Make Every Contact Count

A few years ago a retail company hired me to consult with them about why their advertising didn’t work. I first reviewed the amount of traffic in the store, the direct result of the advertising. It was healthy, indicating that the advertising did work in getting people to come shop. Upon further tracking, however, I found that only 7 out of every 100 people coming into the store made a purchase.

They had an astonishing 93% walkout rate!

It wasn’t the advertising that didn’t work. It was the employees who didn’t work.

The employees were ignoring the customers. When I delved into this problem with the employees their reason for the behavior seemed perfectly logical to them. The employees claimed that most people prefer to just browse when they first come into the store, so they let them browse.

The employees didn’t think they were ignoring customers. They didn’t realize that a customer who is unacknowledged feels unappreciated. They also didn’t realize that customers who feel unappreciated take their business somewhere else.

At each contact with your customer you should never assume they are just looking. Even if they are, they need to be treated as if they are the most valuable customers you have.

As you look for ways to increase sales, be sure you are following best practices in customer relationship marketing. These include:

Always greet a customer promptly. If you are a face-to-face business such as retail, restaurants or hospitality, that means within 3 seconds. If your contacts are by phone, don’t keep your customer on hold while you “finish up” something at your desk. Respond to your emails. If emails come in while you are away from your desk, acknowledge that you were out and just got back when you send your reply. Make the customer feel valued.

Build rapport by engaging customers in conversation. When I get to this part of my customer service training with clients the objection I most often get is that “many customers don’t want to engage in talk.” The reason is that too often sales and service people talk at customers, not with them.

Show interest in the customer personally and you’ll see a change. Whether we want to admit it or not, for all of us, the most fascinating conversation is the conversation about ourselves. If your conversation is about the customer, the customer will respond.

Be a good listener. It takes practice to develop good listening skills. The average person forgets 50% of what he or she hears within 10 minutes of the conversation. By really listening you will find the customer will tell you how to sell to them. The customer will share concerns about things that matter to them such as price, quality, ease of use, etc. Those are clues, letting you know where they need to be reassured.

Customers may also disclose information about areas of interest to them not related to your product or service. This is an opportunity for you to connect at a friendly level. It is a fact that people do business with people they like.

Don’t prejudge a customer. One of my favorite true stories about the pitfalls of prejudging is from an upscale clothing retailer. They carried top men’s and women’s brands and sold the most expensive clothing in the area. Most of their clientele were white-collar professionals – bankers, lawyers, accountants, executives, business owners, etc.

One of the cleaning ladies in my office building had a son who started what became a very successful limousine service. He was throwing a black-tie Christmas party for his employees and wanted his mother to be there. She was so excited. She told me, in her hard-to-understand mix of Spanish and English, that she had several thousand dollars with her that day and was going to this retail store to purchase a fabulous formal dress for the party.

She walked into the store, wearing her cleaning lady clothes of jeans and an old baggy shirt, and was totally ignored. Since she really wanted a fabulous dress, she approached the sales counter and asked (again in her bad English) for someone to help her. Instead of responding to her request and waiting on her, one sales clerk told her she didn’t think they would have anything appropriate for her. That sales clerk let $3,000 walk out of the store. (One is reminded of the shopping scene with Julia Roberts in the movie Pretty Woman.)

Prejudging people based on their clothes or other aspects of their appearance is bad for business. We are all conditioned at some level to react to various characteristics. While employees may not be able to control that, they can control their behavior and not allow what they feel to affect how they act when dealing with customers and prospects.

One of my favorite books about customer service is Jack Mitchell’s book Hug Your Customers. As Mitchell explains in his book, “Customers should be the center of your world. …Without them, you have no business. …Hug your customers and they will hug you back.”

Take a look at the contacts you make with your customers. Are the contacts only initiated by the customers? What do you do to initiate contacts? Are you taking the time to let customers know you are thinking of them? Are you making them feel important? Do you have a customer relationship management program as part of your strategy?

Are you creating a business culture where employees are encouraged, trained, and rewarded for knowing your customers and providing extraordinary experiences for them?

As the economy sputters and lags, with no real turnaround expected in the near future, pay more attention to your customers than ever before. People are still spending money. Where they spend it can be a decision as basic as “with businesses that care about them.”

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