All Discussions Tagged 'customer' - DealerELITE.net2024-03-29T12:41:08Zhttps://www.dealerelite.net/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=customer&feed=yes&xn_auth=noWhy Customer Retention Matters to Your Powersports Dealership During This Pandemictag:www.dealerelite.net,2020-05-06:5283893:Topic:10747552020-05-06T13:22:57.600ZJenhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/Jen
<p>There are a lot of different aspects of customer management that you have to think about on a regular basis. Each of them requires its own strategy, and too often, dealers get so focused on new leads and generating fresh sales that they forget about their best potential profit margin: the repeat customer.</p>
<p>Especially in today's highly-digital, highly-competitive industry & pandemic of the <a href="https://psxdigital.com/cdc-coronavirus/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">COVID-19</a>.…</p>
<p>There are a lot of different aspects of customer management that you have to think about on a regular basis. Each of them requires its own strategy, and too often, dealers get so focused on new leads and generating fresh sales that they forget about their best potential profit margin: the repeat customer.</p>
<p>Especially in today's highly-digital, highly-competitive industry & pandemic of the <a href="https://psxdigital.com/cdc-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID-19</a>. Customer retention is truly one of the most valuable assets available to your dealership. <em><strong>NOW & ALWAYS!</strong></em></p>
<p></p>
<p>Why does customer retention matter so much?<img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/4785928083?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-right"/></p>
<ul>
<li>It increases the overall lifetime value of your customers, meaning you get more out of your investment in each lead than if they were a one-time purchase.</li>
<li>It can help you develop strong relationships with your customers, allowing you to offer value and a sense of brand authority.</li>
<li>Customer retention boosts your revenue, with the average repeat customer offering five times more profit potential than a new lead.</li>
<li>When you have repeat business, you'll automatically generate new business through referrals and free word-of-mouth advertising.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>What's more is that you will be 40% more likely, at the very least, to sell to an existing customer than to convert a new lead. There truly is a lot of value in repeat business, and that's why it's time to take your focus there.</p>
<p><strong>Customer Retention Rates</strong></p>
<p>The rate at which you retain customers is fairly easy to track. All that you have to do is determine how many customers you have in total and how many of those have come back for an additional purchase over time. You will want to pick a specific window of time so that you can get an accurate measurement because when you develop a new retention strategy, you will need to have measurable goals over a defined time frame.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>Here's a quick example of how to figure out your retention rate:</em></span></p>
<ul>
<li><em>2,000 customers at the start of the period</em></li>
<li><em>200 customers acquired</em></li>
<li><em>1,950 customers at the end of the period</em></li>
<li><em>2,000 – 200 = 1,800 existing customers</em></li>
<li><em>1,800 / 1,950 = 0.923 x 100 = <strong>92% retention rate</strong></em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong><em> </em></strong></p>
<p>The thing about customer retention is that it costs a fraction of new business marketing efforts, and it's something that will practically take care of itself when you utilize the latest marketing automation and <a href="https://psxdigital.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CRM solutions</a> to streamline and manage your efforts. If you really want to boost your business, take a break from lead generation & focus on cultivating the seeds you've already sown.</p>
<p><em>Are you taking this time to develop a plan? What has worked for you & what hasn't? </em></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/customer-retention/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Resources</a></p> Customer Retention - Current Methods and Pain Pointstag:www.dealerelite.net,2017-10-30:5283893:Topic:5070082017-10-30T20:07:54.628ZStaff Writerhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/ChannelNet
<p><span>Customer retention is so valuable in the auto industry. It costs less to build a relationship with an existing customer than continually market and search for new ones. What are some current methods to retain customers you already have? What are some pain points?</span></p>
<p><span>Customer retention is so valuable in the auto industry. It costs less to build a relationship with an existing customer than continually market and search for new ones. What are some current methods to retain customers you already have? What are some pain points?</span></p> The 7 Deadly Sins of Customer Experiencetag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-03-07:5283893:Topic:4476322015-03-07T00:19:19.130ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3">Is your company committing the 7 Deadly Sins of customer experience?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Recently, my kids asked me about the 7 Deadly Sins; I don’t remember how the topic came up, but when they ask, I answer. Of course, as I ran down the list and explained them (in a PG kind of way), I pondered sins of the customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I guess that put me on a 7 Deadly Sins kick. I just hosted a webinar about the 7…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Is your company committing the 7 Deadly Sins of customer experience?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Recently, my kids asked me about the 7 Deadly Sins; I don’t remember how the topic came up, but when they ask, I answer. Of course, as I ran down the list and explained them (in a PG kind of way), I pondered sins of the customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I guess that put me on a 7 Deadly Sins kick. I just hosted a webinar about the 7 Deadly Sins of Journey Mapping. I’ll take a broader stroke</span> in <span class="font-size-3">this post and look at customer experience management overall.