The Customer Empathy Solution - Part 1

While this is a high energy Keynote on its own, many of our clients often want to expand this topic into a Break Out. There is plenty of great material to accomplish that.

The evidence is clear. "If you want lifetime loyalty, stop training customer 'service'...and start coaching customer EMPATHY." This dramatic attitude shift goes straight to the heart of the customer experience. Ross defines Customer Empathy as, The ability to identify, interpret and appropriately respond to the customer's emotional state - before, during, and after the transaction.

After 14 years of writing, researching, and producing Human Resource training films, Ross unveils frightening case studies of organizations that ignored the customer because they were blinded by fantasy sales goals, outdated operational procedures, and frozen mission statements. Then, he reveals the smart (yet humble) teams who gobbled up market share by responding to their customers' evolving emotional state.

The Take-a-Ways

1. Learn why your customers/clients/patients feel so vulnerable, helpless, anxious, and out of control, today. The customer has been through a stock market collapse, home equity meltdown, two Iraq wars, rising fuel prices, and regardless of news reports that say, "the recession is ending." there is still the reality of unprecedented unemployment. You'll see how these (emotionally draining) cultural events have dramatically changed their buying habits...and how you can adapt to these new attitudes.

2. Customers want you to provide Empathy...NOT "service." Empathy, as a sales and collaboration skill, means you need to become an expert at reading faces, body language, and voice inflection. You will learn how to listen to learn...not listen to respond. You will learn how to identify telltale facial expressions. You will learn how become a trusted advisor (as perceived by the customer/client/patient.)

3. When people love you, they will give you more money. You'll learn that when your customers/clients get what they interpret as "love" from you, they will reward you with their lifetime loyalty. When your customers feel an emotional connection with you, they will literally stop dating other companies - and start spending more time and money with you. Better than that, they will start championing you and your organization to their friends...becoming unpaid spokespeople for you and your brand. We'll show you what it takes to "love" your customers.

4. Why the iPod, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace have made it vitally important that YOU must create a "personal brand" with your customers. Because personal identities and social networking have become such an enormous part of our culture, the best brand differentiators today revolve around the personal brands you can create for your customers and clients. It's not about you anymore. They want you to be all about them. We will discuss the best options based upon your own experiences.

5. Learn why Customer " ˜Evaluations" can do more harm than good. We often depend upon customer evaluations to help us gather valuable feedback and input. But customers see evaluations as a nuisance...an irritant that can severely degrade their experience. You'll learn which types of evaluations enhance the customer experience - and which types of evaluations can destroy the customer relationship.