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Regulars
I worked my way through college waiting on tables in
a variety of restaurants over the back half of my teenage years. The job itself had a certain measure of drudgery
and detachment from true human discourse, but there were always certain
customers that I recognized and who served to lighten my load. It usually took about three interactions before
a face became familiar. The first
time he or she was just another customer.
The second time they looked vaguely familiar. The third time confirmed the recognition from
the second encounter and put them in a new category – “regulars”. By about the fifth visit I could usually tell
what they were going to order and we’d converse on topics other than their
choice of condiments.
Later, while commuting to my first job out
of college, I used to take the number 11 bus – it was an odd bus route
– at the end of its run after it had dropped off all the Virginia
commuters coming into the District for work.
It looped back through DC, ran by the Library of Congress on the
right and the Capitol on the left, then arrived almost empty at the Supreme
Court building, where I caught it every morning at about 8:15 for the
5 minute ride down Pennsylvania avenue to the IRS building (full disclosure
– I did work for the IRS at one point in my career).
What was so great about this particular bus (because there was
another route that would take me closer to my actual building entrance
on Constitution) was that it was almost empty and so the driver was willing
to wait for me. Sometimes he would wait while I walked/ran the
entire block from third to second street when he saw that I was coming
down the cross street. This wasn’t
a courtesy he was required to do and, in fact, it probably would have
been frowned upon by his supervisors.
But it meant a lot to me and I was always grateful for his cheerful
cooperation with my personal foibles.
So let’s talk of “regulars”.
Almost all service businesses have them. They are the backbone
client base that marketers so idolize.
A critical marketing metric is the cost of customer retention,
which is usually far lower than the much more expensive one of customer
acquisition. It’s a lot less expensive to keep customers
than to get new ones. But when
was the last time you examined all the components of the customer retention
model? How much is human interaction a component of
your brand value and customer experience? And, more importantly, as we
move towards greater and greater impersonalization
in our interactions, has your company’s strategy incorporated a true understanding
of all the ways that human interaction and the development of community
can enhance your customer’s delight in your product and your brand’s strength? What makes customers “regulars” and how do your
strategies and systems support this?
What is Customer Service?
I think that for the most part it is the experience
of the service, and the people providing the service, that brings back
customers. This isn’t exactly a news flash. Marketers and customer service types have been
on to this equation for a long time. However,
I think that one of the ways that companies go astray is when they figure
the ‘service’ to be only the technology enablement of the service – the
process – and do not include the actual human touch into their plans,
strategies and business models.
Recently I attended a presentation by Dan
Bane, CEO of Trader Joe’s, on how the firm’s values underlie all its strategic
decisions. If you’re not familiar
with Trader Joe’s, the national/local grocery store chain that originated
in California, I can only
lament your loss. Trader Joe’s
has established an extremely loyal following of dedicated customers, including
myself, through some very simple expressions of its key values such as
product, customer experience, quality, and price. One of the ways they do this is by treating
each store as a neighborhood store – the captain of the store has significant
decision making capabilities, the organization is all about product experience
and employees are chosen for their personality and their ability to interact
with and establish good customer relationships.
As an example of service to a “regular”, Mr. Bane cited an anecdotal
story about how a regular client was shopping one day and for some reason
her credit card was declined. The
person waiting on her took out his own credit card and charged the purchase. This type of experience creates a customer for
life. But more importantly, this
type of situation can only be set up in a company that doesn’t forego
the value of human interaction in planning their business strategies.
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