What Frustrates Your Customers About Dealing With You?

Learning The Value Of Discovering Key Frustrations

Some people we know refer to this as the "grand-daddy" of all great marketing ideas and it certainly is a great one — one that, when you understand it and implement what it means, will reap you significant rewards.

This concept is, in fact, central to many of the ideas in this manual — ideas like Unique Core Differentiators and certainly ideas like Risk Removal.

So, let’s take a look at it.

To help you understand and work with the idea, consider dealing with a contractor.  Well no, don’t consider dealing with a contractor, consider dealing with contractors in general.

Think about it and then ask yourself, “What is one of the most frustrating things about dealing with them?”

There are usually two answers that come out in rapid succession.  First, THEY’RE UNRELIABLE.  And second, THEY DON’T CLEAN UP AFTER THEMSELVES.

Now imagine that you are a contractor.  Imagine you knew about those key frustrations and that you wanted to build the most extraordinary contractors’ business in the world.

Wouldn’t you now make sure that when customers dealt with you, they would NEVER experience those key frustrations.

Follow the logic.  People get upset dealing with contractors because they are unreliable. Therefore, if someone is out there who makes it his business to be reliable, even to guarantee it, then that contractor is going to get a lot more business.

Not only that, that contractor is going to get work at a higher rate than his competitors.  All of this simply because that contractor has locked onto a key frustration and made sure that his customers don’t experience it when they deal with him.

Go further and suppose the contractor built special systems to make sure his customers always see him as reliable.  Then, suppose that to attract more customers, he developed a guarantee like this:

"When I say I’ll be there at 10, I’ll be there at 10.  And if I’m not, I don’t expect you to pay for the first hour of my time."

Or, how about this:

"When I say I’ll be there at 10, I’ll be there.  And if I’m not, I’ll reduce your bill by a full 25% AND carry that discount on to the next job I get from you."

Obviously, the guarantee can be articulated in any number of ways, but that’s beside the point.  The point is, when you AND your clients build a business based around making sure the customer does not experience a key frustration that they typically experience when they deal with others in your industry or profession, people will use their discretion and choose you.

Interestingly enough, time is a major frustration when people deal with many businesses today.  For instance, when you arrive at the hairdressers in time for your appointment, are they ready on time?  Most of the time, they’re not.  Imagine if they said,  “If we keep you waiting, the next haircut is on us.”

Would that increase their business?  (Well, it’s worth testing isn’t it?)

What about when you visit the professional offices of a lawyer or a dentist?  Is waiting time a key frustration again?  You bet it is.  Any professional who built systems to make sure his clients never experienced that frustration would surely see an increase in business.

So, exploring key frustrations creates a wonderful opportunity for your business.  The question is, how do you find out what they are?

Surprise, surprise — you ask your customers!  You can do that in what we call a Customer Advisory Board. 

Take the case of Ronnie Malthouse.  She runs a travel agency in Perth, Western Australia.  Ronnie discovered that many people felt that most travel agents made errors in booking details.

Therefore, Ronnie now has a Commitment Form for her customers that says in part, “We guarantee that if the loss in enjoyment of any part of your trip is caused by an error made by us, we will refund that part of your investment in full.”

Seeking key frustrations is a major key to developing a great business.  Consider for a moment how what we’ve spoken about so far can relate to a Unique Core Differentiator.  It really is a great starting point.

Consider another key point too.  By defining key frustrations you’re giving the business an external and powerful focus.

It’s a great place to start as you start consulting with clients.

The message is, I hope, clear.  Go in search of a key frustration and make sure, with systems, guarantees, and Team Commitments, that your customers will never experience that frustration when they’re dealing with you.  More about them in a moment.

To learn more about how a Customer Advisory Board can help your business grow, contact Kerry. 

Make It Easy For Customers To Choose You

Lowering The Barriers To Doing Business

We all learn a lot from other people’s experiences and from stories.  Let me combine the two.

