A few years ago I was doing a series of “how to add value” workshops for Shell dealers across the country. I always started off with the question: “Is service good or bad today?” The overwhelming response: “It’s bad.” My follow-up question: “Is that good or bad for you?” Overwhelming response: “It’s bad.” My response: “It’s good.” Overwhelming response: perplexed looks … which, by the way, is not an unusual response in my workshops!Applying the core – outer core model, I explain that if the core is small – people don’t expect much from the typical service station experience, what an opportunity to stand out, to differentiate .
To further bring it home, I ask participants to recall the classic scene in the movie, Back to the Future, where Michael J. Fox’s character is shipped back in time from 1985 to 1955. While exploring his hometown 30 years in the past, he stumbles upon a service station and witnesses “four people on the car” full service treatment. Everybody remembers. My question … if it was 1955 and we were looking for ways to stand out, would “four people on the car” service give us a competitive advantage? Overwhelming response: “No.” Why: Commonly held perception, back then everybody did that on full service. Core expectancy for the full-service gasoline business in 1955: gas that works and four people on the car at full service, etc. No more perplexed looks.
I asked the dealers whether their product did the job any better than the competitions’ products. They responded that, in the mind of the customer, all players in the market were perceived as providing the same “quality” gasoline; this was true, notwithstanding the “uniqueness” of certain additives. You don’t play the differentiation card by merely offering a product that does the job just as well as your competitors’ products. Having gas that works is merely a ticket of admission; it does not confer competitive advantage. It is hard to understand why some companies spend an amazing amount of advertising money trying to convince us of their product’s superiority, when it clearly isn’t perceived as superior. Dealer friends said it best when they reported that in their business, according to the customer, “gas is just gas.”
When, however, it came to giving customers an engaging customer experience (the WOWEDFactor), the workshop participants agreed that it could work to their advantage when service in the industry is perceived to be bad. They offered many examples of how customer loyalty was engendered with some type of desired service that went beyond what the competition was offering. These dealers saw that their investments in delighting the customer with a more favorable customer experience had bottom-line impact.
While doing a workshop in Michigan, a dealer approached me and explained how he was selling more full-service gasoline than anybody in town and that he was charging a higher price. I was intrigued and inquired how this was happening. He answered with an explanation of an occurrence that happened with regularity every Saturday: A car pulls into full service with kid in the back seat; attendant taps on the back window; kid brings the window down and is presented with a helium balloon, replete with the station’s name. Needless to say, a happy kid begets a happy parent, which begets a fill up, drinks and repeat business.
Further, the dealer told me that the following parent-child conversations happen with regularity on Saturday mornings in that Michigan town: kids get in the family car and state their requests for the day: “Let’s go to the park; let’s go to McDonalds; and, let’s go to the Shell station.” This service station owner redefined who his customer was and differentiated his product by giving his “customers” WOWEDFactor experience that they didn't expect from his competition. He transformed the customer mindset from “we’ve got to go to the service station” to “we get to go”! Did that dealer’s gas work any better than anybody else’s? Hardly.
I hasten to add that if every dealer in that Michigan town gave the kids helium balloons, the experiences wouldn't be differentiated ... and no WOWEDFactor!
Firestone
firestone@ethicalselling.com
314-863-4000
