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High-Touch Equals Higher Profits

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High-Touch Equals Higher Profits

By Walter Rogers
President and CEO
Baker Communication

Once upon a time, doing business was all about the sales rep controlling the quality and flow of the content provided to customers in order to provide a value proposition that would catch the customer‘s attention and drive the deal, but not anymore. With the Internet and social networking communities providing customers relevant information and a high degree of control over how they interact with others, customers are focusing less on pure content and more on the quality and "feel" of the interactions they have with you and your company.

The reality is that, for most customers, experience trumps content today, especially since content is essentially the same from vendor to vendor in most industries. When content and products are equal, the customer will always look for differentiators to determine who will receive their business, and tops on their list is a high-touch relationship that puts their needs and expectations front and center. If you are still primarily relying on your content or product quality to grow your business, be prepared to be left behind in 2011. As good as your content may be, your ability to create great customer experiences will make the real difference going forward.

With that in mind, here are five differentiators that will help you deliver that high-touch experience your customers are expecting:

1. Be more accessible – The Internet, along with the recent explosion of mobile computing, has drastically altered the way customers expect to interact with you. Sophisticated customers expect to be able to connect with your company any time, any place, for any reason, and be able to access important information and receive key services – all on their schedule, not yours. They expect you to be fully functional in all forms of social networking and they expect your website to be able to facilitate almost any kind of transaction that used to take place only face-to-face.

2. Be more responsive – Because of the latent sense of immediacy this technology contains, customers also expect you and your team to take their contacts seriously and get back to them quickly. There is a difference between accessible and responsive; and customers will notice right away if you are slow to get back to them, or if your response doesn‘t indicate that you have a clear understanding of their needs and goals. Customers expect you to do your homework and know a lot about them before you even speak with them. After all, they have done a lot of research on you and your competitors and the market in general; if your responses to them don‘t reflect that same level of due diligence on your part, you will have a very hard time winning their business. This principle holds true throughout the life of the relationship; get back to the customer quickly and provide services and solutions that demonstrate that you have been paying attention, if you want to keep the business.

3. Be more consultative – Customers may not always tell you that they want you to be more consultative, but they will definitely respond more positively when you are. Customers don‘t want to be "sold" by sales reps pushing products, even if the product or solution is the best of breed. They want to work through the process with a feeling that they are in control and calling the shots. They want evidence that you are listening to them and trying to understand them. They want to hear your insights and options, but when it is time to make the final decision, they want to feel like they made an informed decision that was in their best interests, based on assistance you provided.

The consultative approach leverages four important human needs that have been too often overlooked in business relationships:

  • The Need to be Understood
    Those who select your service need to feel they are communicating effectively. This means the messages they send should be interpreted correctly. Emotions or language barriers can get in the way of proper understanding.
     
  • The Need to Feel Welcome
    Anyone doing business with you who is made to feel unwanted will not return. People need to feel you are happy to see them and that their business is important to you.
     
  • The Need to Feel Important
    Ego and self-esteem are powerful human needs. We all like to feel important. Anything you can do to make a guest feel special is a step in the right direction.
     
  • The Need to Feel Comfortable
    Customers need physical comfort; places to wait, rest, talk, or do business. However, above all, they also need psychological comfort; the assurance they will be taken care of properly, and the confidence you will meet their needs.
     

The consultative approach addresses all these human needs, and lays a powerful foundation for a high-touch relationship.

4. Be more collaborative and creative – These two differentiators go hand and glove in the high-touch process. Customers are no longer attracted to off-the shelf solutions, assuming that they ever were. Henry Ford‘s mantra, "the customer can have any color he wants as long as it is black," will simply not drive any business your way today. The customer doesn‘t want you to hand him a solution, he wants you to work with him to create a solution that precisely addresses his needs and helps him meet his goals. It may be true that the solution you ultimate agree upon happens to closely resemble something that is your most popular standard offering, but that isn‘t the point. What is important is that the customer has a sense that you are listening first and recommending second. He wants a partner, not a product pusher. However, the new normal these days is to be willing to get out of the box and explore ways to create new solutions – or at least modify existing ones – in order to help the customer achieve the outcomes he desires.

5. Be more personal – Above all, going forward customers want real relationships instead of bland transactions. For years, Starbucks Coffee has used high-touch methods to build and maintain a loyal customer base. In his book, "Pour Your Heart in It," Starbuck‘s Howard Schultz, says, "If we greet customers, exchange a few words with them and then custom-make a drink exactly to their taste, they will be eager to come back." What sells coffee can work to sell anything. There is simply no substitute for the human element in the business relationship. The high-tech component of doing business these days can easily strip away the personal touch, unless you guard against it. The good news is that the culture and features of social media make it possible to create digital relationships that have a more personal feel. This doesn‘t mean that face-to-face interaction is no longer needed (as most certainly it is at times), but social media has added a relational dimension to what is essentially a high-tech process, and created a space where high-touch and high-tech meld together to nurture relationships that drive business more efficiently and profitably than ever.

Perhaps the high-touch vision is best summed up in the theme song from Cheers; today, in business, just as in the rest of life, customers are looking for a place "where everybody knows your name." Customers will pay extra for this kind of business relationship, and it actually costs you very little to go the extra mile to provide it. That is why high-touch will ultimately deliver high-profits.

Action Items

  • Assess the culture of your organization and identify areas where you can provide higher levels of accessibility for your customers. How many types of interaction have you provided for them to reach you?
     
  • Review your level of responsiveness to your customers. How quickly are leads followed up? Does your team possess the skills to uncover and clarify customer needs and address them in ways that meet customer expectations?
     
  • Does your team understand the four critical human needs your customers have, and do they know how to adjust their interactions with customers in order to meet those needs?


     

Walter Rogers is the President and CEO of Baker Communications. Baker Communications is a sales training and development company specializing in helping client companies increase their sales and management effectiveness. He can be reached at 713-627-7700.

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