Chapter 40: Pedestrians Will Make You Rich! - The Millionaire Fastlane

CHAPTER 40: PEDESTRIANS WILL MAKE YOU RICH!

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
~ Jeff Bezos

The Bishop in Your Chess Match

When life is tough, we seek the counsel of priests, rabbis, or pastors. They are the “go-to” guys of life's problems. Yet when it comes to your business, who is your go-to guy? Who is on the frontline with your customers? The bishop in business's chess match is your customer service, and how you treat the people who buy your product or service. The objective of customer service in any business should serve one function, similar to our men of the cloth, and that is to help, support, and resolve.

My Internal Roadmap: My Black Book

The Fastlane roadmap was my compass for wealth, but I also had an internal roadmap, and no, it wasn't my business plan. It was my little black book. Nope, my black book wasn't a treasure trove of telephone numbers from female hotties but a written record of all complaints, grievances, and issues my business experienced daily. This book has served as my guide for over a decade.

When business owners hear a complaint, most of them ignore it. Most of them pass the buck to an employee and pray the issue goes away. Not in the Fastlane. Complaints are a beautiful thing. They represent free feedback and expose unmet needs in your business. They represent the journey's road noise.

I logged my customers' complaints because they provided a kaleidoscope into the mind of my customers. One complaint meant there were 10 others who felt the same way. When my black book accumulated similar complaints weekly, I had to evaluate the issue and take corrective action. Complaints are the world's whispers hinting the direction you should be moving.

The Four Types of Road Noise (Complaints)

When the world unleashes its opinion on your new Web site, product, or concept, what should you expect? What should be addressed and what should be ignored? There are four types of complaints:

1. Complaints of change
2. Complaints of expectation
3. Complaints of void and
4. Complaints of fraud.

Complaints of Change
Take anything that people love, change it, and you'll have a riot at the steps of your business. Remember when Coke changed its formula? Oh heavens! How dare they! Remember when Fox canceled the feel-good family drama Party of Five? Dear God! The world hates change, and it's a natural human behavior to resist change. Change endangers comfort, expectancy, and security.

When I redesigned my Web site and hundreds of complaints poured in, I expected a certain degree of resistance. It's normal. In fact, every redesign I've ever done in 10-plus years was met with resistance. The question for critique was, how much was normal? And how much was legitimate?

Complaints of change are the least informative and therefore are the ones most difficult to decipher. For my redesign failure, data confirmed that the complaints were substantial. Bounce rates tripled and my conversion ratio suffered. I had to suck up the failure, revert back, and start over. When you change, there will be complaints. Guaranteed. And yes, not all of them are actionable simply because human psychology is in play, not the integrity of your work.

Complaints of Expectation
Complaints of expectation occur when you negatively violate the expectation of your customer. You convince them to do business with you, they expect something, and what you provide doesn't meet that expectation. This happens because either your service failed or their expectation was malformed by a deceptive marketing strategy. Regardless of which, both expose a problem. And it's your problem, not the customer's. You either need to do a better job in fulfillment or a better job in managing their expectations.

“Your service sucks.”

I heard that complaint hundreds of times and yet my company not only survived, it thrived. If my service sucked and I was being told it sucked, how did my business succeed? I dug into the claims.

Advertisers who complained, “Your service sucks,” didn't use my service as intended. Their expectations were malformed. I owned a lead generation service that sent email leads to clients. The thing about leads is they must be followed. You don't book leads after they sit in your email box for three weeks and then answer them like a first-grader. You don't book leads when you log in to your account once every millennium. Yes indeed, my service sucks when it isn't used properly.

Instead of targeting my customer, I sought to better manage expectations. I made it abundantly clear that leads are only as good as the person following them. Unfollowed leads go unbooked. Also, because most of my customers weren't communicatively savvy, I launched educational campaigns to ensure professional responses. If I couldn't manage the complaints, I could manage the expectations. I knew if my customers were making money, they'd keep paying me.

When you order sea bass at a restaurant and it's served raw, your expectation of a well-cooked meal is violated. You complain. Yet, for the owner there is a bigger problem: Why was it raw? Is the chef incompetent? Does the kitchen process need a retooling? Complaints of expectation expose operational issues, marketing misinformation, and/or product problems.

