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www.bodyshop.com Anita Roddick
is one of my all time business heroes. If ever you needed proof that a
business can have a conscience and remain economically viable, look no
further. How does your business rate along side The Body Shop in terms of
Environmental Policy, Trading Charter, Human Rights, Community Trade, and
Values Report? All are available for viewing on their website, along with
lots of other compelling and interesting information and links.
This week’s customer service "Touchstone"
The most dangerous thing you can do in business is to think that
customers are universal and all wish to be treated the same. This attitude
can lead to all sorts of assumptions being made that will ultimately cost
you lots of business.
How customers wish to receive your product or service from you is one
such area. As mentioned in Touchstones # 75, some customers are prepared to
wait for your product whilst others have no objection to paying a premium
for express delivery.
There is only one way to find out how customers wish to be treated and
that’s to ASK!
It is important to have a choice of delivery options for your customers.
This may be something as simple as ‘pick-up’ or ‘home delivery’, a
choice that is widely used in the pizza business. The company that I have
been using for computer repairs offers a similar service. I can either
unplug and pack up my computer and take into their service centre, or have
one of their ‘mobile’ service technicians call out to my office. The
extra call-out fee is something I am more than prepared to pay for as it
saves me a lot of time and hassle.
If mail order is one of the options you offer your customers, then
provide a range of alternatives. Regular mail, airmail, or express overnight
courier delivery. That way, it is up to your customer to choose and you can
charge them accordingly. You’ll be amazed how many of your customers are
prepared to pay a premium for express delivery.
The ultimate aim in delivering your product or service to your customers
is to get it into their hands as quickly as possible with the least amount
of fuss and inconvenience. If you are in the retail clothing business, aim
to have alterations done whilst the customer is waiting. If this is not
possible, have the clothing delivered to their home or office after
completion. The success of Jiffy Lube in the USA has been due to their
ability to service their customers’ cars whilst they wait. The average
local garage still requires you to leave your car for a whole day for a
service that takes twenty minutes.
The Sewell Automotive Group in Texas provides what I believe is the
ultimate in car servicing. They will deliver a loan car in the morning to
your home or office in exchange for your car, which they will return fully
serviced at a prearranged time later in the day. The result is zero
disruption to you the customer. New Town Toyota in Perth offer a similar
service whereby you drop your car off on your way home from work and
exchange it for a loan car. You then call back the next morning on your way
to work to pick up your car which has been fully serviced overnight. A good
question to ask is how can you replicate this level of service in your
business?
More hustle, less hassle; it’s what you customers want. Can you
deliver?
Until next week, many happy customer returns!
Graham Harvey APS
Next week: Payment options.
Watch out for Graham’s new book Seducing the Vigilante Customer – winning
strategies to guarantee the return of happy customers and healthy profits,
available in all good book stores early in 2002.
Previous newsletters available at www.grahamharvey.com.au/Articles/
Please feel free to recommend "Touchstones" to your
family, friends and business colleagues. Tell them that their free
subscription is waiting for them at www.grahamharvey.com.au
