7 Lessons About Customer Service … From the Sage Listens Tour

7 Lessons About Customer Service … From the Sage Listens Tour
How To Become An Overnight Sensation
Word of Mouse Gives Powerful eCommerce Strategies for Small Businesses

Posted: 01 Sep 2013 03:00 PM PDT

Sage North America just wrapped up its 50-day Sage Listens Tour across the United States, meeting with small businesses. Along the way they created an extensive Flickr library of photographs. We thought we’d use some of the photographs to extract seven lessons about customer service that small businesses can replicate.

Before we jump in with the lessons, a little background may be helpful. Sage, if you’re not familiar with it, is a large global technology company that sells accounting, ERP and related software to small and mid-sized businesses. It’s part of the UK-based Sage Group, a $2+ billion business with 6 million customers worldwide. In 2012, Sage North America set out to become a better-known brand in the United States. They also want to deepen relationships with existing customers, as recurring revenue streams are a key part of the company’s business model.

Back in early July we held a live interview with Sage NA Executive Vice President Connie Certusi. At that time, she told us the objectives of the Tour, which was just about to kick off, and a related initiative called the Shop Local Challenge:

“Not only do we want to meet with the small businesses and understand their journey … what keeps them up at night… and [take that information back to Sage].. but we want to shop locally on this tour. We are buying gas from small business customers, we are staying at hotels where we can of small business customers, we are eating at [small business-owned restaurants].

We want them to know that we are championing them in the community. [The Shop Local Challenge is where we] are asking everyone to shop local at least one day a week. Make a concerted effort to find a small business in your area … to shop local at least one day a week. We are putting out the Challenge to our employees to do the same across the United States.”

So with that backdrop, here are 7 lessons about customer service that you too can use to deepen bonds with customers:

1. Get outside the 4 walls and visit customers in person

sage-tour-visits

Email and phone are essential. Online communities are terrific. But nothing takes the place of meeting customers in person.

More than 30 Sage executives and leaders were involved in this Tour. They crossed 6,300 miles. Company representatives spoke with 73 customers. they included customers like Ventura Coastal, a producer of citrus juices and oils, and MuckerLab, a Los Angeles incubator.

“It may be unrealistic for businesses to get out and meet all their customers, but if you are a business that sees your customers regularly, treasure those interactions — and your customers’ unique stories — and learn from each one,” said Brad Smith, Executive Vice President for customer experience at Sage (pictured above).

Tip: Make an appointment to meet some of your clients or customers face to face for lunch. Don’t do it when it’s time to renew or it will feel like a sales call. A sales pitch will change the dynamic. You want this to be about what they need, not what you need.

2. The senior leadership team should visit customers

Sage CEO on Tour bus in Hollywood

The Tour included several of the company’s executive leaders. Here’s CEO Pascal Houillon in the doorway (above). It’s a reminder to all of us not to limit customer visits just to sales and support staff.

Tip: Schedule regular on-site customer visits by you and members of your executive team. Some companies actually set quotas, requiring executives to go on X number of customer visits per year or quarter. Customer attitude starts at the top. Customer visits are a “lead by example” symbol internally to employees. They also result in better decisions – with so many demands on your attention, you can get out of touch in a changing marketplace without even realizing it.

3. Nothing makes a customer happier than showing you appreciate them

customer-amazingfood

And one way to do that is to sing their praises. Instead of always looking for customers to give testimonials to you, how about recommending your customers for a change?

A recommendation can be as simple as a hashtag such as #amazingfood. Here Sage gave a shout-out to a customer, El Pinto Restaurant, on Flickr.

Tip: Help your fellow small business owners who are your customers, and they will help you. If you use and enjoy their products and services, be sure to let other people know. Recommend them to your peers. Or do something even simpler. Retweet your customers on Twitter. Share and Like their content on Facebook. Small gestures talk big.

4. Live in your customer's shoes (and helmets) for true understanding

Customer facility visit

Sage employees donned protective gear for a visit to the King’s Hawaiian Bakery facility. You may think you know what challenges your customers face, but seeing them in their element can add insights you might never know otherwise.

Tip: Make in-depth visits to your customer’s work site or offices. Ask for a facility tour (better to schedule in advance so you don’t disrupt them). Get a look at their business processes first hand. As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words. Seeing the customer’s place of business brings understanding to a whole different level.

