Creating a Great Customer Experience

By John Wyckoff

If you deal with or sell to the end user or consumer you should know that all decisions are emotional, often passionate and not intellectual or cerebral. Sure, we all make emotional buying decisions and then apply a rationale to our choice to assure ourselves that we made a pragmatic, informed and educated decision.

Well, here’s what’s real.

The human animal responds to specific stimuli. The response is emotional. The stimuli consist of some very basic components. They are: color, contrast, shadows, motion, sounds, touch and smell. OK, now you have the data. In order for you to take any form of action that date must be converted into Information, then to knowledge and finally into an understanding that can lead to implementation.

Let’s take a very short look at each.

Color - Displays need to be colorful. A display of goods, apparel for example, should be arranged to aid eye scanning by the viewer. That is the colors should not be scattered but grouped. Start with light colors on the left and proceed to dark on the right. The middle range should replicate a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo, violet. The far left white and pastel shades; the far right dark to black.

Display areas are not two-dimensional. The colors of the floor, walls and ceiling along with accent colors, stripes or designs must also aid the viewer. Light green is soothing. That’s why most hospital waiting areas are either white signifying purity and cleanliness or green meant to have a calming effect on patients and their families.

Contrast - Light and dark areas and products should be arranged to create drama. Bright areas highlight attention-getting products. Even the term beige is, well, beige. However, beige, when contrasted with vibrant adjacent colors is no longer beige. Even the name will change to adobe, sand, earth tones.

Shadows-are very important. Without taking up the rest of this article with this one subject consider this: Take your digital camera out the front door of your place of business at high noon. Take a picture. Go out again about 45 minutes before sunset and take another. Compare the two. The noon photo will be flat and boring. The photo taken shortly before sunset will be considerably more dynamic. Confirm this by showing both photos to family or fellow workers. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Before I go much further I’d like to discuss fluorescent lights. This form of illumination was created to eliminate shadows. It began as office lighting. The advantage of this form of lighting is the cost of operation and the fact that the bulbs run relatively cool. Unless you pay close attention to the type of bulb fluorescent lights can make everything look two-dimensional and dead. If you can avoid fluorescent lighting in a showroom or display area and substitute focused lights to create shadows I recommend you do it.

Motion-means there are real people involved. If it’s in a retail environment there are many forms of motion that will stimulate action. Moving signs, displays and mobiles help. A non-static staff helps more. The staff should not be relegated to stand motionless behind a counter but active on the floor.

Sound-means someone is there. Music in the background is expected. Select it carefully and make the selection from the customer’s perspective. Sound should not be distracting. For example, I hate paging systems in stores and offices that constantly blare the name of someone. Eliminate this sound by switching to vibrating belt pagers to notify a staff member of someone attempting to get his/her attention.

Touch-is a touchy subject. Our society is ambivalent. However, a waiter or waitress will tell you that the tip increases if that person puts their hand on your shoulder at some point while they are serving you. Of course, shaking hands in our society is positive. Like James Bond says: “shaken not stirred.” I’d add, not squeezed and not long.

Smell-is too often overlooked in businesses that are not involved with the food or fragrance industry. You may have noticed, however, that companies that have a coffee pot on and available attract people to stay longer. I believe that in the morning, coffee smells better than it tastes. Considerably more than half the people in the US love chocolate. The next time you visit a trade show look for a booth that has a bowl of chocolate and you’ll see more people with a few feet of that habit-forming stimulant. Chocolate also has an intoxicating smell.

Please note, all of the foregoing are best described as emotional stimulants not intellectual reasoning. As long as we are people dealing with people let’s keep in mind that emotions precede intellectual or pragmatic concerns.

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7 Points for Sales Presentations

By Jack Yoest on May 16, 2006,Technology changes everything. Right?

I’m not so sure. Tech enables, but does not always change the basics. Especially for the small business owner.

Your Business Blogger was in the market to buy a software solution. I sat through a conference call/web based sales pitch by Brand X for creating a wiz-bang presentation to promote one of my companies. The presenters made a number of mistakes.

I stopped counting at 7.

1) Start the presentation on time.

Brand X could not immediately locate the CEO as pitchman for the assembled prospects waiting on-line and on the phone. If you can’t find the presenter, the show — the sales presentation must still go on — with an understudy if need be.

2) Never let ‘em see you sweat.

So Brand X’s lead presenter was lost. There appeared to be a very capable VP on hand to provide information, asking qualifying questions, giving a warm-up act. Say most anything, but don’t tell potential clients you can’t synchronize an Outlook calendar and don’t know what to do next. Fill the dead air with some anticipation. See The Consultant’s Jargon Generator. Unless it’s part of the act, don’t let on that your hair’s on fire.

3) Don’t tell me how smart you are.

Brand X’s very accomplished CEO couldn’t tell us quick enough about his Ivy League degrees — sounding too much like a college sorority sister establishing a pecking order. I know he was smart because he told me so.

4) Never introduce yourself.

Let someone else do the bragging. I am leery of any forty-year-old man telling me what University he attended. Particularly when “attend” means grad-level “certificate” program. (Unless it’s Oxford. Like me.) Brand X’s CEO should have had his very capable VP’s whisper as an aside, confidentially, “You know, he went to Harvard.” Find an accomplished Ed McMahon or a good second banana to say, “Heeereee’s Johnny!!!”

