Show notes
Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be continuing our discussion on the AI approach to multiply your sales. This is part two in our series, and today we'll be discussing service, referrals, and content marketing.
David: Welcome back, Jay.
Jay: Thank you so much, David. I'm really enjoying this discussion about AI because I think we've already established there are some great tools and resources with AI, but it's not exactly to the point where it needs to be.
But more specifically, can it really speak to your individual situation? How do you pick through that and know what's right for you?
David: Exactly, and last week we were talking about the first three recommendations it made, which were define your target audience, develop a compelling value proposition, and optimize your marketing channels.
This week, we're going to be talking about its next set of recommendations. And it starts with number four on its list is:
4. Enhance Your Customer Experience. Focus on delivering exceptional customer service and creating a positive experience at every touch point to build loyalty and encourage repeat business.
That sounds nice.
Jay: It sounds fantastic. Again, just do that. You know, but how do you do that? I think I mentioned in the last podcast that so often people go into business not because they're great at customer service, but because they have a great recipe, or they have a great product. And they don't really think about how to offer that in a great way.
I'm in the accounting field now, which kind of blows my mind and is a different conversation. But I find generally, David, that accountants don't know how to give good customer service. And they kind of feel like they have a captured audience and so they don't even try to give good customer service.
David: And a lot of accountants also really struggle with marketing because they feel like it's
Jay: Yes, yes.
David: Kind of, if not beneath them, they feel uncomfortable with it. They don't want to come across as a salesperson. They're very good at what they do and they're less good at finding the people they need to do that sort of thing.
And that's why a lot of them, a lot of small business accountants struggle, because they're great at accounting and not so great at the things that we're talking about here that will actually allow them to service more customers.
Jay: Yeah, you're exactly right. Where I've come from, the retail side, the customer service side, that's been my whole background.
So, we're kind of owning our little space in the marketplace, because we're focusing on that up front, and people recognize a difference immediately.
David: Yeah, exactly. So, one of the things we talked about in the previous podcast related to AI telling us how to multiply sales is that some of these recommendations come across as rather general. Okay, so enhance your customer experience is not really the kind of thing you would think of as "okay, this will allow me to multiply sales."
It's a necessity. You have to have exceptional customer service in your business if you want to survive, let alone thrive, let alone multiply business. But it doesn't seem to me to be a multiplier in and of itself.
However, when we think about this idea, what can we do to make the experience better, what can we do to expedite the experience, make these things happen better and more consistently, that will allow us to get the velocity we need, in my opinion, to be able to then Multiply your sales.
In other words, it's not enough to just do a great job with customer service. We need to be able to do it with a cadence of accountability.
We need to be able to do it in a way where it's happening consistently. People are able to move through our process, get what they need, feel like they've been extremely well taken care of, and then we can move on to the next person.
Jay: Yeah, when I hear enhance their customer experience, for some reason, I think of Disneyland, like better rides or better signage or, you know, things like that. It's very ethereal, like, how do I apply that to my individual experience?
I think a key here is that our attention span with TikTok and all of these things is so low. And so when somebody lands on your website or when they've picked up a phone to call you, if they're not moving through that process fast enough, you're going to lose them.
And that's just the reality of the world that we live in.
David: Absolutely. And I think this general idea of enhancing your customer experience is good. And again, some of the words they use are delivering exceptional customer service and creating a positive experience at every touch point to build loyalty and encourage repeat business.
So those are all great recommendations. But again, the question is, how are we doing those things? And in our work with our clients, the way that we do those things is through procedures and processes.
Jay: Yes.
David: And the next time method of delegation is one of the things that we use inside our program to say, okay, how can we make sure that things are being done the way that we as a business owner want them done and that our people can feel good about because they know they've got a system or a process in place to be able to achieve the result that they're looking for.
Jay: Yeah.
David: So I think that's what's missing there.
Jay: Yeah, this is so important. We've spent the last six months in our business just identifying this process. What happens when they land on the website? What happens with our CRM if they've scheduled a consultation? What happens once they've had a consultation?
What happens down to, it's funny to me, down to the forms that we send them. If those forms don't look professional, if they look haphazard, then people will be turned off by them. And that's such a simple thing when you think about it.
Just get them done right so that every step of the way you look professional, that builds confidence in your product, and that's the face of our business. That's the storefront now. And, it has to be pristine, in my opinion.
David: No question. And I think, you know, the idea of customer service is something that we could dedicate multiple podcasts to, but that was recommendation number four from AI.
Recommendation number:
5. Implement a referral program. Encourage satisfied customers to refer your business to others by offering incentives or rewards for successful referrals.
What do you Think?
Jay: This one's hard for me. I'm not very good at tooting my own horn. Some people really are and it's always been hard for me to say, Hey, if you liked us refer us to other people.
I don't know why that's hard for me. And I know that when I have good customer service, I'm very quick to recommend other people.
So oftentimes it's not even saying it, it's just providing that extra level of customer service so that we naturally will do that. I think we want to do that.
David: We all do. And whenever I talk to business owners, everybody knows the importance of referrals. Most people that I talk to know they should be doing it more. They should be asking more often than they're already asking.
And one of the primary reasons they don't goes back to what we were just talking about. They don't have a process for it. They don't have a system or procedure for it.
Earlier today, I was talking with one of my consulting clients and he was working on reactivating some old clients and we put together a process for him, just a week ago, that he was able to get out in front of people and the response that he got was amazing.
There were eight people in particular that he had great relationships with previously that he hadn't heard from in a while. He initiated contact using the procedure we outlined. All eight of them responded to him within the first week.
Jay: Wow.
David: He's back in conversation with them. Doesn't mean they're all going to become customers again, but he's got eight out of eight.
And that happens when you've got the processes and procedures in place that allow you to just deploy it. Right?
Too often, if we want to get referrals, we're going to spend way too much time thinking about it, worrying about it, gnashing our teeth and saying, I really need to do this. Whereas, if you've got something that you could just send out via email this afternoon, You'll know what results you're starting to have by tomorrow.
So once again, the recommendations that we're getting from AI are great. The devil is in the details. It's about, okay, how are we going to do it?
And once again, one of the things that we do with our clients is we get the things in place, the sort of triggers, the switches that they can throw the switch, make this happen, report back on your results.
If it's working great, awesome. If it's not, we'll tweak it and we'll flip a different switch. And we'll keep things moving forward.
Jay: Well, I love that you use the word switch, because in today's world of technology, it can be as simple as flipping that switch. But are you sending out quality? Are you sending out things that we've already talked about?
Targeting your customers? Identifying their needs and their concerns? Because, you know, in my CRM system, I can set up a drip program, right away. But like you said, the devil's in the details. Is it going to be something that is beneficial to me or am I just going through the motions because AI told me to do it?
David: Right. And a lot of that goes back to the idea of creating value in your communications, which we talked about. That was number two, essentially. In what AI came up with and what we expanded on it to mean, AI was talking about developing a compelling value proposition. I was broadening it to include communication.
How are we communicating with our clients?