PRESS
RELEASE
For
Immediate Release
Contact
Name: Donna Cutting
Phone:
800-519-0434
Email:
donna@donnacutting.com
TREAT
YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE TINA FEY
On Saturday, September 21, celebrities will walk the red carpet on their way into the NOKIA Theater for the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. Emmy nominees Tina Fey, Charlie Sheen, Tom Hanks, Sally Field and others will arrive in limo to throngs of screaming fans in the bleacher seats, pose for the paparazzi, and answer the ever popular question “who are you wearing?” They’ll spend the evening being honored with awards, entertainment, standing ovations and after-parties.
It won’t end there. Hollywood celebrities are used to the red-carpet treatment and having their every whim catered to. They live in the land of YES!
Donna Cutting, author of The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red-Carpet Customer Service (Wiley, 2008) says business owners can build buzz and make higher profits by treating their customers as if they were Hollywood celebrities.
“We live in a world where we hear No or I don’t know more often than Yes! We live in a world where we can’t get a real person on the phone, can’t find anyone to answer our question, and if we do find someone to help us, we’re often told ‘That’s not my department.’ We live in a world where business is done by computers, we are known by a number instead of a name, we’ve got to take a number to be waited on, and where we are often made to wait by the same people who won’t wait for us. Try showing up late for your doctor’s appointment or your flight,” quips Cutting.
Cutting challenges business owners to ask themselves, “How would I treat Tom Hanks or Tina Fey if they were to walk into my shop today?” Then work to bridge the gap between that level of service and what you typically provide for your customers. Organizations like High Point University, in High Point, NC, who are featured in Cutting’s Celebrity Experience Hall of Fame give students and prospective students celebrity level treatment with reserved parking spaces for visitors, valet parking for students, and personalized campus tours in a limo….er, golf cart. Their efforts towards delivering extraordinary service have been rewarded with bottom line results with campus visits up 100% and freshman enrollment up 150% since three years ago.
“It doesn’t take a big financial investment to give customers the celebrity treatment”, says Cutting. Here are her six steps to getting started:
1.Give Them a Red
Carpet Arrival. When a celebrity arrives for a movie premiere or a charity
function, it’s a big deal! There’s a red carpet. There are photographers. There
are hundreds of fans lined up, shouting their name and begging for a chance to
spend even two seconds with the star. When the rest of us arrive at a place of
business, we’re lucky if we can even get someone to acknowledge us. Treat your
customers like stars by showing them you’re glad they came. Look up, smile,
walk out from behind the counter and greet them. Most people don’t need a fancy
carpet or paparazzi – just eye contact is enough!
2. Call Them By Name. Motivational guru and author Dale
Carnegie said that when remember someone’s
name you “make them feel important.” Remember your customer’s name and use it
each time you see them. Make it a top priority, and you’ll find
remembering names easier than you think.
3. Remember and Refer. Aside from their
name, remember other details about your customer as well and refer to them.
When one grocery store manager recalled that the “grumpy lady who comes in on
Wednesdays” had been to Chicago to visit her daughter, he asked her about the
trip….and made her day! Now, that once grumpy customer seeks the man out with a
smile on her face whenever she comes into the store. It doesn’t take much to
make ordinary people feel special. Just pay attention.
4. Cater to their Personal Preferences.
While your customer may not be as picky as the celebrity who wants all the
brown M&M’s taken out of his candy dish, everyone has their likes and
dislikes. Surprise your customer in little ways and let them know you are
paying attention. In his former career as a banker, Author and Speaker Dave
Timmons earned the business of a prospect after he tossed him two baseballs
signed by the members of his grandsons’ favorite sports team. One hotel dining
room supervisor heard a guest say that she enjoyed blood oranges, so he
secretly had a few brought up to her room. Delight people in this way and you
and your business become unforgettable.
5. Give Them SWAG! At every awards show
celebrities walk away with gift bags filled with products and paraphernalia
worth thousands. There is a reason why people line up – and even pay good money
– to give their goods away to celebrities via the swag bag. When the superstar
wears or uses their product, it creates buzz. When Katrina Campins, star of the
first season of The Apprentice wore a watch on the show that was given
to her by Jacob the Jeweler, she was swamped with calls from men wanting to buy
one for their wives. While your customers may not have the platform that
Katrina had to show off your product, when you give them something for free
they will talk about it.
6. Be Extraordinary…And Then Some. Make a
commitment to be remarkable in every way that you serve your customer. Be the
first one to respond. Have the widest smile in the room. Call everyone by name.
Constantly be on the lookout for little ways that you can make your customer
feel like the most important person in the world. When you do, you will find
yourself not only with a customer for life, but with a raving fan that will go
out and spread the word about their incredible celebrity experience.
The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to
Delivering Red-Carpet Customer Service (Wiley, 2008) is available on Amazon.com and
wherever books are sold. The Author, Donna Cutting, can be reached via her
website at www.thecelebrityexperience.com.
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