The Venus Report - THE NOT SO SECRET TO SERVICE

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

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More new businesses fail in the first 5 years, than succeed.

Being a business owner myself, I take great interest in watching the new businesses that succeed and grow.

One lesson that comes out time and time again is how truly great service sets a winning business apart from its competitors.

Coming from a family of retailers, I spent my school holidays on the floor in my Grandmother's shoe store.

Looking back, I was privileged to have this extensive early exposure to all these grown up women in their natural habitat, going through their decision making processes:

The princess in her shoe heaven, constantly balancing left and right brain information.

Every piece of my 7 year old DNA remembers the theatre of consideration, justification and emotions that played out as women went through the lovely ordeal of trying to buy a pair of shoes.

My Grandma would throw herself at the feet of her customers, getting down on her knees to check the fit with the professional zeal of a passionate and caring salesperson.

She always seemed to know the right questions to ask, and would seemingly develop empathy with a customer so effortlessly that all the while I thought she was just checking the fit of a particular shoe.

Whilst her customer would strut a few steps admiring the fine Italian designs, she would future-proof the investment for these women.

Her eldest son, Peter Sheppard, would later quote her sales technique when he’d announce at the end of his TV ads ""My mother always said you can tell by the look on a woman's face if her shoes fit"".

I would take these sales floor lessons on unwittingly, and they came to mean something to me when I myself started selling on a shop floor.

Working part time as a Pharmacy assistant for 7 years, I was innately equipped with the skill of empathy and service. Today with my clients I still practice this.

These are four lessons I gleaned from providing great service to customers:

1.   Be acutely tuned in to the needs of your customer. Are they rushed, are they looking for engagement, do they want help, do they need you to be a sounding board?

2.   Can you help them beyond the reason they are in your store? Do they want to look at any other purchases? Is there something arriving in store next week they might be interested in?

3.   They are about to part with money. Can you reassure them, offer them validation for their purchase and remove that toxic post purchase dissonance?

4.   Is the transaction genuine? If you want your customers to come back – don’t go for an insincere pushy sale that will ultimately be a one hit wonder. Make it a truly rewarding experience for the customer. That way they’ll come back, because those shoes truly fit and the investment paid off.

Recently I took a gamble on booking in at a new hair salon that opened. I’d been watching it for months. The décor got better over time which seemed to tell me they were making profit and investing it back into their business. A good service signal.

Well, it delivered. Their service was impeccable.

They showed empathy with me, took the time to deliver what I had asked for, up sold me a hair treatment, threw in an extra special head massage. Before I knew it, I’d agreed to the next appointment and they’d given me a voucher for a free treatment and blow wave.

It was a service-oriented transaction, and one that I feel happy about.

They worked out the secret to retain customers with charm and ease and it reminded me of that proverb my grandma understood so well.

If the shoe fits, you do wear it.

Monday, September 17, 2007 3:30:45 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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