Create a Good Memory
- Monday, July 26, 2010
Ease and convenience are two major things that customers report as being important to them. That’s what makes internet ordering so popular. But if you sell face-to-face with your customers, you need to focus on the “ease” part I mentioned, and ask yourself “how much at ease” are my customers when they buy from me?
As a case in point, a friend of mine stopped shopping at a very convenient grocery store. She passed this store every day on her way home from work and often stopped to pick something up for dinner. But she usually left feeling like she’d been an inconvenience to the people who worked there. The cashiers were often sullen. Their greetings to customers came across as automated, yet they joked around with each other. Sometimes they walked slowly off to find a price code and came back five minutes later . . . while she waited in line. She started calling it the Bad Attitude Grocery Store, or “BAGS” for short. Finally, the bad experiences made her dread stopping at that grocery store, so she drove three miles out of her way to a different store. Turns out the selection is better (who knew?) and she doesn’t have to put up with grumpy people at the end of each work day.
Don’t create bad shopping memories for your customers. Its not enough to teach your employees to parrot customer service lines such as “did you find everything you need?” or “hello, how are you?” especially if its obvious that they don’t mean it. Put your customers at ease with genuine friendliness. Treat others the way you would like to be treated and drop the phony baloney.
If you serve up a good customer experience, you will create a favorable memory that can be the basis of a long-term relationship. A positive experience increases the likelihood of re-purchase and positive word of mouth, the two things that directly impact your bottom line.Labels: customer service, Generating Word of Mouth Advertising (WOMAD), marketing strategy
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Procrastination
- Sunday, July 11, 2010
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. We all do it, to some degree, but I like to have my schedule planned out well in advance. I work ahead on most things, mainly to leave room for last minute things I can’t control . . . um, like other people’s procrastination. When I rely on someone to deliver something on time and complete--- and they say they will---I tend to believe they mean it. But procrastinators are a different breed. Their idea of a deadline is more like an ever-changing mirror in the carnival Fun House. They see what’s in front of them, but it just doesn’t seem real.
Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. They say it can result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments. Making a habit of procrastinating is career sabotage. Your boss or co-workers will soon lose patience with you if you cause THEM stress or put a project in crisis.
Don’t wait until the last minute, especially if your part of a project gets passed to the person who is responsible for the final outcome. Your sloppiness dumps problems on others, and will earn you a reputation for being unreliable or careless. Procrastination not only causes resentment, but its a nasty habit that can put your job in jeopardy. TALK to everyone involved in a project, coordinate schedules prior to the job being a rushed panic job, then get started!Labels: job performance, missing deadlines, procrastination, teamwork
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