The war for winning customers

In the business of customer service, it's common sense to have people serving customers.
Excuses of high costs and minimum wages is no reason to ignore or worse still, fail your customers in a race to the bottom with poor service.

Flooding your business with sales people is a start, but not the answer either - only great sales people make a great difference.

Success is all about creating a business with emotional vibrancy….creating a reason for the best sales people to choose your business to work for (….or more accurately, work with!)…and while pay is important, research shows it isn’t the most important thing to great sales people these days. The really great businesses go out of their way to choose and employ on attitude and aptitude not simply CVs, qualifications or availability. The really great businesses create a 'point of view' that not only resonates with customers but more importantly, resonates with their workforce. Apple is the master of this but take Timberland with their commitment to the great outdoors – they give their workforce up to 40 hours paid time per year to help their communities on approved outdoor projects etc…..you gotta love it, their workforce do!

There’s only room for one ‘cheapest’ retailer in a category and you can bet your bottom dollar that retailer will be the one with the least overheads – step forward digital players. But really interestingly, customers aren’t always looking for cheapest – don’t confuse price for value.

In the war of winning customers, emotion is the most powerful tool to be chosen, and its an art.