SimpleBiz360 Podcast

I saw a commercial on television for the pain management center in my area. They were proud of their 10 years of service to the community, and they put a nice advertisement out to encourage people to use their services. It got me thinking; Do many companies attempt to mitigate, or eradicate customer pain points? Imagine what our businesses would look like if we just focused on the top three customer pain points, and then we actually eradicated them. It's another way of promoting continuous improvement. If you've never engaged in anything like this, maybe it's time to start doing it now?Support the show

The “Experience Economy” is large and in charge in today's business world. Often times if is the “HOW” we provide services that override the “WHAT” we provide. It sounds inverted, but it is reality in many cases. Customer perceptions are now heavily leaning into the “HOW” we do business . Good perceptions provide our sails with some needed wind at our backs, while negative perceptions leave our boats at a standstill. To compete in today's business world, we must address that “HOW” factor with as much fervor as we do the “WHAT”. The good news is that unhealthy service reveals itself in patterns that are repeated with regularity. This makes unhealthy service easy to find if we are looking. Maybe it's time to become a pattern detective within your own company?Support the show

Customers place high value on vendors that display reliability and consistency. If so, then why do so many companies deliver service when, and how it is convenient for them. We address this in out book. Service When It Is Convenient For Us (SWIICFU) is far too common in today's business world. It is a company-centric model versus what should be a customer-centric model. What say you? Is it time to shed your SWIICFU mindset in exchange for a model that better serves customers?Support the show

Customer issues often repeat themselves, and carry the same characteristics time over time. Knowing this, does your company address the deeper problem of why issues are repetitive and reoccurring, or do you just try and fix the current issue without a deep dive? Imagine what your business would look like if you took aim at never having the same problem happen a second time? Maybe it's time to set up issue resolution protocols that fix the deeper problems causing customer dissatisfaction?Support the show

Expectations are a grossly overlooked aspect of modern business. Some companies never address expectations for customers, while many companies set few expectations. As a result, these types of businesses can easily go about servicing customers when, and how it is convenient for the business. However, best-in-class companies actually publish expectations, and then take aim at providing service that exceeds those stated expectations. This mindset will surprise customers, satisfy them, and pave the road ahead for healthy repeat and referral transaction rates. Maybe it's time to start aiming at this classic best-on-class service mindset?Support the show

Search is the optimal word. Customers will very rarely tell you that they are leaving, and why they are leaving. You have to go find the information, filter it, investigate, and then fix it. The cost to reinvent a lost customer is far too expensive to do on a routine basis. The road to customer loyalty is paved by not making the same mistake twice. Your future is an four R (RRRR) proposition. Retain. Repeat. Refer. Reap.Support the show

It sounds like a funny question right? The truth is, many companies try to pass self-inflicted repair costs onto customers. This video highlights one of the many times I've seen it play out in real life with customers. If you want to win customers to your cause, and grow your repeat and referral business, then we suggest you pay the bill for repairing mistakes you have made. Charging the customers, and hiding the repair cost in some other line item, will only lose you positive reviews, and cripple the health of your future business.Support the show

It feels like this concept has taken a backseat over the past few decades. However, standard operating procedures are a great way to regiment your business so that you can train new associates, deliver better customer satisfaction, and create profitable guard rails for your business. If you have never sat down and mapped out the standardization of your procedures, we would highly recommend you doing so. It can be a fun project, and can really cut down on margin erosion, while creating better customer service.Support the show

If you're groping as to how to begin and end an email, or phone conversation, following the CPA method will take the anxiety out of the process. Simply inject an opening salvo of courtesy, then outline the reason you are corresponding with the customer, and then conclude by stating the action you are asking the customer to complete. It's simple, quick, fail safe, and admired by readers. If you stick to this simple CPA method, your business correspondence style will stand out as best-in-class.Support the show

Verbally cutting to the chase has become an acceptable business norm. However, in doing so, we often bypass opportunities to ask our customers about their lives. If we know they've battled illness, or tragedy, or have been on cool vacations, or have taken time off, wouldn't it be nice just to ask them how they're doing with any of those subject matters? Don't you think they would appreciate that? Next time you default to start cutting to the chase, pause, and strongly consider asking a couple human interest questions to demonstrate your interest in their world.Support the show

My son-in-law is a DJ, so he constantly needs to have fresh content to use as transition segues. As a result, he processes everyday life situations as possible opportunities for content, and he is really good at it. If we follow that same mindset, we can bump into life experiences that are actually transferrable to our businesses in the form of continuous improvement. All we have to do is pay attention, listen, filter, and then creatively transfer these observances to our own businesses.Support the show

