I saw a billboard on the way home from work the other day that made me think. It was for a custom home builder and had a slogan like: “Homes designed as thoughtfully as they are built.”

At first glance this looks like a warm-fuzzy statement. However, it is actually a fragile house of cards.

Comparisons are Tricky

Let’s take a look at this slogan and see why it could lead to trouble. There are two pieces to the puzzle: the house design and the house construction.

The slogan tries to convince us that the new homes are designed and constructed thoughtfully. After all, our homes are very personal to us and we’d hope that great thought was put into their building.

Unfortunately, where the slogan takes a misstep is that the thoughtfulness of the design relies on how they are built. This seems a little backwards.

What does the customer see?

Customers may never know, care, or think about how a home is designed. The process an architect goes through in designing a house is probably completely foreign to most people.

However, many of us have seen a house being built. We’ve probably driven down a street with some construction going on.

Beware of Visual Imagery

Typically, home construction sites are a mess. Debris and trash, raw materials, and dusty workers are scattered all over a site. “Thoughtfully” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when I see a construction site.

This custom home builder has hinged their quality statement on an image that doesn’t quite resonate with customers. “Thoughtfully” does not equal the chaos of a construction site.

Use with Caution

Are you trying to communicate the quality of your product or service by comparing it to something else? If so, try to ensure that the object of comparison has positive feelings and emotions in the hearts of your customers.

Your customers may arrive at the point of sale without knowing they could be getting a better deal. This can pose a dilemma. Do you tell them they can get it cheaper, or do you remain silent and pocket the difference?

This is a tough question to answer. It challenges your ideals and moral compass as you balance doing the right thing with making a profit.

Inform the Customer

Every few weeks we’ll pick up a pizza at Papa Murphy’s. One time when I called to place my order, the employee listened patiently and then told me they a had a sale for a larger pizza for a lower price than the one I’d ordered.

I was pleasantly surprised. I could very well have ordered the smaller pizza at the higher price and been none the wiser. However, this employee shared “the secret” with me.

Secret Deals

When you let the customer in on “the secret” (in this case an unknown sale price), it strengthens the relationship with the customer. This open communication builds trust and goodwill between your customers and your business. Interactions like these give customers the perception that your business is a trusted friend that is always looking out for them.

This relationship of trust is foundational to driving repeat business. Although on the surface, proactively offering a discount may not make business sense, the long-term benefits of customer loyalty it fosters will prove a strong return on investment.

My wife and I recently celebrated our anniversary with a getaway to the Lost Pines resort and spa. We scheduled a massage at the spa weeks ahead of our visit. We’d never been to a full-service spa before and so arrived ignorant of the whole process.

When we got to the spa, we realized that we should have planned to spend the whole day there. The simple act of paying for a massage entitled us to use the spa for many other services. We, being ignorant to that fact, had not scheduled enough time to enjoy the entire experience. Although we enjoyed our time there, we felt a little frustrated that we didn’t get the most out of our trip.

Your customers may be likewise frustrated if you don’t fully explain the situation to them. Fortunately, you can take a few steps to make sure your customers derive all the expected benefits from your product.

Pre-Sale

Part of your marketing is to sell the experience of using your product. Don’t forget to include the extra benefits your customers will receive because they purchased your product.

At the point of sale

Once your customers buy your product or service, empower them with knowledge. Give them instructions, how-to guides, tutorials, guidelines, etc. This will dispel any ignorance and enable your customers to enjoy their purchase.

Reminders

If your customers pay for something in advance, as the date approaches, be sure to remind them what their experience will be like. This not only builds excitement but helps the customer arrive with the proper expectations.

Upon Arrival

Don’t assume your customers know what they are doing. When they come to pick up your product or use your service, offer them assistance, describe the process, and help them through it. Some customers are too proud to ask for help but will gladly take it if offered. Those that already know won’t be offended by your straightforward explanations.

Customers fear the unknown. Their minds swirl with doubt as they go through the buying process and if they aren’t able to collect enough good information in the process, they may even have “buyer’s remorse” after the fact. They are assailed by questions such as: Are you cheating them? Giving them a faulty product? Will your repair hold up over time?

We recently needed to get some plumbing repairs done around our home. We went with same company, ARS, that served us well before. Why did they get the repeat business? Three reasons:

• Pricing was clear and fixed up front. No surprises!
• They did a good job and fixed everything they promised.
• They explained everything along the way.

Your company’s performance on the last sale will dictate if there is another sale in the future. Consistency and reliability are key to fostering return customers.

