"the ultimate branding/marketing/customer service program"
Do your customers see you as being in the"transaction" or "interaction" business?
Piloted in July, 2006 with Anheuser-Busch and based on published article:
WOWEDFactor: A Key to Business Differentiation
by Fred Firestone, Principal - Ethical Selling Institute
Piloted in July, 2006 with Anheuser-Busch and based on published article:
WOWEDFactor: A Key to Business Differentiation
by Fred Firestone, Principal - Ethical Selling Institute
The
Ethical
Selling* Institute, a subsidiary of Sempact, Inc., provides training
and
speaking
(keynotes,
breakouts) services
to companies and organizations on how to pullahead of the competition
by building more Trust,
Credibility and Partnership into
their products and
services. We believe that the ability of
businesses and organizations to do so has much more to do with crucial
interactions employees have with customers/clients/guests/patients than
with what's in a mission statement or customer commitment policy.
(Hereinafter, any reference to businesses should be read to include
organizations and any references to customers should be read to include
clients/guests/patients.)
*Our definition
of selling is not
the conventional one.
We take a
broad look; it encompasses any interaction that influences
perceptions of
service image. Thus, all people who have contact with
customers would be involved in "selling."
Our clients include DuPont,
Hewlett-Packard, 3M, AT&T, the United States Postal Service as well
as
Anheuser-Busch.
They come to us sharing a
philosophy:
- They realize the path to differentiation is about providing customers with a more favorable experience than they would expect to get elsewhere.
- They believe that differentiation will never happen without the involvement and commitment of the people who make up their organization.
- They
believe that there is
little value in the typical lecture-type customer service training
program. Rather, customer service training should take the form of a
"service blue print," relying on the expertise, insights and experience
of the people who make up their organization.
WOWEDFactor = Significant Differentiator
Since our inception over 20 years ago, we have continually found that businesses and organizations that successfully differentiate do so because of interactions their customers have with specific employees that are so significant they reach the WOWEDFactor level.
Our WOWEDFactor definition: a personal experience a customer had with an employee of a business that was so humanizing, engaging or connecting, that the customer's perception of that individual, and consequently the business, became significantly enhanced.
The WOWEDFactor doesn't happen until it's happened. Notice, we don't call it the WOWFactor. It's past tense intentionally. It doesn't exist until a customer perceives it to have happened to him or her. A business can only say its objective is to build its value by having its customers experience the WOWEDFactor with its employees. A customer doesn't experience the WOWEDFactor with ACME Tool and Rental; she experiences it with Pete, Judy or Tom who work for ACME Tool and Rental. It's a personal experience and people have personal experiences with people -- not businesses. Thus, the extent to which businesses deliver the WOWEDFactor has everything to do with their employees and their crucial interactions with customers. The business-enhancing impact of doing so can be significant.
Research substantiates that the reasons why customers quit businesses have much more to do with not receiving the WOWEDFactor than anything else. A much-quoted survey of consumer habits shows that sixty-eight percent of all lost business results from the indifferent, uncaring attitudes of employees toward customers and only fourteen percent is lost because of product dissatisfaction. The results on Why Customers Quit:
WOWEDFactor Sightings of Fred Firestone, principal, Ethical Selling Institute
The WOWEDFactor: How to Build Significant Business Value Through Employee/Customer Interactions is about how businesses can ensure that more employees deliver more of the WOWEDFactor to more customers more often. Therefore, all people who have contact with customers (and those who manage them) should participate.
Here are some some types of businesses/organizations whose front-line people's ability to deliver the WOWEDFactor could significantly influence business value through enhanced loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising:
Seminar has three components:
Since our inception over 20 years ago, we have continually found that businesses and organizations that successfully differentiate do so because of interactions their customers have with specific employees that are so significant they reach the WOWEDFactor level.
Our WOWEDFactor definition: a personal experience a customer had with an employee of a business that was so humanizing, engaging or connecting, that the customer's perception of that individual, and consequently the business, became significantly enhanced.
