TRAINING: GRAHAM PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST
Ian Kenny, marketing director at Graham Plumbers’ Merchant explains how he plumbers merchant is shifting its approach to colleague development with an increased focus on customer experience training.
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or the last five years Graham has seen a consistent level of growth in investment, sales and most importantly, customer satisfaction. The company has worked hard to improve stock levels, deals and hours of service to provide the custom the installers expect and want. Graham’s own research highlights that installers continue to carry out regular custom because of availability/ stock, knowledge and the tailored attention individual branch managers can provide, with most customers spending the majority in one branch. Therefore, to ensure this continued local growth, the company has started to introduce more customer focused training within the last few years.
Graham has always invested significantly in staff training, with a comprehensive development plan for every member of staff on product knowledge building. However, the company has recognised that this knowledge needs to go hand in hand with softer skills around customer interaction, to truly make a difference. Graham has therefore started to extend its training programmes to incorporate this.
For example, building loyalty is key. Most suppliers highlight that the reason their favourite suppliers have not changed is because of the location and the relationship they have with the staff. Graham therefore focus on the benefits of customer loyalty and how to build that loyalty effectively, to ensure its staff are much more conscious and aware
of how to keep customers coming back. Clue spotting is another training area that can get overlooked, but is vital to the customer experience. “Clues” are impressions which customers consciously and unconsciously filter into both rational and emotional categories in their heads. For example, a rational clue would be if the products worked as sold, and that the product is in stock as promised by the online stock checker. However, emotional clues are what evoke effective responses.
Emotional clues involve the tone of voice the staff use with them, the body language, choice of words and how the customer is addressed. While one sales assistant may provide accurate information in a monotone, bored manner, customers are more likely to respond and return to the one who answers with enthusiasm. Therefore, investing in clue spotting training is vital to staff members so that they can understand the actions of small gestures and the importance of tone and body language.
Inevitably, sometimes a negative customer experience can occur –and correcting any error appropriately is crucial to maintaining excellent customer loyalty. If this ever occurs, customer experience training can help Graham colleagues respond quickly and appropriately, making the customers’ issues a priority.
Graham has invested in an exclusive Customer Loyalty Masterclass, which is developed and presented by customer experience specialist, Chris Daffy.
December 2018
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
The masterclass is the result of twenty years of experience, and is a nine module programme covering: • Building Loyalty • Clue Spotting • Customer Experience Journey Mapping • The Customer’s Perspective • Action Planning • Removing Ouches • Generating Ideas
The programme is designed to give an understanding of creating sustainable customer loyalty and helps to create strategies that improve business growth. Since shifting focus to customer experience, Graham has seen substantial results – including a Graham Customer Score of 63. The survey of over 11,000 customers is based on the Net Promotor Score, which offers an accurate method of gauging feedback, with an industry average of 16. Local sales have increased and 1186 employees have been named in positive feedback surveys.
Customers and colleagues are the foundation of any businesses’ success. By introducing these customer experience methods, we now provide all the benefits of a small local – knowing their customers, offering a more tailored service while showing an interest and caring about local plumbers. With the support and benefits of a national company behind us – better deals as well as good stock, returns and exchange policies. This has led to a substantial growth in sales, new customers as well as repeat business. BMJ
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