When the first-time customer calls
here are times in
this business, in fact in all businesses, that present
themselves as opportune times to impress new customers.
Sometimes they happen because we initiate them. Other times,
they happen by chance. We can put a sign in the window that
reads: This week only —
Shirts 4 for $5!
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10 percent off!
Comforters Cleaned — $10.
The whole idea — and this should not
be news to you — is to entice a new customer into trying
your service. The hope is that a new customer, brought in by a
low price or convenient hours or anything else that you think
contributes to your success plan, clearly sees value in doing
business with you and that the enticement that you have offered
to get them in the first time (Shirts 99 cents!) is hardly
necessary to get them to return. The best plan will have them
thinking: “This place is a bargain at twice the
price.”
You have under-priced your product to get
them in the store, probably pricing shirts below cost
“this week only,” but that’s okay because you
should have earned your customer’s trust and respect and
now they will return to pay full price and contribute to
company profit.
This is one of the primary ways to earn
new business. Find any way to get them in the door. Prove to
them that you are worth doing business with. Earn a customer
for life, in spite of the price.
But can something go wrong?
Oh, yes! Price seems to be the way that we
get them in the door, and shirts are usually the sacrificial
lamb. It happens that I disagree with both of the points in
that sentence.
I don’t want to get into that today,
but I’ll merely touch on it. Shirts are one of the
trickiest items that we have to service. Yet, we use that item
to show a customer how good we can be. We had better do a good
job, always. If we forget a button, will that be a valid
demonstration to our customer (maybe, a new customer) of our
work ethic?
Price isn’t the only way to attract
customers, either. It could be your convenient hours, your home
delivery, your friendly staff or your prompt service. Do not
make the mistake of assuming that price is all that your
customers care about.
There are times, though, that we have the
opportunity to impress a new customer that we did not initiate.
Are we ready for this? It can happen at any minute for any
reason.
A tale of two tires
My wife’s SUV had two flat tires
today. The right front tire and the spare tire were both
deflated, although I could limp along for a few miles if I put
air in the front tire.
My wife and I headed to my local tire shop
first thing in the morning. I have been going to Henry’s
Tire Shop for over 25 years. Henry and I went to high school
together. I have no idea if he cost more or less than his
competitors. I always get good service. My car is always done
on time. He always has what I need in stock. My children have
now become customers. The fact is that I have never had any
reason to go elsewhere… until today.
When I pulled into Henry’s today at
8 am, the doors were locked even though they should have been
open already for 30 minutes. Shortly, my wife realized that it
was a federal holiday — President’s Day — and
we deduced that Henry’s would not open today.
Desperate for tires, we headed to a
competitor’s place a few miles away.
Unknown to them, they had the
picture-perfect opportunity to impress a new customer that they
otherwise would have virtually no chance of ever attracting.
Given a track-record of years of good service and quality, I
wasn’t going to drop Henry’s like a hot potato for
a few bucks off on a tire. But today, by no fault of
Henry’s Tire, I went to Sullivan Tire instead.
Now, before I tell you this story, let me
remind you that some new customers are easier to impress than
others. If Joe Smith comes to your counter for the first time
because he is fed up with his regular cleaner after numerous
failures, you don’t have to do a whole lot to win him
over. If he is used to poor, your mediocre may be perceived as
great. But this is going to be the exception.
So, I go to the new tire shop. I am the
first customer of the day. There are two men at the counter.
One is drinking coffee and the other is on the telephone. As I
approach them, I greet them with a “Good Morning.”
They do not reciprocate.
Strike one.
What, pray tell, is so hard about
returning such a simple greeting? My guess is that if I had
been a regular customer — someone that they recognized
— I would have received a cordial welcome.
The guy with the coffee ignored me while I
waited for the man on the phone to get through with what was
obviously far more important than a customer.
If you wish to defend them and argue that
perhaps the coffee man wasn’t trained to wait on
customers and that the phone man was on some kind of high-level
corporate, heavy-hitter tele-conference, I will counter with
this: Every customer needs to be recognized at once, even if
it’s just an up-pointing index finger indicating
“I’ll be with you in one minute.” Pretending
not to notice a customer is gross.
The coffee guy left and I finally reached
the top of the phone guy’s “to-do” list after
a minute or two. I told him that I had two flats. He said that
it looked like I needed two tires. He went out to the car to
see what kind of tires they were to “see if he had them
in stock.”
I was already taken aback. How does he
already know that I need tires? “Can’t you just fix
them?” I asked.
