Discover the easiest ways to disappoint your customers without really trying
As a lover of Aussie Rules Football (AFL) and a passionate Hawthorn member, I love all the different events of Grand Final Week including the Brownlow Medal.
This is a televised count of the 3,2,1 votes awarded by the umpires for the most valuable player on the ground, in each game, for the 23 round season.
Although it's a very long night, I enjoy settling in to see how many Hawks poll as well as which players poll from the other teams.
FOCUS: Grow Your BUSINESS
Prior to the count, there is an 1 hour 'Red Carpet Coverage' where you see the players and their dates dressed up and I add my commentary of 'that's nice' or 'why did they wear that?'
Now I don't have very high expectations for the Red Carpet – simply show me as many players as possible with their dates so I can see who attended from each Club and make comments on which outfits I liked or didn't like.
Not rocket science nor a difficult task I would've thought.
But when Channel 7 continued to show 'behind the scenes' footage of players picking out their suits, talking to the same 10 or so of their 'favourite' players and replaying the same outfits we'd already seen; I became quite frustrated.
So after me yelling at the TV for an hour, we finally head into the ballroom for the Brownlow Medal Count, and I hope the previous complaints of the event going for so long have been addressed.
Alas, I was once again wrong.
Instead of just getting on with the count, we had numerous Channel 7 commentators continually interrupting it by interviewing players who were leading or in with a shot and asking them, 'How do you think you're going?'.
To which my response is Who cares because my only expectation as a viewer is:
Show me the votes for each round, and for bonus points, who's on every Club's table.
BTW: They didn't get the bonus points.
As a Channel 7 customer that night, they failed miserably in meeting what I believed to be reasonable, and not outlandish, expectations.
So now think about your small business.
Are you really meeting your customers' expectations or are you disappointing them by default?
Regardless of your answer, I encourage you to review the 3 ways Channel 7 once again disappointed its Brownlow night customers to see if there's a lesson for your small business.
3 Ways Channel 7 Disappointed Its Brownlow Medal Customers
1. Offering lip service to previous complaints
The coverage was very much what Channel 7 wanted to do and this wasn't changing, regardless of how many complaints were received by the station or it consumed talk back radio.
2. Didn't understand (or care) about their customer's (audience) minimum expectations
Only showed and chatted to a few players (usually the same ones each year) instead of as many players as possible, from all the Clubs – not just a select few.
They also added in lengthy extras like videos interviews with family and previous coaches to show how each of the Brownlow favourites became the elite player of today.
3. Disrespecting the process and players
As expected, it was a very tight count and Channel 7 not only promoted the six favourites at the beginning of the telecast, but kept coming back to them throughout the night, asking awkward questions like 'do you think you'll poll enough in the next two rounds to win?'.
Now put yourself in the player's shoes (aka your customers).
Do you really think they wanted to be put in these awkward and embarrassing situations?
Of course not. They are humble individuals who are team rather than 'I' focused, and they just want to be left alone to enjoy the night with their teammates and see if they are successful.
So what type of interactions do you have with your customers?
Purely transactional (like Channel's telecast ie give them something) or emotional and meaningful ones which actually show you understand their needs and expectations?
Do you know how many of your customer interactions are transactional versus meaningful?
If you've answered 'I don't know' or 'I'm not sure', then I'd encourage you (and Channel 7) to ditch the transactional interactions with your customers and move to more meaningful and emotional customer connections.
And here's my final thought:
You can actually move to more meaningful interactions really easily.
Simply keep putting yourself in the customer's shoes by asking:
• What do they really want?
• What are the 3 simple things needed to achieve this?
• What could go wrong and how do we fix it quickly (play the Devil's Advocate card)?
And finally, by always under promising and over delivering, you'll increase the number of raving customers rather than by default, creating even more disappointed ones, like myself and many others on Brownlow night.
If you're interested, click
here to check out the outfits.
P.S.
Join me on my FREE Webinar on Wednesday 23rd November where I'll share 7 Sporting Insights To Grow Your Small Business
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Cheers
Tamara