The WOWEDFactor doesn't happen until it's happened. Notice, we don't call it the WOWFactor. It's past tense intentionally. It doesn't exist until a customer perceives it to have happened to him or her. A business can only say its objective is to build its value by having its customers experience the WOWEDFactor with its employees. A customer doesn't experience the WOWEDFactor with ACME Tool and Rental; she experiences it with Pete, Judy or Tom who work for ACME Tool and Rental. It's a personal experience and people have personal experiences with people -- not businesses. Thus, the extent to which businesses deliver the WOWEDFactor has everything to do with their employees and their crucial interactions with customers. The business-enhancing impact of doing so can be significant.
Research substantiates that the reasons why customers quit businesses have much more to do with not receiving the WOWEDFactor than anything else. A much-quoted survey of consumer habits shows that sixty-eight percent of all lost business results from the indifferent, uncaring attitudes of employees toward customers and only fourteen percent is lost because of product dissatisfaction. The results on Why Customers Quit:
- 68 percent -
indifferent attitude of employee
- 14 percent -
product dissatisfaction
- 9 percent -
competitive reasons
- 5 percent - other
friends
- 3 percent - move
away
- 1 percent - die
WOWEDFactor Sightings of Fred Firestone, principal, Ethical Selling Institute
- Harriet.
Four years ago, I
was writing a column
about a fast food restaurant that purported to have the best
burger. Regardless of how good that burger was ... and it was
better than
most, it was not even on the WOWEDFactor
radar screen
because it was not a personal interaction that humanized, engaged or
connected. What was, however, was my experience with
Harriet, the
minimum wage server, who treated me like I was a guest in her home.
WOWEDFactor
delivered; business value
enhanced. (Column: Harriet
and
the $6
Burger)
- Brent.
My
good friends' son was a front-desk
clerk at an up-scale hotel in Denver. A guest called the desk and
was
frantic because he was supposed to attend a black-tie event in a half
hour and
he had failed to pack his dress shoes. All he had were his beat-up running
shoes. He wanted to know where he could buy the shoes in the
neighborhood. Brent explained that there was no place nearby, but
finding
they wore the same size, offered to swap his own shoes for the
night. WOWEDFactor delivered;
business value
enhanced.
- Evelyn. I pull up to the five-minute passenger pick up area at the airport. I've been there many times before, and I'm use to hearing a harsh directive: "You've got to move your car now!" Not this time. A woman comes over to my car and introduces herself. Evelyn asks me whom I'm picking up. "My wife," I answer. "Where has she been?" Not what we're used to from security officials in our post-9/11 world. She leaves, and about five minutes later returns and nicely asks me to please move my car. She says that she'll look for me when I circle back through. She even asks me what my wife looks like so that she'll be able to alert her that I'm circling. WOWEDFactor delivered; business value enhanced.
The WOWEDFactor: How to Build Significant Business Value Through Employee/Customer Interactions is about how businesses can ensure that more employees deliver more of the WOWEDFactor to more customers more often. Therefore, all people who have contact with customers (and those who manage them) should participate.
Here are some some types of businesses/organizations whose front-line people's ability to deliver the WOWEDFactor could significantly influence business value through enhanced loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising:
- Banks. Teller's are the front-line interface. Their ability to engage is crucial to building brand.
- Hotels.
Service image has everything to do with all the interactions guests
have with employees. Article that explores example of where hotel
front desk clerk delivers: Adding Value
to Your Products and Services: Learn to Differentiate Your Offerings
- Hospitals. In times of emotional stress, which really defines the hospital
experience, patients and their families are looking to be
engaged. Because of this heightened awareness, there are many
opportunities for staff to build value through delivering the WOWEDFactor.
- Call Centers.
Our July 2006 pilot for this seminar was at an A-B Call Center that
sold promotional products. Their results were significant: When
their employees delivered the WOWEDFactor,
value was built even before
customers really knew all about their product offerings.
