Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back): (24 Reasons People are Leaving You for Competitors, and How to Win Them Back*)
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Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back): (24 Reasons People are Leaving You for Competitors, and How to Win Them Back*)
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Overview
+++ Named One of Forbes Top 10 Books Of 2019 +++
"If you have become tired of spinning your wheels and watching clients leave without warning, this book will show you how to foster genuine interactions, such as through video, rather than pursuing one-off 'wow' moments." --Forbes
Discover the 24 reasons people are leaving you for competitors and how to win them back.
In Why Customers Leave, popular customer experience and marketing speaker David Avrin makes a compelling case for customer experience as a bankable differentiator in an era of vast marketplace choices. The book lays out the very visible reasons for the recent shift in customer mindset and expectation, illustrates the myriad ways that companies inadvertently drive customers and prospects to competitors, and offers a multitude of creative strategies and tactics to attract and retain new prospects.
In the book, David explores and articulates the disturbing new dynamic that has arisen from easy-to-find, one-click-away, at-your-fingertips options: “We have become a world of impatient, intolerant and demanding customers, and we move on quickly if inconvenienced in any way. Don’t blame the millennials! We have seen the enemy, and it is all of us.”
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781632658371 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Stop Telling Us No
Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.
–Abraham Lincoln
Psychologists tell us that the most offensive word to the human ear is "no." (If you ask my teenage daughter, she will tell you that word is "moist." But I digress.) Not surprisingly, the visceral reaction to "no" transcends language and cultural boundaries. Whether it's no, or nyet, nien, or non, we don't like to be told that we can't have what we want. Conversely, "no" is also considered the most powerful word as it can help us set boundaries, decline participation in harmful activities, avoid overburdening our schedules, protect our physical space, and prevent onions from making their way onto our burgers.
So as we look to generate sales and earn revenue from paying customers, why do we say no so often? This isn't about the appropriate response to informative yes-or-no questions. Often, "no" is simply a response to a circumstance rather than a rejection of a request.
"Is there a Chinese restaurant on this block?"
"Sorry, no. But we have a great Indian restaurant next door."
I'm talking about declining a request from a customer or client, falling back on company policy, or failing to offer a requested amenity. (Like outlets for charging cell phones.)
Now, to be clear, we have softer ways of saying no. We say things like, "Oh, I'm sorry, but we don't allow that." Or, "Gee, I would like to, but we won't be able to accommodate you." However you and your team couch it, you are telling us we can't have — or even pay for — what we want.
This isn't an issue of the customer always being right. This is an issue of accommodation and retention. It isn't about merely doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do, although that should be our fallback position. This is about profit and loyalty.
Lest you immediately jump in your mind to the things that you simply cannot do in your business, trust me. I get it. There are things that will never make sense in business. Every project can't be custom from scratch. Schedule changes that affect your entire team and take you off other client work often can't be accommodated, and your business has to remain profitable. What I am referring to is all the other times when a simple accommodation would be little skin off your nose, but would save a sale, please a customer, and foster loyalty.
"But that's a slippery slope!" you say. "If we start allowing everyone to substitute a menu item, then everyone will do it."
Nope. Not buying it. Bogus argument. "Everyone" isn't at the table when you agree to substitute shrimp for chicken. You don't find a way to say yes because you don't want to. You don't do it because you don't want your cooks in the kitchen complaining about special orders. You don't do it because you don't know how much extra to charge and don't want to take the time to figure it out.
But you know what? The lady would rather have shrimp! So give her shrimp and charge an extra couple bucks! You just made more money. She is pleased and will not only give you her future business but will likely tell others of her great experience! What's the other option? Not giving her what she asked for? So she leaves unhappy, doesn't come back, posts a negative Yelp review, and tells all of her 5,000 Facebook friends what a crappy place this is? Saying no when you could easily say yes — to a paying customer — is both stupid and lazy.
I stopped by the hotel front desk at 7:00 a.m. on the way out to a speaking gig. "Good morning," I say. "I'm going to need a late checkout, please."