With our latest plumbing repair, Ted the plumber explained what he was doing, showed me his work, answered my questions, and was patient. One of the things he fixed was a leaky faucet. To verify his repair, we sat and waited several minutes watching the faucet for signs of a leak. He took his time to validate his work, before assuming it was done.

Are you patient with your customers? Or do you rush on to the next task or customer? Ted the plumber was so good at what he did that his efficiency created the time he needed for good customer service and to verify his work was done properly.

The more transparent you can be with customers, the more they will trust you and be confident in your work or product. Be patient and take your time when necessary to not only verify quality but to tell the customer that you care enough to spend the extra time with them.

People are typically more vocal about what they don’t want than what they do want. Your business needs to be sensitive to what customers are trying to communicate when they state their preferences.

Make a Choice

Imagine you had to choose one of the following:

• Being forced to do something you hate
• Not being able to do something you love

Which would you prefer?

Odds are you’d elect to not do something you love. Sure you’d be disappointed, but at least you would avoid doing that one thing you despise.

Listening to Customers

Your customers will express their likes and dislikes to you in various ways. They speak with their actions, buying habits, or product selection. They may even tell you “I like this” or “I don’t want that.”

Are you listening?

You should listen very carefully. Why? Because people are more adamant about what they don’t want.

If you turn around and deliver something they told you they didn’t want, they are prone to be very unhappy about it.

This summer we hired a contractor to deliver a logo for us. During the process we explicitly told them that we didn’t want or like certain items. Imagine our surprise when they returned with logos that incorporated the very things we didn’t want!

When Not to Listen

There is, however, a flip side to handling customer preferences. You have to temper your customer’s desires with your expertise. Often times your customers may be saying one thing, but they don’t really know what they want. You, as the expert, will need to explain why the best solution may contradict their preferences.

The key to using your expertise is to do so before you deliver the product to the customer. You need to share your rationale and logic up-front so that the customer agrees with what the final product will or will not include.

You’ll need to tread carefully with customer’s preferences. If you mess up, they will surely dislike you and be all the more likely to share that bad experience with their friends and family.

Your customers aren’t numbers. They are people. A simple greeting is all it may take to personalize your service and start a great relationship.

On her blog Customers Are Always, Maria Palma brought up some excellent points about treating customers. In her post, she quoted the Trainer’s Blog on how to deal with waiting customers:

Acknowledge the customer who is waiting. We all want to be noticed. A smile and a sincere greeting, or “I’ll be with you in just a moment” to the person who has just joined the line goes a long way. Explain to your employees that as long as they don’t engage the second customer at the expense of the person in front of them, they have the opportunity to make both customers feel valued. And, if there was a wait, employees should acknowledge it by saying something like, “thanks for your patience.”

Our family loves to eat at a nearby burrito restaurant Freebirds. Every time we go in and progress towards the front of the line, an employee will greet us and say “we’ll be right with you.” They do all this while they are assembling the burrito for the person ahead of us. No productivity is lost. No other customers lose out because of this greeting. It is efficient, personal, and welcoming.

It is a powerful reminder of what a simple acknowledgment can do for your customers. Customers know they are there, but do they know that you know they are there? Don’t leave it to guessing, say hello and welcome your customers!

Price increases must be communicated to customers in advance and at the time of the adjustment. Any surprises along the way will damage your customer relationships.

Last week we got our phone bill and noticed an increase in our long distance service charge. Ironically, the last time I wrote about preparing for price changes, I wrote about this same provider: AT&T.

I couldn’t find on the bill why the price had jumped. After waiting on hold for over ten minutes, I spoke with a customer service representative that informed me that indeed the service fee had increased.

In my previous post, I talked about three key principles:

• Explain why the price is increasing
• Give advance notice of the increase
• Lock in previous pricing

AT&T failed to explain “why” my rates went up. I can only assume they are trying to squeeze a little more money out of me.

Apparently the price change had been communicated at the bottom of a previous bill in a section titled “News You Can Use.” I never saw that notice.

This month’s bill contained no explanation for the increase. Any previous communication was irrelevant because right now there was nothing.

Price changes can stir up your customer’s emotions rather quickly. It is therefore necessary to mitigate potential trouble during any such changes. Just because you told a customer once that their service was changing, don’t expect them to remember or even hear that first communication. You’ll find safety in over communicating pricing changes: before, during, and after the fact.

Your product requires some minimal level of knowledge or understanding by the customer. As a marketer, you must communicate that prerequisite to prospective customers.

A few weeks ago my wife convinced me to take a dance class with her. We don’t know much about ballroom dance so we decided to take an entry level class at a local community center.

We thought that a beginner’s class would be ideal to get started with our new dancing skills.