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The 7 Deadly Sins are mortal sins (as opposed to minor sins) and are considered to be the root of all other sins. If you commit these sins, failure is certain. Are there more than seven sins in customer experience? Yes, probably. But I think these are the most egregious; if you are guilty of these, you won’t successfully transform the customer experience for the better.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">1. No executive commitment</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Probably the biggest Sin to commit is to think you can transform anything without executive buy-in. If company leadership isn’t on board with focusing on the customer, then forget it; it won’t happen. Oh sure, you might have localized or departmentalized efforts, but those will be</span> silo’d <span class="font-size-3">efforts that translate to</span> silo’d experiences <span class="font-size-3">for the customer. Without executive commitment, you’ll never get resources – human, capital, or other – to execute on your customer experience strategy.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">2. Lack of CX vision and strategy</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Following up</span> to <span class="font-size-3">my last statement regarding executive commitment, you must, of course, have a customer experience vision and strategy. CX Strategy refers to your approach to delivering a great customer experience. It’s your plan or direction. Your strategy outlines how you’re going to achieve the goal of delivering a great customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Without a vision and a strategy, you can’t achieve your goals, and your employees can’t deliver a great experience. Without knowing what you’re delivering, it’s really hard to execute! If leaders don’t define the vision, communicate the brand promise, and outline what success looks like, employees can’t be expected to deliver on it.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">3. Failing to outline a governance structure</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Without a governance structure in place, we perpetuate silo thinking and fail to achieve cross-functional alignment, involvement, and commitment. Why? Because a governance structure outlines people, roles, and responsibilities when it comes to your customer experience strategy. Who is going to ensure that there</span> is <span class="font-size-3">alignment and accountability across the organization? We often see this piece of the governance structure refer to a core program team, an executive sponsor, and cross-functional champions. Your oversight committee should include the team of people you believe will best carry out the strategy, driven by your corporate and customer experience vision, for your organization.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">You’ll need to have clearly-defined rules and guidelines for how the customer experience management strategy will be executed. Who will drive the efforts and how? How will you transform to a customer-centric culture? How will organizational buy-in be achieved? How do you continue to motivate employees to focus on the customer? How will you listen to customers? Who will use the data and how? Where does accountability lie? What processes and policies must be in place in order to roll out these efforts? How will change management be handled? How will you measure success? How does it all tie</span> in to <span class="font-size-3">our desired business outcomes?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">4. Not understanding – and listening to – your customers</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">You can’t transform something you don’t understand. Included in that “understanding” is not only the current state of the experience but also (especially) the customer himself. Who is he?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Do you know – really know – who your customers are? They might be partners, resellers, and/or end customers/users. Why do they buy products and services from you? What are their needs? What problems are they trying to solve? What are they trying to achieve? And how do they feel about how you are performing or how you are meeting their needs? I’m talking about personas, journey mapping, and voice of the customer.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">5. Not acting on what your customers tell you</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">This one is simple: You can’t listen to your customers and then <i>not </i>act on what they’re telling you. How disappointing! It’s wrong on so many levels!</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Are you making improvements based on customers’ feedback? Are you letting customers know what you’ve done as a result of their feedback? You must! And if you don’t, then you’re missing a huge opportunity, for a variety of reasons.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">6. Making the employee experience an afterthought</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">… or not thinking about it at all.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Why? Because we know that the employee experience drives the customer experience. It’s called the <i>spillover effect</i>, or “the tendency of one person’s emotions to affect how other people around him feel.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I like to quote this <a href="http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/801.html" target="_blank" class="external">1999 article from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge</a> that summarizes the work Sears executives did to rebuild the company to focus on customers. The article talks about the new business model and what they discovered: <i>There is a chain of cause and effect running from employee behavior to customer behavior to profits. </i>Imagine: their model is data-based!</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">7. Perpetuating inside-out thinking</span><br/><span class="font-size-3">Inside-out thinking means your focus is on processes that are designed and implemented based on internal thinking and intuition. The customer’s needs and perspectives do not play a part in this type of thinking. You make decisions because you think it’s what’s best for the business.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">On the other hand, outside-in thinking means that you look at your business from the customer’s perspective and subsequently design processes and make decisions based on what’s best for the customer and what meets the customer’s needs. You make decisions because you know it’s what’s best for your customers.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Which of these Sins is your company guilty of?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/7-deadly-sins-customer-experience-01170978" target="_blank">Article Link</a></span></p>
