Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Disrupt Your Competition Through Customer Amazement with Shep Hyken
Transcript
- 0:00The basic difference is how you go about it.
- 0:02At the end of the day, the expectation is I wanna be happy.
- 0:05I want you to do what you said you were gonna do If you can give me a service experience
- 0:09that's even just a little above average all the time, that's amazing.
- 0:13I'll probably come back.
- 0:15Hi.
- 0:16This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady host of the small Bizchett podcast.
- 0:20I want to serve you.
- 0:21This pandemic has been so hard on America's small businesses and on just America in
- 0:26general.
- 0:27If you're ready to start your dream business, boy, do I have a great offer for you?
- 0:31I am giving away 1000 copies of my best selling book, become your own boss in 12 months.
- 0:37Over a hundred thousand people have this book is been printed in multiple languages around
- 0:42the world, and I wanted to find a way to serve America's small businesses in this pandemic And
- 0:48so I am giving away a 1000 copies of my book.
- 0:51All you have to do to get your copy is head over to beginmybiz.com slash free offer to, you
- 0:58know, sign up for your copy.
- 1:00All you have to do is pay shipping, and we will mail one out to you.
- 1:03I am so excited about this.
- 1:05I wanna serve you grab your copy today.
- 1:08I left off.
- 1:10Ending small business failure.
- 1:12Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert, Melinda
- 1:18Emerson.
- 1:19Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
- 1:23you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
- 1:27Now here's the small biz lady herself.
- 1:30Melinda Emerson.
- 1:33Hi, everyone.
- 1:34I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
- 1:36America's number one small business expert.
- 1:39And I'm so excited to welcome you to small fish chat live.
- 1:43Now for nearly the last 10 years, I have hosted small fish chat every week live on Twitter
- 1:49answering your small business question.
- 1:51Our mission here is to end small business failure.
- 1:54We're here to give you information that's gonna help you live your dream life as an
- 1:59entrepreneur.
- 2:01I have customer service and customer experience expert Shep Hagan, he is here tonight.
- 2:07He's gonna drop some knowledge on us about how we can be better in our businesses and disrupt
- 2:13our competitors.
- 2:14So with that, let me introduce my guest and my longtime friend, Shep Heikkin.
- 2:19He is a customer service expert as I already told you.
- 2:22But he is also the chief amazement officer of his company, Shepherd, presentation.
- 2:29And he's a New York Times And Wall Street Journal best selling author, and he has been
- 2:33inducted into the Hall of Fame for the National Speakers Association and the and he also has
- 2:39won the Lifetime Achievement Award for speaking professionals, and he is passionate about
- 2:45helping small business owners leverage great customer service to have loyal customers.
- 2:50So I am so excited chef to have you here with me tonight.
- 2:54It is a pleasure and honor, and I am flattered to be here.
- 2:58Well, listen.
- 2:59I don't I wanna jump right in because I know you have so many pearls of wisdom to share with
- 3:05us tonight.
- 3:05So let's just start it right off.
- 3:07You know, how can you disrupt the competition or even entire industry?
- 3:13Why?
- 3:13Just give them great service.
- 3:14I had how do you do that?
- 3:17Well, first of all, let's step back for a moment and recognize customers are smarter than
- 3:22ever before.
- 3:23They're experiencing great service from companies like Amazon and other great notable
- 3:29companies.
- 3:29And what's happened is these companies have raised the bar to a point where other
- 3:35companies, even in in, they're not the same industry, have to set their, service standards
- 3:41higher.
- 3:41Now how do you take that to the next level is not just to deliver good service, friendly,
- 3:46knowledgeable.
- 3:47It's also to be convenient.
- 3:49That was the thesis in whole concept behind my last book.
- 3:52And I recognize that the reason I love to write about all these different companies over the
- 3:57years in my different books and articles because they're just easier to do business
- 4:01with.
- 4:01And if you can create an easy experience on top of an already good customer service experience,
- 4:08you can disrupt your competition as well as maybe an industry.
- 4:11Think about what Uber did to the entire taxicab industry.
