TO continue a theme from last week, customer service is an ideal area/opportunity for Whanganui businesses to distinguish themselves from their competition. It is also essential when technology is changing the face of how we do business. Each of your customers is different and responds to you and your business in different ways and tapping into that fact can give your business a competitive advantage.
These preferences have their roots in your customer's frame of reference - which has been built up over many years through a combination of experiences, learnings and developed biases. They also include more immediate considerations, such as how their day is going and how they are feeling at the time.
Customers also have likes and dislikes which are unique to them and can be extremely different from what you would expect. A good example of this is how we entertain ourselves. My appetite for rock music is well documented, but few people know that hip-hop and rap is second on the genre list. Mrs Bell recoils in horror at both but her preference for house and electronic music baffles me. It is the differences in each person which creates a challenge in how we attract, deliver value to and retain customers and how our messages are received. These differences can mean that no two customers are alike - even when we think they have the same reason for dealing with us.
I recently saw on Facebook that a friend of mine had attended a party, which was fancy dress. It was clear that everyone put a great deal of effort into their costumes and it made for a fantastic evening. What was interesting was that almost everyone chose a different character. From Elvis to Indiana Jones to Mr Incredible to Lady Gaga, each person chose a remarkably different character from the next. The point is that there were around 50 people who all made different choices - therefore, your business might market the same products or services day in and day out, but the final delivery of value to each customer will develop differently in each case. It is important, then, to treat each customer as unique because their needs and wants may extend well beyond the initial interaction with you. For example, rather than asking "can I help you?", instead ask "how are you?" and "what do you need today?". The reality is that no customer can properly answer "can I help you?" because unless they know you personally, they don't know if you can help them. Shape what you do on the basis that each customer contact is unique.
-Balance Consulting is a Wanganui consultancy and also part of the Balance Group. We will be running customer service training workshops in the near future. Please call Russell on 021-244-2421 or John Taylor on 027 499 5872 if you are interested.