If you hire a home remodeler who advertises “guaranteed bathroom remodels in two weeks” and the job takes two months, your expectations are violated and either the marketing campaign needs to reflect that truth, or the operation needs to be retooled to fit the expectation. Either way, operations or marketing needs change. Complaints of expectation violate customer expectations negatively.

Complaints of Void
Complaints of void are when your customer continually requests something and you simply don't have it. Complaints of void are extremely valuable, as they expose unmet needs.

Early in my lead generation days, one of the most common complaints I received from limousine service providers was, “I don't do weddings!” Customers would request limousines for weddings and some providers didn't offer wedding service. Likewise, many providers didn't do airport transfers. The complaints piled in and a pattern emerged. I added a Web site feature that allowed providers to specify the type of services they offered-problem solved. By fixing the issue, I raised the value of my leads. Higher value equals greater magnitude, higher profits, and growing asset values.

Complaints of void are goldmines of opportunity. People freely tell you exactly what they want and you don't have to pay for it! Unmet needs are served up on a silver platter.

Complaints of Fraud
In March 2005, a woman entered a Wendy's restaurant and claimed that a dismembered human finger was in her bowl of chili. Her intent was not only to complain but also to sue. Fortunately, the fraudulent complaint was thwarted after the woman's litigious past was exposed. The following month, Las Vegas police arrested the woman for grand larceny.

At the bottom of the barrel are fraudulent complaints. Ask any business owner and they'll confirm fraudulent complaints are the most disheartening because they reflect the worst of society: Illegitimate complaints designed to exploit the business owner.

I had to deal with fraudulent complaints almost weekly. A customer typos a price and some idiot thinks that they are entitled to a limo for $5.00 an hour versus the $50.00 per hour. “You owe me or I will contact my attorney and sue!” Yes, I'm sure you have an attorney. Good luck with that, champ. You're going to pay a lawyer $250 an hour to fight over a typographical error amounting to 45 bucks? Do you know what kind of idiot you sound like?

Unfortunately, when you deal with millions of customers, you will encounter hundreds of Sidewalkers determined to get theirs. Yes, it can make you cynical because complainers intending to exploit are low-class frauds. When you drop a fly in your soup hoping to get a free meal, sorry, you're a crook. How do you deal with exploitive complainers? You respond once with grace, explain your position, and move on.

Pick Your Battles

Bill Cosby once said, “I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” I started my business with an overzealous passion to keep everyone happy. That soon proved to be insanity. Complaints need to be managed with a balance, which is why I kept records. I wanted to identify patterns that would enhance the value of my service. I knew better products produce better customers, and better customers pay well.

Nowadays it's easy to follow the complaints for your business. Twitter.com offers owners the ability to keep track of what customers say. Google alerts can notify you when a Web site mentions your company name. Keeping track of the feedback is getting easier, but deciphering the noise is getting more difficult. “I don't want to pay for your service.” Some complaints need to be ignored. If you try to make everyone happy, you'll drive yourself nuts. Pick your battles. Solve complaints that add the most value while helping the most. As a business owner you must remember that, while you don't have a boss, the person who pays your mortgage is your customer and they always should be heard-but sometimes ignored.

Use “Sucks” to Your Advantage

No need to sugarcoat it. Customer service in the modern age sucks. We have become so swamped by poor customer experiences from the businesses in our life that we now accept crappy customer service as a standard of expectation. Have you ever called a computer manufacturer for support? Or called your big national bank? Or called your health insurance provider? Sucks. Sucks. And double-sucks. Customer service today has become a lost art. Our expectation of service with businesses has become so pathetic that we've become numbed to expect nothing but disinterest.

Down the block from my home, there is a strip mall with a corner restaurant that changes ownership every six months. Since I've lived in the neighborhood, four restaurants have opened and four have closed. While I can't comment on the first three failures, and I can on the last. When I dined at the latest incarnation of the restaurant, the food was decent but the service was deplorable. Drinks went unfilled. The silverware was dingy. The waitress was arrogant, as if our patronage was an inconvenience. After leaving, I thought, “That place ain't gonna last,” and sure enough, a few months later the sign went up: “For Lease.”

