The Fourteen Points make a Successfully Business Today

Ever wonder why some products are listed for $199 or $299 instead of just $200 or $300? Does the extra dollar really make a difference? Turns out it does.

That’s the result of a study electronically published in 2019 by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. And its findings may change the way you price your products — and do business — forever.

The research used millions of online bargaining interactions, mostly from eBay, where one of the researchers works. The data compiled showed that items listed using even numbers — multiples of $100 — ultimately received offers that were 8-12% lower than similar items listed using odd numbers and created more back and forth negotiations.

The same explanation can be extrapolated to other businesses where there’s an offering price such as real estate, auto sales, consulting services and other similar marketplaces that require negotiation. When sellers offer a price that’s in round numbers, like $200, the counteroffer tends to come in less than when the original offer is more precise, like $199.

Why?

“What is going on here is ‘cheap talk’,” writes Joshua Gans in The Conversation. “That is, an easy-to-make statement that may be true or untrue with no consequences for dishonesty, and not an otherwise reliable signal. There are some sellers who don’t just care about price and, absent any other way of signaling that to buyers, they set their price at a round number.”

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• Signal said on Saturday that it had restored service following an outage that began Friday morning.
• The app began experiencing technical difficulties as its new users skyrocketed after competing service WhatsApp announced controversial new changes to its privacy policy.
• Signal said some users may notice errors in their chats, but that those issues would be resolved in an upcoming update. 

Encrypted messaging app Signal said it was back up and running on Saturday following an outage that left its users without the service for more than a day. 

In a Saturday evening tweet, the company announced it was “back” and thanked the “millions of new Signal users around the world for [their] patience.”

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A huge $1.6 trillion is lost every year due to poor customer service! This statistic is alarming, not just because of its massive scale, but also because it’s entirely avoidable. Poor customer service has many roots, but at its most basic, it comes down to failing to understand your customers and their needs. Are there some problem customers who will always be unhappy? Sure, there certainly are. However, these people make up a tiny minority of your customers.

Most of your customers are reasonable people who just want a good experience from your company. After all, you already did the hard part – you got them through the door and to the checkout. Now you just have to keep them happy! Easy, right? Ok, we know it’s more difficult than that, but we’re going to tell you exactly how to avoid losing money to poor customer service.

Customer Service Statistics You Must Know in 2020

Before we delve into how to offer excellent customer service, here are some customer statistics you should know. The purpose of highlighting these statistics is to remind ourselves why customer service is so important. Sometimes when we’re stuck in the day to day running of the business, we can forget to look at the bigger picture and remember to stay focused on the “why”. The consequences of poor customer service can be severe.

• 90% of Americans consider customer service when deciding whether to buy from a company.
• Acquiring new customers is between 5 and 25 times more expensive than retaining existing customers.
• Almost 50% of Americans switched companies last year due to poor customer service.
• Customers will spend 17% more on a company with excellent customer service.
• Almost 80% of customers would recommend your company to their friends after a positive customer experience.
• It takes 12 positive reviews to make up for 1 negative review!

How to Offer Great Customer Service

1.  Nail First Contact

First impressions are extremely powerful. Getting your first contact off to a good start can determine how the rest of the conversation goes. You need to make a good first impression to develop a good relationship with the customer. Here’s how agents can create a great first impression on the phone or messaging service.

• Watch your tone: Without body language, you have to try harder to convey your tone. You want to appear friendly, approachable, and confident. Over the phone, be pleasant and polite, rather than excited (this may seem fake). Over a messaging service, use a smiley face emoji in your opening message.
• Thank the customer for calling.
• Tell the customer your name because it helps build that relationship. It also shows that you are accountable and dependable.
• Ask how you can help.

2.  Actively Listen to Your Customers

Active listening is when you concentrate on, understand, respond, and remember what the customer is saying throughout the whole conversation. Active listening builds trust and rapport with customers. Agents will also be better equipped at solving problems if they fully understand the customer’s perspective. Here’s how you demonstrate active listening in customer service:

• Give regular verbal feedback to the customer. If the customer is explaining their problem, show them you’re listening by saying “I see”, “go on”, “what happens next”, “That must be frustrating”.
• Don’t interrupt. Let the customer explain their issue without interrupting them.
• Repeat the customer’s problem back to them. This shows that you were paying attention and will also ensure that you’re both on the same page.
• Ask relevant clarifying questions at appropriate times. Don’t try to rush the customer onto the next part where you find the answers you need to solve the problem. Ask questions when it seems natural.
• Summarise their problem and suggest a solution.

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As an executive coach, I work with many successful leaders who want to become even more effective. Recently, I asked a client of mine what kind of feedback she was receiving to help her be a better leader. She said, “My last performance review was really positive. My boss told me I’m doing a great job and I should just continue to do what I’m doing.”

That felt nice to hear, I’m sure. But it is also completely unhelpful to her growth and development.

According to research on effective learning, to improve performance, people need three things:

• A clear goal
• A genuine desire to achieve that goal
• Feedback that indicates what they are doing well and what they are not doing well

Unfortunately, the feedback many leaders receive is not helpful. It’s often infrequent, vague, or unrelated to specific behaviors — and as a result, leaders tend to be less proactive about getting more of it. Low-quality feedback is not useful, positive feedback is undervalued, and negative feedback delivered unskillfully can actually cause physical pain.

Without clear performance targets and data measuring how close or far they are from reaching them, leaders will continue to find it difficult to grow and improve. When delivered thoughtfully, however, feedback can provide leaders with the actionable data they need to become more effective.

If you want to get the feedback that is necessary to improve your leadership, there are a few steps you can take.

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