5. Make it easy for customers to know how to reach you.

Sage Listens bus

In this closeup of the Tour RV, you can see how the URL is painted on the side. It also appears on the front and back. It’s not small, either. It leaves no doubt how to find Sage on the Web.

Tip: If possible, include your website URL right on company vehicles, and even on the sign out in front on the street. Keep the URL as simple and memorable as possible. Make it big enough for people to see while driving. Not only is it helpful information, but symbolically it says “we want to connect with you.”

6. Customers actually love to talk to you. Use their feedback!

Sage stopped at businesses like Hammond’s Candies in Denver — and found them happy to see them. Small business customers value their vendors and want a dialogue with them.

“Many customers were so excited we came to visit, and quite a few were shocked their software and services provider had come especially to learn about their business and say thank you – not to sell them anything,” said Smith. ”The executive director for a 200-employee not-for-profit using Sage 50 Accounting — U.S. Edition for more than two decades – who started at the organization as a teenager — said, "We've been waiting 22 years to talk to you guys face-to- face." It really struck a chord realizing the interactions we were having during the tour were so vital to our customers' success, as well as our own.”

Tips: Fear sometimes keeps business owners from reaching out to customers. You may simply be uncertain about the relationship with the customer. (Will we get a cool reception? Are they full of complaints? Did we screw up and not fix it right?) Initiate a conversation – you may be pleasantly surprised – and learn a lot. Anyway, fear is no way to run a business.

7. Make your customers your suppliers

Shop local

If you really want to get customers’ attention, buy from THEM. Stronger relationships are built when it's a two-way street. Here they stop at Mom’s Diner, in the small town of Pahrump, Nevada. The Flickr caption says in part “we’re shopping locally.”

Brent Leary, Partner at CRM Essentials, visited the Tour on the Atlanta leg. He made this observation, "I really like Sage’s commitment to supporting their small business customers by incentivizing their employees to buy local. They even went so far as creating a mobile app for employees to identify Sage small business customers to make it easier to buy from them.”

Tip: While you probably won’t be creating an app for that, you can seek out customers to do business with them. For instance, bring up the topic in your staff meeting. Encourage your team to cater meetings from the local restaurant that is your client. Or order gift baskets from that gift basket professional who is also a customer.

In conclusion, to get closer to customers, you don’t need to customize an RV and go on a cross-country tour. But you certainly can set goals to deepen relationships with customers, using the Sage Listens Tour as a case study of sorts.

More about the Tour here. Or, view all the photographs at Flickr.

The post 7 Lessons About Customer Service … From the Sage Listens Tour appeared first on Small Business Trends.

How To Become An Overnight Sensation

Posted: 01 Sep 2013 09:00 AM PDT

overnight sensation

You've heard of them in every field. Overnight sensations make people stop and say, "Wow, what a lucky break!"

However, if you look at their history, their success is anything but overnight. These are people who have been working for a very long time on their craft. They have been perfecting it, positioning themselves, and taking opportunities when they see them.

A great example is Susan Boyle, the singer who was discovered on Britain's Got Talent a couple of years ago. She stunned everyone when she started singing and instantly rose to fame. Many talked about her as an overnight sensation. But was she really? When you learn about her history you find that she sang often. She honed her skill and took opportunities to be in front of an audience. And let's not forget that she got onto that show and that stage. If not for that, well, things would be very different.

Malcolm Gladwell visits this idea in his book Outliers. While the book is really about success, there is a lot to learn about overnight successes. Mainly, that they are anything but. Gladwell talks about working for 10,000 hours at a skill or talent, and how circumstance has a lot to do with success. He cites example after example of people who are tremendously successful. As he tracks their history you can see what has gone into that success. We see that success is related to a lot of things but instant fame isn't one of them.

So, how can you become an overnight sensation?

Stop hoping to be discovered. Get down to the business of excellence and build your success from there. Know where you want to go and then set the wheels in motion to get there.

3 Steps to Become an Overnight Sensation

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you want to excel at something you have to practice it. You have to do the work to truly become the expert in your field. Sometimes business owners become removed from the thing that got them into business in the first place. This can lead to being out of touch with what you sell. Your value statement can take a big hit here.

