Customer service isn’t an expensive, time-consuming obligation. It’s a
strategic selling investment … if you want it to be.
For example:
- Tesla saw that Ford and GM were working to increase the profits that
their dealers would make on service. So they chose to seek to make no money at
all on service, using that as a key marketing message to their luxury audience.
- When Google launched their search engine, they made it impossible to
contact them. They set the expectation that there was zero human customer
support. That expectation is a promise made (and one that’s easy to keep). It
puts a lot of pressure on the product, of course, but they were up for that.
- A small kitchen manufacturer in the UK stopped advertising how great
their kitchens were, and instead starting genuinely helping all customers find
the best kitchen for their needs (whether they bought from them or not). In 12
months this resulted in enquiries and conversion rate both more than doubling.
What promise does you make? What would you want your customers to say
about you to their friends behind your back?
Is it good enough for their friends to either immediately seek you out,
or safely store your information away for when they might need it in the
future?
If not, your only other bet is to be the cheapest or to buy more Google
ads that your competitors … (and we all know how that strategy ends!)
A b2b insurance agency in the US spent two million dollars ripping out
voice mail from their agency. Every call gets answered by a human every time.
It paid for itself in four months. That’s a strategic investment, not a
cost-cutting shortcut.
On the other hand, if you see any ‘customer service’ costs as expenses,
you’ll immediately want to reduce and minimise them.
And we know what that does to your customers…
If you’re ‘about the same’ as everyone else, then you’ll have to compete
in ‘about the same’ way as everyone else, because your customers will have
‘about the same’ level of engagement and loyalty as everyone else’s.
Instead, start looking at what you can do to be ‘remarkable’ and
‘referrable’
Slow down and build it inch by inch every week, using the ‘Slow Selling’
processes.
Because, in the long run, your customer always has a choice, and it’s
getting wider and deeper every day.
So:
there’s no such thing as ‘customer service’ … it’s all about selling.
In
fact, it’s not even about ‘selling’ … it’s about getting people wanting to
queue up to buy from you and tell their friends about you, because you’re so
unusal and worth talking about…
For help in these systems, and all ‘Slow Selling’ top tips and events, please join our mailing list or buy the book or contact us for bespoke advice.
These are some of the principles and questions we address in Slow Selling: please click here to join our top tips and updates list or, if you have a question regarding your situation and would like a simple answer, drop us a line at support@wordpress-983538-3474751.cloudwaysapps.com