<p><span><br/>Read more at <a href="http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/7-deadly-sins-customer-experience-01170978#rI5Rm25YxyY4c249.99">http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/7-deadly-sins-customer-experience-01170978#rI5Rm25YxyY4c249.99</a></span></p> Your Customer Is A Narcissist: How To Turn This To Your Advantage In Customer Loyaltytag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-03-02:5283893:Topic:4468322015-03-02T12:40:53.695ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>The customer’s at the center of the customer’s universe</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">A customer wants to feel that they’re at the center of your (the service provider’s) world. Customers are, after all, already at the center of <em>their own</em> world, their own reality. All that matters to the customer <em>is</em> the customer and the people whom the customer cares about, a category that only tangentially includes you, the service…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>The customer’s at the center of the customer’s universe</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">A customer wants to feel that they’re at the center of your (the service provider’s) world. Customers are, after all, already at the center of <em>their own</em> world, their own reality. All that matters to the customer <em>is</em> the customer and the people whom the customer cares about, a category that only tangentially includes you, the service provider. It’s important to absorb this reality–because it <em>is</em> </span>reality<span class="font-size-3">. Drill this reality into every single member of your staff–not just once, but as often as every day–and keep it in mind, in good times and bad, yourself.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">While it sounds dispiriting to accept your tangential position in your customers’ lives (your business, after all, is the center of <em>your</em> universe, or at least of your</span> worklife<span class="font-size-3">), this acceptance <em>paves the way for a magical result that can lead directly to sustainable customer success</em>: It allows you to get to work creating the illusion that the customer is at the absolute center of <em>your</em> </span>world <span class="font-size-3">as well as her own. This is, in a sense, an</span> illusion, <span class="font-size-3">because you have (I hope) more than one customer to support. But it is an extremely powerful business-building illusion if you can successfully pull it off.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>The Red Bench Principle</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If the self-interested, even narcissistic portrait I’m painting of customers makes them sound childish, yes, I agree overall with that childish (or at least child-like) characterization, or at least I find it useful. In fact, one of my favorite ways of giving myself a reality check about customers is to think about the day, years ago, that my wife and I took our daughter to the first day of her morning nursery school. On this fine New England morning, my wife and I delivered our daughter to her new school for her first half day of nursery school. The young, hippie-trippy teacher collected her from us outside the classroom, where the three of us were sitting together on a red park bench. When the teacher returned our daughter to us at noon, my wife and I happened to be sitting, in the early-autumn warmth, on that same red bench. It wasn’t until a week or three later, as the routine continued, that it became evident that our daughter thought her two parents were sitting on that red bench each day throughout the entire morning, awaiting her return. She didn’t think this in a vague or metaphorical sense. She didn’t kind of half-believe this. She <em>really</em> believed it.</span></p>
<div><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Customer-Star-Millennials-Everyone-ebook/dp/B00QRJ9MPM/ref=sr_1_2?utm_source=article&utm_medium=direct&utm_campaign=customerserveebook">Your Customer Is The Star: An eBook From Forbes </a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Customer-Star-Millennials-Everyone-ebook/dp/B00QRJ9MPM/ref=sr_1_2?utm_source=article&utm_medium=direct&utm_campaign=customerserveebook">How to make millennials, Boomers and everyone in between fall in love with your business. By Micah Solomon.</a></span></div>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The lesson here is this: For a customer, as with a little kid, they’re not going to be thinking about your other obligations, interests, activities. They’ll</span> think, <span class="font-size-3">until you prove them wrong (which would be a mistake) that you’re all about them. And as a service provider you benefit from giving this impression—this illusion, in a sense–rather than becoming resentful that the customer’s presumptuous enough to be thinking this way. It’s a credit to your business, actually, and to your level of service, if they believe that you’re truly all about them all the time.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">In our daughter’s case, what were we doing in the hours when we were out of sight? We ate. We did other work, including behind the scenes work necessary</span> for <span class="font-size-3">her ultimate happiness as our “customer,” as well as work which had nothing to do with her. We even, if there was</span> time<span class="font-size-3">, slipped off to the bathroom. We <em>were</em> thinking of her, but not every minute. But—and here’s what mattered in keeping up the illusion—we were there for her even before she came outside to look for us after school was over, and we were <em>entirely</em> there for her when she did.