Tag Archives: customer satisfaction

The 4 F’s of Customer Service during a Covid-19 Season

Something I’ve noticed we could all use some help with during this Covid-19 season in regards to customer service, customer experience and customer retention is what I call the 4 F’s – first, friendly, firm, future.

I want to say there is an order to this customer service suggestion. My wife and I recently travelled for the first time in a very long time. We flew, we rented a car and we stayed at places for the first time and what we experienced was “firm” first. And that set a really uneasy tone for us. How we were treated really sparked my message to you today.

1. FIRST

The first point is “first”! When we think about people’s first impression, first experience, first thing they see, first thing that they feel, first thing that impresses them about your business — what is that?

How are we making a great first impression in a COVID-19 world? In a world that has changed and dramatically impacted people, have you gone back and thought about what is the first impression that somebody gets when they interact with your business? How does it make them feel? What are they experiencing? How does that impact them as a customer and what are they thinking? Or, how did that affect them and they aren’t a customer anymore?

2. FRIENDLY

Point number two is “friendly”. I bring up friendly as point number two to ask you if your first impression is friendly. People do business with people that they like and trust. We have to be friendly first. Be happy, excited, greet them and welcome them. Ask how you can help them and start to build a positive friendly relationship.

So we have the first impression, and then we have friendly as the second word in this teaching.

3. FIRM

The third word is “firm” because we have regulations. We have people we have to think about. How can we be firm about being healthy, safe, social distancing, masks, washing hands and all the protocol?

Remember, I said before that when we travelled we were given the “firm” treatment first and it left us feeling not so great. So, firm is making sure that after we make a great first impression and we’re friendly, then we can be firm about following the rules or regulations so that we keep everybody healthy, We keep them safe and protected. But there’s an order to doing this well so that we can get to the fourth word, which is “future”.

4. FUTURE

What I mean by future is, if we are making a good first impression with customers (whether online, in person, at a drive thru, or whatever it is), we’re friendly towards them, and then we’re firm about keeping everybody safe (our employees, our people, our customers, our vendors) — then we can do what we call the “future”. Which is we create an experience, a situation more in the future where they will want to come back and be a customer again and again and again.

SUMMARY

So these are the four F’s of customer service that we believe work towards creating a repeat great customer experience.

Once again the four words to remember in this order are:

First stands for first impression. What is their first impression? What do they first see, experience, hear or know? Is that positive?
Are you friendly? Is your first interaction with them friendly? Are you speaking to them as a friend? Are you creating a friendly environment?
Number 3 is new to us all but part of what we’re living into now is being firm. Being firm about the rules. Meaning, we all have rules now that we have to adhere to around safety and health and all that. We’re all about that. So how can we be firm is the third part of the equation.
And then the fourth thing is how do we leave an impression with our customer so that in the future when they need our product, service or our experience they come back to us? Will they think of us first? We need to be all of the above – first, friendly, firm and future in order for them to come back. People always ask me how do we get repeat customers? It’s fairly simple: you say thank you and acknowledge them for coming in, you’re excited that they’ve been there, and you invite them back to your business again.

If you apply the 4 F’s it will improve your customer service and retention not only in this Covid season but in the future too.

At Confidence Coach we are here to offer business owners a place to reconnect and rebuild their confidence; which leads to their better future in the days and years ahead. Reach out today and schedule a free call if you’d like to talk. We are here to help and encourage you.

by Scott Ballard , December 16, 2020

What Pain or Problem Does Your Business Solve

As a business owner or CEO, have you ever asked yourself what pain or problem does your business solve for your customer? The other day I asked a coaching client this exact question and he couldn’t give me a clear answer — his response showed that there was some real fuzziness around what it is that they were actually doing for their customers. Since he really couldn’t identify what the pain or problem was that they solved, I told him that he had to get clear about this and actually put himself in the customer experience.

I wanted to share with you the process and questions I walked him through in case you find yourself in the same situation.

What is it that people pay you to do or create?
What solution or problem do they come to you (and give you their hard earned money) to help them with?
Write out what you do for people, for your customers, your clients.
My challenge to you is to actually then put on the client “hat” and go through your own process: call your company; email your company; buy your product; demo your product; go through the whole process from beginning to end as if you knew nothing about it and see what it would be like if you were a customer or client. And then ask if it really delivers the solution to the pain or problem that you think it does or is it something different? Maybe you need to add something or take something away.

