And then there's my new friend Dawn Goldberg! As my husband put it, "she just beams!" I had a blast speaking with her over the phone and you can listen in on our conversation here.
Tomorrow, the bus stops at the following locations:
Another guest post can be found over at The Small Business Guru - Melody Campbell. It's about how small business owners can give their customers personalized attention.
The Blog Tour Bus is making several stops today and The Celebrity Experience and I are traveling far and wide - from Small Business Land, to Boomer Diva Nation, landing in some Nashville Real Estate!
First out, check out this review of the book by Small Business Expert Denise O'Berry. Truth be told, I was anxious to read what she thought. Denise is the colleague who introduced me to my editor at Wiley - so it was important to me that she like the book. Looks like she did!
Master of The Celebrity Experience and my new friend, Nashville Realtor Terry Booth also interviewed me about the book. "Listen" in on the conversation here.
Thanks to the fabulous Teresa Morrow of Key Business Partners, who has real star quality, The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red-Carpet Customer Service is on tour! Blog tour, that is! Several superstars of the blogging world have agreed to either interview me, review The Celebrity Experience, post an excerpt from the book, or have me as a guest blogger. All this to celebrate the week of the Emmy Awards and remind you that YOU can build buzz about your business by treating your customers like Hollywood Stars.
Wow!!! I can't thank all these bloggers enough for participating in this tour - and a standing ovation to Teresa Morrow, my tour manager! Now, if you'll excuse me...the tour bus leaves in 30 minutes....
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!
“We live in a world where we hear Noor 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.
On this anniversary of 9/11 I run (as I have in past years on other blogs/in newsletters) a poem written by my friend and colleague, Dave Timmons, on that horrible day. Included below is Dave's recent email to me and others.
Dave's Email begins:
In the aftermath of September 11, I wrote the following poem. It as been sung and read at memorial services for the victims and published in Chicken Soup for the Soul of America.
May it add some measure of peace to you as we remember those who were taken from us seven years ago. Dave Timmons
"LAST CALL"
As smoke and heat diminished from the mangled steel and glass The hope of rescue workers faded in and out so fast. These heroes of our nation working tirelessly to find A sound, a breath, some proof of life, to keep that hope alive.
The victims were so innocent, just doing their life�s work In a nation called America, the most free on this earth. Suddenly, a worker finds a cell phone flashing red. He plays the last call message, and this is what it said:
Hello, it's me. I'm calling to tell you I'm all right. I've made it up to heaven; I tried to call last night. The group that I arrived with is strong and brave and tall And proud to be Americans while answering God's call.
I love you all and know I've been in all your thoughts and prayers. You need to know I felt no pain and safely made it here. Now let me say a prayer for you of closure and of life, Move on with courage and with faith that we will reunite.
I know it's sad; I'll age no more, but in this you can trust My dreams were put back on the earth in particles of dust. That dust is in the air you breathe; I've passed it on to you. So please breathe deeply everyday, and make my dreams come true.
Copyright 2001 Dave Timmons
The Leader's Edge, Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Dave Timmons Six String Leadership P.O. Box 340025 Tampa FL 33694; (813) 948-6709 www.DaveTimmons.com.
Last week I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ron Sukenick, CEO of the Relationship Strategies Institute.
We discussed how delivering red-carpet customer service relates to
networking and generating referrals. When the podcast is available,
I'll let you know.
Towards the end of the interview, Ron shared an anecdote with me
that I think is a perfect example of how it doesn't have to cost a lot
to give celebrity service to every day people. It's simply a matter of using what you have and looking at things a little differently.
While Ron was in New York City pursuing an acting career, he also
drove a taxicab. One day he saw a remnant of a red-carpet on the street
to be picked up as trash. Ron picked up, cleaned it, and put it on the
floor in the back of his cab. Then, when he picked up a passenger, he
would get out of his car and open the door for them as though he were a
limo driver - not a taxi driver - and welcome them into his cab with a
red-carpet.
Cost of that red-carpet? Zero. Impression he made on his customers? Priceless.
So, tell me, what simple actions do you take to deliver a unique experience to your customers?
Found this fantastic post by Lyman Reed over at Creating a Better Life. Lyman talks about the need to combine positive thinking (aka The Secret) with massive action.
I agree. Whether your goals are to deliver better service, fully engage your employees, or whatever, positive thinking is definitely important. However, it alone will not get the job done.
Small Business expert Mark LeBlanc got it right when I recently heard him say , "I personally know many of the experts featured in The Secret. Believe me, they didn't get where they are today through meditation and vision boards alone."
So true! Every single one of them have worked their butts off to reach their goals. Certainly they subscribe and utilize the law of attraction...but believe me, they are true ACTION heroes as well.
My friends, I ask you: what actions will you take today to make your dreams come true?
Sometimes it isn't answers we need - it's better questions. When we ask the right questions, the answers are usually revealed to us. To that end, here are 8 good questions to ask yourself about your customer service practices:
1. If Jennifer Aniston or Denzel Washington were to walk into our place of business, or call with an order, what would we do to ensure they got exceptional service?
2. How can we bridge the gap between what we'd do for Julia and Denzel and what we'd do for our regular customers?
3. When we take an inventory of each step of a customer's interaction with us (from the first phone call, through the purchase, to the follow up) what are things we do (or don't do) that don't impress our customers? (No live person answering the phone, not owning up to mistakes, etc.)
4. Is every single employee engaged in our mission? (Remember, your service is only as good as your least engaged employee).
5. Are we honestly living up to what our website and/or marketing brochure says about us?
6. Do we have clearly communicated service standards, and do we repeatedly reinforce them with our team members, rewarding employees who demonstrate them?
7. Once we've gotten rid of the Un-WOWs (thanks to Nido Qubein, President of High Point University) for this term, what practices can we add to really WOW our customers? How do we give good service "and then some!"
8. Are we asking our customers the hard questions? Instead of "how did we do?" are we asking "how could we do better?"
That should get you (and I) started on evaluating your customer service delivery.
My friends, let me ask you: What questions would you add to this list?
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