I was in St. Louis visiting a client last week. They’re a 50M+ manufacturing company that I’ve been working with over the past year. I’ve worked with both the sales and service teams on a number of projects, but the one that has been most exciting for me to watch has been the implementation of my Pick-3 process.
I’ve talked about this process many times before, including in my book The Customer Loyalty Loop.
In short, the process directs everybody using it to make a meaningful, personal connection with 3 of your clients per day.
This company has been able to get over 25 employees taking part on a daily basis and needless to say, the results have been outstanding. Every day their customers let them know that they’ve never had service and experiences like this before–anywhere.
They’re taking a simple action, doing it habitually, and they’re reaping the rewards.
The Pick-3 was born as my response to the ridiculous business statement you’ve all heard a gazillion times… “It’s 5X less expensive to keep an existing customer than it is to get a new one.”
Great.
But what always bothered me, was that nobody ever answered my next question of: “If that’s the case, how do we make the existing customer 5X more valuable?”
The Pick-3 Process is just one of my tools for doing that. Of course, there are others. Like making sure your customer-facing people are knowledgeable and aware of all the products and services your company offers. But listen to this…
I read a study (HERE) over the weekend that found over 50% of consumers switched companies they buy from because of a poor customer experience or a lack of trust. Think about that for a moment.
Let that sink in.
50% of all customers decided to buy elsewhere because of a lousy experience.
This is costing companies and brands over $2.5 trillion worldwide.
The article goes on to talk about the concepts of big data and personalization being boardroom and corporate buzzwords, but the reliance on the tools to automate those processes costs companies money hand over foot because they’re using them wrong.
The tools, the data, the automation all promise increased personalization when in fact, they often do the direct opposite. What’s supposed to feel real, and personalized, feels more like a big, giant ruse.
Let me give a basic, but concrete example of that – if you get an email from a company that starts with “Dear JOHN SMITH,” you know something is wrong. In fact, there are at least three things wrong – Obviously, nobody looked at the email before it went out. Obviously, it’s just grabbing your name from a database, and obviously, they don’t even care about making it *look* like they’re personalizing it to you.
Look – I love tools and automation. I use it to help my clients create better experiences for their clients every day. When it’s used properly, a great process & set of tools create an incredible advantage for your business.
Unfortunately, too often companies stop at, “We can get more done cheaper,” and don’t invest in doing the minimal amount of work that goes into creating truly personalized & valuable experiences.
And that’s why the processes and methods I teach my clients work so well. They rely on making all interactions meaningful, memorable, and personable. They take things back to the human to human interactions that are always more powerful and impactful than automated messaging.
If haven’t had the chance to work together yet, let’s make this time for us to explore what that might look like.
Let’s not allow 50% of your clients and customers to buy elsewhere because of an experience that lacked meaning.
As I spoke to my client’s team in St. Louis, they all remarked how much fun they were having with the process because it was simple, and it worked.
Your Weekly Challenge: Give yourself an honest appraisal and score your company on how well you create meaningful personalization for your clients.
What’s the ratio of automated to “human-generated” contact they get?
How well are the automated messages crafted?
If you think you’re doing great, or if you’re worried about what you find, you should give us a call to talk about it.
We love hearing success stories about creating real connections, and we’ve had great successes in helping our clients create those kinds of connections. Who knows? It could be the most valuable decision you make all year.