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">So, I’m going to suggest you throw out the clichéd image of wowing your customers by “rolling out the red carpet” and replace it</span> in <span class="font-size-3">your thinking with “sitting on the red bench” as the ultimate in customer care. In other words, what’s most important isn’t to just put on an all-star show for your customers as much as it’s to manage to create and maintain the illusion that you are always there awaiting your customer, attending to them as if you had nothing else on your agenda that could possibly interfere.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Pull this off and you’re well on your way to guaranteeing yourself a customer for life. Because, really: if you make them feel this way, why would your customer go anywhere else? Even if they did momentarily lapse into trying out one of your competitors, will your customer ever be able to replicate the feeling that they got from you? Unlikely. Very, very unlikely.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2015/03/01/your-customer-is-a-narcissist-embrace-this-reality-to-boost-customer-loyalty-and-engagement/?ss=salesmarketing" target="_blank">Article Link</a></span></p> Did store falsify customer surveys?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-02-16:5283893:Topic:4457182015-02-16T13:02:31.344ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3">At South Coast Subaru in California, a suit filed by Subaru alleges, a group of employees regularly gathered on their lunch hours to falsify customer satisfaction surveys.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The employees had given Subaru bogus customer email addresses so that the surveys would be sent to the employees, not the customers, to fill out, the suit claims.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If the allegations prove true, South Coast Subaru…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">At South Coast Subaru in California, a suit filed by Subaru alleges, a group of employees regularly gathered on their lunch hours to falsify customer satisfaction surveys.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The employees had given Subaru bogus customer email addresses so that the surveys would be sent to the employees, not the customers, to fill out, the suit claims.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If the allegations prove true, South Coast Subaru certainly went rogue in its efforts to boost customer satisfaction scores. But the tale is about far more than one dealership. Subaru's suit highlights friction between factories and dealers over measuring customer satisfaction at dealerships.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Reforms are under way at some automakers, but the problems are a long way from resolved.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Dealers complain that factory customer questionnaires are long and tedious and that the feedback from the forms is slow to get back to them, particularly in the Internet age of instant feedback.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">And many dealers and automakers complain that the forms are too easy for dealership staffers to game, undermining the validity of the scores.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">But the scores remain important because many factories tie substantial bonuses to them. For example, customer satisfaction is a key component for General Motors dealers to receive quarterly bonuses under GM's Standards for Excellence vehicle sales incentive program.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">South Coast Subaru representatives did not return phones calls last week. A Subaru spokesman declined to comment beyond the details in the complaint.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">That a dispute over customer satisfaction surveys made it to court is rare, industry experts said. Usually, disagreements are worked out behind closed doors, said Mike Charapp, an attorney who represents dealers at Charapp & Weiss.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Almost since the inception of the surveys years ago, dealers and automakers have jousted over the appropriateness of dealers appealing to customers for top scores, he said.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">In its complaint, Subaru alleges that in September during the investigation it found that two named and 10 unnamed employees of South Coast Subaru of Costa Mesa in suburban Los Angeles had provided Subaru with phony email addresses for dealership sales and service customers so the surveys could be sent to the employees.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The suit alleges that 224 surveys were filled out by those employees in 2014, thereby boosting the customer satisfaction scores of the store and resulting in bonuses not legitimately earned.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The employees had the surveys emailed to them when real customers' closing documents either didn't contain an email address or had an invalid one, the lawsuit alleges.</span></p>
<h4><span class="font-size-3">Prior remediation</span></h4>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The alleged actions constitute fraud, the suit</span> said, <span class="font-size-3">and would put South Coast Subaru in violation of its dealer agreement with Subaru. Subaru is asking for unspecified repayment of dealership bonuses plus damages.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The civil lawsuit was filed Feb. 6 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division, in Santa Ana.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">According to the suit, South Coast Subaru had been put on a remediation program by Subaru in November 2012 for failing to maintain sufficiently high customer satisfaction scores. It</span> exited <span class="font-size-3">that program in 2013 after improving scores, the suit said.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Subaru discovered during its investigation that the employee-intercepted surveys had been sent from an Internet Protocol, or IP, address located at South Coast Acura, another dealership owned by South Coast, the lawsuit alleges.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Any dealership returning customer satisfaction surveys from a single IP address is sure to be quickly found out, said Chris Travell,</span> vice president <span class="font-size-3">of strategic consulting at MaritzCX.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The firm is a U.S. leader in sending out and analyzing customer satisfaction surveys for the automakers. MaritzCX contacted 160 million U.S. customers last year for sales and service transactions at the dealerships of GM, Ford, Chrysler, Nissan and others.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The filters built into the data-collection software will flag surveys being returned from a single IP address or a handful of in-store addresses, Travell said.</span></p>
