Perfect Service Magic Comes From Wowing Current Customers

Not Related But A Funny Advertisement About Service

I am spending some time in Wisconsin these days, and I noticed an interesting phenomenon on the radio. At least 80% of the advertisements for local businesses promoted their high levels of service, their moneyback guarantees, and their industry rankings for satisfaction. All types of businesses were advertised: health insurance, roofers, car dealerships, and security firms. And most tried to position themselves as the market's service leader.

I am of two minds about this:

1. I think it is great that companies believe selling service satisfaction is a viable competitive weapon. They are counting on a sizable segment of the population to positively respond to the idea that being satisfied with the service is more important than having the lowest price or the most progressive features.

2. I worry that promotion of premium service is not over-hyped to the point of numbness. And that this is viewed as a way to get new customers, and then under-delivered. It reminds me that 80% of companies in a recent survey said they wanted to use the customer experience as a competitive differentiator, yet only 40% had any type of formal service program in place.

I hope that these offers are truly well thought out, and that when customers are attracted to the offering, the company can deliver on the promise. After all, saying you have the best service is easy to do, but much harder to deliver.


My View

While advertising for new customers is important, Perfect Service programs focus on your existing customer.

• By delivering a premier experience to that customer, an asset is created that continues to grow. The customer will stay with you, buy more from you, and serve as a reference for future sales.


• The customer experience is designed based on a model for a "perfect" or ideal transaction. All aspects of the delivery of that perfect transaction are measured and improved upon. The feedback is frequent and instantaneous.


• Satisfaction is unconditionally guaranteed.


• Client satisfaction success stories are trumpeted throughout the organization.

Only then can a company confidently go to the marketplace and tout its services. And the experience will match the promotion.

After The Win, Companies Need To Deliver "A Perfect Conversion"

Your company has worked for weeks and months on positioning your services exactly the way you want. The client has given the right signals that it values your service proposition, and thinks your approach is intriquing. There seems to be a connection forming between the decision-makers and the sales team.

And then you get the word....you have won the big sale! Congratulations. Time to brew the pot of coffee...the real work begins.

Now comes a critical stage in the relationship...the Implementation or Conversion process. This stage is the first time your company moves from typical sales hype to reality of having to deliver what you sold. In many instances, this is a sobering time in the deal for both parties, one that Perfect Service companies need to critically analyze and design.

Bruce Temkin, in a recent blog post, describes this as the "Engagement Phase," the underappreciated stage between Point of Sale and Service. He believes that during this stage instead of worrying about collecting the proceeds from the sale, companies should focus on getting their customers satisfied. http://www.customerexperiencematters.wordpress.com/

The longer the transition period, more risk, and opportunity, a company has to reinforce its value proposition. Companies take this transition stage way too lightly.

My View

Many industries, particularly those delivering outsourcing services, experience long periods between sales and ongoing service. Typically, this stage is viewed as a technical experience as the service provider is taking its new client's detailed requirements and translating them into service capabilities. We are in the weeds here.

To perform this phase, most companies deploy a dedicated conversion or implementation team to the transaction. This team is staffed with Project Managers, Business Requirement Analysts, Technical Analysts, and other members of the Project Teams

To collect client requirements, there is a lot of client interaction and documentation, often with face-to-face meetings. Any confusion or details that are unclear are addressed here by this team.

In short, the conversion process is an intense learning experience, with frequent client interaction.

And once the conversion is completed and services are now live, the client is transferred to the Relationship Manager and the ongoing service organization. Several things can be improved with this typical arrangement:

1. Most of early relationship building is done with Conversion Team, not ongoing Service Team. The early meetings are where first impressions are created. While probably personable, the Project Manager's chief talent is most likely structure, detail clarity, and adherence to schedules.

2. Most client learning is experienced by Conversion Team, and although details are likely documented, the "soft" learnings are not as well as the conversations leading to specific decisions. As a result, client particulars must be "re-learned" by the service team.

3. There is often a lack of continuity in commitments made from sales to conversion to ongoing. This is understandable given that each group has its own objective. Unfortunately, that objective is rarely the same.

As Temkin describes: the main objective of Sales, Conversion and Ongoing Service should be the satisfaction of the client, not just the achievement of a departmental goal. Companies that recognize this will review their conversion processes with a different eye:

--Involving Client Service staff during the conversion process;
--Training Project Managers on the tenets of delivering satisfaction rather than merely the execution of the project;
--Identification and resolution of client dissatisfiers early in the Conversion process, rather than waiting for them during service delivery.

In Re-Engineering The Corporation, the classic business book, a view presented is that Conversion is just an extension of the sales process. That makes some sense, since business requirements and offerings are collected during the sales process and are used for implementating that business.

Instead, I offer the following thought: that Sales and Conversion are just the first part of the Service Process, and need to be as thoughtfully designed.

