Episode 250 – Super Fast Customer Service
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody it's Tom here with episode two hundred and fifty. It's two hundred and fifty. Wow, what a milestone we got. Check the show notes and you'll get some discount coupons for two hundred and fifty episodes. Yeah. You got to check the notes for episode 250 though to to get your discount coupons. You go to screwthecommute.com/250. This episode is gonna be about super fast customer service, but it's gonna be about way more than that about the customer experience and how that can make you money or hurt you really bad really fast. So make sure you listen up good to this episode. Hope you didn't miss episode two forty nine. A repeat guest, Gayl Murphy, she is a Hollywood correspondent, had lots of good tips about how you should be able to tell your story to get on the media. She has done over sixteen thousand interviews with business people to A-list celebrities for, oh, I don't know, 30 some years. She's just cool as can be so. Check out episode two forty nine. Now, if there's any time when you should download my automation ebook that I give you for free for listening to this podcast. Today is the day. All right. Because a lot of the tools I use in this automation book is what allows me to handle, you know, 40000 customers and 150000 subscribers. You know, we've had as many as that. It's not as much right now, but. Without pulling my hair out and this means more money for you. And I'll tell you. If you don't do these things, you're going to your business is going to barely stay alive or decline because your competitors are doing this stuff. So download the darn free automation e-book and put this stuff into play. You find it at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and while you're at it, get a copy of our podcast app. It's at screwthecommute.com/app so you can take us with you on the road. It does all kinds of cool stuff and we have training for you so you're not out in the dark trying to figure out how to use the darn thing. All right. Our sponsor is the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia. It's a distance learning school which teaches legitimate techniques to make a great living, either working for someone else or starting your own online business or both. And guess what? After eleven years, we're opening up this summer for in-house classes. So if you happen to be shooting distance of the area in, one of the reasons we're doing it is because we're applying to take the G.I. Bill for veterans and they're only going to approve us for in-house classes for now. So so check it out at IMTCVA.org. And a little later, I'm going to tell you about a quiz we have over there. Oh, my God. It's gonna make you mad about the ways that major colleges and universities and all that traditional stuff is just ripping you off with text books, fake GPAs, tuitions and fees that are ridiculous and stupid, classes that are worthless that are not going to get you anywhere. So check that out a little later. I'll tell you the address to that. But IMTCVA.org is the address to the school where you can get a legitimate career in as little as six months and we even have people that are making money after one month. All right. So this is real skills that are in high demand in the world as opposed to drinking and party your kid's ways or your way through four year college and losing all that income from not being in the workforce and then have an enormous debt and competing for jobs at Starbucks or Burger King.

[00:04:33] All right. Let's get to the main event. First, again, I'll reiterate a lot of the tools I use to handle customer service and make more money are in the free automation book I give you for listening to this podcast. So I don't need to go over all those tools because they're in the book. All you got to do is download it for free. We charge twenty seven bucks on the open market for it. You get it free, go get it. Don't make me come over there. I love to say that.

[00:05:01] All right. Super fast customer service and I'm going to call this the current buzzword of the industry, which is customer experience. Sometimes you see it abbreviated CX customer experience. It kind of cracks me up that people jump on these bandwagons like the new is like this was the newest idea on Earth. It's how I've been treating my customers great since 1977 when I first started in business. So, you know, I love doing it and they love the service they get. But I'm going to go ahead and tell you about some of the latest studies and what it can mean to you to create a great customer experience.

[00:05:42] Now, a WalkerInfo.com study found that by the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. However, I think they may be a little behind the times because Gartner customers experience survey and this was two years ago 2018 said that 66 percent of companies now compete on customer experience instead of all the other things price and product in everything. And that's up from 36 percent in 2010. So it's going to be higher than that now. People are competing on the experience, not just the cheaper cost or quality of the product. Of course, we want that to be great, but it doesn't matter if the customer doesn't feel they got a great experience dealing with your company. Now, these studies were big companies with lots of resources. But but now as small business owners with the tools we have available to us, like the ones in that free book you're supposed to go download. I mean, there's no excuse other than laziness to not give a great customer experience. And that's why so many people join my mentor program over so many years. I mean, they get an experience unrivaled in the field and experiences they could not even get anywhere else. Like visiting the retreat center, living here in an immersion weekend and shooting videos in my studio. Always part of the deal, not hiring a studio for six thousand dollars and and shooting one or two videos. So I mean just all kinds of stuff that we give an experience that's just unrivaled.