As vendors, we are in the business of winning customers to our side. Being polite was a given during the 1900's. However, nowadays politeness is being dismissed, and replaced by speed of mission. When was the last time you took a step back and looked for politeness in your dealings with customers? If you don't find it, we highly encourage you to view politeness as a sign of respect for potential customers, current customers, and associates. Your repeat and referral business will appreciate it.Support the show

We live and work in a world that is so fast paced, that we only have about 30 seconds to make a good first impression. What are you doing with that first 30 seconds with a potential customer? Are you planning this out? Are you rehearsing the dialogue? Are you considering human interest, and human relations principles as you manage your team, and their handling of first impressions?Support the show

Deliverables must equate to what expectations were promised. Otherwise, promises made are nothing more than empty words that often create negative customer experiences. Too many negative experiences, and your company will be on the next bus to the business boneyard. We encourage you to make sure the Omelette delivered to table # 9, looks just like the picture in the menu. We encourage you to make sure promises are reinforced by a proven track record of delivering what you promise, not what you think you will deliver, or what you hope to deliver. Support the show

Sometimes when we try and fix a customer problem, we bump into the discovery that we are making things confusing, and complicated for customers. How cool would it be if a team of employees were to go out and look at every aspect of the business, and uncover other opportunities to exchange complication with simplification? This could be a fun summertime project. Simplicity is admired by most customers.Support the show

The business landscape is littered with scads of operators that tend to sweep issues under the rug, rather than roll up their sleeves and try to fix issues. Problem sweepers are a dime a dozen. Sweepers are easy to find, but solvers are a rare commodity in today's world of apathetic workers. Next time you're confronted with a difficult issue, we encourage you to look at it as an opportunity in disguise. Issue resolution allows a worker to develop new problem-solving skill sets. Problem solvers win the hearts of associates and customers, and they can command higher salaries than sweepers.Support the show

People feel disconnected and uncomfortable when they're having a conversation with someone who is only half listening. What amazes me, is how many times we choose to do this in business. Why? If you are trying to win a potential customer to your side, why would you only give them half of your attention in the process? If this is you…perhaps you should think about paying full attention to someone who might be spending money with your company.Support the show

Eye to eye contact builds connectivity during a business conversation. Looking down, or looking away creates customer uneasiness, feelings of alienation, and heightened skepticism. Teach, train and manage, consistent eye to eye contact with buyers, and watch your customer loyalty increase.Support the show

Creating customer confusion is one of the quickest ways to eliminate potential repeat and referral business. To avoid falling into this trap, one of the easiest fixes is to make sure your company is using the same terminology whether you're talking to an associate, or a customer. This will ensure seamless conversations, comprehension clarity and margin protection.Support the show

Each touchpoint creates an opportunity for a customer impression. However, very few owners, or executives, have ever counted the number of touchpoints in an average transaction. With that said, it's hard to manage customer satisfaction if you can't identify and measure satisfaction. Impressions are good and bad, and research shows it takes about 10-12 positive impressions to erase one bad impression. Maybe it's time to start charting, training and managing touchpoints? If not, then buckle up, because your are on a road that will take you anywhere it wants to go!Support the show

Perpetual procrastination can literally send your company to the boneyard. How? As proprietors, we constantly see opportunities for improvement, but we rarely act on them. In many cases, these missed opportunities might be costly enough to sink your company. I know because I have lived out this scenario in one of my business failures. If you're constantly procrastinating, why don't you try waking up tomorrow and start hunting for three, small ways to improve your business. Not wholesale changes…just minor tweaks to product development, administration, customer service or processes. If you were to install three, one percent changes, you would have 36 improvements in the course of one calendar year. The results could literally save a sinking ship! It might be time to put perpetual procrastination in your rearview mirror.Support the show

One of the biggest time wasters in business, and a large contributor to margin erosion, is being in the habit of touching the same thing multiple times. Streamlined businesses, mega-profitable businesses, and many well-run manufacturers realize the significance of touching things one time only. If you want to decrease touches, then we have a great place to start. We suggest you begin your improvement journey with your incoming email and postal mail. Simply open it, read it, process it, and file it. If you start doing this on a regular basis, you'll find that your streamlined task management mindset will create more quality time to devote to other business duties.Support the show

This is a classic contributor to broken promises. So many customers get upset at vendors who dropped the ball. Customers often chalk this up to a vendor that they think is inept and incapable, when in fact, the vendor is overcommitted. Are you overcommitted? Do you suffer from FOMO when it comes to taking on jobs? If so, we encourage you to think about taking on what you can handle.Support the show

Sounds like a silly question, but you would be shocked at how many of us vendors miss the mark time, and time again. Most of our customers are given the name, “Hey”, when we could easily address them by their name. Maybe it's time to take a good hard look at how many times you call a customer “Hey”, when you could call them by name? Always remember, to that person, their name is the sweetest sound they could hear. Increase your repeat and referral business by making one, simple change as to how you say hello to customers.Support the show