A consultant colleague was recently in Dublin, about to return to the UK and then to Australia.  He was at the International Airport with about 90 minutes to spare.

Looking around he notices a hairdresser.  He needs a haircut.  But before he goes in, he checks his pockets to see if he has any Irish currency (the punt).  He did not.  

So, in he goes and asks, “Do you take Credit Cards?”

The woman looked at him with disdain.  “Certainly not,” she replied.

So, he now has an interesting decision.  Does he stay and present a 30-minute mini-training program on why you should not put up barriers — why you cannot make it too easy for people to buy things.  Or does he leave? 

Option ‘B’ won.

Why on earth would she not accept credit cards.  Because like so many companies, she was putting up barriers to doing business.

Many companies make it so hard for people to do business with them.  Yes, they’re well intentioned, perhaps.  But those intentions are so mis-directed.

Take the hairdresser as an example. She probably didn’t take credit cards because someone (her accountant?) had told her that you have to give 5 percent or whatever the number is to the Credit Card company.  How silly is that.  Here we are worrying about the 5 percent and forgetting completely about the 95% of the sale she never made.  It simply doesn’t seem like a good business bet.

Barriers go up all over the place.  Take the phone as yet another example.  When someone calls, do they have to “go through the hoops” to get through to you.  Is there the quite unnecessary interrogation?  Or are the barriers down as they should be.

By making it inviting, easy, informative, non-threatening, educational, and fun to do business with you, you will lift your firm above your competition.  By getting your clients to apply those same philosophies, their business will lift as well.

Remember these important points:

1. You cannot service too much.
2. You cannot educate enough.
3. You cannot inform too much.
4. You cannot offer too much follow-up and follow-through.
5. You cannot make ordering too easy.
6. You cannot make calling or coming into your business too desirable.

But let’s apply an important caveat.  You’ve heard, of course, that the customer is always right.  We don’t think that’s absolutely true.  We believe in this:

The RIGHT customer is always right

So in some way, you may want to segment customers so that they experience what we might call “appropriate levels” of service.

For help identifying and lowering the barriers in your business, contact Kerry.  

Learning to Really Listen

Hear What Your Customer Means, Not What They Say

Let me tell you a story.

I once had to visit a chiropractor.  (the result of an overzealous 'twist-off' on the dance-floor)

As I hobbled in, I noted a sign on the wall.  It read:

Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.

Consider the fundamental truth of that.

Consider too how many times we rush into prescribing solutions for clients before we truly understand what the problem really is.  Consider how many of your clients do the same.  Consider how many of your clients really don’t understand what their customers actually want.  For example, they believe their customers want low prices when in fact that may not be the reality.

Consider how it works in a typical accountancy practice, for example.

A client comes in.  “Help,” they say.  “I can’t get the money for the payroll.  I need to borrow some more funds.  Can you give me an updated cash-flow so that we can take that down to the Bank and get more funds?”

So the typical accountant cranks out the cash-flow, bills out the $500 or whatever and thinks the job has been done.

That’s rather like my Chiropractor fixing my knee when the problems in my back.  The person with the cash-flow problem doesn’t have a cash-flow problem at all — well, they do, of course, but that’s not really the problem.

The problem might be that their prices are too high or too low, or it might be that their quality is terrible, or it might be that the phone answering systems are non-existent

The point about the chiropractor analogy is this.  Clearly, I’d suffered an injury — after all, what sane person over 40 engages in 'twist-offs' expecting a good outcome?!  But he wasn’t just going to fix the problem.  He was going to use his skills to find out if there were other root causes of the problem.  Put it another way — he wanted to see if there was some underlying cause of the symptom.

And that’s the point here.  We need to develop systems for REALLY listening to what clients need.

In the practice, it’s important to understand that running systems like customer service training sessions is truly important. Yet if the things that process uncovers are not what the clients need, then the work on your customer service may be in vain.

This is why a little meeting called a "Customer Advisory Board" is so important (more on this in the next blog). 

