Customer Focus in Good Times and Bad

Desert Morning originally uploaded by Mr. Geoff.
Carrol Lasswell, our Wear-Dated Representative in Phoenix, AZ - whom you may remember from Mining March Madness - shares the following wisdom from one of her flooring dealers.

Now, you'd have to be hiding under a rock to be oblivious to how tough things are out there. Between rising gasoline prices, spiraling healthcare costs, the drop in housing and housing-related activities, escalating global tensions - to name a few - we all have a lot on our plates. Despite all that is negative, here's a tale of someone who is focusing passionately on the customer:

I wanted to share a statement with you that one of my dealers made.

This dealer - as are most flooring retailers - is down significantly compared to last year. However, no one has been let go [the usual response to bad times]. And the attitude in-store remains upbeat despite the slowdown in business.

I commented on this and the owner told me: "When times challenge you, the best thing to do is focus on all of the challenges you bring to the business and to the customer."

At first, this made very little sense to me. He could tell I didn't get it.

So he explained further: "We sell fashion and comfort. We often try to sell passion, but passion is developed, not sold. "

"We give the customer choice after choice and expect her to easily make decisions in a business that most will never understand. We need to help her."

"We provide her with delays and must dos that are for our benefit rather than hers. We need to limit these."

"Keeping the business simple and providing true customer service will get us through the hard times. That means supporting our experts, keeping our staff, selling the right products and providing exceptional service to the folks who are in the market. It means that we continue to advertise, meet customer expectations, adapt to the times and treasure every footstep that comes through our doors, keeping ourselves in a position to excel. If we do our job right, then times - good or bad - will manage themselves."

Now at the end of the day what I walked away with from this dealer is:

+ We need to keep ourselves ready to be the best we can be - regardless of the market environment. Positive attitude and approach will carry us through.

+ Good times and tough times require the same customer focus, but not necessarily the same approach.

I think each person takes away something different from this advice. I walked out of this store feeling that I had been given not only insight into a owner's passion for the customer and the business, but also a chance to review my own.

Thank you, Carrol, for sharing this wisdom.

How do you express your passion and customer focus regardless of whether it's good times or bad?

Technorati Tags: retail experience, customer experience, carpet/flooring, Wear-Dated