A Physical Store Needs to Give Customers Something Online Cannot
A physical store has one big disadvantage. It requires effort. The customer has to leave the house. Drive there. Find parking. Walk in. Look around. Possibly wait. Compare that with buying online. A few taps. No travel. No queue. No awkward interaction. So if a customer is going to make the effort to visit a […]
The Problem With Trying Too Hard to Delight Customers
“Delighting the customer” sounds like a good goal. It sounds generous. Ambitious. Customer-focused. But it can also lead businesses to improve things the customer never wanted changed. That is where the trouble starts. There is a difference between creating value and creating a surprise. Businesses often confuse the two. They assume faster is always better. […]
Your Most Loyal Customers Are Often the Easiest to Neglect
Businesses usually pay the most attention to customers who are difficult to win. The new lead. The first-time buyer. The customer comparing three competitors. The person who might leave a bad review. These customers create urgency. Loyal customers often do the opposite. They know the process. They understand the product. They forgive small mistakes. They […]
Your Sales Team May Be Having Great Conversations and Losing Sales
A customer walks into the showroom. The salesperson is friendly. They answer every question. They explain the product clearly. The customer seems interested. Everyone walks away feeling like the conversation went well. Then nothing happens. No appointment. No follow-up. No customer details. No next meeting. No sale. This is one of the easiest problems to […]
A Business Can Be Over-Monitored and Still Poorly Understood
Some businesses measure everything. Customer satisfaction. Wait times. Conversion rates. Complaints. Staff performance. Repeat visits. Average transaction value. There are dashboards, reports, surveys and weekly meetings to discuss all of it. And yet, when something starts going wrong, nobody really knows why. That is the strange thing about measurement. It can create the feeling of […]
Growth Can Look Very Different From the Customer’s Side of the Counter
From behind the counter, the café probably looked busier than ever. Delivery drivers coming and going. More orders appearing on the screen. Coffee machines running constantly. New revenue coming from customers who were not even in the building. It looked like growth. From our side of the counter, it looked very different. Our cycling group […]
Customers Don’t Want More Service. They Want Less Friction
There is a strange assumption in business that better customer service always means adding more human interaction. More staff. More conversations. More check-ins. More opportunities to “delight” the customer. But sometimes, the best thing you can do is simply get out of their way. Think about filling up your car. Years ago, you would pull […]
Customer Loyalty Doesn’t Have to Cost You Anything
A friend of mine stayed at a hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel, a while back. She’d been there once before and decided to return. When she checked in, there was a letter waiting for her in the room. It wasn’t elaborate. It wasn’t signed by hand. It wasn’t even personalised beyond her name. But it […]
The Awkward Moment Your Staff Are Avoiding Is Hurting Your Business
Think about the last time you went to a restaurant, finished your meal, and nobody offered you dessert. Happens all the time. And it’s not because the restaurant doesn’t have dessert. It’s because the staff felt a little awkward about offering it. You didn’t ask for it. They didn’t want to seem pushy. So they […]
Try Buying From Yourself. You Might Not Like What You Find.
A little while back my wife and I drove up to Ettalong Beach for a weekend away. About two and a half hours from home. We got there around 11.30 in the morning and asked the person at reception if they could recommend somewhere good for lunch. They pointed us to a place called Chika […]
Why the Friendliest Service Isn’t Always the Best Service
I was out in a country town in Western New South Wales a while back, and it struck me how friendly everyone was. People say hello on the street. You walk into a cafe and it’s warm, it’s welcoming, properly country hospitality. The kind of thing you don’t get as much in the city. And […]
Your Best Reviewed Store Isn’t Lucky. It’s Compliant.
Ever looked at your Google reviews across your store network and wondered why some locations consistently get glowing feedback while others seem to attract complaints no matter what you do? Most operators put it down to location. Or the local customer base. Or just having a good manager in the right place at the right […]