A Guide to TheSmartWash Customer Service
Being a part of TheSmartWash family, Our aim is to anticipate the customers’ needs before they have to mention it. To do this, we:
Find common ground
Think Win-Win
Add value to others lives
How you decide to achieve these objectives is unique to you, however the following points serve as a basis for you to work upon.
The Sweetest Thing Anyone Can Hear
Their name.
Smiling, knowing people's names, praising people, making an effort to know their interests and chat about them make people feel important. That is the underlying point of all of the below principles. If you make people feel important, how you walk through the world will be an exponentially more pleasant and incredible experience.
Finding common ground
Using our senses makes this easier to do as we have two eyes, two ears yet one mouth. TheSmartWash believes that this is no coincidence. Prior to the conversation starting, it is beneficial to use your eyes to find talking points to discuss. You may find the following points useful, for example:
You drive a BMW? How are you driving a nicer car than my dad?
You have a dog? I love dogs, what made you buy him?
Your house reminds me of my dream house, what made you move here?
The aim of these comments is to:
Find something that the customer is passionate about
Allow them to talk about their passion, so that they feel valued and important to someone.
Once we have the customer talking, it is important to listen to the customer empathically. This means to try as best as you can to put yourself into their shoes and see things through their perspective. There are three stages of empathic listening:
To mimic content
This is least effective and requires the least amount of brain power. It can cause a person to close up, for example:
Son: I am fed up with going to school, I don’t see the point.
Father: You’re fed up with school because you don’t see the point?
Rephrase content
Slightly more effective, but still doesn’t allow a person to feel truly understood, for example:
Son: I am fed up with going to school, I don’t see the point.
Father: You don’t see the point in going to school and that’s why you’re fed up.
The above example can lead the son to feel frustrated because the father isn’t understanding how he feels.
Reflect feeling and emotion
This is the most effective, the customer feels understood the most as you’re showing that you understand their emotions. This can lead them to open up further as they feel understood.
Son: I am fed up with going to school, I don’t see the point.
Father: You sound like you feel frustrated with going to school, and that you’re confused as to why you go?
Empathic listening is seeking to truly understand first and to enter another person’s frame of reference. To listen empathetically you must listen with your eyes and body language. 10% of communication is what we say, 30% is how we say it and 60% is through our body language.
It is therefore important to ensure the customer feels important to you by giving them your 100% attention. If you’re unable to because you’re working it is beneficial to tell them: “Let me finish this so I can give you my undivided attention”, however it is also extremely important to pick up the conversation where you left off when you are able to.
Think win-win
So, you broke the ice and you’ve been paying attention to what the customer is saying, ideally a good question to ask the customer would be:
“So, what are you aiming for?”
“Is there anything I should focus on”
These questions identify what the customers' worries are, so when you pitch our service to them, you can solve each problem they have mentioned and in a sense, have the customer sell the service to themselves. The first example will be covered later, however the latter example would normally occur on a customer’s driveway prior to the service, or on a phone call when booking a customer:
You: “Is there anything I should focus on?”
Customer: “I spilt some coffee in the back earlier, if you could deal with that, I would appreciate it”
You: “No problem, I’ll sort that out for you”
In a nutshell, to “think win-win”:
“When one side benefits more than the other, that’s a win-lose situation. To the winner it might look like success for a while, but in the long run, it breeds resentment and distrust.”
–DR. STEPHEN R. COVEY
In all of our lives, we want to achieve the most value possible, so when pitching our service
to prospective customers (prospects) we achieve this by thinking win-win, which we will discuss in the next chapter.
The Recency Effect
The recency effect is the tendency to remember the most recently presented information best. For example, if you are trying to memorize a list of items, the recency effect means you are more likely to recall the items from the list that you studied last. This is one component of the serial position effect, a phenomenon in which the position of items on a list influences how well those items are recalled.
We use this when dealing with customers, it is important that just before we start work on a vehicle, we ask the customer “Is there anything in particular you would like me to focus on”
If the customer does specify something that is pestering them, it is important that we say yes, and agree to what they have asked, even when it is not included in the service booked. If they request something that is not already paid for, you can upsell the customer and gain a 50% commission. We upsell because, as humans, we tend to grow fond of people who are able to do things for us.
If we are not able to complete what the customer has asked, it is important to explain to the customer immediately after the wash that we have tried our best in the given time we had” and if unsure of a solution, to refer the issue to a supervisor who will call the customer by the end of the day.
Lastly, before we leave the customer, it is important we ask them are they happy with the car, if they are not:
- they will explain why, and we can try to rectify this.
if they are:
This will resonate in their mind and will use this positive memory when referring us to a friend.
Handling New Clients
Start With Why, How great leaders Inspire Action
According to Simon Sinek, the fundamental difference between Apple and everyone else is that they start with "why."
What does that even mean? To explain this concept, Sinek has developed what he calls the "Golden Circle."
Why - This is the core belief of the business. It's why the business exists.
How - This is how the business fulfills that core belief.
What - This is what the company does to fulfill that core belief.
Sounds simple, right? But what Sinek found is that most companies do their marketing backwards. They start with their "what" and then move to the "how." Most of these companies neglect to even mention "why." More alarmingly, many of them don't even know why they do what they do!
Sinek explains this theory best in his TED talk below, before continuing, if you want to be able to become the best version of yourself, please watch his TED talk on YouTube below.
People do not buy what we do, they buy why we do it. Remember this when a customer approaches
Click here to watch the video on: How great leaders inspire action, by Simon Sinek
https://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4?si=B6_v8tFtdyTAISaw