Up Selling Gone Awry- Good Customer Service Also Means Not Annoying Your Customers
I am just so tired of being sold to all day. I no longer go into a store expecting to “buy” something… I am “sold to” . I was just reading a post by Melanie Drake- a motivational speaker reflecting on a recent experience where the employee was punished for providing exceptional customer service.
It really does seem like good service is in fact punished by employers- perhaps out for fear that the customer may expect a positive experience every time (god forbid). As we head into a big box world room for thinking outside of said box is shrinking if not gone. The cost of consistent service has been to aim for consistently BAD service, keeping the bar low and wrinign existing customers dry.
Up selling Epidemic
One trend that is becoming apparent is lack of regard for a customers time and their over all buying experience while shopping.It began with “Do you want fries with that? ” and has exploded into billion dollar up sell nationwide.
Daily phone calls from my bank asking me about life insurance or a new credit card. Letters telling me I NEED travel insurance. I call my phone comapny wth a tech support question and they try and sell me call waiting package. I cash a cheque IN the bank and get a sales pitch on a better (albeit more expensive) chequing account. I change my oil and I see a sign ” if we don’t offer you tire rotation- its free!”.. picking up my digital pictures from Christmas today – “If we don’t suggest a Photo CD it’s free!” .
The following scenario happened to be last week. Not one word is exaggerated. I went to my local supermarket… outside were air cadets selling apples for a fundraiser. I stopped to get some change from bottom of my purse. When I paid I was asked by cashier to buy a paper leaf for a dollar- and contribute to some charity. ( Actually- the question was ” Did you want to help needy children”? Umm. gulp… well .. no I don’t.)
Next stop- to Zellers- sort of like a Wal-Mart. I got in the door and was immediately accosted and someone tried to sell me daily newspaper delivery. I managed to elbow my way through…. to the next section where i was again grabbed- to open up a charge card account… At this point I was officially aggravated. I grabbed a couple of things and was thinking about how annoyed I was and felt trapped.. was almost comical and I did smile a bit. More of smirk really.
Went to Chapters (think Border or Barnes and Noble) and bought a couple of books for my kids.. I was strapped for time and just wanted to get home . I felt pummeled by the retail experience and once again was grateful for online shopping . I used to LOVE to malls and shop. Now I avoid it. I lined up to pay for books and waited … About a zillion little baskets of filled with impulse sale items. When I finally got to cash- I had to listen to a minutes long sales pitch on why I needed a “Chapter’s Member” card at the low low price of 24.95. I was sort of rude to clerk.. then she looked embarrassed and I apologized. She said sorry and confessed that they had to ask every customer about the program and most people were annoyed. If you know it annoys people why do it??? This is pretty basic stuff. Buyer has warm fuzzy feeling at your store and they want to come back. Cold prickly feelings are bad and they won’t return- or buy as much.
Why do they do it? It must work. Reminds me of the sleazy guy in a bar who hits on every girl because for every 50 no’s he gets he gets one yes.. The yes’s keep him coming back.
At what cost? You alienating those 49 people whop say now. You make them numb to the process.
I go to locally owned craft store- not a Giant Micheal’s nearby. The prices can be more but most times they are not . The store has been there 30 years. Some of the staff have been there 20 years. There is no turnover. They know my name- my kids’ names and my husband’s name! They have an open house at Christmas and give free classes and lunch. They give my kids stickers and candy at the cash. No one hassles me. They offer free tea and coffee and soothing music play in the background. Customers come in to CHAT. I go there often. At least once a week because I like to so much. I spend A LOT of money there. I don;t avoid that satire- i look forward to it!
You can apply this to your blog as well. Do you have flashing banner ads? Skyscraper Adsense Ads? Amazon widget in your sidebar and Context Links popping up everywhere? Do You have to log in to comment on a blog? Are you annoying your customers/reader?
There is line you may cross- making money and profiting at the expense of your blog visitors user experience. Think outside the box- or give reasons for your customer to come back- don’t up sell/convert/call to action them to death. Don’t make them jump through hoops to buy something from you or get information from you.
I once read a report that said it costs a business 10 times more money to get a new new customer than it does to keep one they all ready have.
Keep existing customers (or blog readers) by making their experience consistently positive. Build a relationship with new ones by doing the same thing.
