by Tech Support | Feb 24, 2010 | Sales
I saw this sign in a restaurant the other day. It cracked me up and got me to thinking. You may call me hokey with this week’s newsletter but I had the coolest customer service experience this weekend with (if you can believe it) the PHONE Company.
I try to NEVER call the phone company. The frustration is more than I can stand. My experience has been that I don’t get to speak to anyone who lives close to Texas!
I don’t know about you, but I have a difficult time believing that someone around the world can really help me solve my problem here at home. I respect the job that all customer care centers are trying to do, but it irritates me, so I hope that I never have a problem.
Unfortunately, I did the dumbest thing. I pay my home phone bill online. I love online banking. However, I have an inactive account for an old phone number in my bill pay list; and I paid that account in February rather than the active account. So when I received my bill that is due in March, it showed that I was late. I almost paid double just to avoid calling the customer service line. I did call, and much to my surprise, I reached someone that sounded like they live on this side of the pond! She listened to my goof and assured me that we could get it taken care of. True to form, she couldn’t take care of it herself but she could wave the $6.00 fee that was assessed as a late charge. She took the initiative and asked me the question as to whether or not there was a charge. COOL! I love initiative. She explained that she needed to send me to a different department that could resolve the issue completely. It appears that they have a lost payment department at the phone company. Who knew?
This lady was also someone that speaks my language as her first language. This is my lucky day! Remember, this is a mistake that I made. She acted as if it was not a problem at all. She even gave me an example of how she had made a similar mistake herself. It happens. I had the proof from my bank that the payment had been sent so she asked me to fax that over. I also found a way to make a claim at the bank, so I did that and sent it to her as well.
I’m only a couple of days from the call but I have confidence that the problem will be resolved. It struck me that I probably was on the phone as long as I normally am in this type of situation. But my frustration level was – well, I wasn’t frustrated at all. I felt supported and like the people on the other end of the line really cared about fixing my problem.
So here’s the hokey part. I raised my children in the 80’s and 90’s. Do you remember Care Bears? I do, and I immediately got the sense that we should give Care Bear awards when our staff gives great guest service! I told you it was hokey. I’m going to take it one step further and give you an acronym for CARE.
- C – Communicate (Be there. Talk to your guest. Listen.)
- A – Assure (Give assurance that you can take care of them.)
- R – Resolve (Get to a point of resolution. There’s always a way to make things right.)
- E – Enthusiasm (Do it with your own level of enthusiasm. It matters to a guest that they matter to you.)
Have you had a surprising great guest service moment in the last 2 weeks? Feel free to share it here!
by Tech Support | Feb 9, 2010 | Sales
BELIEVE IT! We have the opportunity to see so many entertainment facilities across this great country and even around the world once in a while. This week, besides being part of the greatest snowstorm in the history of the Northeast, I got to work with an amazing team at Laserdome in Lancaster, PA.
Believe me when I tell you you can’t imagine what they are doing in this quaint little town. Laserdome, as its name suggests, has a terrific laser tag facility featuring Lasertron equipment. They also have this cool dome that is the home for a product they sell called Laser Concert. I did not know what a Laser Concert was. When owner Karl Ross explained the product, it sounded pretty neat. But when I saw it, I was completely blown away! Thus, the title for our newsletter this week. Do you have something in your center that has that – “YOU GOTTA SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT” – quality? I believe this is a strong marketing message.
In simple terms, a Laser Concert is a theater in the dome with music and a laser light show that is cooler than anything I’ve ever seen! This 30-minute experience has groups of music that the customer can choose from. Everything from good ol’ rock and roll, a piece of the Christian music set, Pink Floyd, to pre–teen bop featuring Hannah Montana. The light show is professionally created by the Laserdome staff, who are all at least 18 years old and above, and they implement a policy of hiring only 18 and up. The laser show creator is creative and takes great pride in the show – and it shows!
Our work with this team was to help implement a new birthday party program. We had the great fortune to Audition all their existing staff to help determine which team members would be best suited for this new Party Pro role! When onsite, our goal is always to deliver new ways of doing business so the facility experiences the model and can duplicate our efforts. We subscribe to Steven Covey’s “teach a man/person to fish” rather than just giving them the fish…that way, they can eat for a lifetime, not just for a single meal. We worked with the sales team to help in their efforts to close more parties. Finally, we trained those new Party Pros to provide that service–minded memorable experience with their new party packages!