Have you ever examined your business through the lens of identifying pain points in your business? It's a great exercise, and can be very fruitful. Every once in while assemble your team for a story-telling session. Encourage them to share their stories that illustrate customer pain points with your business. Once identified, get rid of them and replace them with customer-pleasing methods of handling that experience component of your transaction process.Support the show

Sounds like a funny question right? Well I just ran into a very strange situation a few months ago, and I feel compelled to share it. I was leaving a voice message for a vendor when I heard a bunch of F-bombs coming from him as I was leaving my message. Apparently, the vendor never stopped recording, and it eventually captured an inter-office business conversation laced with vendor F-bombs. The F-bombs start revealing themselves about 10 seconds after the vendor voice message finishes, but the caller never hears a beep prompting the caller to start leaving their message. Imagine how many customers, or better yet, potential customers, have heard this, but never said anything to the vendor. I called the vendor to let him know, and he was flabbergasted. Maybe it's time to check your voice message. Keep listening to make sure it doesn't contain something potentially embarrassing, or damaging to business opportunities. Support the show

In today's world, so many buyers have one eyebrow up when they meet with vendors. A classic, and easily detectable mistake is when vendors rely on assertions instead of claims. What's the difference? A claim is a statement that can be backed up with evidence, and an assertion is a baseless statement with little, to no evidence as back up. Where do you and your customer facing teams fall? Maybe it's time to make sure that you're using claims instead of assertions?Support the show

I learned a valuable, and painful lesson years ago. I met three customers for important lunch, and for the second time, I was 15 minutes late. Little did I know that the leader of the customer group was an ex-marine, and punctuality was a standard operating procedure for him. As I greeted everyone and sat down… I got my head handed to me. From that day on, I have worked diligently on trying to be punctual in business. It's probably one of my biggest weaknesses in business, and life. I constantly try to get better at it. What say you? Where do you fall in the spectrum of punctuality? What improvements can you make?Support the show

This concept may get a chuckle or two. However, this operating tenant is often times skimmed over in the board rooms and training rooms. The customer experience is set on the right axis if the vendor displays genuine politeness. This is especially important in the first 30 seconds of a business relationship. Starting the transaction, and continuing the transaction with the common thread of politeness will enhance positive reviews for each customer experience. It's simple, yet grossly overlooked. Maybe it's time to find out what your customers think of you? Don't be shy… ask the question and be prepared to be a little shocked.Support the show

Customers find great comfort when their vendors operate in patterns that are consistent, and good for the customer. Inconsistency is one of the most common occurrences in business today. The companies that flourish are those that operate with a set of standard operating procedures that becomes an insurance policy for consistency.Support the show

Successful businesses don't live on the extremes where people either really like you, or really dislike you. Successful businesses, learn how to win the middle staying away from the exterior. Utilizing the tenants of professionalism is the best way to avoid the traps of being on the outer edges. Winning the middle acts is like an insurance policy that leads to healthy repeat and referral customers levels.Support the show

Business streakers are fast operators who vanish just before they get the project ball across the finish line. These enthusiastic beginners magically disappear at critical times. As a result, customer projects yawn past expected completion dates, and the streaker fails to answer crucial phone calls, emails, text messages, or knocks on the door. Poof! Gone! Nowhere to be found! Then all of a sudden, like an unexpected sand storm, the streaker reappears to frantically bring the project across the finish line with a flurry of issues, mistakes and excuses. If you are a company leader, we encourage you to locate your streakers, and then STOP them before they ruin your company. Retrain them if possible, or remove them. This is why customers detest business streakers. Customers want even-keeled project management that avoids streaky service hampered by problems!Support the show

We are going to flip the tables and talk about customers for one minute. As vendors attempt to provide quality services, questions may arise that need customer input, or direction. The customers can be both invoice-paying customers, or internal associates. Regardless, I have watched many transactions travel through time-wasting, and money-wasting rapids that could have been avoided with expedient, and comprehensive customer feedback. Do you want smooth and timely transactions? Okay, then answer 100% of the questions you are asked, and answer them with punctuality! Quality transactions are usually paid for with the two-sided, customer/vendor coin. Support the show

This can be a fun, simple and productive exercise. Start by asking yourself for the top three things that irritate you when you purchase something? Then, hunt within your own company to see if these pain points exist within your operational structure. Once found, eradicate them and replace them with customer-pleasing services. Do this exercise periodically, and turn your lemons into saleable lemonade.  Support the show

Design well. Manufacture to exceed expectations. Take no shortcuts. Audit properly. Audit regularly. Be the customer. Constantly improve. Imagine if you were to run your company with these seven principals? The result could be a premium price that you explain once, and that is defended by exceptional deliverables.Support the show