- 4:15So easy to get a car to come and pick you up and take you where you're supposed to be.
- 4:19So that's the bottom line.
- 4:21I love it.
- 4:22I love it.
- 4:23And you're exactly right because taxi drivers are horrible.
- 4:26They're rude.
- 4:27Their cabs are dirty.
- 4:29And somebody else came along and said, look.
- 4:30We're gonna send you a nice clean car.
- 4:32Somebody smiling at you to pick you up.
- 4:34It's like, oh, novel concept.
- 4:36And I didn't know who you are when you get in the car.
- 4:39And you know how far away they are from picking you up, and you know how much it's gonna cost
- 4:44before you even agree to the trip.
- 4:46And when you get of the car, you don't even have to pay them at that moment.
- 4:49They just automatically how's that for a good work?
- 4:52Autumn.
- 4:52I love it.
- 4:53It it it it comes out of your your credit card payment.
- 4:56The only friction that they have not been able to eliminate is the actual drive in the car.
- 5:02But Right.
- 5:04Right.
- 5:05Over you're gonna have to put up with that little bit of friction, which is get in the car
- 5:08and drive with somebody.
- 5:09Well, here's the thing.
- 5:10I don't put up with that friction because I only use Uber car.
- 5:14I got I got tired of surprise experiences, in the back of Uber.
- 5:19So I decided to level the playing field for myself.
- 5:23But listen, I know that, subscription services seem to be Yeah.
- 5:28Plumbing more and more popular with a lot of industries.
- 5:31A whole freemium free trial than than, you know, while I, you're you're a monthly
- 5:36customer.
- 5:37What do you think of this business model and and and And, you know, how can small business
- 5:41owners really leverage it?
- 5:42Sure.
- 5:42Well, it's one of the 6 convenience principles, and that is the subscription model.
- 5:47So think about your consumables.
- 5:49What do your customers use on a regular basis?
- 5:52And if you can deliver it on a regular basis where they don't have to pick up the phone and
- 5:57you go online and order it or go to a store and get it, well, now you've got an opportunity.
- 6:01Give some them something ongoing.
- 6:04So, even today, the car industry.
- 6:07Automobile manufacturers are recognizing consumers.
- 6:11Their customers don't need to own a car.
- 6:13They don't even wanna rent a car.
- 6:14They just wanna subscribe to the car, and there's a number of brands, but I love the
- 6:18Porsche example where you can subscribe at different levels to a Porsche.
- 6:22Depending on which level you subscribe to, even at the lowest level, you'll have a choice.
- 6:26Do you wanna, a convertible this week?
- 6:28And then you can switch to a different one.
- 6:30And you just pay a monthly fee.
- 6:32No insurance, no maintenance, just a flat monthly fee.
- 6:35But let's make it simpler than that.
- 6:38And it's not about, newspapers and magazine subscriptions.
- 6:42Dog food chewy.com has turned into a big business starting as a small business.
- 6:46You would have to go to the store, pick up your dog food.
- 6:49If say you went out a big dog, £50 bag of dog food, put it in the back of your car, couple
- 6:54times a month, you do that.
- 6:55Well, what if it would just automatically show up on your doorstep once a month?
- 6:59One bag, 2 bags, however many you needed.
- 7:01You would automatically have it.
- 7:03I'm a member of the dollar shave club when my favorite clubs have ever been a member of.
- 7:07Every month, I get my blades.
- 7:09And this automatic reoccurring revenue for that company is it's like gold.
- 7:15It's solid gold.
- 7:16It allows you to function, allows you to forecast that allows you to have predictable
- 7:20income, and it's a great experience for the customer as well.
- 7:23It's a convenient experience.
- 7:26Right.
- 7:26Right.
- 7:26So I keep hearing you say the c word can be.
- 7:30So we, as small business owners, we have to figure out how to be a more convenient resource
- 7:35for our customers.
- 7:36And if we figure that out, then we'll have customers for life.
- 7:39Alright.
- 7:39So let's talk about the importance of access.
