Making Your Business Easy To Do Business With Can Be Easy

Thinking about making it easy to do business with you

As service executives, we rarely consider making it easy to do business with us. Instead, we spend lots of time thinking about what we can do to grow our business. We think about improving customer satisfaction, implementing new software, or deploying augmented reality. We think about how to motivate our teams better, improve employee retention, and transfer the tribal knowledge from our older (and soon-to-be retiring) engineers to our newer employees.

But how about thinking about and implementing some easy things to make our customers happier and more loyal? These same things will also make your field people proud of their company.

I first came across this idea in an article by my friend Gautam Mahajan. In his article, Gautam wrote:

This doesn’t make sense, you think.  Doing less cannot cost more.

 

You have to look at the net cost. Many actions that add value do not cost much. Smiling, being courteous, listening to customers, keeping promises, going the extra mile, wanting to help, being on time, not making the customer anxious, not making him wait, not making him spend energy, not insulting his intelligence, not destroying his self-image, being prompt, being knowledgeable, etc. etc. can all add value.

 

And that adds up to higher relationship, better retention, higher sales, better prices, and ROI.

And the idea for this post came to my mind when I recently received a holiday catalog from a food store.

 

I included five examples from their website to show you 1) how easy it is to think like a customer and 2) how strong a message you send by documenting the many small things you do to make the customer’s life easy.

2. Make the customer’s experience as easy as possible.

And from their holiday catalog:

 

After looking at their website or catalog, you will believe they think of us every step of the way.

 

How can you get the same reaction from your customers?

 

When you look at Zingerman’s, you should come to two conclusions:

1. Your actions don’t have to be big or expensive
2. There is a great deal of value in clearly communicating all the things you do for your customers

For example, let’s look at the Service Contract area.

1. Write the actual contract in plain language and make it brief. Leave out all the things that do not matter or work their way into the contract over the years. Make it as easy as possible to approve.

At one place I worked, the Service Marketing Manager adapted our Terms and Conditions (T’s & C’a previous a prior job. We serviced analytical instrumentation, and he modified the Ts&Cs from a copier company. I cut out things like, “the contract is void if the instrument is repainted!” Never going to happen, so it got cut.

2. The price should completely cover everything in the contract. This means if parts are included, then all features should be included. Frequently contracts exclude expensive components, so the buyer has to submit a purchase order for each failure, and her boss always asks the same question; “Why do we have a contract if we still have to cut a P.O. for a failure?” Lots of hassle. Make their lives easy!

In the service and support areas:

1. Everyone hates calling tech support, not because of the support person but because of what they must go through before talking with someone.

I like Apple support. I can go online, tell them what product and significant area (hardware, software, battery, etc.) is not working, and make an appointment for a callback to receive one within one minute. You may not be able to create such a sophisticated system and have enough support people to call back immediately, but you may be able to schedule a callback within a one-, two-, or three-hour window. Do whatever you can to learn from the big companies who do Customer Satisfaction very well.

2. When you dispatch a field technician, you should always give the customer a window for the expected arrival time. The tech should then be responsible for keeping the customer updated. When the tech is optimistic about the arrival time, she should email the customer with the time and include an identification picture. Hence, the customer, and anyone who will escort the tech from the entrance to the equipment, know exactly who to expect. If the identification also includes the technician’s Certifications, the customer will have great peace of mind that their problem will be solved quickly.

Technicians who wear company shirts look professional, stand out from the customer’s observers, and assure the customer they will be well supported.

 

3. Wouldn’t it be nice if your website and other collateral had something like this displayed:

I am sure you get the idea and have someone at your company who can create an original message that everyone can like.

Please do whatever you can to make life easier when they work with you. The rewards will always exceed your efforts.

About Middlesex Consulting

Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing,  Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization become easy to do business with, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.