NOW is the time to…ELIMINATE ANXIETY

ANXIETY...something NO customer wants

Did you know that the majority of “Customer Anxiety and Stress” is actually created by the way we conduct business? Did you know that employee anxiety goes up significantly when your customers are anxious or stressed out? Did you know customer anxiety can be avoided or eliminated before it even happens?

Unfortunately, we create the majority of anxiety for our customers. I know, this sounds like we don’t care about our customers and we make their life stressful. We do. I know you care about your customers…but you may not be doing enough to lower their stress or anxiety. Anxiety, by definition, is created due to the “unknown” or the “uncertainty” of something. For example, if you are going to a new place to eat, you are both excited and anxious. Excited because it is a new place and you have probably heard good things about it. But I would also argue that you have some anxiety as well because you don’t know exactly what is going to happen…there is an element of the unknown.

And let’s say you are taking someone you really want to impress…your anxiety goes up even further. When you add in a layer of importance to the situation (risk) your anxiety increases. If this is a first date or a major client, your anxiety is higher than normal because the risk has increased. When there is more at stake, the risk has increased so the anxiety naturally increases.

For example, what if you were dealing with a company who had to get you a particular part. A part that you needed for one of your own customers…a whale (a large customer). If you don’t get the part on time or it is wrong, this could cost you your customer. This is high risk…this creates a high degree of anxiety for you. The unknown and uncertainty just went up significantly. By instinct, we want to lower our anxiety and our risk.

In the example above, the only true way to alleviate the massive amount of stress and anxiety for the customer is to take away the unknowns and create more certainty. When you examine the situation and understand where these uncertainties are being created, you can focus on eliminating them and giving the customer more peace of mind. Sounds easy…it isn’t. It isn’t because most of the time it isn’t something you focus on. But when you change your focus, it becomes a “way of life” (your culture) and much easier to eliminate so you can create more peace of mind.

Often times, the anxiety we create for our customers can be hard to identify. Employees do what they know and think is best when dealing with the customer. Unfortunately, they usually execute their activities based on the processes they are told to follow. If these processes increase customer anxiety or stress, the employees will usually opt to follow the processes rather than focus on eliminating customer anxiety since it is how they are evaluated.

What your employees ask first is what they focus on. If they ask how something is going to impact their job or impact revenue (or profitability) or operations, this is what they are focused on. If they don’t ask how something is going to impact the customer BEFORE asking anything else, their solution usually won’t be focused on alleviating customer anxiety or lowering the customers stress. But if the employee starts every interaction by asking themselves how this is going to impact their customer, they usually find a more customer centric solution. They find ways to ensure the customer has less (or no) anxiety.

Back to the example of the big customer who needed the critical part. In a Customer Obsessed company, the employee would do some exploring to find out how this part was going to impact the customer. The customer would tell them how important it is to get it on time and how they have a lot riding on getting this part. Once the employee understands this, they have a heightened sense of urgency about the situation. They can now see why the customer is under a great deal of stress and has anxiety…the unknown about when they will get the part. A customer centric employee would devise a game plan with the customer where they would keep them informed every step along the way so there were no “surprises” that would come up out of the blue. They would lay out a plan for how they were going to talk to the supplier, communicate the information to the customer, follow-up every day to get an update, and keep the customer in the loop the entire time.

They might also search for another supplier who could to provide the part if this one can’t come through with it. Maybe they order two of them from two different suppliers just to make sure they have one on the date the customer really needs it and absorb the small restocking fee because the customer is so significant. Or maybe they find different ways to transport the part to ensure that it gets here in a timely manner. As you can see, there are a variety of options available to an employee to consider when they have their customer in the front of everything they do. Sadly, most companies would just tell the customer they are “doing the best they can” and hope it gets here on time.

The key to eliminating Stress and Anxiety is "Anticipation" and "Communication"

If you read between the lines in the example I just shared, you probably saw two things jump off the page. The first is “Anticipation.” Customer Obsessed organizations focus on “anticipating” what could happen and then make plans for how to handle these contingencies. They have backup plans for their backup plans so it is rare when something doesn’t happen the way they want. They are “anticipating” different scenarios and finding different options for how to handle these scenarios…in advance of them happening.

AKA...Anticipation Kills Anxiety

The second part of this equation is “Communication.” Customer Obsessed companies “over communicate” with their customers. They are constantly keeping them in the loop on any activities or actions that are taking place so the customer knows exactly what is going on…without having to guess. This level of communication takes more time and effort, but definitely helps eliminate anxiety…it works. And customers love it. If they know you are always going to keep them in the loop they don’t have to worry about the unknowns. After all, you are communicating constantly about what is going on (constantly) so you are eliminating the unknowns and uncertainties.

When your employees are constantly anticipating what could go wrong or happen along the way and they are over communicating with your customers, they are, in essence, killing any anxiety and stress the customer may have over the situation. They know you are constantly looking for ways which will allow them to be successful and you are communicating it every step of the way. This “kills anxiety and stress.”

Everything works together to build a foundation

When you adopt this mindset and are always focusing on anticipating what can happen next for your customers, you are setting yourself apart from your competition. As with the first two articles in this series, Differentiation and Trust, you are building more upon the foundation of both of these. When you Eliminate Anxiety, you look Different to your customers. When you Eliminate Anxiety, you build Trust with your customers. These work together to enhance each one and leverage the other parts of the foundation of being Customer Obsessed and centric.

Now you have one more major component to building an incredibly strong and solid foundation for your business. And, like the other two, you can do this quickly. Do this over and over and over again and your customer will start to see you significantly different from your competitors. You will quickly see results and how you can elevate your company above your competitors…NOW.

You can’t become Customer Obsessed overnight…but you can get some immediate impact (within 30 days) which will demonstrate uniqueness to your customers. And when your customers start seeing you anticipating their issues and “watching their back,” they will want to work with you ahead of your competitors. When times are tough and customers have fewer dollars to spend, Eliminating their Stress and Anxiety will go a long way to helping you be number one in their eyes.

My GOAL for YOU...

As with this series, my goal is always the same…help you be more CUSTOMER OBSESSED so you can become “REMARK”able where your customers (and others) are doing your marketing for you and acting as your “Marketing Agents.” Everything I share with you has this underlying purpose and goal attached…I want you to “light up” your audiences so they can become your Advocates and Marketing Agents. That’s it. If you want the same, keep reading. Thank you…