5) Never discuss religion or politics.

Brand X has pet causes that alienated — something about rainforests, peace in our time, landfills, I think. And Starbucks. I was left with the impression that the Brand X commune sits in a circle in Oregon and sings Kumbaya, which must be very impressive to creative media potsmokers. But not to decision makers with a five figure buying authority.

6) Never provide backup/proof unless the client is skeptical.

Brand X sent me eleven (11!) pages of landfill of client testimonials. A few blurbs, sure. And the client list. But pages of telling me how smart you are instead tells me how insecure you are. Which I learned from the Brits. (While at Oxford.)

7) Do as I say; Not as I do.

Brand X highlighted their product as avoiding the need for those pesky salesmen calling and bothering and trying to sell you something. Then I get two follow-up sales telephone calls from Brand X. Now, I love sales guys — I started off selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door 35 years ago — but don’t put salesmen down, then use them when (appearing) desperate.

Bottom line: I didn’t buy. The Brand X manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $17,500. But! if you buy now! now! your investment! is onlyninethousanddollars….I had a low four figure budget and Brand X did not close the gap between my needs, my money and their software solution. Which was actually very good.

From web to telephone to trade shows to a one-on-one face-to-face, sales presentation basics are timeless.

Web based presentations are a tool to exchange labor for technology. Remember, sales basics are independent of platforms.

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Five Words to Never Use in an Ad

Google the term "magic advertising words" and you'll instantly get over 8 million results. But caveat emptor -- don't buy into everything you read, because your prospective buyer certainly won't.

From the time marketing began, there has never been a shortage of self-appointed experts who claim to have identified the words that will unlock your customers' wallets. In the Internet age their advice is even easier to come by. They promise that words such as "you," "guarantee," "easy," "limited-time," and the old standby, "free," will generate surefire results. If only it were that simple.

As a smart business person, you probably know that there are no such things as magic words, particularly in a culture that has been saturated with advertising. But there's something else you should know: Not only do magic advertising words not exist, several of them actually work against you. And chances are, you're using at least one of them in your advertising now.

Brace yourself. Here are five of the advertising words you should never use:

Quality

This may be the most overused word in advertising, which is the primary reason why you should stay away from it. What exactly does "quality" mean? In a Lexus, it may mean hand-crafted finishes, supple seats, or a smooth ride. In a Hyundai, it's more about the extended warranty than anything.

The point is this: every product worth buying is a quality product. It may be high-priced quality or it may be low-priced quality, but it's quality either way. That means every company believes it can use the word "quality" in its advertising. Too many have, and as a result, now it has become just seven empty letters.

Value

Like quality, value has been ruined by overuse. Go back to the Lexus and the Hyundai examples -- which car is the better value? It depends -- on the buyer, on the purchase occasion, and on what features and benefits value is being judged. Both vehicles are good values depending on the purchase context.
Or take another industry, retail: Wal-Mart provides good value, but so does Tiffany. Value, like quality, is in the eye of the beholder, and every product or service has its own value equation. Saying "we provide the best value" is, therefore, virtually meaningless.

Service

Have you ever heard an ad promising lousy service? Of course not, which is the reason why claiming good service just falls on deaf ears. It's funny, but the companies that make the claim of good service the most tend to be those that deliver it the least.

Of course, most organizations do have sincere intentions to provide outstanding service and commonly cite Nordstrom as the example to which they aspire. But Nordstrom is Nordstrom for a reason -- the company's entire culture and identity is built around the service concept. Nordstrom is the exception, most companies can't get there from here, and simply promising great service won't make it happen.

Caring

Do you really believe your company cares more about your customers than your competition does? It may feel good to say so, but the claim flies in the face of common sense. If your competitors didn't care about their customers, they couldn't stay in business.

It's particularly easy for service companies to get caught up in the "caring" self-deceit because they don't sell a tangible product. But to say "we care more" in an ad presumes that your competitors care less, which is ascribing motivations to them that can't be proven. Consumers know this and are not only hesitant to believe your claim, they are likely to consider it bad form.

The above four words all fail for essentially the same reasons. Not only are they overused, they're based on variables that will be different for everyone. There's a quality/value/service/caring continuum in each person's mind for every purchase occasion, and it is a continually moving target.
But the fifth word is different. The fifth word doesn't work precisely because it's not variable. The fifth word is binary.

Integrity

A company either has integrity or it doesn't. It's either honest or it isn't. And most people give companies the benefit of the doubt in believing that they operate with integrity. When a company talks about integrity in its advertising it's for one of two reasons, neither one of them good: They're either trying to cover up some lack of integrity [which never works] or they're implying they live by a higher standard than their competition. That's impolite, to say the least. Every company needs to have integrity. No company needs to advertise it.

Do you want your customers and prospects to view your products and services as being high quality and of good value? Of course. Do you want them to appreciate your caring service and strong integrity? Absolutely. But every company wants those things. Those that win the hearts and minds of consumers don't talk the talk, they walk the walk.

What you think about your company doesn't matter. All that matters is what your customers and prospects think. The next time you're tempted to use one of these five words in an ad, stop and ask if there's a better way to get the message across. Using common words that have become empty cliches is a shortcut to nowhere. Just because you sell it doesn't mean people will buy it.

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