<h4><span class="font-size-3">Reform-minded</span></h4>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Moreover, it's a myth that dealership salespeople heavily influence their customers to provide good customer satisfaction scores with pleas that bad scores will result in their firing, Travell said.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Last year, MaritzCX studied the attitudes of consumers on the matter for an unnamed automaker, Travell said.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The study found that just 3 percent of consumers queried said they were influenced in how they filled out their surveys by what a salesperson told them, he said.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Several automakers are looking to reform their customer satisfaction surveys by making them shorter and adding an opportunity for consumers to write a narrative review of their experience rather than being stuck with multiple-choice questionnaires.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">GM, for instance, in January rolled out surveys with 10 questions and space for comment to some customers.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The shorter form is expected eventually to replace the 20-question surveys it has traditionally used. MaritzCX is the survey vendor for the GM brands.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Not only is it expected that short-form surveys will get back to factories and dealers quicker, but the short forms also are more difficult for salespeople to coach, Travell said.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Lawyer Charapp said he'll have to see a lot more evidence in the Subaru case before making any judgments about the dispute.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">He did note, however, that a court finding of fraud against a store could be grounds for terminating a franchise agreement while poor customer satisfaction scores are not.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Charapp said enough experts question the statistical validity of survey scores that courts are reluctant to make them the sole basis for disciplining or terminating a dealership.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20150216/RETAIL07/302169962/did-store-falsify-customer-surveys" target="_blank">Article Link</a></span></p> The Effects of Positive & Negative Customer Service (an InfoGraphic)tag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-01-17:5283893:Topic:4422692015-01-17T23:24:07.003ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311738225?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311738225?profile=original" width="736" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311738225?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311738225?profile=original" width="736" class="align-full"/></a></p> 5 Traits Of Customer-Focused Companiestag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-01-06:5283893:Topic:4410072015-01-06T12:43:40.022ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<p><span class="font-size-3">How do you personally define a customer-focused company?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I’m not talking about a company that claims to be customer-focused but one that genuinely obsesses over improving their customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Year after year, we hear of companies of all sizes wanting to focus more on their customer experience. While some actually use the appropriate resources to be more connected to their…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">How do you personally define a customer-focused company?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I’m not talking about a company that claims to be customer-focused but one that genuinely obsesses over improving their customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Year after year, we hear of companies of all sizes wanting to focus more on their customer experience. While some actually use the appropriate resources to be more connected to their customers, others continue to give lip-service to it. After all, it’s very easy to say you are customer-focused when, in reality, you’re not.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">For nearly a decade, I’ve studied the operations of companies across dozens of industries to make sense of it all. I believe that genuine customer-centric companies exhibit the following five traits.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The CEO Is The Flag Bearer</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">No customer experience program will be sustainable if your CEO isn’t your greatest flag bearer. I’ve seen it time and time again, </span>an executive claims<span class="font-size-3"> to be customer-focused but when push comes to shove they allow sales and marketing to reign supreme.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I’m a HUGE fan of Westjet </span>airlines<span class="font-size-3">, based in Canada, for several reasons. A key reason why I’m bullish on their success is because of their leader, CEO, Gregg Saretsky. I’m a fan of his because he has humanized the way he leads his team. Perhaps, it’s because he use to be a flight attendant before his <a href="http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=102f6a27-2c22-46aa-962d-21566082b6cc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external">climb to being the CEO</a> of the second largest airlines in Canada. I have a friend who works at Westjet’s HQ who </span>speak<span class="font-size-3"> very </span>admirably<span class="font-size-3"> of him. I mean, it’s very rare for me to go to a party and have someone talk to me about their CEO for 30 minutes, while I drink my scotch, but this happened to be earlier this year when one of his team members did so. The CEO, entrepreneur or business leader within your company can’t just wake up one day and care about the company’s customers. They must have it within their DNA as a person because caring about strangers isn’t something that comes natural to most of us.