While bad customer service is frustrating while playing our consumer role, it gives us entrepreneurs a great opportunity. Where customer service lacks unearths great opportunity. You see, the beauty of expectation is that it works in reverse. While complaints of expectation are about the violation of expectations negatively, customer service that S-U-C-S is about violating expectations positively.

Exchange “Sucks” for “S-U-C-S”

You can explode your business into the stratosphere by deploying a customer service strategy that exceeds expectations: I call it SUCS, or “Superior Unexpected Customer Service.”

We all expect a certain level of suckage when it comes to customer service. This is an advantage for Fastlaners. For example, if I discover a $10,000 fraudulent withdrawal on my bank statement, my first instinct is to freak out. My second instinct is to call the bank to resolve the problem. At that point, my brain immediately creates a smorgasbord of expectations for the bank call. Here is my “expectation profile,” or what I expect:

• I expect to hear a recorded message or an automated attendant.
• I expect to press a never-ending menu of buttons: press 1 for this, press 2 for that, press 3 for something else.
• I expect to be shuttled from one person to the next.
• I expect to speak with someone not fluent in English named “Steve” but sounding more like a Pradeep or Sanjay.

These are my expectations. No doubt, my customer service expectation isn't that favorable. My bank, and hundreds of other banks like it, gets away with crappy service because it is now our expectation. However, let's flip the scenario on its rear. What if I call the bank and instead of the voicemail rat-maze, my call is immediately answered by an English-speaking person. No voice mail, no press 1, press 2, no automated attendant. I get a REAL PERSON answering the phone, like you answer your phone. After five minutes of speaking to the customer service rep, my problem is addressed and resolved-and heck, I wasn't even transferred to another agent. I'd be like, “Holy Mother of God! Wow!”

This is a SUCS event: a Superior Unexpected Customer Service event. It is a transformation from customer service that naturally sucks, to SUCS. You see, when you violate your client's customer service expectation profile positively, you turn your customers into loyal, repeat buyers, and ultimately, disciples of your business.

Leverage Free Human Resource Systems

One passive income system is human resource systems-good old-fashioned people. Except that employees aren't cheap, so human resource systems typically need management. Wouldn't it be great if you could deploy a human resource system for free? You can when you create disciples for your business.

Customer service that SUCS, service that violates your customer's low-expectation profile positively, turns customers into lifelong clients, and disciples of your business. They provide a never-ending stream of free advertising. Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool because it's FREE and reaps infinite return on investment (ROI).

Your customer service strategy will influence your company's growth. Satisfaction implies expectations being met. To create raving customers, you must exceed satisfaction.

When I negotiated with potential buyers for my company, I was asked frequently: “How much do you spend to recruit advertisers?” My unexpected answer? Zero. Incredulity and skepticism followed. Sure, I did it the old-fashioned way when I started: prospecting, marketing, advertising, and cold calling. But after awhile, my advertiser acquisition cost disappeared because my advertisers did it for me … for FREE! When your clients love your business, they become disciples and advertise for you. They become unpaid human resource systems, evangelists who drop your name wherever necessary.

How do you create disciples for your business? Provide customer service that SUCS-Superior Unexpected Customer Service. When you send an email to a corporation, how long does it take to get a real, human response? A day? Week? At my company, I answered my customer emails within minutes, not hours, days, or weeks. People would email us just to test our response rate. I was in business to violate my customer's expectation profile, and it paid dividends.

I followed this up with live customer service. A call to my company got a real person that worked for the real company. No press 1, press 2. Support wasn't outsourced because I didn't want service outsourced.

Customer discipleship grows businesses exponentially because human resource systems talk. For example, my Web-hosting provider is Liquid Web. The first time I contacted Liquid Web for technical support, I submitted a ticket and my expectation profile formed … I speculated it'd be a day or two before I heard back. I was wrong. Within ten minutes, Liquid Web Support responded and fixed my issue within 20 minutes. They provided customer service that S-U-C-S and violated expectations.

The result? I'm a disciple of Liquid Web. When someone asks me, “What hosting do you recommend?” I confidently respond with “Liquid Web.” I am an evangelic customer. I pay Liquid Web in two forms of currency: 1) My money and ) My frequent recommendation of their service. The effective value of this latter currency is priceless because I am now their FREE human resource system selling their product. Imagine the potency when you have not just one raving customer, but 10,000. Will your business grow 2% in one year? Or 200%?