But even there, it’s a matter of listening in special ways.  It’s a matter of getting what we call, “Below the Waterline” and using what we call “The Titanic Principle.”

Let’s examine that.  Consider the iceberg that the Titanic hit.  The point of impact was BELOW the waterline.  And the reason is quite simple — it couldn’t see it.

(I listened in to a replay of an old radio broadcast once where a reporter was talking to a survivor of the disaster.  “How come you hit the iceberg?” asked the reporter.  The survivor replied, “It didn’t look that big at the time.”)

And that’s exactly how it is with our clients and customers.  Many times, the customer says something and we only hear what they said rather than what they meant.

The parallel to the Titanic is in this version of the iceberg:

 It’s these deeper needs “underneath the waterline” that we really need to fill.  And we can only fill them when we know what they are.  That requires REALLY listening and REALLY being prepared to ask questions in different ways.

Many of these questions form part of various optional Polaris coaching programs. For now, you need to note that key questions are phrases like:

• Could you elaborate on that for me
• Could you tell me more
• Why is that such an important area for you
• What would be the effect of that .....
• Would it be useful if ...
• What other way this could help you

Relate this back to your customers or clients — what do they want?  Well, they may want more profit, but the  key question is WHY?

The Why holds the key.  It might be so that they have a better lifestyle.  It might be so that they can get more discretionary time because more profit leads to greater security.

Let’s take another example.  People go into restaurants because they want food, right?  Possibly.  One friend put it this way, “People are hungrier for recognition than they ever are for the food.”  Worth pondering isn’t it?

The skilled communicator is always working at these “deeper” levels.

Listening, and then systematizing that listening is a major key to being able to do that effectively.

Finally, always remember that life is a moving parade. 

People’s needs are constantly evolving and changing.  Your products and services (and those of your clients) must evolve and change as well.  Keep listening.  Keep responding to what you hear.

For help implementing customer service systems, or conducting a Customer Advisory Board in your business, contact Kerry.  

What's Unique About Your Business?

Build a Unique Core Differentiator. Focus On It.    Articulate It Constantly

You’re hungry.

You’re walking down Oxford Street in London.

All around you are fast food outlets effectively screaming “come and eat here”.

Then you notice a sandwich bar that you’ve never seen before.  It’s packed with people.

On the window you see a big sign:

PASSIONATE ABOUT FOOD

Elsewhere on the window, you see a huge burgundy diamond shape.  And inside the diamond you read:

At Pret A Manger we are passionate about food, the pleasure it brings and the importance it plays in all our lives.

After years of practice and research, we have developed a range of sandwiches, salads, cakes and puddings, which are tasty, healthy, homemade, value for money and served quickly.

The vast majority of our recipes are unique to Pret A Manger and freshly prepared each morning in our shops.  We use only free-range eggs; fresh herbs and we bake our own pastries and bread.  We insist on quality you can trust.

When you go inside and buy (you’d almost have to after that build up!), you take your sandwich away in a bag that has exactly the same message on the outside but this time preceded with this:

Sinclair Beecham and I opened our first Pret A Manger in 1986.  We have never swerved from our aim of providing the best for our customers.  Our food may be “fast” but the selection of ingredients and quality of preparation is anything but.

And then the closing line on the bag is this:

If you would like to speak to me or one of my colleagues regarding anything to do with Pret A Manger, please feel free to call on 0171-827 6300.  Thank you.  Julian Metcalfe.

What the Pret A Manger owners have done is taken something essentially ordinary and made it unique.

What they’ve done is to develop, articulate and focus on what we call their Unique Core Differentiator (or UCD for short).

Let’s delve deeper.

Marketing people frequently say it’s important to have what is called a “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP).   A USP is often touted as the distinguishing advantage you hold out in all your marketing, advertising, and sales efforts.

Some people started to move what they saw as “beyond” USP’s.  “You must,” they said, “create an EVP.”  EVP stands for Extra Value Proposition.  The point was made that people buy value so they’ll buy from you (the theory goes) if they see more value in what you’re offering.

