REALITY CHECK: Can you imagine you or one of your people sending an email message to a customer who spends 250k a year with you with no way to contact you back?
Draw your own conclusions about the sincerity of their message. And they win the JD Powers award for customer satisfaction. Hello! What’s the category: Least crappy?
Loyalty or “forced loyalty”? I have airline reward miles. Lots of them. Does that make me loyal, or am I forced to be loyal based on the city I live in, and available flights? Airlines have no idea what loyalty is, much less how to earn it. I got a request last Christmas, er, I mean last holiday season, asking me to donate my air miles to THEIR charity. Huh? Why are you asking me to give up the ONE THING I feel is a benefit of doing business with you? Dude, you print the miles, you donate them.
HERE ARE MY FANTASY AIRLINE REQUESTS AND RESPONSES:
+ We surveyed 5,000 flying business people and 5,000 flying vacationers and are implementing 100 of their recommendations.
+ We’re raising all ticket costs by $50 so bags can fly free. This will both shorten lines and speed up boarding. We will be offering other services included in this fee.
+ We’re installing WiFi on every plane and it’s free.
+ We’re now serving edible food and drinkable coffee.
+ Every employee will be taking Jeffrey Gitomer’s YES! Attitude course.
+ Every employee will learn and love to execute basic manners. The words “All set” will be replaced with the words “Thanks for your business.” And all employees will look all customers in the eye when they talk to them.
+ All email communications will have a DIRECT response capability.
+ There will be full disclosure regarding why planes are delayed.
+ We pledge to be friendly. (I don’t want to “fly the friendly skies.” I want the people in the sky to be friendly. That’s the commercial I’m looking for.)
And NONE of these requires major shift in or cost of doing business. In fact, all of these will improve loyalty of customers and employees.
Okay, now that you’re nodding in agreement with me, let’s look at the situation at your business:
+ How friendly are your people? + What’s the attitude (morale) like in your place?
+ How much have you invested in training them on their attitude?
+ How fast do you serve customers? + How fast do you answer the phone? + How accessible are your executives? + How many frivolous fees do you have?
+ What services are you not offering that your customers want?
It’s easy to see the flaws in others. It’s much more challenging and difficult to see them in yourself.
EPILOG: I don’t fight the airlines anymore. I just look at what they do and shake my head. A few months ago I was especially frustrated at their rudeness to an elderly customer and I decided to tweet rather than say anything. Rather than tell one fool my feelings, why not get my feelings to 200 million people through social media?
Here’s the tweet I sent: If you’re looking to succeed in business, follow the airlines. Whatever they do, do the opposite. #gitomer #airlines
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.
gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally:
salesman@gitomer.com
©
2012 All Rights Reserved - Don’t even think about reproducing this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer 704-333-1112
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