- 7:43Right?
- 7:43You you know, what does that mean for a customer to be able to have access to the
- 7:49people that they're buying from?
- 7:50Well, think about access as either logistics or hours of operation when you're available.
- 7:56And the idea there is if you, are Say you're a support center, a call center.
- 8:02And I go to call you at 7 o'clock at night because I'm working on a my barbecue pit that I
- 8:07just bought.
- 8:07I'm trying to build.
- 8:08And I get a I get a a recording that says our hours of operation are 8 in the morning till
- 8:145:30 at night.
- 8:15I'm going, well, wait a minute.
- 8:16I've worked during that time, and I'm trying to put together a barbecue pit.
- 8:19This isn't right.
- 8:20Well, that's anti access.
- 8:22Think about now here's a big business.
- 8:24Walmart, Do you know that 80% of the people that live in America?
- 8:2980% are within 10 minutes of a Walmart.
- 8:31That's access.
- 8:33But you just have a website that's open 247.
- 8:35It's all the time that's accessed.
- 8:37Make sure that your hours of operation are can groom with where your customers wanna be and
- 8:42expect to be.
- 8:42You know, bankers hours are, like, 8:30 until 4:30.
- 8:46Well, I believe that if they are wanting to attract people for checking accounts and that
- 8:51type of thing, they're marketing to the unemployed because those people can't get to
- 8:55the bank while they're working.
- 8:57Right.
- 8:57Right.
- 8:58No.
- 8:58I think you're exactly right.
- 8:59I remember when the bank used to close at 3 o'clock, believe it or not.
- 9:03Which is just madness, but now we can just take a picture of the phone with a check.
- 9:07You only have to go to the
- 9:08There you go.
- 9:09And that's one of the reasons, bankers hours now aren't as big of a deal because the banks
- 9:14have figured out a convenience solution.
- 9:16The online application such as, you know, banking online, taking a picture and doing your
- 9:21deposit that way.
- 9:22So that is a very convenient technology.
- 9:25And by the way, technology is one of the 6 convenience principles.
- 9:28Absolutely.
- 9:29So tell me how how what is
- 9:31the difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal customer.
- 9:38So think about this.
- 9:40Satisfactory is a rating on a scale of 1 to 5 with one being poor and 5 being great.
- 9:47Where does satisfactory lie?
- 9:48So I'll ask you a question.
- 9:50Like, in the middle.
- 9:51It's like
- 9:52it's like free.
- 9:54Right.
- 9:54So satisfactory is a rating, and it's an average rating.
- 9:57So when people say I want a satisfied customer.
- 10:00Now I'm playing with words here, but I want you to consider this.
- 10:03You don't want satisfied customers.
- 10:05Satisfactory is a rating.
- 10:06You want loyal customers.
- 10:08Loyalty is an emotion.
- 10:09How do you get a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5?
- 10:12Here's how just be a little bit better than average or satisfactory all of the time.
- 10:17The predictable and consistent above average experience is what makes you excellent.
- 10:24What's makes you amazing and creates that loyalty.
- 10:27Right.
- 10:27So so be nice.
- 10:30Yeah.
- 10:30You know, the the shortest customer service speech that I ever did, I walked out on stage.
- 10:34I looked at the audience.
- 10:35I said, be nice.
- 10:36Thank you very much.
- 10:37Good night.
- 10:40Right.
- 10:40I mean, it's you you I mean, we're laughing, but it it almost, like, comes down to that.
- 10:45Please make sure my waitress is nice to meet Yeah.
- 10:48And so think about it.
- 10:50It's it's happy to have my business.
- 10:52Yeah.
- 10:52It's crazy, but it's, like, super obvious, but not so much.
- 10:57So now let let's go from from loyal customer to how do you amaze a customer?
- 11:04Like, what is customer amaze
- 11:07Well, once again, amazement is it's kind of like how you get to loyalty.
- 11:11How do you get to that 5 by being a little better than average all of the time?
- 11:16And when people say to me, shut, what do you do for a living?