We put it in a somewhat more all-embracing way (and we hope, in a way that’s easier to grasp).

Follow this logical sequence:

• People buy differences they perceive
• Therefore, we must differentiate (or at least give the perception that we’re different)
• That difference must be at our very core of the company and flow into everything we do
• That then gives us a constant uniqueness.

Hence — Unique Core Differentiator’s (UCD’s)

To us, the most important word there is “core”.  When you’ve defined what the differentiators are (note — differentiatorS — you can have more than one) they have to be at the very center of your company — at the very “core” of your being so to speak.

Pret A Manger illustrates the point brilliantly.

We can’t emphasize this aspect of UCD’s enough.  They provide a total focus for you.  But it’s not just a focus that’s important for you — it’s a focus that’s important for all the clients your serve.

You help them find it (for example, in a Planning Session) by asking questions.  But more about that later.  For now, let’s get back to the first principles of UCD’s.

To do that, let’s focus on clients for a moment.  Let’s say it’s a Real Estate company.  And let’s say they focus on “up market” homes.  Then their point of difference might be something as simple as they only sell “up market” properties.  Then everything about them must reek of that — the way they dress, the way their office is laid out, the way their advertisements are designed.

They must not fall into the trap of being everything to everybody.  When they do, they’ll lose their UCD.  And they’ll lose business because of that loss.

Or, let’s say your client is a discount warehouse.  Then everything about what they do needs to reek of that — a rough warehouse type atmosphere, lots of activity and so on are the keys.

Your UCD is that “special-ness” about your product or service (or about your business as a whole) which compels people to buy from you instead of from your competitors.  As we’ve said, it must be at the core of your business and your clients.  It must be a fundamental focal point.  And it must be articulated at very opportunity.

It could be that dealing with you is more fun than dealing with any one else.  If that’s the case, it should be articulated everywhere.

Consider, for example, the case of Greenlane Plumbing and Hardware, in Auckland, New Zealand.  They observed that when their customers came to see them, they would leave to go “up the road” to get some lunch.

The owners wondered what would happen if they installed their own hot dog machine.  The results?  A 40% increase in their business from this strategy alone.  (Perhaps they should now be called “The Hot Dog Plumbing and Hardware Supply Company.”  This would truly be articulating their UCD as an integral part of all of their marketing!)

Be careful, though.  A UCD is much more than a slogan.  However, if you can get it into a slogan, you will have a powerful marketing weapon.  A classic case of this is Federal Express.  Their UCD said it all — Absolutely Positively Overnight!

It’s here where you see the powerful possibilities of a UCD.  It articulates exactly what the customer wants AND, just as importantly, it gives a laser-like focus to everyone on the team.

The reality is that most of your clients (in fact, most people in business generally) companies have never articulated or even thought about their UCD at all.  They expect people to buy from them simply because they’re in the marketplace.

They simply say, “Buy from us.”  But they don’t give the potential customer a clear and compelling reason why they should buy from them.  When you help your client find it, your client then has a far greater chance of building a much better business. 

But here’s a critically important point — the UCD does not (in fact) have to be unique.

Before you say, “now you’ve totally lost me”, consider this, it’s critical to understand.  You (or your client) may not have anything that is totally unique.  But if you are the first one to articulate a difference, (even though others do the same), you’ll stand out in the marketplace as if you are unique, simply because you’ve been the first to articulate it.

Is Pret A Manger the only company in the world that is passionate about food, that uses free range eggs, fresh ingredients and so on?  Of course not.  But they were the first to articulate it and make it part of their very core.

The reality is this: when we help our selected clients develop UCD’s that are meaningful to their prospects and customers and they articulate it and express it in everything they do, their business will change forever.  It can put them head and shoulders above the competition forever.

Bear in mind again that a UCD is not just a “clever” slogan.  For instance, Brisbane, Australia-based dentist Paddi Lund describes the totality of his UCD in a brilliant twelve-page booklet.

The first line in that booklet gives the real essence of Paddi’s uniqueness — “Our aim is to make you to enjoy coming to see us.”