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">It’s very easy to gain media attention and claim to be customer-focused but does your organization continue these efforts at the end of the quarter when you must hit your numbers? Does your company sacrifice the customer experience to save the numbers?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">You Must be Willing To Think Long-Term</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">An organization must understand that if customer experience is going to be at the core of their company then they must be patient.The ROI of customer experience doesn’t develop overnight and is a long term play.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Your customer experience is a collection of events your customer experiences when doing business with you from beginning to end. For example, if you go to a movie </span>theatre<span class="font-size-3">, the experience may begin with you visiting their mobile website to see what movies are playing. When you arrive at the </span>theatre<span class="font-size-3">, you will purchase your ticket, visit the bathroom and buy popcorn at the concession stand. Even before you have watched the movie you already have experienced four customer touchpoints that </span>involves<span class="font-size-3"> marketing, </span>operations<span class="font-size-3"> and sales departments. To be able to recreate or refine your customer </span>experience<span class="font-size-3"> you must include all departments. This takes time. For some companies, this won’t ever happen because of silos that exist within the organization.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Now, think about how long it takes to develop a marketing campaign, a part of your business that is given a far larger budget than your customer experience efforts. I believe traditional marketing, such as radio, </span>tv<span class="font-size-3"> and print, has trained us to be impatient because we can have a marketing campaign up and running in a month or two. If you work with an agency, you can have your radio campaign aired in no time. If you’re a small business, you can have your direct-mail sent out next month.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">My argument is this: you will never be customer-focused if you don’t <em>practice patience</em>. Customer experience WILL grow your business, however, you must be in it for the long haul.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/01/jeff-bezos-on-leading-for-the/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external">says it best</a>,</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">“We are willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">What he means is that he will invest to improve Amazon’s customer experience even if the ROI is 12-24 months away.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Are we going to argue with his success?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Understand Creating Micro Customer Experiences Is Worth The Investment</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">When I was invited to speak at Tangerine Bank’s executive retreat earlier this year, I introduced them to what I call <a href="http://michelfalcon.com/micro-customer-experiences-matter-home-runs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external">micro customer experiences</a>. How I define a </span>micro<span class="font-size-3"> customer experience is a small, subtle, memorable and affordable gesture that will resonate with your customers for years.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Starbucks understands micro customer experiences by writing your name on your cup. A local small business practices micro customer experiences by writing their customers hand written cards that include personalized messages.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">When I introduce this concept to my clients or audience, I can always plan on someone asking,</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">“How do you scale this?”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The answer to this question is quite simple: How much do you care? If you care enough you will find the resources or workflow to scale it.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I’m sure the Starbucks operations team questioned how this would scale as I guess it adds 3-5 seconds to each customer interaction. For the most part, they were able to figure it out.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">A small business owner may think,</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">“I can’t afford to pay someone to write hand written cards to every customer!”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">You can afford to pay someone to do this! After all, don’t you spend 5-15 percent of your top-line revenue on marketing? You can allocate a percentage of your marketing spend and reinvest it into becoming memorable, which will bring you organic revenue through repeat business and referrals.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">For a company to be successful in 2015, customer experience and marketing teams must work together to improve the customer experience and increase customer acquisition through organic marketing such as word of mouth.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Recognize That Customer Experience Is Marketing</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Take a moment to answer this question to yourself before you move forward.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">What comes to mind when you see Zappos’ logo?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Do you think of their customer experience or what font they used?