Industry Magazine Get JACK'D Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 10

REL ATIONSHIPS
You Say You Have
Relationships With Your
Customers? Prove It!
BY: JOHN DIJULIUS, AUTHOR OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE REVOLUTION
IN today’s world, the only thing that
is separating companies from offering
another commodity is the relationships
they have with their customers. If you do
not have a relationship with your customer,
you better be the cheapest. Companies
believe their product is superior, but there
are a lot of smart professionals out there
and comparable products. I have yet to
have anyone disagree with the premise
that relationships are what truly give us
a distinct advantage. However, I believe
that a high percentage of businesses do
not know what a real relationship is. Just
because you recognize your customer’s
face or the sound of their voice does not
mean you have a relationship.
I am not a fan of platitudes unless they
are backed by measurable action items. For
instance, you tell me you have a relationship
with your customer — great. Prove it. If
you truly have a relationship with your
customer, or anyone, then you should be
able to tell me two or more things regarding
F.O.R.D. about your customer.
F.O.R.D.
•
Family
•
Occupation
•
Recreation
•
Dreams
If you can tell me two or more things about
their family, occupation, recreation, and
dreams, you really do have a relationship. If
not, then you are kidding yourself and you’d
better be the least expensive because you
have no emotional brand capital with your
customers. I don’t care if you have to cheat
and resource your CRM system or notes.
Anytime you touch a customer via the
phone, electronically or face-to-face, you
should deliver one Customer Intelligence
item about them. Customer Intelligence
is what we know about our customers (i.e.
F.O.R.D). One of the best ways we have
found to obtain Customer Intelligence
is through the Customer Intelligence
notepads and desk pads.
These tools dramatically increase our
awareness of all the customer intelligence
thrown at us each day, which we duck from,
because we are too busy trying to execute
the task at hand. The C.I. Notepads are ideal
for professionals on the run, at meetings
and networking events, when they are
not working at their desk. As soon as you
walk away from the customer or prospect,
you write down everything they just told
you, i.e. leaving for a vacation, alumni of
Northwestern University, daughters on a
traveling soccer team. The C.I. Desk pads
are for when you are at your desk and
accomplish the same thing. Then, when you
have a moment later in the day, you enter
this in your CRM system and can retrieve it
when you contact that customer again.
No Time?
The C.I. pads are not meant to hamper
your productivity. They are to enhance
your listening skills and allow you to build
relationships. I have a very large consulting
10 10
client who hired us to work with their call
center over the past 18 months. We rolled
out these Customer Intelligence Desk pads
and told their representatives not to ask
any of these questions. Given the amount
of calls they handle per day, we didn’t want
to make them less productive, rather more
effective. The first week we gave everyone
the C.I. Desk pads, one of the call center
reps went into her supervisor’s office and
said, “I know you had Jim from ABC as a
mystery shopper today. He told me more
today than he has told me in the five years
we have been having a weekly call.” Her
boss responded with, “I have not spoken to
Jim or any of your customers.”
The fact is, the call center rep heard
more that day than she has ever heard
before. For instance, when she said, “Okay
Jim, I will talk to you next Wednesday.” Jim
responded with, “No, that won’t work. My
family and I will be on vacation in Orlando
all next week. It will have to be in two
weeks.” Bam! She heard it. Now she can do
one of a few things: Tell him to have a great
vacation, follow up with him in two weeks
and ask him about his vacation, or if he is a
VIP customer, (one of their top customers)
she may want to get approval to have some
surprise (i.e. fruit tray, bottle of wine, etc.)
waiting in his hotel room upon his arrival in
Orlando.
Show Me You Care More About
Helping My Business Than Just
Getting My Business