The way people buy has changed.
Sadly, many businesses are still serving customers the old way and sales are potentially walking out the door.
Here’s the problem!
Serving customers in a friendly and attentive way is easy, but it can potentially be bad for business.
Why?
Because most customer service staff have been taught or have adopted a ‘servant-focus’ and are failing to provide ‘expert-advice-focus’ to serving customers.
When I want Advice – Not Self-Service Niceness
Sure, in some businesses all consumers want is service … get in, grab the milk or bread, and get out.
But when they’re buying something that is a bit more important than a standard commodity item, then a ‘serve yourself’ approach is not what’s required by the customer and certainly not what is required from the business.
What is required is advice!
By comparing the two approaches it becomes immediately evident why many businesses can struggle in the competitive environments within which they are operating.
If the left-hand column sounds familiar, there’s a strong possibility that you and your staff are operating in a world of ever depleting margins.
The Service Myth
The Service Myth that has spread like a virus throughout many businesses across many industries is “Provide good service and you win the sale”.
In highly competitive markets, providing good service and even great service is just expected – it is not a point of difference.
When customers know that they have choices and that they’ve often done their research including on price points, what they are looking for more than anything else, given that the price is at or near enough to what they want to pay, is advice on whether what they want is actually what they need.
The call to action for customer service and sales staff is to stop serving and start being the confident and expert adviser that most buyers are looking to buy from
