Clay Clark: So as a business coach, tell me your thoughts… the one that’s the great customer service, walk me through … Go ahead and tell us the name of the company. What made that so great? What made their customer service experience so awesome?
Robert Zoellner: So the great customer service was with QuikTrip. I think this is gonna resonate with a lot of our listeners out there. QuikTrip.
And for those who are listening on the business coach podcast who don’t know what QuikTrip is, it is the pinnacle, the king, of all gas stations and convenient stores. I mean, they just make it so easy for you to come in, get whatever you need, get a quick snack or a drink. They got incredible staff, someone’s always cleaning, they’re always fixing the shelves, they move extremely efficiently. They take care of you. They really try to get you in and out as quickly as they can. They live up to the name QuikTrip, and it was just an incredible experience going there, checking out, and they’re able to do it in about 10 seconds.
Clay Clark: So here’s the deal, if you’re struggling to make a great customer service experience, I’m gonna list off all the things that you need to do, okay?
So one is you need to improve the sight of the experience. Everything the customer sees needs to be first class.
There’s that Ed Sheeran song, where he says, “Oh I oh I oh I oh I oh I oh” and then I like to say, “I’m in love with your lobby”
I’m in love with your lobby, that’s the whole thing.
“Oh I oh I oh I oh I oh, I’m in love with your lobby”
Because you have to have a lobby where people go, “Oh my gosh, I love that lobby.” As a business coach, business coaching is my hobby
If you have a garage, if you’re officing your garage, you have to make it the Garage Mahal. But you’ve got to make sure that, visually, everything looks first class.
Then the sounds, the music you play in your office, absolutely impacts the emotional state of your ideal and likely buyers. Think about your last trip to Disney. Think about your last trip to Starbucks. Think about your last trip to Apple. All of these places are very intentional about the sights and the sound. I mean, Apple has such a clean environment, they’ve thought about how everything is supposed to look. It’s very minimalist.
Then the smells. You’ve gotta think about the smells. Are you gonna use essential oils to create a relaxing atmosphere?
Robert Zoellner: Pinion wood?
Clay Clark: Are you gonna burn pinion wood like we do at the Elephant In the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge and at our in-person business coach workshops? The smells matter.
Then you have to have an expectation checklist for everything. So once you have the sight, the sound, the smells, the conversations, the way you’re supposed to greet customers, you’ve gotta have a checklist that you’re implementing every single day.
Robert Zoellner: Every single day?
Clay Clark: Every single day. Most people aren’t used to doing anything consistently, by the way, so when you do every single day, it’s a whole different level of excellence.
And then you have a mystery shopper. If you’re serious about having a great customer service experience, you need to have mystery shoppers. Now mystery shoppers … Your dad is actually a mystery shopper for one of our businesses there, Robert.
Robert Zoellner: I know, yeah.
Clay Clark: So he goes into Elephant In the Room Men’s Grooming Lounge, and I’m sure … I’m just guessing here, but if he’s gone in, let’s say, ten times, has he had anything that he goes, “Man, I wish they would have done that better.” Have we screwed up, have we made a mistake?
Robert Zoellner: Oh yeah, I mean, there’s been room for improvements. And that’s the value of the mystery shopper, is you’re able to find out how you can improve.
Clay Clark: And that’s why we’ve won awards for high quality, because we’re seeking criticism and not praise. That’s what we’re trying to do. I want all the business coach and Thrivers to write down three big concepts real quick.
One, you must seek criticism and not praise, if you want to give your bottom line a raise. You must seek criticism and not praise, if you want to give your bottom line a raise. You must learn from your customers and ask, “What can we do better?”
Two, you need a checklist for everything. Everything. Anything you’re doing that makes your place great, you want to have a checklist.
Robert Zoellner: And when you say everything, do you mean everything, or just most things?
Clay Clark: I’m talking about checking the voicemails, checking the bathrooms. I’m talking about setting out the décor, the sights, the sounds, the smells-
Robert Zoellner: Literally everything.
Clay Clark: Everything.
And then third is you must aim to wow. Because when people are wowed, they will refer now. I repeat, when you wow, people will refer now.
There’s this thing called the net promoter score that Harvard came up with, and I’m not gonna bore you with all the details today, because of the amount of time we have on this incredible show, we don’t have hours and hours like we do at our in-person workshops to get into this. But if you look up the word “net promoter score”, basically when people are wowed … You ask somebody on a scale of one to ten, how likely they are to refer a business, and if they give it a nine or a ten, that means you have a high net promoter score. Meaning that people will promote your business because you wow people. And if you have a low one, then people will tell people not to use your business.
And when we come back, we’re gonna be talking about accounting. And I know some people are saying, “Uh, I would rather go cut my grass than to listen to anything about accounting.” But you need to get your numbers right or you’re gonna end up living in a van down by the river.
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