[00:07:34] See, customers no longer base their loyalty on price and product. Instead, they stay loyal with companies due to the experience they receive. So if you can't keep up with their increasing demands, your customers are going to leave you. It's as simple as that. Now, Adobe conducted their annual digital trends report and they asked companies to state the single most exciting opportunity on their plate for 2020. While the results were customer experience came in first. It beat out content marketing. It beat out video marketing. And it beat out social media marketing. The customer experience is the most important and it might as well define that while I'm here. The customer experience is your customer's perception of how your company treats them. And these perceptions affect what they do and how much they buy. And the feelings that drive their loyalty to your company.

[00:08:39] Now, they also found in this study 86 percent of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. And the more expensive the item is now, this is from a study by PWC.com. The more expensive the item is, the more they're willing to pay. And here's an example they gave. The customers are willing to pay a price premium of up to 18 percent for luxury and indulgence services simply if they receive a great customer experience.

[00:09:13] A lot of people with money want to brag about the things and how they were treated. So you got to. If you want their money, you got to give them that chance to brag about you. Now, customer experience also influences impulse purchases, and 49 percent of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalized experience. That's why I answer the phone, folks. Nobody at my level will even talk to you. You know, you got to go jump through hoops to 10 gatekeepers and if you can get a response at all.

[00:09:51] So I get the money. Right. As simple as that, folks. I laugh when all these big shots, when I speak, they come in with their entourage and they're all hot stuff. And then I'm just talking to people and hanging out from the beginning to the end of the conference. And I'd come home with them. I'd take their money because they're too good to talk to you. They have to be on a plane to the next thing you know, cracks me up. In addition to all these great things, you get increased customer retention, you get increased customer satisfaction and referrals, say that's another big revenue stream when you get referred and you get increased upselling. So people will buy more. You can offer them more things and they'll buy them and even affiliate selling, see if they trust you and believe in you and love you, they're more likely to just go ahead and buy something you recommend. Now, you've got to be careful not to recommend companies that suck because you could kill this whole thing in one bad referral. So you so you've got to be careful about that. However, one bad referral won't kill you. If you've built up all this great, you know, rapport with people from the great experience that you have been giving them. But you just have to be careful of who you refer.

[00:11:13] All right, now the next topic is multiple channels of service. Now this again from the Adobe study. They found that companies with the strongest what they call it omni channel and like like a lot of different we're basically that's a lot of different ways for people to get in touch with you. So it's omni channel customer engagement strategies. Listen to this. They those companies just from. People being able to contact you in multiple ways. A 10 percent growth per year just from that factor. And a 10 percent increase in the average order value. And listen to this one. A 25 percent increase in closing rates.

[00:12:00] So, I mean, again, that's why I answer the phone. All right. And I have chatbots and texts. You can text us an e-mail us and you know, all these things. So that's why we close a lot of deals with people because we're accessible and we give them that experience. I really been living this for years. You know, one on one fast service through multiple channels. That's what we're talking about here.

[00:12:29] So how do you put this to play in in the play as a small business? Well, you got to put mechanisms in place. And one of the main ones that I really feel your negligent if you don't do this and we I covered this in episode 76. However, there's big changes that just took place with Facebook that you need to know about from the marketing channel of chat bots and messenger marketing. But from the customer service part, it hasn't really changed that much. So messenger and chat bots. Eighty five percent of customer service is being done with chat bots and messenger type things. People are less likely to pick up the phone now, although I want. I mean, this is like 67 percent of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative. Now, the reason I pick up the phone is because I want that extra 33 percent to give me money. And I'm here usually working or doing a podcast or something anyway. So, you know, I'm happy to pick up the phone and talk to people because it's just brought in so much money over the years and and so many referrals from even people that couldn't afford me refer me because I was nice to them and I talk to them and listen to their problems and, you know, gave them solutions even if they couldn't afford may say so. So all this adds up. And then I just put out a thing for this G.I. Bill thing I'm trying to get my school approved for. I went to a meeting about how to get, you know, how to make this happen. And one of the things is they want to have a lot of reviews about to make sure you're credible institution. Well I put out a query to people I said if I've helped you in any way, I like to have an honest review on Google and I gave her a link. A hundred and two reviews in like in three or four days came in and I just haven't even put it out to my whole list, you know. So these are the kind of benefits that you get from being good to people in contact, you know, staying in touch with them and and letting them be able to contact you when they need you say. So that's omni channel customer engagement.

