When developing sales training, I’m occasionally asked to write scripts for the sales representatives. Thankfully, I’ve been successful advocating for a better approach. My sales training classes are highly interactive and involve role plays that challenge learners to think on their feet. In other words, the goal is to develop better sales associates by instilling critical thinking skills. Continue reading “Ditch the Pitch! Lose the Sales Script and Gain Authenticity”
Tag: Luxury
Make sure your online customers are happy before you try to wow them.
In Michiel Gasterlaand’s article “The Secret to Winning the Customer Service Battle in eCommerce” in Entrepeneur, he states that only 1% of web store customers feel their expectations are being met. Web stores are missing the opportunity to differentiate themselves through customer service. Gasterlaand writes:
Whether they realize it or not, web stores now are competing primarily on customer service. Apart from offering a great product for a great price, customer service clearly is the new battleground.
Continue reading “Make sure your online customers are happy before you try to wow them.”
Do your salespeople really understand the luxury perspective?
When I was at BMW, we designed a training program for the dealers that required them to stay at a Ritz-Carlton hotel. What the dealers experienced as Ritz-Carlton customers became the basis for their learning. We realized we had been asking dealers to deliver a luxury experience to BMW customers without them fully understanding what that meant. After their Ritz-Carlton stay, the dealers were able to articulate their expectations as luxury consumers, and in turn, they successfully translated that experience to their own customers. Training Magazine has just posted an article about a similar learning program conducted by the Turkish luxury supermarket brand Migros, entitled “Migros’ Luxury Perspective.”
The Migros’ training program was conducted in two phases: first was an in-class session, followed by a second phase that included a a trip to New York and London. According to the article:
The program includes competitor analyses, shopping experiences in luxury stores, experience sharing from world-famous luxury brand sellers, a session of listening to expectations from luxury customers, eating in luxury restaurants, staying in luxury hotels, and many other lifestyle experiences.
The entire experience was designed to help associates get “closer to the customers in terms of general culture and experience.” The result was an increase in customer loyalty from 6% to 15%,
What are you doing to help your sales associates better understand the luxury experience you’re asking them to deliver?
“What’s it to you?” – Igniting Customer Desire
What’s it to me? Everything! If you can’t articulate why your product or service is important to me, you’ll likely not win me as a customer. Very often sales associates try to differentiate themselves by becoming subject matter experts. They then overwhelm potential clients with a litany of facts and product features with no regard for what’s actually important to the customer. In other words, what is the benefit to the customer?
Being able to distinguish between a feature (a statement of value) and a benefit (a personalized statement of value) is the key to igniting customer desire. When purchasing a luxury service or product, it’s less about need than it is about desire—and desire is emotion based. That means in order to tie into the emotion that will create desire, you need to position not only the value of your product or service, but its value to your customer. Continue reading ““What’s it to you?” – Igniting Customer Desire”
Has your luxury experience been ruined by bad language?
In this excellent Forbes article “Are You Killing Your Customer Service with these Language Mistakes,” Micah Solomon confirms what I’ve believed for years… the language your sales associates speak must align with your brand. This canon holds true especially for luxury brands, since luxury customers have heightened service expectations.
Continue reading “Has your luxury experience been ruined by bad language?”
“I’m just looking” can mean so much more
Your customers have said it. You’ve probably said it yourself. “No thanks, I’m just looking” is the most common response to the oft heard question “May I help you?”
How can you avoid the “I’m just looking?” response from customers? The first step is to stop asking closed-ended questions. By using inquisitive, open-ended questions, you’ll initiate a dialogue and side-track the automated “I’m just looking” comeback. (Check out this previous blog post for tips on asking open-ended questions.)
Article: Kudos To You: 10 Top To-Do’s To Keep Those Customers Coming
Kudos To You: 10 Top To-Do’s To Keep Those Customers Coming
Think about what you can do to keep the customers you have.
What do you think of smart luxury?
In today’s New York Times, fashion commentator Vanessa Friedman coined a new term (with the help of one of her readers): smart luxury. Friedman uses the term to describe designer Tomas Maier’s new aesthetically luxurious styles that don’t carry a luxury price tag. Friedman suggests ‘smart luxury’ could serve double duty as a substitute for the less pleasant sounding ‘wearables’. Who wouldn’t want to buy smart luxury?
What are your thoughts? Is ‘smart luxury’ a phrase that will catch on? (Read the New York Time’s article here.)
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7 out of 10 Affluent Customers Disappointed by In-Store Service
In a previous post I dissected the upcoming Journal of Consumer Research report that purportedly found customers who receive poor treatment from sales associates in a luxury retail environment are more likely to make a purchase. Many blogs turned this particular factoid into a headline. But if you dove deeper into the study, you saw that this off-putting approach had no staying power. It only worked on aspirational customers and not for customers who were already familiar with the brand. Even worse, the majority of aspirational customers who, in a vain attempt to be considered “part of the club,” succumbed to the snooty behavior of their luxury sales person, wound up returning their purchases within two weeks.
Continue reading “7 out of 10 Affluent Customers Disappointed by In-Store Service”
Can Customer Service Go Too Far?
By now you’ve probably listened to Ryan Block’s excruciating attempt to cancel his Comcast service with a customer service representative “gone wild.” (If not, you can listen here). The recording starts already 10 minutes into the call. In this case the representative, known as a “retention specialist,” tries to force Mr. Block into explaining why he’s canceling his service, even as Mr. Block repeatedly declines to do so. The recording has gone viral and Comcast has admitted it’s “embarrassed by the call.” In a recent apology issued by Comcast, Tom Karinshak, SVP, Customer Experience, said the way in which the representative communicated was “not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives.”
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