Maybe this guy was clairvoyant. I got the
feeling that he was a crook. I told him to install two new
tires because I want my wife to be safe, but I doubt that this
was my only option.
I politely indicated that I was quite busy
today and fast service would be appreciated. I certainly
didn’t feel like I was asking for anything much. There
were no other customers. My wife and I went next door for
breakfast when we were told that the car would be ready in 30
minutes.
After breakfast, we still waited more than
an hour. It took over 90 minutes in total. While waiting, I
watched my car being serviced through the observation window in
the back. It was annoying. The guy that was doing the job
wasn’t working. He was talking with a co-worker. My car
was on a lift.
His apparent inattentiveness caused him to
mount the spare tire on the front of the car rather than on the
tailgate. The rims are quite different and I feared that I
would be presented the car this way. I wasn’t. He
realized his error and fixed it, all the while I waited.
As I said, I had suggested that I was in a
hurry. Management obviously could not wave a magic wand to
replace my tires, but you’d think that a hapless employee
that was too busy with friendly conversation to work at normal
speed would be within the power of management to correct. They
remained clueless.
My wife sat in the seating area and read a
magazine. This lounge was a failed attempt to make waiting
customers comfortable. It can not replace careless employees
and incompetent management. The only time a got a cordial tone
of voice was when I was asked for a check for $199.25 and then
was thanked for it.
I never got mad. I never got agitated. But
I left with reasonable certainty that I wouldn’t return.
Surely, you see my point. This same thing
can happen at your store and maybe it happened today. The two
guys at the tire shop probably think that they did just fine. I
came to their store, they took care of me right away, they
charged me. I paid them.
My perspective is quite different, of
course. I never felt comfortable in there. I was in unfamiliar
surroundings. I needed help to feel comfortable.
The phone guy and the coffee guy ignored
me because they didn’t recognize me. They would have
greeted someone else that they knew, I firmly believe.
When someone comes to your counter with
five shirts that need to be done quickly, you may do it for the
guy who comes in every week, but if it’s someone you
don’t know, you’re more likely to scoff at the idea
of bending over backwards for this guy, when in fact, he could
become a “heavy hitter” customer. Maybe this is
your opportunity to show him what you’re made of.
It just may be that the guy that
you’ve never seen before is exactly the guy that you
should impress. He could be your competitor’s regular
customer.
Okay, so you can’t greet him by his
first name, but you can greet him.
Making this guy feel unimportant will get
you nowhere. Making him feel important and welcome might get
you somewhere. There is nothing wrong with
“might.”
Personally, I am never more offended as a
customer than when I am ignored at the counter. I’m not
alone on this, am I?
If something is going to take 90 minutes,
say 90 minutes. When I was told 30 minutes by the phone guy, he
knew it wasn’t going to be that quick.
Don’t tell a customer that his
shirts will be done in an hour when you mean three hours. The
“one hour” may sound great to the customer at the
time that you speak the words, but you will risk looking like a
liar or a clown when the truth comes out.
Conversely, if you say that his shirts
will be ready in three hours and he comes back in 2 hours and
45 minutes and the shirts are ready, he will be impressed.
If your work area — including the
front counter work area — is visible to customers, make
doubly sure that what they see is impressive. Try to look at it
from a customer’s perspective. When in the business of
cleaning, having clean equipment is paramount. I don’t
think that details are necessary.
The tire guys gave me the impression that
they were dishonest as soon as they began speaking. If someone
brings you five shirts and you immediately begin telling them
how non-standard his shirts are and the related upcharges, he
will not feel comfortable if the wrong words are used.
“We charge $1.90 per shirt, but
starch is extra, French cuffs are extra, cold-water wash is
extra and same-day service costs a dollar more per
shirt.”
A customer will feel uneasy hearing this
in the wrong context even though an employee may feel
professional and thorough.
In the end, realize the importance of
treating every customer as though he or she is your best
customer. Remember that they become a “best”
customer when you make them feel special, not routine,
inconsequential, inconvenient or disruptive.
Donald Desrosiers has been in the
shirt laundering business since 1978 and is a work-flow systems
engineer who provides services to shirt launderers through
Tailwind Shirt Systems, 867 Spencer St., Fall River, MA. He can
be reached by phone at (508) 965-3163 or by e-mail at tailwind1@attbi.com
and he has a web sites located
at: www.tailwindshirts.com and www.dondesrosiers.com
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