The Coach's Corner

At our Sales and Customer Service Institute, we use a thinking style model that says people focus on different things. The model we use suggests that we focus on the physical properties of an object at the simplest level, we focus on functionality at the next level and we focus on intrinsic value or at an emotional level as the highest level.

An example is the other day I visited a local supermarket. As I walked through I noticed that the super market was clean and spotless. This was a plus at the physical level.

I then went to look for rolls. They had a display case containing several bins containing roles. They all were labeled “rolls”. Being health conscious I wanted to know what the rolls were made of. I reluctantly selected one of the darker colored rolls assuming that they had some type of fiber in them. Not so good for functionality.

When I arrived at the checkout counter, two clerks waited on me. One rang up the items, the other packed the item. Functionally very good, they got me out quickly. However they were having a conversation with each other as such they never greeted me, or wished me a good day. They never said a word to me! Low scores for my emotional experience.

This is not to say I wouldn’t return to that supermarket, after all it was clean.

If I now have a choice because there’s another supermarket as close by, I would consider changing my patronage to the one that fulfills the three levels the best.

In this economy does your customer service fulfill needs at all three levels?

With the recession businesses should be shifting it’s marketing strategy to utilize web based tools as opposed to traditional expensive advertising. The shift should take place gradually so that you don’t loose momentum. The idea is to quickly increase your customer base. For many businesses this may require a more traditional approach. Simultaneously we should begin to gather key information about our existing clients and customers. Email addresses, birthday anniversaries etc.