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Do you smile because of the call </span>centre<span class="font-size-3"> employee you spoke to when you ordered your pair of sandals, or do you think of what hue of blue was used to create the footprint in their logo?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Forward-thinking marketing pros understand that customer experience is marketing. You may have heard this before, and agree or disagree, whatever your opinion is, allow me to help you think differently.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The Next Web, one of my favorite tech and business websites, published a post titled, “<a href="http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/12/28/id-rather-email-pay-advertisement/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external">Why I’d Rather Email than Pay for Ads</a>.” If you have a moment to read it, please do. The columnist explains that as an entrepreneur, she’d rather focus on building a double opt-in email list to provide value to her community by producing exceptional content; we know this to be content marketing. Before she pushes a ‘buy from me’ email she first provides value through content on several different occasions, and then asks for a sale.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Seth Godin refers to this approach of marketing as “<a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-mark.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external">permission marketing</a>.” Gary </span>Vaynerchuk,<span class="font-size-3"> wrote an entire book on this approach called <em>Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook</em>.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Providing valuable content to make your customers smarter or more efficient can also be considered customer experience. If you can educate your customers through the content you create, isn’t that providing a better customer experience?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">One of my clients, one of Vancouver’s largest auto dealership groups, is doubling down on their content marketing this year to better educate their customers on their industry. The auto industry has a massive opportunity to make their customers smarter. Personally, I don’t know much about my SUV other than that the right pedal is for go, the left pedal is to stop and that my SiriusXM radio has more than one pre-recorded </span>hip hop<span class="font-size-3"> channel. As a consumer, when I receive an email from them about “5 Things Your Car Needs to Prepare for Winter” I will read it and become a smarter customer. For me, this is a better customer experience than seeing one of their competitors ads on the back of the bus.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><em>Content marketing is powered by producing educational content that enriches your customer’s lives. </em></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Does your marketing team understand that customer experience is marketing? If not, please share this post with them.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">You Must Continuously Invest In Employee Experience</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I come from a very traditional family, and I still go to my family home once a week to have dinner with my parents and sister. A few weeks ago, my father admitted that he doesn’t fully understand what I do. He knows my subject but didn’t understand what steps I take when I consult for a company to improve their customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I began to explain to him that I first audit the company’s employee experience. Where do they recruit their employees? What questions do they ask during the interview process? What’s their </span>on-boarding<span class="font-size-3"> experience like? How do they motivate and reward their team?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I chose to explain this to him first because it’s what I do with my clients. It’s typical for me to receive an email from an entrepreneur or executive who says,</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">“Help us increase our customer loyalty.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I never start with the customer. Ever!</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The most successful companies understand to be successful you must: find great people, give them the tools and education they need to succeed and then get out of the way to allow them to navigate the customer experience.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The other day, I read this Business Insider article about <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nordstroms-business-strategy-is-working-2014-12" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external">Nordstrom’s</a>. The article explains “how Nordstrom’s became the most successful retailer.” The number one reason was because of their dedication to customer service. Within this point, the columnist outlines that they hire “nice, capable people.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">This is exactly why I always start with the employee experience. How on earth are you suppose to deliver a memorable customer experience, one that your customers obsess over, if you don’t have the right team to push your effort forward? Company’s that are customer-focused first become employee-focused.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Does your company focus on your employee experience to improve the customer experience?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">We make business complicated.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Business is as hard as we want to make it for ourselves. Many of you are familiar with <a href="http://michelfalcon.com/about/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external">my story</a> about how I learned my greatest business practices from my grandfather and his fish market in Lima, Peru. If we truly want to be successful, we must be able to take a step back, analyze what is not working in our business or department and trim the fat. After you have done so, review these five traits and ask yourself if you are truly customer-focused.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Now, here’s a tough question. What one trait is the most important to become customer-focused?</span></p>