I’m so glad I got to go to Lancaster (snow storm and all). I don’t think I could have fully appreciated this little diamond out here in Pennsylvania. I’m obsessed now with what we have at TrainerTainment that might make our customers say – “YOU GOTTA SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT!” What do you have at your center that would send your guests out into the world exclaiming, “YOU GOTTA SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT!”? Please share your WOW factor here!
by Tech Support | Feb 2, 2010 | Sales
Cold calling can be one of the most difficult things when it comes to sales. I think that I’m a “Rock Star” sales woman, but honestly, if I had to spend the entire day cold calling, it might not be as easy to love what I do. In a way, it’s like gambling for me. I love it when I win and hate it when I loose. It seems like cold calling can feel more like a losing proposition . . I believe you must knock on a lot more doors to get a “yes” when you compare cold calls to warm leads.
With that said, I ran on to a great article about the 5 biggest mistakes made in 2009 when it comes to cold calling. I found the article in a group that I follow on Linked–In. Gina Birge, a Blaire Group Analyst, penned the article. The following details my interpretation of the article as it relates to cold calling for the family entertainment business.
- Inability to manage objections. When it comes to selling, it is necessary to know why your customer may object to your product. However, knowing is not enough. If you are new, you may not know what the common objections are. Work with a manager. Ask customers what would keep them from purchasing your products. Ask your friends. Then rehearse your refutation. I have found that most of the time, when a customer has an objection, those objections usually fall into the following categories:
- They don’t have enough information. Usually this is a direct result of a salesperson who hasn’t asked enough questions to help the customer know how he or she can solve their problem or meet a need.
- You are not speaking to the right person (the decision maker). The objection is disguised in verbiage like, “Let me get back to you. I need to talk more with my boss.”
- They are afraid of something–price, time, or that the experience won’t be good enough. It is OK to say, “Mr. Customer, I sense that I haven’t answered all of your questions or that you may have some concerns about having your event at our facility. I’d like to take care of any of those issues today.”
One of my favorite qualifying and objection–overcoming statements comes from Tom Searcy of Whale Hunting. He says to simply ask the customer, “When you’ve held this type of event in the past, what was your experience?” Any fears that this potential customer may have will come to the surface, and now you are in the best position to know how to calm those fears and win the guest over because you know what the objection really is!
- Voicemail mistakes. Statistics show that there is less than a 1% call back rate when voicemails are left. Many times sellers just hang up or they leave messages that really give the receiver no good reason to call back.
- Product Vomit. Seriously – Ms. Birge did not make this reference in her article. This is definitely my own interpretation. What often happens with a cold call is that a salesperson reaches the intended target and makes a fast desperate pitch in order to get the information to the potential buyer. So, a cold call, whether in person or on the phone, might sound like this: “Hello Mr. Customer, this is Beth from TTT Fun Center. I’d like to tell you all about our new team building program. Everyone is doing it. It’s called Play Therapy and your team will really benefit from coming out to our place and playing together. (take a short breath here). It’s awesome! We split your teams up so no one thinks there’s a hidden agenda, and then you’ll play video games, laser tag, and bowl. We’ll have prizes and awards and everyone will make up a team cheer. I am going to be in your area this afternoon and would like to drop off some information today. May I stop by around 2:15 or would 3:30 be better?” That’s product vomit. It’s a spill out of the features and benefits, and it’s too soon. A cold call as well a sales call requires more finesse.
- The call is all about you and what you are trying to sell rather than finding out what the customer needs and selling them that. I recently read a great article about successful companies who play together. Wouldn’t it be great to take or send this article to your cold call prospect as a helpful piece of information that supports your option of having a great place to play? Now the call is all about them and how your product can make their world better and you’ve based it on what someone else has said! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!
- Giving the cold callee an easy out. If you begin the conversation with statements like:
- “Is this a good time?”
- “Do you have a minute?”
- “Are you free to talk now?”
Then you are sure to get the cold shoulder from your cold call prospect. It’s just too easy for this person to say no. All yes/no questions need to be eliminated from every sales person’s vocabulary.
If you would like more information about how to handle these objections, watch our webinar schedule at www.trainertainment.net. We produce interactive web sessions every two weeks and tackle issues like how to overcome objections, getting your foot in the door, how to handle the incoming call so you book the party every time, and many other sales, service, and leadership topics.
