Customer Service Helper

Sell the Experience and Get Your Customers Excited About Doing Business With You

Here is a statement that will make you either stop reading this article at this moment or dig deeper and have an experience of your own that may transform your view of business forever! Here it goes, if you have satisfied customers you will soon be out of business! That’s right, good-bye . . . nice knowing you. If you have the words “exceeding customer expectations” in your mission statement cease any production . . . close the doors and do not do anything until you get rid of those boring words and stagnant way of doing business. If you have hired a consultant to help you with your business and they mention concepts like developing a matrix, paradigm shift, or other clich�s that will lead you or your company to a higher level of boring service . . . get rid of them NOW!

If you have kept reading here is one more statement . . . BECOMING AN EXCITING COMPANY IS NOT OPTIONAL IF YOU HOPE TO SURVIVE IN TODAY’S NEW ECONOMY! Where do you start? Here is the good news: you are one minute away from EXCITEMENT . . . it is only a decision away. The instant that you realize your future is in SELLING EXPERIENCES, not products and services, is the instant your company transforms into an exciting profitable organization that makes a difference in the lives of its clients and employees.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS OF EXPERIENCE

Every client has a level of expectation that is established in his or her mind. Our sales process must passionately pursue finding where this expectation line falls on the axis that establishes the measurement of experience. We anchor this “line of expectation” and communicate it at every opportunity with the client and the rest of our organization. When the experience is below that line, the client is in a word DISAPPOINTED . . . Disappointed clients lead to disappointing sales, disappointing profits and a disappointing career and business! When the experience is above this line, then the client is DELIGHTED, ECSTATIC, LED ON A WILD ADVENTURE, ENERGIZED AND A ZILLION OTHER WORDS that will lead to continued success for your business. (Please consider from this day forward using more exciting words to define your business. Quality is a boring word, EXCEPTIONAL CRAFTSMANSHIP is an experience.)

THREE STEPS TO THE PROCESS

Along this “LINE OF EXPECTATION” there are three steps to delivering the total experience to your client: the “ANTICIPATED EXPERIENCE,” “LINKING EXPERIENCE,” and “ACTUAL EXPERIENCE.” Understanding these concepts, discussing them with your team, and allowing them to become part of your culture will make an incredible impact.

STEP 1 - THE ANTICIPATED EXPERIENCE

Based on the individual’s current perception and interpretation of an event or service, the ANTICIPATED EXPERIENCE is built on the following criteria:

• A successful and unique approach to marketing.
• It is the key factor in a potential user of a service or product taking an initial step toward it.
• It is impacted by demographics, personality styles, social status, gender etc.
• It is an individual’s own private “fantasy.
• It must be discovered dynamically, creatively and with respect to the individual.

All of this comes to one simple concept: “UNDERSTAND THE DREAMS OF YOUR CLIENTS AND THEN MAKE THEM A REALITY!”

STEP 2 - THE LINKING EXPERIENCE

This step encompasses every aspect of your company and is driven by a systematic and customer-oriented approach to sales.

• It begins the instant contact is made with the company that the client perceives will be able to deliver the ANTICIPATED EXPERIENCE.
• It involves a variety of communication loops that must be understood and successfully completed beginning with the way the phone is answered and ending when follow up takes place (only to start again when a referral or additional work is requested to enhance the experience you linked them to).
• It is enhanced through a sincere, systematic relationship-building approach to sales and customer service.
• It is the key connection to business growth because it defines you as a professional and provider of LIFE-ENHANCING, DREAM-REALIZING, SCINTILLATING EXPERIENCES. (Are you becoming aware of the power of adding these words to your vocabulary?)

The dominating concept to master in this step is, “ALLOW YOUR APPROACH TO SALES TO ENHANCE THEIR JOURNEY TO ENJOYING YOUR FINISHED PROJECT OR SERVICE.”

STEP 3 - THE ACTUAL EXPERIENCE

Grasp this concept as you think about this step. REALITY IS BROUGHT ABOUT NOT IN WHAT WE PERCEIVE FOR OUR CLIENTS BUT WHAT THEY PERCEIVE WE PERCEIVE. If they see and feel we had their best interests in mind, listened to fully understand the desire they envisioned in the project, and then creatively delivered them in a way that no one else could, then the ACTUAL EXPERIENCE will make us famous as a company.

• It becomes an unconscious and then a conscious evaluation comparing the ANTICIPATED EXPERIENCE with the finished project.
• It is ongoing for the life of the project or service.
• It is a key indicator of the success of the company’s leadership, training, systems, and communication.
• It establishes the line of expectation and ANTICIPATED EXPERIENCE of the client’s future buying decisions and recommendations to other potential clients.
• It determines a company or individual’s ongoing growth, career fulfillment and financial success.

The essence of this step is the reason why the truly successful companies are in business. They have a passion to deliver an exceptional product or service in a profitable way that ignites the senses of and fulfills the dreams of their clients.

What’s your challenge? Evaluate yourself against that last sentence. What is your passion? What is your dream? Is it merely a job or is it an incredible fulfilling career that has a positive effect on every aspect of your life. YOU MUST CREATE AN EXPERIENCE FOR YOURSELF AS WELL!

IT IS NOT OPTIONAL! The companies that continue to sell on price, proclaim the best quality, fax proposals to faceless names, drive uninspired employees that are not having fun toward a vision that changes daily, are on the road to extinction. You are a decision away from a transformation that will set you apart from the competition by enabling you to link every client with the actual experience they anticipated. SELL THE EXPERIENCE!

As president of JP Horizons, Inc., Jim Paluch and his team are sought out nationally for their business coaching expertise and implementation of their People Solutions that drive business performance. In innovative programs that offer a unique blend of technology and personal touch like the Working Smarter Training Challenge, JP Horizons provides education, motivation and training that continues 12 months a year. Beginning in 2005, Jim became passionate about the concepts of Lean Management and has implemented its fundamental practices into a 52-week internet training program where companies can bring a culture of Lean into their businesses and learn to WORK SMARTER in everything that they do.

If you want to learn more about the power of PEOPLE SOLUTIONS THAT DRIVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE or the WORKING SMARTER TRAINING CHALLENGE, contact:

JP Horizons Inc.
P. O. Box 2039
Painesville, OH 44077
Phone: 877-574-5267
web site: http://www.jphorizons.com
blog: http://jphorizons.blogspot.com/