"I'm sorry. The latest I can give you is noon," the desk clerk tells me.
"Here's my challenge," I say. "I have a speaking gig this morning, and I don't even get off stage until noon. I will get back to the hotel as soon as I can. I will try to be out by 12:45."
"Once again, I am sorry sir, but we are not offering late checkouts today. We have a conference coming in," she repeated with a dismissive air of condescension in her voice. "If you cannot check out at that time, we will have to charge you for another night."
I shrugged. "You are welcome to charge me, then," I said, matter-of-fact. "I don't have any way to get back here sooner, and I am late as it is. In fact, I think I'll just stay the extra night that I paid for and that convention attendee will have lost the room for the night. Is that the outcome you were looking for?"
"Um, let me talk to my manager," she said and came back twenty seconds later. "1:00 pm will be fine."
If someone has a legitimate need and you have the ability to accommodate, then be a good person and do what you can to make it work. I wasn't asking for three hours. I was asking for one hour past the normal time. The hotel staff would be cleaning hundreds of rooms, and not everyone was asking for the same accommodation. Let people keep their dignity, and don't make us beg, for crying out loud!
If someone needs to use the restroom, but hasn't bought anything from you, don't tell that person no. Be a good person. Point the way and smile. My God, someone needs to use the restroom! What is wrong with you? Refusing the use of your restroom is one of the most short-sighted and offensive policies that companies employ.
"We aren't here for the public to take advantage of us," you say. "This is a business, for crying out loud!"
Nobody is trying to take advantage. Your parents would be ashamed of you. We've all heard heartbreaking stories of a cruel teacher who wouldn't give a kid permission to go to the restroom and the kid was humiliated in front of the class. If you have a bathroom restriction policy, that cruel person is you. People need to go to the bathroom. Let them.
How many times have you made some stupid, small purchase at a retailer or restaurant just so they would let you use the restroom? Okay, Sparky, you just made forty-five cents. Do you feel better now? I will never come back and spend real dollars, but you got the forty-five cents, didn't you?
A coffee shop had a brilliant note posted on its glass door. It read:
You might not be a customer here today, but this is clearly a moment of need for you. So you are very welcome to use our restrooms. While you are here, if you'd like to buy a cup of coffee, please do. We think it's the best in town!
Brilliant, kind, and human. Do you think they created goodwill with both their customers and future customers? Did you notice that didn't say "non- customers"? Because if they weren't customers before, they are about to be! This act of empathy on the part of this business owner or manager is unfortunately the exception rather than the rule — and that is what makes it so exceptional!
Look at every reason you and your team say "no" to customers, and try to find a way to say yes. Sure, there will be many times you simply can't or don't want to accommodate. It often doesn't make sense. There are some very legitimate legal, ethical, logistical, or even preferential reasons why sometimes the answer has to be no:
"I'm not going to offer meat choices at my vegan restaurant."
"No, I'm not going to send you pictures of my house-keeping staff so you can choose the pretty one you'd like."
"We can't move twenty-two passengers on this flight to different seats so your volleyball team can sit together."
But I guarantee that you get requests every day or every week that you decline, but could easily accommodate. I began this book by reminding you that the biggest source of lost revenue was the customer or client you never knew about. These customers, whom you do know about, are often right in front of you or on the phone with you. You have them right where you want them. You have marketed to them, communicated with them, and elicited the one behavior that is crucial to your success: you got them on the phone, in your door, or on your website. You have earned that "golden moment." Don't blow it by telling them no!
The ugly cousin of no is inflexibility or hiding behind policy.
There was a time when the customer was king or queen. For many today, it seems as if the policy manual rules. The rules rule, and any deviation would require actual thought, considerations, and effort.
When your policies are designed so that your staff doesn't have to think, you've eliminated opportunities for them to solve problems and accommodate your customers. Not every situation is covered by your handbook and not every company-driven policy applies to every customer or client. When a good customer — hell, any customer — asks for an accommodation, a special request, a forbearance, or flexibility, it should at least be considered and not merely dismissed out of hand.
