Hi there, Julie Cross here, how ya doin’? I had a service experience this morning that I wanted to share with you so that we could perhaps all learn from it.
So, I was at the airport, Brisbane Airport, traveling, I mean I’m Makai here today for my show this evening and I saw that the makeup shop was open and I wanted a new lipstick so I walked in, wandered around and I was quite certain that I had bought a lipstick at this shop a few months ago and I really liked the lipstick, I really liked the texture of it so I wanted the same in a different color.
So I walked in and wandered around and the shop assistant did come and greet me and she said that usual standard greeting, which is can I help you? And we all have a standard as consumers and customers, we all have a standard reply, don’t we? Already in our heads, no, I’m just looking.
So there’s number one lesson. Let’s approach it with something different, so we elicit a different response. Because we’re so used to being asked that and we’re so used to having out defense up that we go no, I’m just looking, when in fact I really do want some help, but I just say no I’m just looking because that’s what I’ve been trying to say because I don’t even know how they got in my head, but there, that’s what I just said.
I just say I’m just looking all the time. When in fact I really wanted some help. And so, I said that so she left me alone, as she would. And I started wandering around the shop and I couldn’t… And they had many different brands of makeup and I was, sort of, wandering around and, sort of, looking for the brand that I had and I winded up looking at other things, so I couldn’t find it. I fished out the lipstick from my briefcase and then I go back and find the three girls working there all chatting around the front counter.
So I say, excuse me, and I’m not gonna name who it was. It doesn’t matter, I’d rather praise and promote rather than name and shame. And so I walked up and I just interrupted and said excuse me, I’m just wondering, do you have this brand of lipstick here? And she said oh no, that’s a so-and-so and I said oh, well I noticed you’ve got lots of different brands, so does that mean you don’t have it here. And she said oh no we don’t, she said maybe at a Sydney airport in our store, there we might have it, but we don’t have it here.
And I said oh I was so sure I bought it here. She said oh no we don’t have it here, but yeah, possibly at Sydney airport. And, you know, I said I’m not going to Sydney airport. She said oh no, well we don’t have it here. And that’s that. Do you see the problem here, though? Do you see the problem here? And this is relative to whether you’re a hairdressing salon, a beauty salon, any kind of organizations.
If you’ve got something that could fill the need, then you’ve go to offer it up. Because even though I want that brand, because that’s what I liked or that’s what I heard about on TV, or that’s what I was educated on from a billboard or a magazine advertisement. It means that I need something, I still need something, you know already I’ve come to buy something. So you’re not taking me to the next level. You’re not going deeper with me. You’re not engaging me fully and giving me the best of yourself.
Because the next question to say, or the next thing to say would be what is it do you like about that lipstick in particular? What is it you love about that brand? And I might say something like it’s the texture and the ways it stays on my lips. I really like the depth of it, I love that it’s not shiny, it’s matte, whatever. She would then say, excellent. Now she’s got about seven different brands, I’m sure she has one that probably fits in that same, I mean how different are lipsticks, that same area.
That she would then say, okay, even though we don’t have that brand, I have got one that I think you’ll love that does all of those things you’ve just mentioned, come on over and I’ll show you the range of colors that they’ve got in their brand and let me try it for you and see what you think of it. Do you see the difference? And the thing is, I would’ve bought a lipstick if she had done that. I might’ve bought two.
Because, chances are, if I’m at the airport and I’m going somewhere I probably need a lipstick for a reason. And so, you’ve gotta go the extra mile. You’ve gotta go a little bit deeper with people. You’ve gotta see the bigger vision of what you do. And we’ve gotta train our staff to do that. I’m not saying it’s their fault. They haven’t been inspired into the next vision. They weren’t trained somewhere along the line to go, this is what you do when you have that objection or you have somebody say that, this is how you add more of you into that, this is the next question you ask.
We can’t assume everybody knows how to do that. And so, we need to own that. And then, for you, if you’re in that service industry and you’re one of those employees, see that bigger vision of what you do. Know that you’re just not there to hand over something and take the money. You’re there because you’re a professional and you know about your lipsticks and I don’t.
So I’m waiting to be educated by the professional. Cause, you know, to be a professional is to be able to profession and then to share your knowledge of that with me as a customer. And that inspires me to the want to buy from you. And you will be rewarded for that. You’ll be rewarded for that in sales and I hope that you’re on some sort of commission or something, so that you get rewarded for that extra, that extra depth that you go to.
So, you know, you get paid and work for the hours that you put into your work, but the universe and life will reward you for the passion and the enthusiasm and the heart and the soul and the extra bit of you that you add into the interaction. So let’s go a little bit deeper. Let’s go a little bit deeper with all our customers and their clients, to serve them and to fulfill their needs.
And we’ve all got the ability to do that, so often where we don’t just ask that next question and go that little bit deeper. So let’s find ways that we can do that today, and then we’ll enjoy the rewards. And I get some new lippie.
See ya, have fun. See ya soon.