Welcome
to Dr. James Wilson
We're
all excited to welcome Dr. James Wilson of Future
Formulations as a guest contributor to the
LeadersWay. You will find his articles extremely
timely and relevant. We begin with Stress:
The Cancer in Business as an introduction
to identifying the impact stress has on the productivity
of individuals and organizations. In future articles,
Dr. Wilson will further explore symptoms and solutions.
See
Hub Barton on YouTube
LeadersWay
honors Hub Barton for winning the Chairman's Award
for the third consecutive year. Their phenomenal
work in employee development and customer satisfaction
is the key to their ongoing success. Celebrate
with us by watching this short YouTube
video featuring the great folks at Hub Barton.
Road
Trips, Volume 2
I
hope you enjoyed my new column, Road
Trips, in the previous LeadersWay newsletter.
My purpose is to share observations and lessons
from my travels across the continent. This month
I share one of the most valuable lessons decision
makers can learn. |
The
Importance of That First Embrace
Smart banks know that they have a limited amount of
time to form a lasting relationship with new retail
customers.
People are
usually excited when they get something new. And I'm not
just talking about big-ticket items like cars or plasma
televisions; opening a fresh jar of peanut butter provides
its own small thrill, no matter how mundane.
So it's a shame
that so many banks squander the sense of anticipation
people have when they open a new bank account. This moment
offers a small but significant window of opportunity for
greater emotional and financial engagement -- but when
it's gone, it's gone for good.
Obviously,
consumers don't open bank accounts for kicks. They do
it because they move away from their home bank's territory.
Or they notice that another bank has fewer fees or more
services. Or maybe they get angry about errors or a lack
of customer care at their current bank, and they figure
any other bank has to be better. Regardless of their reasoning,
every new customer provides a lucrative opportunity for
the new bank.
That window
is one that banks can ill afford to ignore, because competition
between retail banks is ferocious. As soon as one bank
drops its ATM fees, every other bank follows. Want to
extend your location's closing time from 5:00 p.m. to
6:00 p.m.? The bank down the street will see you and raise
you an hour. Remember checking fees? Customers do -- and
shudder at the memory. Because no bank can afford to charge
high fees any more, every retail bank is working on a
margin slimmer than they would like. This makes every
retail customer valuable -- and every product sale and
cross-selling opportunity that much more important.
Sticky
situations
Banks
might think they have a lifetime to increase the cross-sell
of a particular customer, so why rush the relationship
at the first meeting? Well, there's a very good reason.
A Bank Administration Institute (BAI) research study found
that 73% of cross-sales occur within the first three months
of a banking relationship. That initial flush of anticipation
makes customers much more receptive to sales pitches.
Please
click
here to continue reading The Importance
of That First Embrace.
Reprinted
from The Gallup Management Journal
|
Note
from Kevin
 Greetings!
Sure, the Gallup
article for this newsletter is about the banking industry,
and you say it’s not like the business you are in.
Well, we would argue the point and unfortunately this
time you would lose. Customer experience is customer experience
no matter what business you are in. Your business will
succeed, flounder or fail based on your commitment to
managing the customer experience far better than your
competitor manages it. Think about the fact that there
are two distinctly different definitions to competition,
and they come from the SAME root word:
Competitor:
someone in “like” business
Definition #1: competition, business
view = Someone I FEAR will take my business.
Definition #2: competition, customer
view = When I do business with you and can’t tell
a difference between you and the other guy.
If you are
on the ball, you can see that #1 is reactive and #2 is
proactive. And, for those of you who have been around
a while, you will know that 90% of businesses operate
out of definition #1. That leaves a lot of room for all
of you who want to separate yourselves from your competitors
for good. So the question you should be asking yourself
at this very moment is, “What makes us different?”
And, “Are we giving those customers who come and
experience us a reason to come back year after year and
tell all of their good friends about us?” It’s
my opinion that you ignore these most important questions
at your peril.
In fact, if
you really take a deep breath and slowly let it out, why
wouldn’t managing every aspect of the customer experience
be the most important thing you do? The only reason I
can think of is that you are staring at definition #1
and missing the real opportunity.
No offense,
but anyone can sell insurance, anyone can make and sell
great snack foods, anyone can serve great food with great
hospitality, and anyone can do a great job of repairing
cars…but NOT everyone can create an experience for
every customer every time that is different. Not everyone
can create the experience for every customer that creates
the emotional connection that is, by the way, the reason
they come back and the reason they tell their friends
about you.
It’s
The Separation Zone, and it is all opportunity.
Enjoy your reading!
Life
is good...
KW
|
