Let customers do it themselves

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) have become such an integral part of everyday life that it's hard to imagine what it would be like without them. Of course, we can't always have ATMs around. Interestingly, while today's ATMs are indispensable, when they first appeared, the outlook was not good.

First of all, many people don't trust these machines or the computer accounting behind them, everyone has heard about those bizarre mistakes made on a friend's or neighbor's bank statement, and it's like a nightmare. Don't go. Also, if people can take over the counter service at a bank, who's going to use a machine? It doesn't make sense.

Later, ATMs began to appear in places other than banks. One of the purposes was to facilitate people to withdraw money in places without banks. In addition, there was another important reason: customers could conduct transactions by themselves, which means that, The popularity of ATMs represents the direction of things.

Nowadays, driven by the Internet, self-service awareness has become one of the most important factors in determining the success of a business. In short, customers expect to use their fingers - not yours or your employees' fingers - to hit the "enter" key for their transactions.

In fact, every website is a self-service operating platform. The basic business idea behind this is to attract users to join by providing self-service services to areas that have never been touched before. However, , the scope of self-service is far more than just network services.

The Three Keys to Self-Service Success

Just before you rush into some self-service in a variety of customer service areas, there are three crucial factors to keep in mind: reliability, user interface, and feedback channel.

Reliable. Still take ATM as an example. As you may already know, doubts about the reliability of the machines and the accuracy of transactions were one of the important factors limiting the acceptance of ATMs in the first few years of ATM operation. The reason is simple: customers avoid self-service systems they don't trust. For example, they don't want to be rejected for some trivial reason after entering an order. If they think the above situation is really going to happen, then they would rather go directly to your staff for help.

Of course it's the right thing to do, because it's about the convenience of your customers. If it involves customer money, the price is even higher. When dealing with any transaction with your customer's money, you must first convince the customer that your system will not fail. For example, a supermarket in the United States has a self-service checkout counter where customers can scan and settle their purchases by themselves, but some machines fail after four or five uses, so customers still line up at a regular checkout counter.

User-friendly interface. This refers to how customers communicate with your self-service system, and the user interface can be friendly and intuitive, or obscure and confusing. The ideal user interface should not have too many explanations and instructions, and the user can complete the operation with the least amount of time and effort.

People often take for granted that images simplify the user interface, which is not necessarily true. For example, many elevators use small pictures or icons to indicate "on" and "off." Every time you see those icons, before you figure it out, the elevator doors usually decide on their own what to do, in which case the text might be more intuitive than the icon.

Timely feedback channels. Feedback channels let users know if their actions were successful. Still using the standard elevator example, what would you think if you pressed the button to go to the seventh floor and there was no light on or next to the button? You don't know if the elevator was instructed because you didn't get feedback.

When customers use self-service systems, they need feedback to confirm that they are doing it correctly and that the system is accepting instructions.

From "you sell" to "they buy"

For customer service, sales and marketing, this means if you can enable customers to have a buying experience they control when they buy , then they are more likely to buy, more likely to buy more, and more likely to buy more often. The feeling is that it's not as if you're selling, but they're buying.

A typical example is a videotape based on management guru Tom Peters' famous book In Search of Excellence, which includes a scene at the famous Stew Leonard grocery store. In this particular scene, Stew Leonard Jr is giving an example of how the store is trying to offer self-service in addition to serving customers prepackaged goods. Leonard used the example of a customer who was filling a jar with strawberries. "She probably didn't realize she had taken about $12 or $13 of strawberries," he said.

Customers welcome self-service, and examples abound:

At New York's La Guardia Airport, passengers traveling on Delta Airlines flights to Boston or Washington, D.C. can buy tickets from the vending machines at the airport terminals. In the Target chain in the United States, each branch has many terminals, and customers can learn the price information by scanning the barcode on the product.

American Express allows its cardholders to self-manage the contents of their personal accounts with the touch of a tone-style telephone.

Kodak has kiosks in many photo labs where customers can enlarge, trim and reproduce their own photos.

Another obvious advantage of self-service is that it can gradually reduce your costs, because what used to be done by employees is now done by customers, and you can increase customer experience and customer satisfaction while increasing cut costs.

Principles of Dealing with Customers

How can you leverage the goodwill customers already have with your self-service business? Start by finding those sales segments that your salespeople or other employees aren't adding value to, or those that are impacting the job but can't be resolved. At the same time, services that irritate customers, operations that can be done by customers themselves but require the intervention of your staff, can also be replaced by self-service.

Before taking action, please carefully consider the following principles:

Disclose as much information as possible to customers. You can set up terminals in your store to let customers know what's in your warehouse. If you have more than one store, you can also let them see if out-of-stock items are available in another store, and let your customers check prices, search for specials, and get information on wholesale discounts online or through store networking Information.

Let customers know about their order or account. If a customer orders an item, there's no need for the customer to have to talk to your employee to find out what condition the item is in, for your customer to place an order without extra help, and for the customer to be able to check Own your own credit limit and apply for a larger one.

Let customers earn their rewards online. It's ludicrous for a major hotel chain to insist that its customers have to ask for written proof before they can receive the company's incentives for free nights for hotel regulars. If you offer your customers rewards like points, you should let them earn those rewards online.

Do not interfere with the client's paperwork. If your business needs to fill out relevant documents, don't let your employees meddle, but let customers enter their information directly into your system. Your customers will be happier, your employees will be freed up for more valuable activities, and the information in your systems will likely be more accurate.

Self-service is bound to greatly facilitate your customers. In the case of ATMs, the convenience of ATMs was not fully appreciated until the development of information infrastructure allowed setting up ATMs outside of banks. As you introduce self-service initiatives, remember that you already have an information infrastructure on hand, the Internet, which connects your business locations. What's more, the Internet connects your customers with you no matter where they are, even if the customer is on a business trip around the world, he can get in touch with you online and enjoy all the things you have to offer. Item self-service.

If you self-service your customers as much as possible, you can gain a huge competitive advantage in the marketplace. Self-service puts power in the hands of your counterparties, and that sense of power is a great way to attract them.

About the author: Original text excerpted with permission from the book Capturing Customers.com: Radical Strategies for Selling and Marketing in a Wired World by George Colombo, copyrighted 2001 by Career Press Inc (located in Franklin Lakes, NJ). Translated by Su Yong.

George Colombo is one of America's foremost sales and marketing professionals and author of the best-selling book Sales Force Automation. Colombo was recently named one of the ten most influential people in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) by Sales and Marketing Automation magazine.