This post marks the 1st of many where we will break down this question into actionable customer success scenarios and takeaways that even Dale Carnegie would approve of.
If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive. Wise words spoken by a wise man.
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by the master, Dale Carnegie, has been a legend since its original publication in 1937. It has been quoted innumerable times and been translated into nearly every spoken language across the world.
Many have heeded his wisdom and have succeeded in their lives from being life long practitioners of his adroit interpersonal techniques. As for myself, I read it for the first time earlier this year and now consider it the #1 book a person must read if they ever intend on interacting with anyone at any point in their lives.
We know that the techniques laid out in his book apply to any human interaction but what can we specifically learn from him about customer success strategies in order to create customer champions who are advocates for our companies?
Creating Customer Champions: 3 First Steps Approved by Dale Carnegie and Backed by Data
1. Don’t Criticize, Condemn, or Complain
Mr. Carnegie begins his first chapter by explaining how some of the worst criminals in U.S. history never saw their actions in a negative light. They mostly thought they were pursuing a just and noble cause where society would see a criminal at work. These criminals did not blame themselves for their actions nor do the customers or colleagues that you come in contact with on a daily basis. No matter how heated or upset a customer or colleague might be, it is fruitful to never criticize, condemn, or complain about their actions to anyone.
Whether just ending a conference call and forgetting to end the call properly or thinking you’re far enough away from a person that they wouldn’t be able to hear your remarks, no situation with a customer ever should call for your condemnation of their actions. It may come as a shock but roughly 78% of customers who stopped doing business with a company did so because of rude staff. And at the foundation of negativity, our subconcious brains can’t process negative words. Think about a common occurrence between a parent and a child. The parent distinctly tells the child “Don’t touch that.” or “Don’t run.” What do you think one of the next things the child does? I know after my mother told me not to do something, it really made me only want to do it even more.
Providing a customer with a positive alternative. Ultimately something that your product provides that will make their lives easier will help drive the following point below home and hopefully give your customer the opportunity to trust in what you are saying. Most importantly, make an effort to hold back any negative comment that might come to mind about a troubling customer no matter the setting and avoid ever having to worry about someone overhearing.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
Want to know the big secret to dealing with people?
There is only one way under high heaven to get anybody to do anything…And that is by making the other person want to do it.
Dale’s research notes that the deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important and finding out what makes a person feel important is the key to dealing with people.
Having the direct line to your customers empowers you to shower them with appreciation for purchasing your product or service. At every possible instance make their experience as personalized as possible to make them feel important and appreciated as a customer of your company.
The simplest way to apply this technique is by using your customer’s name. Science has proven that this actually ignites unique brain functions compared to hearing other people’s names. For example, if you are using Twitter as a part of your customer success strategy, when a customer tweets at you don’t just use their username also, recognize that you are talking to them.
Taking charge of your customer’s brain pays off! Happy customers are repeat customers and a 10% increase in customer retention levels results in a 30% increase in the value of the company.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
He Who Can Do This Has The Whole World With Him. He Who Cannot Walks A Lonely Way.
Dale notes a story about Ralph Waldo Emerson who with the help of his son attempted to get a calf into their barn. They pushed and pulled the calf to no avail; they were only thinking of what they wanted, not what the calf wanted. Luckily, their housemaid saw the predicament and lent a very helpful hand. With her maternal instincts, she put her finger in the calves mouth and let it suck on it as she lead it successfully into the barn with minimal effort.
An easy way to apply this technique with customer correspondence is the use of verbs. Verbs are persuasive because they ignite instant thoughts of specific action that are harder to ignore than adjectives. Use this method when dealing with customers to drive their desire to continue working with your company.
Have you read How to Win Friends and Influence People? What are some of your best strategies behind customer success? How else could you apply these examples when dealing with customers? Give me a shout on Twitter (@TrevorMills13) or Maven always loves to hear from you too (@TrackMaven).