<p><br/><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/5-traits-customer-focused-companies-01111323" target="_blank">Link to the Article</a></span></p> Click link for survey on CRMstag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-12-21:5283893:Topic:4397182014-12-21T18:31:17.528ZWilcox Auto Saleshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/WilcoxAutoSales
<p>Here is the link to take the survey:</p>
<p><a href="http://survey.constantcontact.com/poll/a07eabeqt7qi3xmw2z0/start.html">http://survey.constantcontact.com/poll/a07eabeqt7qi3xmw2z0/start.html</a></p>
<p>Here is the link to take the survey:</p>
<p><a href="http://survey.constantcontact.com/poll/a07eabeqt7qi3xmw2z0/start.html">http://survey.constantcontact.com/poll/a07eabeqt7qi3xmw2z0/start.html</a></p> What CRM are you using?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-12-20:5283893:Topic:4396712014-12-20T21:26:21.010ZWilcox Auto Saleshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/WilcoxAutoSales
<p>I recently signed up with OCMCRM.com and love them. I was tired of our CRMs turning into desk tools. CRMs were originally designed to follow up with customers. I believe that the one I am using does that better than any other and I would love to hear your feedback. Here is a current offer that they are running and please let them know I referred you :)…</p>
<p>I recently signed up with OCMCRM.com and love them. I was tired of our CRMs turning into desk tools. CRMs were originally designed to follow up with customers. I believe that the one I am using does that better than any other and I would love to hear your feedback. Here is a current offer that they are running and please let them know I referred you :) <a href="https://www.savelocal.com/dealslp/sc_offer?oid=5550743d-f421-4f13-8e9b-5468a87dba78&soid=1119543438518&ss=caaea782-5784-45e1-b459-be5064aa6aaf&src=short">https://www.savelocal.com/dealslp/sc_offer?oid=5550743d-f421-4f13-8e9b-5468a87dba78&soid=1119543438518&ss=caaea782-5784-45e1-b459-be5064aa6aaf&src=short</a></p> 7 phrases that improve the customer experiencetag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-12-16:5283893:Topic:4390792014-12-16T17:09:12.307ZMike Elliotthttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/MikeElliott
<h1 class="entry-title"><img alt="customer experience" class="attachment-be_featured wp-post-image" height="331" src="http://www.customerexperienceinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/157999502.jpg" width="519"></img></h1>
<div class="entry-content"><p><span class="font-size-3">There’s one great, predictable way to keep customers loyal, and this is it:</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><em><strong>Deliver a positive customer experience.</strong></em></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">About 70% of customers say that a positive experience would make them loyal to a company and likely to recommend the company to others, a …</span></p>
</div>
<h1 class="entry-title"><img width="519" height="331" src="http://www.customerexperienceinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/157999502.jpg" class="attachment-be_featured wp-post-image" alt="customer experience"/></h1>
<div class="entry-content"><p><span class="font-size-3">There’s one great, predictable way to keep customers loyal, and this is it:</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><em><strong>Deliver a positive customer experience.</strong></em></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">About 70% of customers say that a positive experience would make them loyal to a company and likely to recommend the company to others, a <a href="http://www.newvoicemedia.com/en-us/news/corporate/the-multibillion-dollar-cost-of-poor-customer-service/" target="_blank">NewVoiceMedia study</a> found.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Delivering one isn’t be too hard, either, considering customers cited having a “positive” experience with businesses they work with. Still, they didn’t cite having “exceptional,” “beyond my expectations” or “extraordinary” experiences.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">But the bottom line is: Customers want their <a title="Customers want more: 5 new expectations you must meet now" href="http://www.customerexperienceinsight.com/customer-expectations-you-must-meet-now/" target="_blank">expectations met</a>, and they’ll remain loyal for it.</span></p>
<h2><span class="font-size-3">Everyday tactics to try</span></h2>
<p><span class="font-size-3">To boost loyalty, your customer experience professionals can use these phrases, which create fast satisfaction:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“Tell me what I can do for you today.”</strong> It’s more intimate than, “How can I help you?” and suggests you aren’t just anticipating what they want. Instead, you’re inviting them to tell you.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“I take full responsibility.”</strong> If you (or the organization) made a mistake, it’s expected. But if you didn’t make the mistake, it’s still important to say it in the context that you’ll take full responsibility for the desired solution.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“I will keep you updated.”</strong> In this case, the action is more important than the words. Let customers know the intervals at which you’ll update them — and then do it. For instance, “I’ll contact you by 4 p.m. every day until the repair is finished.”</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“Let me find out for you.”</strong> It’s the ideal thing to say when you don’t know the answer to their queries immediately. You’re setting a realistic expectation for a reliable response.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“I have a solution for that.”</strong> It gives immediate reassurance that customers have reached someone who can and will help.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“Contact me directly at … when you need something.”</strong> Nothing builds loyalty like the feeling of a personal, inside track to help.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“I appreciate your business.”</strong> Merely thanking customers for contacting you and ordering or reporting a problem doesn’t convey how important customers are to the organizations. Remind them that you want them to remain loyal.</span></li>
</ul>
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