- 11:18And I I respond by saying, have you ever walked out of a business and you go, wow.
- 11:22Those people were amazing.
- 11:23Well, that's what I do.
- 11:24And here's how you get to Amazement.
- 11:26A little bit above average all of the time so that your customers will say Wow.
- 11:31I I love these people.
- 11:32They're amazing because they're always knowledgeable.
- 11:35They're always friendly.
- 11:37They always answer the phone quickly.
- 11:38They always call me quickly even when there's a problem, I know I can always depend on them.
- 11:42That work always followed by something positive is what's putting you into that zone of
- 11:48amazement.
- 11:49Exactly.
- 11:49Exactly.
- 11:50So now, how does great customer service make price irrelevant?
- 11:57So the better you are at what you do and the more loyal your customers do, and they're not
- 12:02loyal to you because of price, people that are price sensitive are loyal to companies because
- 12:08of price.
- 12:08As soon as there's a lower price, they move on.
- 12:10However, if you can deliver a level of service where they go as I was mentioning.
- 12:14They can all they're always friendly, knowledgeable, etcetera, etcetera.
- 12:18That makes price so less relevant because nobody is going to leave the business that they
- 12:22can count on day in and day out.
- 12:24Now you have to have competitive pricing.
- 12:27One of my favorite clients, and I wrote an entire book using them as a case study is Ace
- 12:31Hardware, one of the greatest retailers on the planet, some of the best customer service, and
- 12:37here's what happens.
- 12:38They know that their prices are a little bit higher, maybe, than their direct competitors
- 12:43like a Home Depot or big box store that has even bigger selection.
- 12:47But their service is compelling.
- 12:49They call it helpful service, not just Verizon.
- 12:51The help for hardware store.
- 12:53I know
- 12:53exactly what hardware is.
- 12:55And people come to them again and again, and that's why they don't just survive in the
- 13:00shadow sometimes of a big box store that goes up next door to them.
- 13:03They actually thrive in that shadow because they have learned how to compete using that
- 13:08level of service.
- 13:10Now I know exactly which talk about.
- 13:12And it's so funny because I had a conversation with somebody about Ace Hardware earlier today
- 13:17about the concept of the helpful hardware store, and I can remember when I bought my
- 13:22first house, and I went to the Ace Hardware to get my keys made for my brand new house.
- 13:27And the man said, congratulations, and he didn't charge me for my keys.
- 13:32Do you know how many times I've been in that man's store over the years?
- 13:35Because of how nice it was to me, the first time I ever walked in the store.
- 13:39Right?
- 13:39And and you know what?
- 13:40And how many times have you told that story?
- 13:42Right.
- 13:43Exactly.
- 13:44Exactly.
- 13:44I'm a walkie talkie commercial.
- 13:46For Ace hardware.
- 13:47No.
- 13:47That they they're they're terrific.
- 13:49And and I think they they care about neighborhood customers.
- 13:52And I think that makes a really, really big difference Alright, Joe.
- 13:56That's a
- 13:56great idea for your listeners and and viewers.
- 13:58And by for the millions of people watching this show, is that if you can do local well, and
- 14:04that's a huge advantage that smaller businesses have is they can do a local feeling more so
- 14:10than some of these big competitors.
- 14:12And we always need to remember that's a huge advantage, and we need to take advantage of
- 14:15that.
- 14:16Alright.
- 14:17Well, listen.
- 14:17We have to go pay some bills right now, but we come back You know, we're gonna pick your brain
- 14:23even more because we wanna know more about the building blocks of building an awesome customer
- 14:29service organization and how that can lead to not just satisfy customers, but amaze to
- 14:35customers.
- 14:36All right.
- 14:37We'll be right back.
- 14:40My new book fixture business is really about encouraging people to take back control of
- 14:44their business and change how is is run.
- 14:47It's not okay to skip paychecks.
- 14:49It's not okay to never feel like you can take a vacation, and it's also not okay to not know
- 14:54how much profit you've made in your business until your taxes are done.
- 14:57I really want business owners to stop letting their businesses be runaway trained.