[00:14:49] So anyway, messenger and chatbots and I happen to use manychat.com. There's other ones out there, but that's the one I use. And then also let them text you for customer service. Email support is declining slightly like 1 percent it's gone down. But still, there's no excuse for you not to be able to pick up emails on your cell phone wherever you happen to be. So a lot of our stuff and also in the book, it shows you how we automate our responses. So I don't have to type on this little stupid keyboard like crazy. And you think, well, that's easy. I just talk to it. Well, you can't always talk to it in certain situations if you're in another meeting, if you're in a seminar, if you're at the movies. You know, those kinds of things. I was actually I was actually deer hunting, sitting up against the tree and answering e-mails and deer walking by like, look at that dumb douche over there. He could have shot us if he was working on his cell phone. So anyway, at all these are are ways omni channel. See? But there's even more knowledge bases. Now, if you're if you have enough information or technical stuff that you need to have a knowledge base. Ninety one percent. Look at this. Of people would use them if they worked. And and they were targeted to the customer's needs. Ninety one percent. So they're super happy with you because they got their answer instantly and you didn't have to spend phone time. Now I say have to spend phone time if you're very busy like we are around here. You know, you can't. You know, you can't be on the phone all day long and get anything else done. So that's why you put these things in place and then the people that do want to call. We have time for them because our customers can get answers through our messenger bot. We had a knowledge base a long time ago and nobody was using it. But we're bringing some of these things back now because 10 years ago we had like live chat on this and nobody would use it. They just weren't used to it. But nowadays, they prefer that kind of stuff rather than getting on the phone or sending an email. I mean, you send and of course, we handle all of these channels, but, you know, you go to fill out a form on somebody's Web site hardly anybody fills them out anymore because they kind of know nobody's going to get back to him. They hate it. So but live chat is coming back. And like I said, ninety one percent of the people would prefer a self-serve method where they can get the answer instantly rather than being on hold or in voice mail hell, and all those kinds of things that, oh, my God, I was you know, I reviewed one hundred and fifty or a hundred and sixty chiropractic sites in Hampton Roads. All of them were screwed up in some way or the other, just from the worst of the worst to some that were just obviously didn't know what they were doing, but had a fancy looking site up there. But it sucked. So I'm helping that market out on.

[00:18:04] Here's a little sidebar tip on your voicemail. All right. Please don't say I'll get back to you at my earliest convenience. Who are you telling that you care about more? You care about you more than them. All right. That's the stupidest thing that put on a voicemail, what you call my voicemail. It says, I'll get back to you as soon as humanly possible. Right. So I'm telling them I care about them. I mean, simple things like this make a difference to people, folks. I mean, what the heck? That my earliest convenience like if I'll get to you whenever I can, if I'm not busy watching Netflix, you know. So that's stupid.

[00:18:47] Now, here's the thing, folks. You darn better be mobile friendly. I've been preaching this for two, three years now. According to superoffice.com, this a quote from them, when it comes to providing a positive experience across different channels, mobile customer service is expected to soar. And the reason is simple. If it's a bad mobile experience, it can do serious damage to your brand. And they gave an example 57 percent of customers won't recommend a business with a poorly designed Web site on mobile. And if a Web site isn't mobile friendly, 50 percent. This is crazy, folks. Fifty percent of customers will stop visiting it even if they like the business. Oh, my God. You killed yourself to create a great customer experience and the customers love you. But you ignored your mobile versions of your site. And now that customers leaving 50 or half of them are leaving, you're crazy. If you let that happen, you're negligent in your business. You got your head up your butt. You got your head in the sand. And you're not keeping up with things. Now it's in. And also, Google came out a couple years ago, say with mobile first indexing. They're going to rate your site on its mobile version, not your desktop version. So everything you do, you need to be checking it on an android and a and a iPhone and some tablets and everywhere else. You can check it out.

