Lesson four, influencing your team to become customer focused. So let's have a look at three more elements of behavior that you'd be looking for. So one is that you want people to be quick to notice customer needs. Another is that you want them to be listening carefully to the customer. And another is that you want them focused on the customer in front of them. I've thrown all these different pictures in different icons or different people in here just to make the point that we can easily assume that we're talking here about maybe people who work in retail or the customer facing staff.

And of course, those are the most important when it comes to a culture of customer care. But they're not the only ones who matter in this respect. So even if they don't come into direct contact with the customer, what they do will have an impact on the customer. So we Do want an awareness and a concentration on the customer focus on the customer to be part of everybody's job, regardless of whether you are working in a back office, or you're working in a factory, or warehouse or on the shop floor or in front of customers, actually, we want everybody to think about these things. So quick to notice customer needs listening carefully to the customer focused on the customer in front of them wants to think about that right now. So when I was putting my course together, I thought about my dog.

So this is my dog. And when you're looking at it, she looks at you so intently, a bit like that picture right now. And she's obsessed about people. she's obsessed about reading your mind. What are you going to do right now? So when I'm working from home on my computer, as soon as I stand up from my chair, she jumps up from her bed, and she thinks that right I might get a chance now to play with the ball and she goes and brings the ball for me.

So She's watching everything I do. If I'm watching football, the World Cups on at the moment, the Football World Cup soccer World Cup. And as soon as I'm going, Oh, that was a close one, or there's a goal or whatever. She's straight up watching me thinking what that means. So she's obsessed of how what's going on in my head. And in a way, customer service needs to be a bit like that.

In that we're obsessed with the customer. We want to know what the customer needs. What do they want? What What do I need to do to make sure that I helped them get that? So it's this obsession with the customer. It's this preoccupation with what the customer wants.

And this is a mindset. So how do you influence members of your team? So they're quick to notice customer needs, and listen to them carefully. So how do you create this mindset in your team members, you know, a bit like my dog Okay, so one way that you can start to encourage that mindset is to actually train that as part of your customer service training. So you can use that example, you know, how can we, as members of this team be really obsessed with our customer? How can we be totally focused on our customer, and do some training on how to notice and listen, and we'll talk a little bit more about listening skills a bit later on, but include this in your training.

So what we've got here are two doors. On the left door, we've got go this way, and you get praise, bonuses and other rewards. And on the right, we've got go this way and you get ignored. So really, what we're talking about here are the drivers that drive people's behavior. So if you've got two doors like that, which door Are you going to go for? Which option would you choose?

I take the left door, I get lots of praise and bonuses for tech the right door, I get ignored. Now if we overlay on to that, what that's like from a team perspective, if we decide that really what matters is the value of sales in dollars in pounds in yen in rupees or whatever the currency is, then that's what people will be attracted to. So they'll go through the door that gives them the praise and the bonuses that they want. So behind that door, is this belief that it's really just about the amount of sales, then that's what you'll get. On the other hand, if you make clear that it's about giving value to the customer from their perspective, then you'll get people going through that door. So let's switch them around.

Now, obviously I've gone to extremes is clear that in any business, you still gonna need to make sales. But you get my point that if we are attracting people to think more about giving value to the customer from the customer's perspective, then we're much more likely for people to go through the door we want them to, which is the one that is all about the customer, as opposed to just thinking about the number of sales we can close in a day. So we've raised this question of customer value. So what do we mean when we talk about value to the customer so what is value to the customer? One way of thinking of it is it's what I get as a customer from the product or service. It's also how it makes me feel.

Now often the emotional part of customer service is ignored. But this is well Know that the way a product or service makes people feel is actually what he's bringing them back. So it's an emotional connection. So for the customer is the way they feel, and it's what they think they're getting from the product or service that really matters to them. That's what we need to be concentrating on. So let's think about value for a moment.

And this reminds me of a story that that I read in a book A long time ago. So when I first started in business, we're going back well over 2530 years, and I started my own business then. And I read a book, which I can't even remember what it was now. So my apologies to the writer of the book, but in a book, he told a story, and it was all about customer service. And he talked about how he had a tailors that he would go to, and he needed to buy a suit for a special occasion and he went to the tailors And he looked at the different materials that different sorts of suits they had. And, you know, he discussed with the shopkeeper there about what sort of suit he wanted and he looked at all the different sorts.

And I think he said at the time that nothing seemed quite right. You know, there's a few things there that were okay. But nothing seemed to really fit the bill. Now, the shopkeeper discussed with him what he was looking for. And he tried to explain and so the shopkeeper said, Well, you know what, I really don't think that we can help you here today. What I would recommend, and he gave him the name and address of another shop that he thought was probably going to be better able to give him what he needed.

So he obviously went to the other shop and he bought the other suit. Now, the question was, was that the right thing to do for that shopkeeper? Well, according to this story, absolutely. Because from then on, of course, he became came the solution provider. So as far as the customer is concerned, he would always go back to that same shop because even if he didn't have what he needed, he'd know who did. So he was actually providing a solution.

And he was able to trust the shopkeeper. So the moral of the story there is actually in the short term, he lost a sale, but in the long term, he's got a customer for life. So I really liked that story. And that really got me thinking about what really matters to the customer. And really, that was for him. It was about service.

And it was about good information. It was about solving a problem. So in this story, what did the customer value one of the things he valued was working with somebody that they could trust. He valued advice. Ultimately, he wanted to get The right suit. Now one thing that's worth noting is it might have been a different story.

If he had to get a suit that day. So then value would be different for the customer. But what was great about that example is that the shopkeeper was able to perceive what the value was for that individual for that customer at that time. So how do you create this sensibility in your team, you'll need to talk to your team about the priority of customer value. So this term value is really worth talking about. It's really worth getting your team to understand what that means.