- 15:02I've written this book to teach people processes and systems to help them run their
- 15:06businesses intentionally.
- 15:08My goal is to help existing entrepreneurs create a business that allows them to live
- 15:13their dream life.
- 15:17Hi, everyone, and welcome back to small biz chat.
- 15:20I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I'm so excited to have you with us.
- 15:24We are topping with Shep Heitan, and he is breaking it down for us about how to have great
- 15:30customer service and how that can be your disruptor in the marketplace.
- 15:34Alright, Jeff.
- 15:35I'm dying to ask you when it comes to customer service, are the rules different for ecommerce
- 15:41businesses than it is for retail businesses?
- 15:44The rules well, the outcome and the expectations are the same.
- 15:48The only thing that's different early is the way you go about doing business.
- 15:52Ecommerce or anything related to the digital channels today.
- 15:56And if you wanna communicate on social media, if you wanna do business with a website,
- 16:00whatever, The basic difference is how you go about it.
- 16:04At the end of the day, the expectation is I wanna be happy.
- 16:07I want you to do what you said you were gonna do.
- 16:09If you can give me a service experience that's even just a little above average all the time,
- 16:13that's amazing.
- 16:14I'll probably come back.
- 16:15So, I don't care what you do online, offline, on-site, on web, doesn't matter.
- 16:22Think about every interaction that your customer has.
- 16:25And make sure that is managed to the best expectation that they would have depending upon
- 16:30the channel they're on.
- 16:32Absolutely.
- 16:32Well, I love it.
- 16:33So listen.
- 16:34I know that we've used a lot of big bucks, you know, big store, big, big company examples, but
- 16:40if I run a small business with a limited team, How can I provide better customer service?
- 16:46So I want you to think about this way.
- 16:48Number 1, you must, I I call this creating the customer focused culture.
- 16:52I'm gonna give you in less than 60 seconds, 6 quick ideas.
- 16:56Define what your service vision is Rich Carlton Nine words long, where ladies and gentlemen,
- 17:02serving ladies and gentlemen, that's their mantra.
- 17:05Once you define it, you must communicate it, and it must be part of your your everyday, you
- 17:09know, discussions.
- 17:10This is what we're trying to do.
- 17:12My mantra, by the way, is always be amazing.
- 17:143 words.
- 17:15Then once it's communicated, trained to it.
- 17:17And training's not something you did.
- 17:19It's something you do ongoing.
- 17:20Constantly reinforcing your weekly meetings, your Monday morning huddles, whatever you wanna
- 17:24call them.
- 17:25Number 4, as a leader, you must, you know, demonstrate what you want your people to do.
- 17:30Treat the people you work with the way you want your customers treated.
- 17:33That's the best way to demonstrate it.
- 17:35Number 5, if somebody is out of alignment, get them back in alignment.
- 17:38They need to be on the in the right lane.
- 17:40You're you don't want them to erode that brand promise you have out there.
- 17:44And number 6, celebrate it when it's working.
- 17:48I love it.
- 17:49I love it.
- 17:49That's some good stuff.
- 17:50You gave us, like, a whole bow for It's like
- 17:53It's an entire book in 60 seconds.
- 17:56I love it.
- 17:56I love it.
- 17:57And only a a 2 keynote speaker can give it to him like that too.
- 18:00So I'm gonna give you out out for that.
- 18:03Now how often should you train your team?
- 18:07Well, you know, you obviously if you're gonna sit down and have some immersion in service,
- 18:11don't think that spending an hour a day or 3 days is going to cure your problem.
- 18:16Short term, it gives them the information.
- 18:18But if even if you have a weekly meeting just to meet with your team, take 5 to 7 minutes and
- 18:24just spend on, and, hey, tell me an example of when you created a great service experience for
- 18:29one of our customers.
- 18:30And it could be an internal customer somebody you work with, or an external customer and have
- 18:34an employer and associate or a team member, whatever you wanna call them, share that
- 18:38example.
- 18:38And if you do that on a regular basis, everybody's gonna constantly be hearing these
- 18:43examples.
