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Easy MoneyWhen you meet your customer, is it a slap or a kiss?Comment on this newsletter at yastrow.com We are all constantly looking to improve our business results, especially in challenging times like these. There is a source of easy money right in front of your nose. It is also right in front of the noses of everyone in your company, especially those on the “front” lines. This source of easy money is called “Our Customer.” The quickest route to improved business results is to encourage your customers to do things, such as buy more, pay more or rave more. If a customer walks away from an interaction with your company feeling better about you, more clear about you, and more connected to you, she will be much more likely to do these things. And you will make more money. Every time you come in contact with a customer, you have an opportunity to improve your business results. Every time. No exceptions. So, the question you need to ask yourself: When we interact with a customer, is it a slap or a kiss?
What prevents the receptionist at the doctor’s office from standing up, walking out from behind her desk, and retracting the stanchion barricade while the office is empty? What encourages the Doubletree front desk agent to do things that aren’t specifically listed on her job description? Two recent experiences in the check-out line at Whole Foods:
Like a yoga practitioner paying attention to his breathing, I continually try to remind myself to focus on the most basic elements of customer interaction because they hold within them the secrets to improved results. Here are some of these fundamental elements that I try to live with every day:
Yes, I believe this is where the easy money is for most businesses. As you tackle the really tough questions in your business, don’t overlook the opportunities right in front of you: Customers, and how you interact with them. Take NoticeAs you are in “customer mode” this week, notice how companies interact with you. How often are you slapped, and how often are you kissed? Do you walk away from interactions feeling like your relationship improved, or suffered erosion? How do you compare?Now, look at your company. Are you slappers or kissers? When do you tend to have relationship-building encounters, and when do you blow it, creating relationship-eroding transactions? Try ThisList out, on paper or a white board, 25 different touchpoints your company has with customers. Include the major touchpoints (closing a sale, delivering your product, etc.) and the mundane (your equivalent of my doctor’s reception process). Then, go through this list and evaluate whether you slap or kiss at each of these touchpoints. Are you creating relationship-building encounters or relationship-eroding transactions? Do this exercise with a number of your colleagues. Be hard on yourselves; self-scrutiny is critical in a world where customers are so unforgiving. Rereading what I’ve written above, I found myself pondering the comparison to the yoga practitioner focusing on breathing. Basic customer interactions are the breath of your business, providing nurturing oxygen when the go well, and suffocating you when they don’t. Focus on the basics of customer interaction... and find easy money.
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Join
the conversation: More ways to encourage your customers to do things: Be Different: Have a Relationship with your Customer What is a customer relationship? Part 1 What is a customer relationship? Part 2 How to create fresh, unscriped moments with your customers Handmade Relationships: Using technology to bring you closer to your customers Customer Encounters: Posts from the Blog. See this newsletter in your browser Read Steve's first book, Brand Harmony, to truly understand how to create a brand story that makes your customers think, "I get it, I want it, and I can't get it anywhere else." 
"I had to buy two copies. The first one is so dog-eared and underlined I couldn't read it any longer." - Seth Godin BuyBrand Harmony at
Buy Steve's new book, We: The Ideal Customer Relationship Before you can kiss your customers, you need to be in a relationship with them! We: The Ideal Customer Relationship shows you how. In
We, you will learn: We is both a manifesto and a how-to guide that will change the way you interact with customers ... and change the way your customers think about you. More praise for We “When
Steve Yastrow Writes, I pay close attention. He is at once a wonderful
storyteller, a sophisticated purveyor of ideas, and an effective change
agent. I think We is a superb book-and I am mesmerized in particular
by Yastrow’s critical differentiation of ‘experience’
and ‘engagement’. Bravo!” "This is a fundamental shift in thinking that offers up a what's-next-beyond
experience marketing." BuyWe at
Create the encounters that build "We" Relationships with your customers. Download your free ebook, Encounters: The Building Blocks of We Relationships. Helpful Links: |
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I walk into my doctor’s office at 7:45 this morning. They were already prepared for the mid-morning rush, and had set up “Public Guidance Stanchions,” like you would see at an airport checkpoint. However, there were no patients at the office yet, except for a very old, frail man, slowly walking “the long way” around this barricade, struggling to make his way to the reception desk. Slap. 
I check in very late at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Boca Raton. I need to print something for a morning meeting, and I can’t get the printer in the business center working. The front desk agent sees I’m having trouble, offers to print my document at the front desk, patiently finds the file on my thumb drive and prints it for me. I ask her when breakfast is served in the morning, and she tells me it starts at 7:00 A.M. I mention that I have to leave before seven. The next morning, as I walk by the front desk in the morning she has a bagel and a cup of coffee waiting for me. Kiss.
The cashier is engaged in a conversation with a colleague the entire time she is processing my order. The first time she looks at me or talks to me is to tell say, “Your total is $43.87.” Slap.
How to create relationship-building encounters, instead of relationship-eroding
transactions 