Recently, the ABN kicked off the Booked for Lunch Webinar series with bestselling author Seth Godin and his new book – Linchpin. In this book Seth outlines that linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organisations: they invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. More importantly, a linchpin loves their work and pour their best selves into it – they turn their work into art! During the webinar, I spied a book on my shelf – ‘Hug Your Customers’ by Jack Mitchell. This is an excellent book that outlines the customer service that Mitchell/Richards use for developing long-lasting and loyal customer relationships. Mitchell/Richards own exclusive menswear stores in Connecticut and achieve the world-best margins in retail and have had a customer retention rate of 99.12% for the past 32 years. Their service philosophy is simple and is based on ‘hugs’ – personal touches that impress and satisfy the customer. Some of the personal touches used are:
- Remembering the name of your customer’s dog
- Calling a customer to make sure he’s satisfied after a purchase
- Having a “kids’ corner” with TV, books, and treats
- Knowing your customers golf handicap
- Introducing customers to business contacts
- Letting your customer use your office to make a personal phone call
Look closely at the Mitchell/Richards philosophy and you will see a great example of Linchpins – connecting with others, doing things differently and adding value to their customers
Any business can adapt this hugging philosophy to attract great staff, lower marketing costs, and maintain higher gross margins and long-term revenues.
Let me share with you a little story that highlights just how rare linchpins and customer hugs really are. Like most of you, I shop, buy and subscribe from a range of businesses all of whom collect personal data – date of birth is captured by just about everyone. A fortnight ago was my milestone birthday. How many of the 45 that have my details sent through birthday wishes? 3 – that’s it just 3. They were: Bigpond Movies, Rolling Stones and Mitchell/Richards (who I haven’t brought anything from since 2002). Was it hard for these businesses to do it? NO. Their CRM tools have the data. So they’ve linked up an auto-email based on date to auto send. Every business can do this. Does it carry PR value? YES – you’re reading about it. Did it hurt the other companies? Not right now but I do look at them slightly more ‘oh-hum’ and they do not have my loyalty. Did I feel ‘special’ because of these emails? I sure did. The emails from the last two companies were so personally written it felt as if they were specially written for me. Major brownie points. Any business can adapt this hugging philosophy to attract great staff, lower marketing costs, and maintain higher gross margins and long-term revenues. At a time when customer service is the difference between success and failure, it is worth every business owner stopping and thinking about how or what in your business can you change to bring about the art, make a connection and give your customers a hug!