- 18:44That alone will tick the meter up a bit on the customer experience.
- 18:49So just so sharing good examples of of this stuff.
- 18:54It just, like, a great story or even a bad story.
- 18:57That that'll be, like, how we fix it.
- 18:59Yeah.
- 18:59A moment of misery to a moment of magic.
- 19:01Give everybody an index card and say, by next week.
- 19:05I want you to just write 2 or 3 sentences to describe when you created a positive experience
- 19:10either for either for a fellow employee or one of our customers.
- 19:13And when you come next week to our, you know, weekly meeting, bring that card.
- 19:17I'm gonna have some of you share what these are.
- 19:19And I call that service awareness because they become aware of the service that they're
- 19:24creating for someone else.
- 19:26Now how about if a business wants to enhance their customer service presale?
- 19:32Like, what kind of things can they do to excite people before they even give their money?
- 19:37Wow.
- 19:37So is about how easy you are to do business and we're back to that whole convenience thing
- 19:41again.
- 19:42Did you make it easy for me to navigate through your web site.
- 19:46Is it easy to connect with you the very first time?
- 19:48If I call you to talk to a salesperson and I'm put on hold or I'm told the salesperson will
- 19:54call you back when they get back in and it's 4 days later.
- 19:57I mean, that's the type of thing that erodes confidence.
- 19:59So I want you to constantly be thinking about what I call the loyalty question.
- 20:03Didn't think I'd talk about this, but it's a real simple question.
- 20:06In every interaction that you have with a customer, think about this, is what I'm doing
- 20:11right now going to get that customer to either buy from me when they need what I have or come
- 20:17back the next time when they need what it is that we sell.
- 20:20The loyalty question, it's all about the next time.
- 20:23Every time.
- 20:24Right.
- 20:24Right.
- 20:24So keep your words.
- 20:25Someone's gonna call me back.
- 20:27Call me back.
- 20:27Right?
- 20:28Yeah.
- 20:28Great confidence.
- 20:29Yeah.
- 20:30Yeah.
- 20:30That's good stuff.
- 20:31Alright.
- 20:31So last question for you.
- 20:33Surveys.
- 20:35What is the right survey strategy?
- 20:37How often should we do them after resale?
- 20:40Do you get people to fill them out?
- 20:41I mean, because everybody hates surveys.
- 20:43They do.
- 20:43So I believe it was Peter Drucker W Edwards dimming or whatever.
- 20:48Who said you can't manage what you don't measure, so you have to measure it.
- 20:51So here's the key behind the survey.
- 20:52Number 1, keep it short.
- 20:55Short is so much better.
- 20:57Matter of fact, just the other day, I called my airline.
- 21:00They asked if I would stay on for 1 question survey after the call, and the question was
- 21:05simply this.
- 21:06If you call this again, would you wanna talk to the same rep?
- 21:09Push one for yes, 2 for no.
- 21:11Well, that's pretty quick, and that tells me a lot.
- 21:13The net net promoter score NPS on a scale of 0 to 10.
- 21:17What's the likelihood that you would, recommend us to a friend or a colleague.
- 21:21And it and depending on if you wanna do a second question, how about an open ended one?
- 21:26Why?
- 21:26But if you keep it short, you promise to keep it short, and it should come shortly after the
- 21:31experience.
- 21:32So if somebody, you know, if you have a car cleaning service, and clean the car the next
- 21:37day send the survey.
- 21:38If you're gonna ship somebody an item, let them get it.
- 21:41And then a few days later, hit them with the survey.
- 21:43And promise them it's going to be short, and you'll find that a lot more people will fill
- 21:48out that survey.
- 21:49Got it.
- 21:49Love it.
- 21:50Love it.
- 21:50Love it.
- 21:50Listen.
- 21:51Chuck, you are amazing.
- 21:52I am Melinda Emerson, and the mission of small based chat is to end small business failure.
- 21:58Until next time, I wish you well.
- 22:01And have a good night, everybody.
- 22:03Thank you guys so much.