If your company doesn't permit its employees to wear hats, but a young woman's religion requires that she wears a hijab — let her be who she is! If a client can't meet during business hours because he is a single dad with an inflexible boss and works until 5:00 p.m., then stay late and meet him at 5:30 p.m. And if a sixty-year-old woman walks into your store carrying a steaming six-dollar cup of coffee in a closed coffee cup that she just bought, don't tell her, "Sorry, we don't allow food or drinks in the store." Treat her like an adult. Treat her like a cherished customer and worry more about pleasing her than whether she violated your policy detailed on your paper sign on the wall. Replace any policies that are not directly related to health or safety with guidelines.
This is an actual conversation overheard at a national massage/spa chain:
"I need to put my membership on hold for about a year," the customer said to the young woman behind the counter. "I'm undergoing treatments for a recent cancer diagnosis."
"Okay, you can do that, but you will lose the sessions that you have paid for but haven't used yet," the employee says.
"Really?" the woman responded. "I have been undergoing cancer treatment for the past four months and physically haven't been able to come in. I thought I could save up the ones in my account. Here is a note from my doctor and proof of my treatment."
"I do understand," the employee said sympathetically. "But it's our policy. We do have an option to keep the sessions you have on your account. For thirty dollars a month, you get to keep the ones you have, but we won't add any more."
"So wait. I have to pay thirty dollars a month to keep the ones I have already paid for?" she asked incredulously.
"Yeah. It's our policy. Sorry."
I honestly feel sorry for both of them in that conversation. The employee was restrained by her company, unable to do what she likely wanted to and felt like she should do. The customer was fighting the battle of her life, and this massage/spa chain added insult to injury.
To be fair, I doubt the chain's corporate leadership envisioned a scenario like this, but that's a poor excuse. Their inflexible policy left the employee with no option to deal with an extraordinary situation. Take the time to envision almost every imaginable scenario, and train your people accordingly.
And don't give me the "We can't plan for every situation!" line. I don't buy it. That's a convenient cop-out so you don't have to go through the trouble to plan for most of what is predictable at one time or another and empower your people to deal with the rest. What's the better option? Not equipping your people? The simple option is to create a blanket policy that covers everything, right? "If we don't let our people make decisions, then they won't make a wrong decision!" Terrible thinking.
The other argument, once again, is the fallback "slippery slope" cop-out: "If we let this person do it, then we have to let everyone do it!" What? No, you don't. Be a human being. Be compassionate. Be accommodating! Not every scenario involves a customer with cancer, but it doesn't negate the fact that different scenarios require a different answer or level of flexibility. You are not in business to make life easier for your staff. Your business's success is dependent on making life better for your customers.
My brilliant colleague and Hall of Fame Speaker Tim Gard (look him up!) has a wonderful and humorous solution for encountering inflexible policies. He carries his own personal policy manual with him. When an unwitting hotel front-desk clerk tells him no to a question and quotes corporate policy to him, Tim pulls a small booklet from his pocket and says: "Well, my policy manual says, 'Yes.' It clearly states it right here ..." as he holds open a page with the word "Yes" in bold letters. The desk clerk looks bewildered and then laughs. Most often, that's all it takes for the clerk to give in. Hilarious. Better still — effective!
The point is that inflexible policies are bad business. The success of Nordstrom's legendary customer service can be traced directly to their frontline staff who are equipped and emboldened to solve problems. The answer for them is always yes. It almost doesn't matter what the question is. They are given the freedom to make it right — and they don't need to get a manager.
For frontline workers, the easiest thing when confronted with an unfamiliar situation is to just say, "No," or "Sorry, I'm afraid we can't," and then move on. Big mistake. How about empowering your people to find a way to say yes? Or if they have to say no, offer an alternative that both can agree to. Not only do you save an important client or customer relationship, but you get to be the hero for solving a problem. Customers remember and they reward you with positive reviews and future business.