This gives you a 360 degree view of what the pain or problem is that you’re really solving. If you do this, you might discover that something has changed since you started your business. At least then you can know if something is changing right now or if you are in touch with what the pain or problem is for your customer.

Depending on what you discover, this is a great starter conversation!

Pick 4, 5 or 10 of your best customers and sit down with them and ask them these questions:

What do you look to us for in problem solving, pain relief and solutions?
What is it that you’re actually investing in when you do business with us?

Out of their responses, I think you’re going to be surprised that there are other opportunities, and then there are also going to be things that you’re doing that they don’t really value at all! Things that can be converted into something else that’s a lot more profitable for you and makes the customer a lot happier about your service.

Also if you can start these conversations, it creates a lifetime relationship for a customer. What is the value of a customer, not just for one transaction but for the next 5, 10 or 20 years?

So that’s my challenge to you today. If you’d like help around this or if you’d like to talk about how to implement this in your company, reach out to us at www.confidencecoach.org. We’re also on YouTube. If there’s someone else that you think needs help in this area, please feel free to share this with them too. Make it a great day.

by Scott Ballard , September 16, 2018

The Truth About Your Business

What’s the truth about your business?

What is it’s value?

What’s the purpose, product or service you bring to your customers?

What is in the way of solving your customer’s pain or problem?

Is this something that is going to change or evolve over the next 2-3 years?

The answer to all those questions about whether things are going to change or evolve is yes! It certainly will change, because as business in the world is speeding up, change is happening at a faster and faster pace.

So the purpose of the question “what is the truth about your business” is to see if you are prepared to take on these challenges of rapid and faster change as you go forward.

Have you ever looked at your product or service through the eyes of your customer and to the changes that are happening in their life? Have you anticipated what their changing needs are going to be six months from now, a year from now, or 18 months to 3 years from now? If not, then how are you going to get ahead of the curve? What are you doing to provide the solution that is going to be relevant and exciting to your customer around their pain or problem? What’s the solution you can bring to the table that’s going to be dramatically different than what it is today.

We want you to think about that. We want you to realize that this is where opportunity lies.

The companies that have the best future ahead of them are answering these questions and figuring it out. We’re excited to talk to you more about that. Thanks for reading today!

by Scott Ballard , March 4, 2018

Why We All Need To Play The Long Game

This is seriously counterintuitive thinking in today’s instant gratification world, but here it is: we need to think of our business, our employees, and our customers in the sense of a lifetime. We all need to play the long game. So here’s my question to you: What’s the long game for your business? Where do you want to be ten years from now?

What’s the long game for your employees? Why will they be positively contributing ten years from now?

What’s the long game for your customers? How will their needs change ten years from now?

Focusing on this brings in a bit of double vision: Having a successful business today is important, of course, but it has to be coupled with your plans for a successful business ten years from now. The long game is what all successful long-term businesses do well. So what is your long game?

Schedule a free coaching session here if you want help figuring it out.

by Scott Ballard , December 10, 2017

Let’s Talk About Customers

What is your customer’s biggest problem? Have you asked them? Have you asked them, and asked WHY that’s a problem? Have you sat down and listened? Have you earned the right for them to be honest with you? Can you take the truth? Or is it like that famous movie line: “You can’t handle the truth!” What are you gonna do about it?

You want an unfair advantage in your business? Start asking your customers what their biggest problems are, and start creating solutions for them. Let’s work together on what that might look like.

Then, watch your business take off.

by Scott Ballard , October 8, 2017

Customers or Competitors?

As a business owner, who are we focusing on: Customers, or competitors? I had a really interesting conversation with a client on this topic, and what I discovered was that they’d been making all their decisions — investment, strategy, everything — based on their competitors. They were constantly trying to do what their competitors were doing. During their efforts, they’ve watched their business go completely flat, and it seems apparent why. They’ve been so focused on their competition that they forgot about the desires and needs of their customers.

My question for you today is this: Which one are you focused on? Competitors or customers? If you look around you at the many great successes in the business world, you’ll notice they all share one thing in common: their focus is strictly on the customer. They’re focused on the customer’s needs, and how they plan to meet those needs. In doing that, they ensure their own success — not only today, but tomorrow and for the long term.

Customers or competitors: You have to make a choice! Where you expend your focus will be the making or the breaking of your business. Schedule a free coaching session with me today, and we’ll get to the bottom of it together.

by Scott Ballard , August 20, 2017