If you want to be an overnight sensation, keep honing your skill.

Stay Connected

The busier we get the easier it is to disengage. However, we should be doing the exact opposite. Continue to get out and meet, connect and build relationships. It is often through those relationships that you receive your big break.

If you isolate yourself, you make it difficult for opportunities to arise.

Believe

You never know when an opportunity is going to present itself. So, keep your eyes open and don't be afraid to take a leap. Believe in yourself enough to take a chance. Imagine if Susan Boyle had shied away from the big event and national exposure. If she had not believed in herself, she never would have ventured in such a big way.

Want to be an overnight sensation? Great. Continue to work hard, build relationships and believe in yourself. Don't fear opportunities, or possible failure. Those who are consistent in their efforts, beliefs and focus are the ones who succeed. While they may seem like they appeared out of nowhere, they didn't. They worked consistently over time to achieve their goals. And you can too.

Sensation Photo via Shutterstock

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Word of Mouse Gives Powerful eCommerce Strategies for Small Businesses

Posted: 01 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT

ecommerce strategies When a book has three introductory sections — Foreword by Clate Mask (Founder of Infusionsoft), a Preface and an Introduction — you have to figure that it's got something important to say. And this one does.

I received an advanced review copy of Word of Mouse: 101+ Trends in How we Buy, Sell, Live, Learn, Work and Play by Marc Ostrofsky a while ago, but held off reviewing it until its release. I did this because I didn't want you to have to wait to get your own copy, because you're going to want one after I finish telling you about this book.

A Small Business Owner's Digital Survival Guide

With nearly 90% of all consumers preferring online shopping and roughly 67% of all local businesses not offering an eCommerce option, it's time for small business owners to wake up and start cashing in on a large and untapped revenue opportunity.

That's the real purpose behind Word of Mouse. Ostrofsky doesn't pull any punches, he's written this book in a rather urgent tone because he knows that combining the power of small business and entrepreneurship with that of the internet can increase the likelihood that more small businesses will succeed and grow. And he is desperate to spread the word to as many small business owners as he can.

Short and Powerful Case Studies Prove Out Ecommerce Strategies

There are lots of wonderful, practical and relatable case studies in the book. But my favorite one isn't a case study at all, it's Ostrofsky's personal example that he shares in the preface of the book.

He starts the preface by sharing a real life experience he had when visiting his favorite golf store; he walks into the store and is greeted with signs telling him that the store has lost its lease and is moving. Jim, the owner, requested that folks leave their email address so that he can notify them of the updated location.

The sheer idea that poor Jim didn't have his customers' emails was shocking to Ostrofsky. Even more shocking was the realization that Jim represented so many other small business owners who were so focused on running a local business – that they were literally leaving big dollars on the digital table.

If this example resonated with you like it did with me, then you'll want to read more.

Inside Word of Mouse – Recommendations, Tips and Strategies

There are so many reasons why I really liked this book.

Let me begin with the fact that it's written in simple and plain language. It's not written for the author (to showcase his smarts). It's written for the audience, to help you understand how important online commerce is to the success of your business. This is immediately clear in the way the book is organized: How we learn, how we buy, how we sell, how we work and how we play. Ostrofsky embraces the spillover between our work lives and our personal live and how companies are using the Internet to increase sales without being intrusive.

There is an empowering context to Word of Mouse. You have to read the introduction to get it and if you do, it will color your entire experience of the book:

This book is all about understanding the opportunities in the world today and finding which tools are out there to help you get ahead personally and professionally.

While Arnold Palmer wasn't fast enough to make the track team, once he got his hands on a golf club – he was unstoppable. So just think about the possible tools out there and which ones will make you unstoppable.

Are You Missing Out?

When I first saw how many people make online purchases and how many local small business owners think that because they are a brick and mortar local business and don't need an online presence – I got a real whack on the side of the head.

If you are running one of these local businesses or an industrial business where you like to tell yourself that "your customers aren't online" – then this is an absolute must-read book for you.

If you're currently working inside of an organization that doesn't have much of an online presence and you've been wondering how to get the message across, Word of Mouse will get that job done for you.

Overall Ostrofsky does the job of giving small businesses who haven't gotten a good solid online shake great resources and advice to get the job done.

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