WHY YOU DO IT:
Many in business adopt some measure of the franchise model. The franchise is centered around predictability. The more things we can standardize and control, the more things we can predict, and the fewer things can go awry. And if we can reduce straying from the anticipated scenarios, it's easier to manage our business, create budgets, and pay our bills.
However, the cost of managing for predictability is the lost opportunities from better navigating unanticipated scenarios. We lose opportunities to accommodate our customers (who are often just being human), and we lose many of those customers from the frustration generated by our inflexibility.
WHY WE HATE IT:
We don't like being told no. Worse yet, when we can conceive of simple scenarios that would involve some measure of concession but others don't see it, refuse to see it, or see it but still say no, we are frustrated. In our mind, a simple accommodation seems reasonable. When you don't offer that accommodation, we view you as unreasonable — and we don't like doing business with unreasonable people.
A BETTER APPROACH:
Eliminate the word "no" from your company's vocabulary. Either replace it with "It would be my pleasure!" or some version of "Here's what we can do." Create a culture of problem-solving and accommodation. It doesn't mean that every customer gets what they want, the way they want it every time, but they should get something. Redirect your efforts to discover and communicate what you can do. People will often understand that you can't do something if you offer an alternative or some level of accommodation.
Gather your team for a brainstorming session. Order in food, put your cell phones on vibrate, and roll up your sleeves. Walk through every familiar and unfamiliar scenario with your customers, clients, or patients, and discuss all the times you say no. Categorize them into three sections: (1) Have to say no; (2) offer an alternative; and (3) find a way to say yes. Chart all the ideas and plot them into one of the three sections. Role-play both likely and unlikely scenarios. Equip and empower your team to think-on-the-fly and effectively deal with the scenarios they confront.
Work together to not only anticipate unusual scenarios, but to truly understand your customers, why they are making the request, what our flexibility would mean to them, and what their satisfaction would mean to us. The value of the exercise is in the process itself. When we help our people to understand what the "extra mile" and flexibility means to our customers and their satisfaction, our people will often understand and rise to the occasion.
CHAPTER 2DON'T FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT
I am not qualified to talk about the diet, simply because I am not a dietician.
–Nine-time Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Mark Spitz
We've often heard the line: Fake it until you make it. In its most innocent form, it's a simple admonition for people aspiring to higher levels to just get in there and do the work that others are already doing at those levels in order to prove yourself. I understand the motivation, intent, and aspirational application. But when it comes to business, the temptation to "fake" anything is a slippery slope.
"We'll figure it out!" they say. "Give us your business and we'll find a way to make it happen."
And while on some level, it's admirable that a business is willing to do what it takes to make the customer happy and fulfill their end of the bargain, is it really ethical to figure it out on someone else's dime? Shouldn't you only accept business when you know you can hit it out of the park? Wouldn't it be better (safer) to refer that prospect to someone who knows the business, has some relevant experience, and can guarantee delivery?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Why Customers Leave"
by .
Copyright © 2019 David Avrin.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments,
Foreword,
Preface: Don't Skip This,
Introduction: Blink and They're Gone,
1 Stop Telling Us No,
2 Don't Fake It Until You Make It,
3 Automation Kills Loyalty,
4 Don't Close-Ever,
5 Don't Be Hard to Reach,
6 Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining,
7 We Don't Want to Do Business Your Way,
8 Don't Punish Everyone for the Actions of a Few,
9 Fix Your Dysfunctional Website,
10 You Get One Chance, So Don't Blow It,
11 It's Not What You Want to Say, It's What We Want to Hear,
12 My Call Is Not Very Important to You,
13 Don't Treat Me Like You Want to Be Treated,
14 Don't Pass the Buck (and Don't Throw Coworkers Under the Bus),
15 Stop Making Us Do Your Work,
16 Your Stalking Is Creeping Us Out,
17 Avoid the Sin of Omission,
18 Your Management Fails to Manage,
19 Show Us That You Care About Your Business,
20 Stop Wasting Our Time,
21 Stop Being Cheap,
22 Don't Take Us for Granted,
23 Being Good Is No Longer Good Enough,
Afterword: Be a Great Customer,
Notes,
Index,