Director of First Impressions? What is this boy on about? Has he lost his marbles?
Well, no, frankly! First impressions last (last impressions last, too but that's a different story!). And I know all this stuff about "it takes six seconds to make a first impression" is a bit of a cliché, but is it? Really?
When you think about the judgements you make in life, when you first meet someone, look for the first time at a web page, go into a shop or an office for the first time, I reckon six seconds is about right. And that first impression sticks. It's not so easy to change your mind, is it?
At Shopper Anonymous, we bang on about this stuff all the time. 'Cos it's really important! It's a key part of delivering great customer service. There may be a fantastic product or service lurking in that business, served up by brilliant, warm and helpful people, but if I don't like the first impression, I will probably not enter the business and I will never find out.
And where does the first impression start? In your advertising? In your out of hours phone message? On your website? At the office door? Well, it's surely all of these. We've got some fantastic (anonymised!) examples of rotten first impressions created by out of hours messages in significant businesses, because they didn't take care of first impressions. It's fun to see the shock on people's faces when we play back some of these at seminars. Check yours!
So what is the Director of First Impressions? Clearly it's a fictitional job title but why not have a person in your business who takes responsibility for worrying about all this stuff and checking it on a regular basis. As we say at Shopper Anonymous, "Test your own business", "Test your own business", "Test your own business"!
I was at a networking event recently and was discussing this very point with an MD of a reasonably sized business in Tunbridge Wells. He seemed to get it and when I met him again a few weeks later, he made a beeline for me and told me how much he'd changed in his business - at the office door, car park, on the web site, etc., just by thinking about being the Director of First Impressions. It really, really works!
Who is your Director of First Impressions?
Find out more. Need someone to deliver an interesting talk to a business forum?
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Friday, 15 January 2010
The Complaints Iceberg
For every one person who formally complains to a company, how many others will hear about it?
Well, the first scary fact is that for every one person who does complain, 25 unhappy customers won't bother. They will simply walk away from you, not tell you about their problem or issue with you and will go off and tell other people instead. And they're unlikely to do business with you again!
What happens next? Well, those 25 people will tell 10 people, who in turn will tell 5 others. And many of these people will decide not to do business with you, too.
The answer to the question at the beginning of this post, from research undertaken by TARP Research is that an average of 1,560 people will hear about at least one of these unhappy customers' experiences.
Complaints are a gift. They are a free gift to you in your business from a customer who has the courtesy to bring to your attention some aspect of your business that is not up to scratch or has broken down on this occasion. And if we treat the complaint as a gift, thank our customers for that gift and go the extra mile to look after them and put it right, that customer will usually become more loyal and an advocate of your business.
Of course, the best thing to do is to avoid complaints in the first place. And if we can help you do that by helping you to improve customer service through mystery shopping in your business, then please feel free to get in touch with us.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Well, the first scary fact is that for every one person who does complain, 25 unhappy customers won't bother. They will simply walk away from you, not tell you about their problem or issue with you and will go off and tell other people instead. And they're unlikely to do business with you again!
What happens next? Well, those 25 people will tell 10 people, who in turn will tell 5 others. And many of these people will decide not to do business with you, too.
The answer to the question at the beginning of this post, from research undertaken by TARP Research is that an average of 1,560 people will hear about at least one of these unhappy customers' experiences.
Complaints are a gift. They are a free gift to you in your business from a customer who has the courtesy to bring to your attention some aspect of your business that is not up to scratch or has broken down on this occasion. And if we treat the complaint as a gift, thank our customers for that gift and go the extra mile to look after them and put it right, that customer will usually become more loyal and an advocate of your business.
Of course, the best thing to do is to avoid complaints in the first place. And if we can help you do that by helping you to improve customer service through mystery shopping in your business, then please feel free to get in touch with us.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Thursday, 14 January 2010
How customers remember service experiences
How we remember a service experience hinges on whether the triggering cue for that memory is positive or negative.
If a friend describes a positive customer service experience at the same store, then we may recall our own experience as less offensive than it might actually have been. If our friend describes a negative experience, then we may recall worse treatment than we actually received.
If we have an uneventful dinner at a restaurant, then hear that a friend had an awful experience at the same place, then we may recall our dining experience as below average. If, instead, our friend told us that she had the best meal of her life there, then we might recall our experience as above average.
Not only do we recall our experience differently depending on the triggering cue; we are unaware of the change.
This is an excerpt from 'How Customers Think – Essential insights into the mind of the market’ by Professor Gerald Zaltman.
If a friend describes a positive customer service experience at the same store, then we may recall our own experience as less offensive than it might actually have been. If our friend describes a negative experience, then we may recall worse treatment than we actually received.
If we have an uneventful dinner at a restaurant, then hear that a friend had an awful experience at the same place, then we may recall our dining experience as below average. If, instead, our friend told us that she had the best meal of her life there, then we might recall our experience as above average.
Not only do we recall our experience differently depending on the triggering cue; we are unaware of the change.
This is an excerpt from 'How Customers Think – Essential insights into the mind of the market’ by Professor Gerald Zaltman.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Coffee - a drug of persuasion?
Robert Cialdini has co-authored an amazing book titled 'Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion' which opens up a host of possibilities for coffee shops. Here’s an excerpt:
“There’s a drug called 1,3,7-trimethylxanthin that could make you more persuadable if you take it and more persuasive if you give it to others. Perhaps even more shocking is the fact that this drug is now widely available through ‘tri-meth labs’ that are popping up in neighbourhoods everywhere. The drug is more commonly known as caffeine, and these ‘tri-meth labs’ are more commonly known as coffee shops.”
We’ve all heard – and many of us have experienced – how caffeine can make us feel more alert, but did you realise it make us more persuasive?
The authors claim a good time to make your presentation to people you wish to persuade is earlier in the day, as that’s when your clients may have just had their morning coffee fix. Even if you can’t choose the time of day, heading down to your favourite coffee shop should make your audience more receptive to your message that you make sure your arguments are well reasoned. Yes, the researchers have tested messages with both weak and strong arguments.... and the improved results only occur when you have a strong case!
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Welcome to Shopper Anonymous Kent's Blog!
Hello and thank you for dropping in to have a look at the blog for Shopper Anonymous Kent! I hope to use this in conjunction with Twitter, to share informative articles with our followers.
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