role in perspective and helps them analyze their own actions to evaluate how well they are serving the needs of their customers.

Next time we will look at a scoring key for these questions to help you evaluate how well you are doing now, and enable you to track your progress over time.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

Ken Blanchard

The post How is Your Business Really Doing? Ask these 2 Questions appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Without knowing the goals of the customer, how can our technicians make valuable recommendations?  A solution that works for one company might be contrary to the needs of another.  There is a wonderful story circulating around the Internet that illustrates the danger of solving problems without understanding the business goals.  Perhaps you have read it.  It goes something like this.

An employee of a large company was working late one evening.  She sees the CEO of the company standing in front of the shredding machine with a piece of paper in his hand.  He looks completely at a loss of what to do.  He asks the employee to help him make it work, explaining that his executive assistant has left for the day.  The employee is delighted to help and takes the paper, turns on the shredder and feeds the document into the machine.  As the paper disappears into the shredder, the CEO says “Thank you.  That is an extremely important document.  I only need one copy.”  Oops!!!

Understanding the customer’s business goals adds a critical piece of information to help the technician solve the puzzle of what they can do to help.  Knowing this will ensure the recommendations address the right problem, or as in the story above, prevent the creation of a new one.

How can a technician understand the business goals and challenges of the customer?  There are several ways, including doing Internet research, reading annual reports and catching up on the trade press for example.  But perhaps the best and easiest way is simply to ask.  This does not have to be a sophisticated discussion, but merely a conversation with the customer.  For example, the tech might ask about the most challenging aspects of building maintenance or what problems that, if eliminated, would make life much easier for the customer.  Or inquire about the most common complaints raised by tenants.  They may ask about their interest in LEED certification for existing buildings.  They may even ask about long-term plans for the building or process.  As managers, we can identify the best questions for our customer base and provide these for the technician.

An informed technician who can make recommendations that can directly contribute to their customer’s goals, is a valuable business partner.  They do more than fix things – they make things better.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

Yogi Berra

The post Step 2 in Creating Proactive Service® – Knowing Customers’ Business Goals appeared first on jimbaston.com.