Further, after delivery of WOWEDFactor, customers were more favorably
predisposed to wanting to own more products and customers were more favorably
pre-disposed to employee suggestions re those products. In sum,
when WOWEDFactor was delivered, sales increased. (Note: This could also be applicable to
Franchises where employees are in a position to make recommendation
about products/services.)
- Franchises. If service image is what builds the franchise brand, it's incumbent upon franchisers to develop training programs that ensure that front-line people deliver value. Article about experience at Hardee's that brings home the concept: Making A Difference With Effective Employees: Harriet and the $6 Burger
Seminar has three components:
Component One: Differentiation of Products and Services
- Product/service
analysis --
the core and the value-added outer core
- The only two things your customers are really buying
- What customers are really buying whether it takes the form of a cheeseburger, a checking account or an automobile
- Why there's no such thing as a commodity ... period
- How outstanding service companies add value to their "commodities"
- How to view every product and service from a "uniqueness" perspective
- Why you don't want to do what everybody else is doing
- How to enhance your company's ability to add significant value to its products/services
- Why there is only one form of quality - what the customer says it is
- The difference between "conformance" quality and "relative perceived" quality
- How to redefine each element of your business in terms of customers perceptions of intangibles
- How to use the ethicalfactor as the ultimate competitive advantage
- The crucial moments of truth that influence your service image
- How to exceed expectations on every moment of truth that impacts your service image
- How to further differentiate your business significantly in the next two weeks and two months
- What roadblocks get in the way of your exceeding customers' expectations and how they can be overcome
- What are the differences between bad (not meeting expectations), good (meeting expectations) and beyond good (exceeding expectations) service
- What factors cause customer loyalty
- What's the difference between what the corporate handbook says your image is and what your customers perceive it to be
- How customers feel when their expectations are not exceeded
- Why the definition of service quality is never static
- How to avoid "commodity" thinking, the sure-fire path to mediocrity
- How to recognize and deliver on WOWEDFactor opportunities
- The business-building impact of delivering the WOWEDFactor
- The single greatest untapped opportunity to pull ahead of the competition
- Why anyone who interacts with a customer is an inextricable part of the product/service in the customer's mind
- Why it matters more how things are said than what is said
- Why people are the ultimate product/service differentiator
- Why ownership needs to be broadly defined
- What the transfer of "ownership" is all about
- Why everybody who interfaces with a customer is involved in "selling" the organization
- Why everybody in the organization sells
- How to create experiences with every interaction
- Why what employees say and how they say it, is more important than the effectiveness of a product or service to address customers' needs
- Why customers quit/why customers stay
- Why the fact that you've heard only a few customer complaints doesn't mean your customers are satisfied
- The economics of customer retention and complaints
- How complaint handling can be a tremendously effective means of differentiation
- How to engage the "difficult to engage" with effective listening
- Why delivering the WOWEDFactor results in your customers being more favorably pre-disposed to your product/service suggestions
- Why with so much "quality-equality" in today's market, delivering the WOWEDFactor could be the greatest opportunity to differentiate products and services
- How to create a WOWEDFactor experience with every customer every time
- How to look at every opportunity to deliver the WOWEDFactor and evaluate it
- What steps to take to avoid being emotionally engaged by angry customers
- How to determine where there is the greatest business-building value in delivering the WOWEDFactor
- How to establish a service culture that gives people tools to deliver the WOWEDFactor
- How to establish a corporate culture where your employees convey more of the WOWEDFactor to more people
- How to give employees (and customers) a "piece of the rock"
- Where
are you on the WOWEDFactor scale
- How to drive a WOWEDFactor culture with effective coaching
- How to drive a WOWEDFactor culture with a recognition system designed to "Wow the Wowers" (e.g., company personalized WOWEDAMERICA Employee Recognition Program)
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Arrow Limousine
Vistage InternationalSt. Charles Chamber of Commerce
Florissant Valley Chamber of Commerce
WOWEDFactor in the News
Florissant Valley Chamber of Commerce
Missouri Career Center Workforce Weekly
Delivery Options
Delivered as both public seminar as well as in-house customized program (Anheuser-Busch pilot). Questions? Call us at (314)863-4000.