[00:18:47] Now, a Koalski study found that 72 percent of customers will share a positive experience. You know, you've heard these statistics for customer service for a long time with six or more people. If you're lucky. On the other hand, if a customer is not happy, they share their experience with fifteen or more people. All right. And and guess what? They don't tell you they're unhappy. In fact, only one in 26 unhappy customers actually complain. The rest, guess what they do? They just leave. They just leave. They go to your competitors. They come to me. So go ahead. You know, forget what I'm telling you. Just send them all to me. I'll take care of them.

[00:21:16] All right. Now, before I tell you about my fake toaster fire. OK. I really want you to go to my school Web site and take that college rip off quiz. Even if it doesn't apply to you, it only takes two minutes. You at least see a viral marketing method and how you can put quizzes together that are educational and promote your business. But if you do. And I guarantee you, you know somebody that's got kids coming up to college age or somebody that wants to re-educate themselves. Now warn them they're going to be mad when they take this quiz. It only takes two minutes to take it, but that's enough to really make you mad when you see the fraudulent things that colleges are doing with text books and fake grade point averages and and these crazy fees and these stupid courses that are worthless and charging you a fortune for them. So check it out at IMTCVA.org/quiz and you can just hit the start button and go through seven questions. There is very quick. But like I said, it's gonna make you mad. And then hey, if you know anybody that wants a marketable skill in a high demand field. I'm the guy. My school is the school because we got people making money a month into the school. And we just had a young lady four months into the school quit her job. She's making six thousand dollars a month on the side. And her dad had spent 80 grand on her college education and she was working some crap job. All right. So this is powerful real stuff. And I you're not going to be saddled with debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars and you're gonna be in the workforce four and a half years sooner or four years sooner, three and a half years sooner, which is hundreds of thousands of dollars lost because you're just partying away at school. So pass it on to the people that need it.

[00:23:18] All right. Let me tell you about my fake toaster fire. So fast. Customer service reduces escalation in the part of the customer. Here's the example. Years and years ago, I bought a toaster from Sears. And something was wrong with it, so I called Sears customer service. A day goes by. No, no return call. So I call again and I say, hey, I really got the problem with this toaster, I need to call back right away. I called yesterday. No callback. Ok. So the third day I call. Listen, I got a toaster and it went on fire and I need to hear from somebody right away. Finally got a call back from him and I just lied about because and this is what people will do when you don't take care of their problems fast. They keep escalating and making it worse and worse. And pretty soon, I mean, had that gone on longer. I did believed the toaster was on fire and told everybody that I bought a toaster and it caught on fire from Sears.

[00:24:30] So, you know, I never advocate lying, but it's not my fault. Sears should have called me back within an hour or so from my first call, and they didn't. It took three days and an escalation. And I'm mad and they're they're like, you know, oh, it's not that big a deal, you know? Yes, it is. You jerks. You sit there and you get paid. You're supposed to do take care. I mean, you didn't. That's the way I feel about them. And Sears is out of business. All right. They almost got put out of business by the feds for robbing people in their in their automotive department. You know, that was three times they were caught cheating, mostly women with unnecessary repairs and stuff. So so they got what they deserved. They're gone. So don't let that happen to you. I don't want that to happen to you. So the bottom line is, folks, if you do the things in this episode, you will start making more money in your business. Guess what, though? If you don't, it's a pretty sure thing. You'll start making less money.

[00:25:36] It's doubtful you'll be able to maintain your level of income and sales if you ignore what you learned here, because guess what other companies and your competitors are not ignoring.

[00:25:49] All right. So that's it, folks. That's our two hundred and fifty episode. Remember, your discount coupons are going to be in the show notes. You gotta go to screwthecommute.com/250 to help us celebrate the two hundred and fifty eight episode of Screw the Commute podcast. We're giving you discounts and they're only good for a short period of time, so you better get over there and take advantage of it. All right. We'll catch y'all on the next episode. See ya later.

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