So get that into the vocabulary so that your team are talking about customer value, what matters to the customer. So one of the things that you need to be asking your team to do is to find out what the customer cares about What matters to them. So typical things that customers value. We've mentioned that one of those pieces of value is the way that the product makes them feel. Let's see if we can think of an example. So if you buy a brand new piece of equipment, let's say a mobile phone, or a new TV or something like that, you know, you kind of like the way that it makes you feel, especially if it's a nice one.

It looks good, it looks cool. Now, it's perhaps one of the top range and you like looking at it for a while because it makes you feel good, it makes you feel successful, it makes you feel maybe important or like you're in some sort of luxury. Or when you've been treated well by a customer service person, it makes you feel good, it makes you feel important and that you matter right now. So these are typical things that customers value. So the way that the service makes you feel matters. The utility of the product absolutely matters to the customer.

So does it do what they want it to do? That matters, that's a value. Cost is important. That's the one many people focus on. And of course, cost does matter. But it's not the only thing that matters.

So we need to be aware that there are other things as well that customers care about. faster delivery. Increasingly, people want the thing that they've ordered as quickly as possible. They also want good advice, as we saw from the example that we just talked about being treated as somebody important. Again, this relates to the way that the service makes you feel, but when you feel like you're being treated as important you matter, then can that make you feel like you're valued and you value that favor. But of course, people are different.

And so our circumstances, so there's no easy way to kind of say, well, it's always about this or it's always about that. What many businesses do is they will have a niche that they try to service. And so they are really attracting customers who have a particular value or see a particular value. And that's fine. when that's the case, then you need to make sure that your team members understand what that that niche is, for instance, if you are a company that you're not going to focus on price, you're going to focus on high levels of customer service, which means you might cost a little bit more, but the customer will get the advice and the customer service that they need, while your team need to know that. So make sure that they are fulfilling the niche that you're operating in.

So of course that's true. But generally we need to be aware of the difference. types of people and the different circumstances that they come to us. And they'll help us to understand what they value. And then of course, we can give them that value. So here's the question.

How do you know what your customer values most when you could try listening to them, it's a crazy idea, but it might just work. So they might say things like, I really need to get something by tomorrow. I'm not looking for anything too expensive. It's reliability that matters to me. I want something that looks quite cool. I didn't like the way the place treated me.

I'm looking for quality. Now, customers don't always volunteer that quite as obviously but often they do. I know that I've been in situations as a customer where I've actually said things like that. And it says though, the customer service person just doesn't listen, they didn't hear what I've just said. And they carry on trying to sell me the thing that they wanted to sell me. So really listening to the customer means listening for clues about what they value.

So worth including that in your customer service training, and keep talking and coaching with your team to help them understand the value of understanding value from a customer perspective. Hopefully, that's been useful. There's a lot of stuff there around value and the sorts of things you might include in a training session. I recommend you include that stuff. Again, you might get some external help, or you might do this yourself as the manager. Whether you get some external training help or not, you're going to need to reinforce it and continue to coach that as the manager because that's going to change The behavior we're looking for.

Now, there might be some blockers and barriers to some of the stuff that we've been talking about. So I want you to be aware of some of the barriers that you might actually put in place to stop the culture that you're looking for. So here's an example. So one typical barrier to high levels of customer focus and the culture of customer care is to pressurize sale teams to push specific products or services, regardless of the customer need. Now, of course, in every business, there are competing needs. Sometimes you've got a stock that you're trying to get rid of, if you like or trying to sell on.

The problem though, is as soon as you start to focus on specific things that you want the customer to have, you're no longer focusing on what's the value for the customer and you're just thinking about what's important to the business to get rid of That stock. So, actually when it comes to having a customer care culture, not a good idea to pressurize sales teams, all of us to make sure that we get rid of this before we start selling that, you might have to think of other ways of shifting old stock. Here's another typical one. So scolding or telling off team members for spending too long with an individual customer. Again, there's competing needs here from a business perspective. Clearly, there has to come a point when a customer service representative or somebody dealing with a customer has to move on to another customer, otherwise that other customer could be waiting.

But be very, very careful about scolding team members for spending too long with customers, you're likely to send the wrong message. There are times when you need to help people understand that there are limitations but be very, very careful about how you do that. And of course, this is linked to the previous one, not providing the time to deal with customers properly. So assuming that a telephone call with a customer will only take, you know, two minutes, and then then you're on the clock, then you need to put the phone down and get on to the next one. That's not providing necessarily the correct amount of time to actually deal with the customer properly, that leads to frustration, and calls that are not dealt with. And then you end up with them calling back anyway.

So you might as well resource that properly, and make sure that you're able to spend enough time with the customer. And another barrier is really if you don't do any of this stuff that I've just been talking about. So if you fail to train team members and things like how to give proper Greetings, how to focus on the customers needs and their value, what they see as value. If you fail to do that stuff and others, then don't be surprised if people don't really know how to behave with that customer. So some sort of training Some sort of workshop definitely worth doing. So this is an interesting one every now and again, you get an insight that you're into what people think about their customers.

So that might be maybe you're visiting as a visitor, as opposed to a customer to a place of work. And you hear people talking about the customer, you know, this place would be great if we didn't have customers to deal with, for instance. So now it's true that, you know, people have the old joke, and that's fine. But we have to be careful that we don't accept trash talk about customers, as a common way of talking about them. So take a very dim view of this sort of trash talk about customers. You know what, we don't have a job, we don't have a business, if it's not for our customers, our customers are King, we need to make sure that we deliver for them.

So that's a general way of talking that we'd want to make sure we we keep at the right level, otherwise people start to Think about the customer as the enemy as opposed to the individual that you're trying to provide value for.