The night of our class arrived. Once we located our classroom at the community center, it took one minute to dash our hopes to pieces.

The instructor began by asking if this was the first ballroom class for any one. We were the only ones of more than 20 that sheepishly raised ours hands.

No big deal, right? We had signed up for Viennese Waltz 1. The beginner class. The easy stuff, right?

Wrong. Acknowledging our hands, the instructor said that the Viennese Waltz is one of the most difficult dances and is best attempted only after learning other ballroom dances.

Needless to say, the night didn’t go so well. We were over our heads and ended up leaving early.

Prevent Customer Confusion

Courses in college have prerequisites that communicate to students what they need to know before they attempt the new course. Your product may require similar warnings. Up-front communication will prevent confusion once it is too late.

Pre-Sales

Your marketing, advertising, and packaging should make it clear what a customer needs to be successful with your product. Our “Viennese Waltz 1″ class looked on paper like a beginner course. After all, it was a level one class. Your products may appear benign but really may need some expertise to use or operate. You need to filter prospective customers based on these requirements or train them on how to use your product.

Point of Sale

By the time your customer is paying for your product, it isn’t too late to help them be successful. You can reiterate what they need to know to use your product. You can offer training materials or courses.

Post-Sale

Once the customer gets your product home and starts using it, how can you help them succeed? Quality documentation, step-by-step guides, and examples will help.

Learning Curve

No matter what you do, there may always be a learning curve for your product. That is fine. Just make it as easy as possible to learn and you open up the possibilities of the number of people you can call customers.

There is always a bit of uncertainty when a customer decides to make a purchase. By immediately giving positive feedback to the customer that they made the right decision, you can remove that doubt.

I went to lunch last week at la Madeleine, a French bakery and restaurant. I wasn’t quite sure what to order since everything was new to me. I selected a sandwich and when I placed my order I was hoping that I had made a good decision.

The employee taking my order said with excitement: “that’s a great choice, it’s what I eat.”

Instantly I was pacified and confident I had made a good decision. My lunch turned out to be a good one.

Why is it so important to reassure the customer at the point of sale?

Your customers have mental distractions and concerns weighing them down and preventing them from fully enjoying their purchase. If these thoughts and fears are not neutralized, they are foreshadowing what will really happen.

At the point of sale, you can reassure, comfort, and instill confidence in the customer that their decision was the right one.

Armed with this confidence, your customers are more likely to be happy with their purchase. They’ll be less likely to have buyer’s remorse and return your product the next day.

The bonus you get for reaffirming a customer’s decision is that they leave with a positive mental image of their encounter. This will lead them to return later to give you even more business.

Today’s post is a first hand experience by Joe’s wife Mindy. Her story highlights the need for consistency and uniformity on each interaction with customers.

We recently had an IKEA open about 15 miles up the road from us. Just like everyone else in the city of Austin, we made our obligatory trip to see what the big deal was and we came away adoring fans. What’s not to love? Their products are ingenious, the price is right, and the Swedish Meatball platter is worth the trip alone. (Joe would also tell you not to pass up the cinnamon rolls as you’re walking out the door.)

During our last trip to IKEA in April, I found the perfect fabric for curtains to finish off a recent minor kitchen remodel we’ve undergone. They were out of this particular fabric at the time of our visit, but assured me it would be replenished “in about two weeks.” That would put me into crunch time, as I had a book group to host, a visit from my parents, and my son’s second birthday right around the magic two week deadline. However, I asked if I could leave my phone number so they could call me when the fabric came in, and asked for their number and extension so I could check in with them as well.

So here’s the story: it’s now August. Still no fabric. I’ve called just about every week since April to check on the status and it’s almost become a game, because in the sixteen weeks that I’ve called, the standard answer has varied. I’ve heard plenty of the “two week” platitudes, have been hung up on, and have even found a couple of helpful customer service reps who patiently explained that the fabric I want is part of a “family” of fabrics and they have to sell out of an entire family before the fabric is replenished.

But here’s what I don’t understand. During one of my weekly calls, I was helped by a very customer-centric employee who checked the computer to find out what the stock level was and discovered there was a shipment due within the next week to be delivered to their store.

Hmmmm.

I never got a phone call telling me the fabric was in. In the subsequent calls since then, IKEA employees have reverted to telling me that they don’t have that fabric. So what’s the real story? Why would one employee be able to check the status when others claim they can’t access that information or that the computer doesn’t give them that information? Why should I feel like I’m playing Russian Roulette just to reach one competent employee on the phone?

The equations are simple:

consistency = trust and confidence

inconsistency = confusion and mistrust

Which would you rather impart to your customers?