Give your customers a good experience

and you’ll give yourself good customers

 

BY RICH SCHMITT

Management specialist

 

When I was a kid, one of the cigarette companies developed an ad campaign stating that people would walk a mile for their brand. The implication was that people would walk a mile (in the hot sun), passing up opportunities to buy competing brands just to buy their brand. While I do not, in any way, recommend smoking, I do like the idea and think it really applies to our industry. As you know, there are a bunch of wholesalers in the market these days. In the past, there was lots of business to go around so the market had these same competitors, but it just didn’t seem quite so crowded. Now that there are other wholesalers trying to eat your lunch, it is critical to take stock of your operation and to see if your customers would walk a mile to do business with you.

 

In many cases, wholesalers became lazy during the boom times and got accustomed to taking orders with very little real selling. In the process, they lost some of the skills and operating procedures that are a part of creating a differentiated company. So now is the time to rekindle the selling and operational “fires” with the sole purpose of earning more business from your current and prospective customers. In the end, you want customers who will walk an extra mile to buy from you or maybe drive an extra five miles to one of your locations.

 

I had the occasion to visit a local supply house this week on a personal mission. Normally, this kind of visit becomes the fodder for a column describing the disappointing aspects of the visit. This one was a pleasant surprise. The following describes the visit followed with my observations in parenthesis.

 

I was looking for some goofy electrical parts and the guy at our local hardware store said, “You need to go down to abc Supply. They aren’t far and they have that kind of stuff. Let me show you how to get there. (Getting a referral is always a good start to a new relationship. I know contractors tend not to cooperate but they do talk and when they do, you want to get a good recommendation. It is important to spend time cultivating referrals from trade customers and people who work with trade customers. Even the big box guys make referrals to their local supply houses for products that they don’t stock and that can mean opportunity for you. Take the time to cultivate referrals by introducing yourself to logical “referrers,” asking them for referrals and telling them that you will take care of anyone they send your way. If you do get a referral and you know who made the referral, take time to thank them. If you get a lot of referrals from someone, send them a gift certificate to a local restaurant.) 

 

As I walked into the counter area, it was clean and organized. The counter was cluttered with “stuff” but not messy. The “stuff” was product that I could handle and inspect as I waited for my order.  (Great fundamental marketing for trade customers who are, by their nature, hands-on people. The key here is to rotate the “stuff” so there is an ever-changing array of new products available to play with.) 

 

The guy at the counter smiled at me and instantly asked if he could help.  (Great first impression! Most people forget to smile and it does make a big difference. We have all been in situations where someone seems glad to see you versus when someone seems bothered or interrupted. Even when your people are busy with another customer, they can always take time to smile and say, ”I’ll be right with you.”) I told him what I needed and he directed me to a peg-board display with a lot of the parts in bags of 25, 50 and 100. So I went over and started looking at the parts. 

 

Within about a minute, a second guy walked over and asked if he could help me to find anything. I showed him a page from the manufacturer’s catalog and the parts I needed. He said, “We have those parts right here.” Then he helped me to find them. He also took time to show me how the bag label indicated which of the parts was the “high temperature stainless steel version” of the product. (More help, some instruction about the packaging that might not be obvious and result in my buying the wrong product. Plus there was no lecture about not selling retail or other negativity.) He further said, “We don’t stock every product in this line but we can get anything in this catalog in a couple days.  (Reminded me that they want to sell me everything in the catalog.) I said, “It’s too bad that I have to buy a bag of fifty, just to get a couple.” He told me not to worry because parts weren’t real expensive, even in that quantity.” (Good job of reinforcing their competitive pricing.) I told him that I needed to think through the project so he left saying that I just needed to ask if I wanted more help. As I was examining the parts, I overheard the counter guy ask another customer if he needed the fittings that go with the part being ordered. (Helping the customer to get all the materials in one trip and to buy them all here. Critically important: He did it in a way that came across as matter-of-fact, helpful and not, in any way, demeaning. Many counter people in wholesaling don’t realize that this basic question can be perceived by the trade customer as helpful or as telling the customer he is stupid. And remember the actual words are important but the tone can be even more important in this conversation.) 

 

Finally, I selected my parts and walked to the counter where a third guy quickly started entering the parts on the order, processed my credit card and got me taken care of. While he was processing the order, he took the time to be friendly and chat about the guys up at the hardware store who had referred me to them. At the end, he sent me off with a, “Have a good one...If you need any other products from that company just let us know. We can get anything in a couple days.” (Fast, friendly and working to sell me more in the future. This is the counter service equivalent to a hat-trick in hockey.) 

As a customer, this experience couldn’t have been better. As a consultant, I was impressed with the way they were all singing from the same sheet of music. All three of the “wholesaler-to-customer” contacts was consistent and positive. The only small criticism that I might offer, as a consultant, is that they probably didn’t charge enough. I say this because their bag of 50 cost me about as much as the hardware store was charging for 6 of a similar product. Of course their pricing was probably designed for trade customers, but I was pretty clearly a homeowner so I shouldn’t have gotten trade pricing. A simple question or two could have confirmed that I was not a trade customer and triggered higher pricing. I will admit that they created a great first pricing-impression. 

 

At the end of the experience, I might walk a mile to buy from these guys but, for sure, I will buy from them again.

So your assignment this week is to look at your operation to determine whether the customer experience is as good as it can be. Would a trade customer go out of his way to buy from you and your team. Frankly, from a contractor’s perspective, most wholesalers are pretty much the same and, if you think about it, half the wholesalers are above average and half are below average. The challenge is to operate in a way that differentiates you from your competitors in the eyes of your target customers:

 

• How does your operation look?  Is it clean and organized?
• Are your counters collections of junk or are they being properly used to market and introduce products to your customers?
• Does your team process customer orders efficiently? Are your people friendly?
• Does your team work to build the sale with associated and commonly used products?
• Does your team take the time to educate customers about: What you sell, what you can get, services you offer, product insights and installation hints, special offers that you have running, your website, your catalog, your after-hours support, or new products you are offering.

 

(Of course, you wouldn’t do this in one visit but spread across several visits and repeated several times.  Many sales people do not invest the small amount of additional time required to plant these seeds for the future.)

 

These are the basics of our industry and they are critical in getting trade customers to walk that extra mile (or drive a couple extra miles...maybe passing a competitor along the way) to get to your store.  For a reprint of my column on operating with a checklist, e-mail me at rich@go-spi.com.