His UCD is also brilliantly expressed in his first book.  It’s called “Building the Happiness-Centered Business”.  Notice the word “centered.”  It confirms again what we’re saying about “core.”  The UCD must pervade the entire core of the business.

For example, if providing great service is part of your UCD, you cannot simply give lip service to service.  It’s got to invade the core.  Once it invades the core (like a positive virus), it flows through into everything that you do.  Paddi describes it as a “ripple in the pond” effect.  He’s absolutely right.

You see it at every turn in his business. It flows through everything he does.  It flows to the extent that he has created what can only be described as a “dental restaurant.”

When you go in, you are met by a person called a “Director of Wonderful” who hands you a menu.  The practice is built around the kitchen.  For example, the extractor fans in the kitchen are arranged to blow the baking smells over the dental chairs!

That’s called “making it core.”

And the idea of the menu is interesting.  It creates a perceived difference that reflects your UCD.  It’s a way of articulating it constantly.

Let’s continue with the discussion of not necessarily being unique but being the first to effectively articulate it.

For example, a builder we know advertised that he would pay $100 for every day he went over the targeted completion date.  Interestingly, that’s what you have to do to get a builders’ license in that particular State of Australia.  Even though every one else had to do it, he was the first one to articulate it.  By doing this, he “pre-empted” the competition and added to his UCD.

A classic example of this type of  “pre-emptive advertising” is the Schlitz Beer story.

In the 1920’s, Claude Hopkins, known today as the father of modern advertising, was called in to help boost Schlitz Beer’s sales.  Upon his recommendation, Schlitz built an advertising campaign based on the theme of how their beer was made. 

They educated people about the pure artesian well water they used, about all the steps of filtration, the quality control, etc.  The fact is, all the beer was made the same way, but again, by being the first to tell the story, or articulate the process, they “owned” it.  Schlitz pre-empted the competition and strengthened its UCD.

How to find it

Now we know what it is, the key question is how do we find it for ourselves and for our clients.

We implied before that the problem is that business owners have never sat down and said, “What distinguishes my company from my competitors?  Am I more expensive or less expensive?  Do I provide more service, a better value, a better guarantee, give two when you buy three, or three when you buy two?”

Before we leave this point, it’s important again to make the point about “core”.

James Collins in his 1995 book called “Built to Last” makes the point strongly.  In the book, he traces the differences between directly competitive companies and points out that some of them out last, out perform (by an average factor of 19 times!) and out run the competitor.

These he calls the “Built to Last” companies.  He points out that the key differentiator is that these companies have a “central core” that remains and is the basis upon which all business decisions are made.  This, he says, is what differentiates them from the others.

It’s something that allows you to build consistency of purpose and focus.

Summary

You must implement a UCD even though this is very often difficult for many businesses.  A UCD is NOT a logo, although it’s incredibly powerful if you can make it part of your logo. Federal Express’s Absolutely Positively Overnight is a great example of a UCD brilliantly and succinctly expressed. 

But don’t concern yourself with brevity.  Pret a  Manger shows it well.  “Passionate about food” is the shorthand version.  The words on the bag take it further.  And a visit to their stores completes the picture.

A UCD has the power to focus you, your team, and your clients.  It has the power to get your clients to focus on their business in ways they’ve never dreamed of.

Whatever it is for you — get it.  

For help identifying the UCD for your business, contact Kerry.  

The True Purpose of Any Advertisement

Understanding the true purpose of any advertisement

In the previous post we suggested you tattoo one thing on your wrist — remember, what you can measure you can manage.

Here’s another: the real purpose of any advertisement is simply to get a response.

Notice, we didn’t say, “to make a sale”.  Nor did we say, “to make an impression”.  Nor did we say, “to keep your name before the public”.  We said, “to get a response.”

In the light of that, consider a poster we saw passing through Manchester airport in England.  It’s a poster maybe 6 meters long and 2 meters high.  It’s big.  It’s on the right hand side of a long corridor.  You’re going down that long corridor pushing or carrying the bags you’ve just unloaded from the baggage carousel.