"Perfect Sales " Process: Finding Those Prospects Who Already Want Your Service

Part 2--Targeting Potential "Perfect Service" Disciples

As president of your company, you have already focused the company to differentiate using a premier service approach. You have implemented many of the tenets of "Perfect Service," have begun delighting your current customers, and beginning to focus on profitable growth.

Remember, the magic "Perfect Service" success formula: Satisfied customers will stay with you at premium prices, buy more services when appropriate, and serve as enthusiastic references for new customers. The sales idea, then, is to find more customers who will act as disciples for your success.

You have now segmented your market into three sets of buyers:

1. Low Cost Buyers
2. Rich Features Buyers
3. Premium Service Buyers

Customers who value your key proposition--Premium Service--will appreciate the unique nuances of your offering, and be willing to pay higher fees. Your growth strategy should be to dominate the Premium Service segment, while working to grow that segment overall. Larger slice of a growing pie, so to speak.

There are a few categories of potential customers upon which a sales organization may target. For expediency, I will call them all "Service Prospects.":

• Prospects who value your service proposition and are willing to buy from you;
• Prospects who value your service proposition but don't know you exist;
• Prospects who don't know if they value your service proposition but know who you are;
• Prospects who don't know if they value your service proposition and don't know you exist;
• Prospects who don't value premium service but know who you are;
• Prospects who don't value premium service and don't know you exist.

An effective sales effort needs to quickly determine into which of these categories a prospect falls. Depending upon sales situations and service offered, once the category is determined, sales efforts must be targeted and proportional. Selling a service requires intimate understanding of the prospects specific needs, so the correct solution/service may be offered. Cost of sales effort is likely to be high, and also requires a high close rate. This requires time and resources, and must be focused on those prospects that already value what your company offers.

The prospects you should see out include:

• Prospects who value your service offering, and who already know you;
• Prospects who value your service offering, and who don't know you;
• Prospects who are unsure about the value of service, but who know you;
• Prospects who are unsure about the value of service, and don't know you.

Once identified, it is not useful to pursue those customers who do not value your service proposition. You will spend a lot of time convincing them that service matters, and will likely entice them with lower pricing for service that they will not value over the long run. They will never be "Perfect Service" disciples. Therefore, do not pursue:

• Prospects who do not value service, but who know you;
• Prospects who do not value service, and don't know you.

It may seem elementary, but few companies are so focused on their competencies that they are willing to cede potential sales on the grounds that the sales efforts will be wasteful, and the subsequent relationship will never be totally fruitful.

My View:

Targeting the right customers is an essential first step for the "Perfect Service" organization. Creating customized service solutions requires time and effort to understand each potential customer's situation, needs, and desires. (More on that process in future posts.) So it is critical that there is a high probability for a successful sale.

How does a firm determine the prospect's buying criteria? It is not cookie cutter, but there are a few indicators:

How is the prospect currently being served, and from whom? This is often an indication of past buying criteria, as well as an understanding of the service the prospect is currently experiencing.

Why is the prospect undertaking the search? Oft times, it is merely a due diligence search required by a purchasing department. Other times, this question uncovers a dissatisfaction with current service. If the dissatisfaction is with price, it is strong indication of a commodity shopper...but not always. Price dissatisfaction could also be a prospect currently paying for service not valued.

Why is the prospect willing to talk to us? Somehow, the prospect is communicating with your company. If you called, then they took the call. If they called, there is something they want to know. Either way, the prospect is most likely willing to learn, either about your service proposition, or about your company.

By identifying the type of buyer, a sales organization can now get to work on finding service solutions for this company's unqiue issues. This is where "Perfect Service" is first demonstrated.

Question: Are Sales And Great Service Really The Same Thing? Isn't It All About Meeting Needs?

PART 1

I've been questioned recently about the sales process, and have been thinking a lot about the similarities and differences between Sales and Perfect Service. That is, when a company designs its practices to deliver premier services, what does this practice do for the sales process?

Quality expert Joseph Juran observed, "There should be no reason our familiar principles of quality and process engineering would not work in the sales process." Juran was speaking mostly about efficiency and error-reduction, and many of his metrics are about productivity. But if we substitute the words "Perfect Service" , I believe we can get to a similar conclusion:

"There should be no reason our principles of "Delivering Perfect Service" would not work in the sale process." Further, for those companies who embark on designing a premier service offering, I would emphatically state that it is a requirement to align service and sales practices. One step even further, premier service and sales practices are the same thing!

Sales Training books identify specific steps or stages in a sales process. These generally include the following elements. I am going to group these into three broader categories:

Prospecting
Initial Contact
Application of Initial Fit Criteria

Consultative Approaches
Sales Lead
Need Identification
Proposal

Closing
Negotiation
Closing Deal Transaction

In my next few posts, I am going to examine some of these characteristics.