Even in our technological age, customers appreciate the human touches.
We’ve all heard or we’ve often said “it’s the small things that make a difference.”
And when you think of your own experiences in retail, when travelling and even when conducting business or buying something online, it’s often the small things that surprise and delight.
Over the past few years, many business and training experts have been talking about the “one degree of difference” that can help you differentiate yourself from competitors and help cement the relationship with your customer.
But how do you identify those small things that will make a difference to your customers?
We still tend to think of a dealership as a very different kind of business than many others, but that’s not really true any more.
It’s not just me saying that — I believe your customers are feeling that way more and more. So, there is convergence across all retail environments in terms of what are the small things that can make a big difference.
The key is to understand what will work — what customers will truly value — and what’s feasible and sensible for the business.
Small things make a big difference
There has been so much written about this, but one of the most useful summaries I’ve seen comes from Stan Phelps, an author, speaker and facilitator who is also a contributor to Forbes magazine in the U.S. Here are the twelve things he identifies:
1. Throw-ins:
• Bags fly free at Southwest Airlines
2. In the bag / Out of the box:
• A restaurant that packs a free take-home pasta dish if you order one
3. Sampling:
• Order a box of Bigelow tea and get a free sample of another flavour
4. First and last impressions:
• Hard Rock Hotels let you try out a Gibson guitar on check-in. Memorable and “talkable” (on social media).
5. Guarantees:
• Shows you stand behind your product and service
6. Pay it forward:
• Pizza chain that has a suit dry cleaned if you are out of work and have an interview coming up
7. Follow up calls:
• Personal, not automated
8. Added service:
• Safelite glass replaces windshield, vacuums your car and washes the windows
9. Convenience:
• Amazon’s hassle-free packaging
10. Waiting:
• Some restaurants offer a complimentary glass of wine if customers have to wait for a table
11. Special needs:
• Rainforest Café makes special meals for people with food allergies
12. Handling mistakes:
• A Canadian nursing agency delivers a fresh pie to customers who experience mistakes (humble pie!)
Even though these are not directly in an automotive context, you can probably imagine similar things you could do that will have an impact on the experience of your customers.
What’s the ROI on these “small things”?
Of course, nobody can guarantee that doing small things for the customer will result in increased loyalty and increased business.
But they mount up over time and your business’s reputation is likely to grow as well as employee morale and performance when they realize that customers respond positively.
I believe strongly in engaging employees at all levels to think about these things and come up with ideas that are appropriate for their areas of the business.
The key is to understand what will work — what customers will truly value — and what’s feasible and sensible for the business.
Here’s a way of looking at it by putting ideas on a matrix that plots the value to the customer against the cost or effort your business would have to expend to do small things.
The most effective way to do this would probably be in groups of employees, where the customer interface is similar.
But don’t leave the “back office” employees out. What they do can impact the customer and, apart from the fact that they may come up with great ideas, the customer experience should be front and centre for everyone.
Some ideas might involve changes or enhancements to existing processes which are managed by back office employees.
Most critical are those who face the customer all the time — from the shuttle driver to the car valet to all the service and sales staff. They probably have a treasure trove of ideas to bring to the table.
Many of your employees probably do some of these small things anyway, but they can become hallmarks and differentiators of your business if they are shared and made part of the customer experience.
This matrix can also be flipped to a negative impact analysis to identify and understand the small things that can bring you down easily.
You can use the same approach to map these, using negative impact instead of positive impact and understanding the effort / cost to fix the issues.
Most current CS surveys will not address these things (unless customers volunteer the information themselves).
They are blunt instruments that address very rational parts of the customer experience — important, but by no means the full story.
You should pay close attention to anything your customers say in response to surveys (their open-comments) and especially to what they say in social media.
These are vital sources of information — possibly even more important than the scores on surveys. And you’ll get good direction on the small things that matter.
A tipping point for customer loyalty and trust
There is no doubt that we live in a very different world from even a few years ago.
You might think that the change in the customer base and the increasing emphasis on the digital experience might make the small touches and the human factor irrelevant.
The opposite seems to be true. With millennials especially, consumers indicate that they prefer to buy and to do business with brands and companies that they perceive share their values.
A recent study by eConsultancy (New York/London/Singapore) among C-Suite and senior management at global companies asked the question: “What is effective leadership in the digital age?”
Their research confirmed that customer centricity is not dead. And it hasn’t given way to the digital gods.
While technology is a more accepted and expected part of all of our worlds, consumers want the advantages technology brings, but also the human touch.
While technology is a more accepted and expected part of all of our worlds, consumers want the advantages technology brings, but also the human touch.
Yes, we are still the “high tech / high touch” society that emerged a quarter of a century ago.
A recent PwC study in South Africa found that “consumers want the people they deal with to be supported by technology, not (necessarily) replaced by technology.”
With so much being done with the help of technology, it’s likely the small things that will resonate with customers.
If you and your staff can make those small things part of the service without thinking, it will go a long way to tipping the scales to loyalty and trust.