You’re probably rushing to get somewhere.  And then you see the poster (well, I imagine some people actually see it — most are either talking or worrying about missing an appointment).

It proclaims in big letters:

KPMG means business

Can’t you just imagine a businessperson walking past it?  They stop (unlikely, I know, but let’s imagine).  They scratch their head and they say to themselves, “KPMG means ‘business’ — where’s the ‘b’ in KPMG?  Or “Huh, maybe I missed something — how could those four letters mean ‘business’.  Oh well, maybe I’ll figure it out one day.”

Or how about a businessperson walking by the sign.  Let’s imagine she gets excited at the prospect of 4 letters she’s never seen before meaning “business.”  And let’s suppose she really wants to immediately drop everything because she wants to talk with whoever KPMG are.

Problem!  There’s no phone number!

You see the point?  I do hope so.

And each KPMG Partner in Manchester knows how much the “advertisement” cost (remember, measure everything that moves).  Of course, they also know how many responses they get from the advertisement, don’t they?

Of course they don’t.

So why have the advertisement?  Because someone somewhere has said, “you’ve got to keep your name before the public.”

Whenever your client says something like that to you, remind them of leverage point 3 — the sole purpose of an advertisement is to get a response.

You see, when they understand that, they won’t make what we might call “the KPMG mistake.”  They simply won’t attempt to keep their name before the public.  They won’t run what are sometimes called “Institutional” advertisements.  They’ll replace them with advertisements that get responses (or, if you will, Direct Response advertisements).

Let’s use KPMG as another example.  (And by the way, let’s also admit that KPMG are doing a lot right)

This time, way back in 1996, in New Zealand we saw a fairly expensive print advertisement from them that said something like:

KPMG — more than a name, they’re letters of intent.

The advertisement went on (with very few words) to explain that Peat Marwick was changing their name to KPMG and that meant something (I’m not sure what it meant … but it meant something).  So it was a statement to the world that they were changing their name.  There was no phone number, no response device.

But suppose someone had reminded them about Leverage Point 3 — the purpose of an advertisement is to get a response. 

Maybe then their advertisement would have turned out like the one below:

In the first 3 months of this year, KPMG helped 327 New Zealand businesses add $37 million to their bottom lines.

Now KPMG is ready to do the same for you. 

This free booklet shows you how.

See the name?  KPMG.  It may mean little to you right now.  And that’s fine.  What is impressive is what we do for our selected clients.

They’ve literally added millions of dollars to their bottom lines thanks to our helping them see the right issues and then working with them to make substantial differences.

KPMG is now one of the world’s leading advisers to business in financial, operational, information technology and human resource issues.  But what’s more important is how we can help you.

We work with businesses from $xxxx to $xxxx revenues and help them grow it profitably.  We show you how in a new booklet called “Making an even better success in New Zealand”.

We’ll send you the booklet at our cost so you can discover for yourself how we might best help you.  It’s stimulating reading and a must for anyone wanting to achieve more.

Simply complete the coupon below and fax or mail it to us.  Alternatively, simply call on our Toll-free number 12345678.

Underneath will be a coupon showing a picture of the free booklet with space for the prospect to write in names, addresses, phone numbers and so on.

Now of course, the KPMG Partners said, “But you’ve got to keep your name before the public haven’t you?”  Well, let’s just say they’re right.

By my count, the advertisement above uses their name far more times than the “KPMG, more than a name, they’re letters of intent” advertisement.  So if keeping the name before the public is important, our advertisement wins hands down.

But go further.  Now they’ve got a response (not a sale but a response).  And now they can work with that person (or more likely — people) who’ve responded to create a sale.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

With this direct response type of advertising, you can measure (there we go again) the value, profitability and performance of virtually any advertisement because it produces something you can track, analyze and compute. 

For help analyzing and measuring the success of your advertising, contact Kerry.