Do you want to deliver a pleasant surprise to your customers? Do you want to look fresh and exciting to customers? If so, all you have to do is take ownership of you actions, and retire the societal trend of blame-shifting. Novel. Humble. Endearing. Lucrative. Make action ownership a hallmark of your company, and watch your business grow!Support the show

Many companies put the cart before the horse by expecting customers to trust them first, rather than earning trust through action. Has your company inverted the trust relationship? Repeat and referral business grows for companies that consistently demonstrate trustworthiness. Do your actions back up your marketing and sales claims? Are you expecting and demanding trust from customers, or are you willing to be an earner?Support the show

We live in a feature driven product world. Buttons, modes, settings and codes accompany so many products we buy. But what benefits do all these features serve? If you are not in the habit of explaining what the features do for customers, now would be a great time to start generating effective ways to explain the benefits of all these buttons, modes, settings, and codes.Support the show

This is a classic example of putting yourself in the customer shoes. If you want to make customers happy, do your very best to eliminate mysteries. The best place to start is to voluntarily provide information that addresses the questions of why. If you can prevent your customers from asking unnecessary questions, they will love you for a long time, and refer your company to other people.Support the show

The majority of our business correspondence is quickly embracing minimalistic content over comprehensiveness. In other words, we are leaning into communications that look like texts instead of letters. If this is you, are you confusing customers more than assisting them? Is your communication becoming too abbreviated and cryptic? Are you creating a cache of customer defections? If so, maybe it's time to be brief, clear and succinct!Support the show

Changing customer expectations mid-transaction is usually a dangerous proposition. If you want to increase repeat and referral business, make sure that your deliverables meet the expectations that you advertise.Support the show

Most customers like vendors that employ sales and service personnel who make things happen. There is nothing more frustrating to customers than to watch their orders handled sluggishly. In addition, customers love vendors that can solve problems quickly, efficiently, creatively, and with tenacity. If your customer facing employees lack these inherent qualities, it's probably time to move to Plan B which is a focus on hiring initiators who can lead.Support the show

Business issues that have no immediate solutions are rather common. What's uncommon are vendors that meet problems with multiple solutions that are ready to plug and play. No one likes to hear about problems unless they can also hear about remedies. We encourage you to find ways to be a remedy centric company who focuses on creative problem-solving.Support the show

Often times we overlook the significance of providing customers with voluntary updates. Information is KING. Information is powerful. The value of putting customers at ease is hard to quantify, because it is almost priceless! Demonstrating good order stewardship is proving that you care about the customer's money. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then information given away, keeps your customers happy today.Support the show

“Tell them what they want to hear to shut them up!” “Keep the deal rolling…tell them what they want to hear.” “Don't lose the deal…tell them whatever you want…just don't lose the deal.” “I don't care what you tell them…they better not cancel the deal.” Do these lines sound familiar? If so, take a look at how many customers got a line of BS from your company similar to the previous quotes. Customers are smart…much smarter than we care to admit. Today is a GREAT day to stop the BS, and start telling customers what they deserve to hear.Support the show

If you want to win over millennial and and Gen Z buyers, being authentic is essential for vendors. Be real. Be genuine. Be transparent Be honest. Be humble.Support the show

Customers want vendors who are primarily classified as doers. Customers want orders to flow seamlessly. They want action. They don't want lip service, they don't want clever schemes, they don't want blame shifting… They just want vendors who do what they say they're going to do. Ready. Set. Go.Support the show

Imagine reading one business skill-building book with a goal of obtaining three take-aways? Imagine doing this once a month for 12 months? With 36 new skills sets in one year, imagine the goals you could achieve, the raise you could get, or the new job you could obtain? Skills are transferrable from one job to the next. It all starts by cultivating a mindset to acquire new business skill sets! If you don't know where to start, then we suggest you start With Dale Carnegie's book entitled “How To Win Friends & Influence People.”Support the show

Our fast-paced business world is moving further away from this principle. What would happen if we made a deliberate effort to talk with our customers? It's a simple question about a lost art! We encourage you to carve out some time to bond with your customers. They will love it, and you will pick up many, many ideas that can be used for continuous improvement! Support the show

Imagine a high school football team that never practices, and only shows up to the games. They would be a disaster. Now replace the football team with your customer service team. Why do we let customer service reps play the game, without practicing with them to ensure they are creating positive customer experience experiences? Role-playing is like practicing. It is essential for success. When will you start role-playing with your team?Support the show

Business is a two sided coin. One side is what you sell. The other side is how you sell it. Each side of that coin creates customer experiences. Is your company actively dissecting all of the experiences you create? Are you sometimes overlooking the “how you sell” side of your business?Support the show