To provide great customer service and explode your business, determine your customers' expectation profile. What are their expectations when they deal with your business? How do they relate to competitors and similar businesses in your industry? Make a subjective call on how your customers expect service. Then VIOLATE IT.

Any time you violate your customer's expectations to the positive, you get a dual benefit. First, they buy from you again. Second, raving customers become liaisons and disciples for your business and unpaid human resource systems. Both build speed. Speed builds wealth.

Great customer service costs more to provide, but the benefits should outweigh the costs. If more money were spent on pleasing existing clients rather than trying to find new ones, the average business would survive longer than five years. Unfortunately, business owners who seek money first and needs last often spend their advertising wad on the pursuit of new customers who aren't familiar with their uninspired and sucky customer service. It becomes a constant battle, like emptying a leaky boat with a bucket: Replace the old disgruntled customers with newer, oblivious ones. Violate customer's expectations. Create evangelists. Create human resource systems that will work for you, for free. Attract money.

Where Are Your Loyalties?

The greatest myth of business ownership is “be your own boss.” Owners who live by that mantra eventually find themselves bosses of nothing-dead, bankrupted businesses. Success in business comes from making your customer the boss and the No. 1 stakeholder to your business.

A stakeholder is defined as “Person, group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives, and policies.” Long-term business suicide occurs when you are your own selfish stakeholder and forsake your customer. Want to really know why customer service sucks? It's because business owners place their customers at the bottom of the stakeholder chain. Public companies are the worst offenders, as shareholders come first, Wall Street second, and executives third. Guess who sits at the bottom? You and I.

My repeated, and often preached, motto to my employees was, “The customer pays your paycheck, not me-keep them happy.” You see, my stakeholder wasn't my selfish desires for fast cars and big houses. It was my customer, because I knew they had the power. My loyalty was with my customer. Yes, I had a boss, and the boss had the keys to everything I selfishly wanted.

Look Big, Act Small

During Mr. Miller's gym class in my sophomore year of high school, I became aware of Mark Cegraves-except there was no such student. Mr. Miller had a knack for butchering the simplest of names: Henderson became Hankerson, Seagroves became Cegraves, and Rickson became Rakesh. No matter what your name was, Mr. Miller would shred it. I don't know if he was illiterate or just old.

So fast-forward more than a decade, and who is listed on my Web site as my chief technology officer? Mark Cegraves. Oh, and look who's my web developer-Gretchen Hankerson! Wow, so did I hire my friends from high school? No, I didn't, especially since their names were just mere illusions of the real people. None of these people worked for me. Yet if you visited my Web site's “Contact” or “About Us” page, they were listed as employees in high profile positions: CTO, business development, or Web producer. These people weren't employees, but it looked like my staff was big, and growing.

I admit that this started off as a harmless "inside joke" with my employees, but I eventually realized it had a benefit: it branded my business to look big. Dominating. Well-funded. Growing. Of course, I'm not sure if butchered names from a 1987 gym class serving as employee apparitions was ethical, but the mirage was unexpectedly powerful: My company violated expectations by looking big while acting small.

Setting Up SUCS

Big companies notoriously give poor service as a model of expectation. Meanwhile, small companies are known to give better service with a personal touch. My objective was to look like I had the power of a big company, yet give personal service as if I were a one-person operation. When you receive personal, exemplary service from a big company, you create a SUCS event and create loyal, evangelic customers.

Anywhere customer service is expected to suck, you have a business opportunity. Looking big and acting small is a setup for SUCS events. The customer expects mediocre service from the start. This tactic works well for any company that operates without a physical presence. Obviously, you can't look big if you own a small retail store, but for those of us with Internet companies, you can. The trap that snares many business owners is the extreme opposite: They look small and act big.

“Joe Blow Enterprises.” Does this give you confidence that you are dealing with a strong, reputable company? This company name screams “This is a one-man show!” and says nothing substantial or attractive. Sorry, “Joe Blow Enterprises” is a monumental fail. I'm sure the logo is nonexistent, and, if there were one, it'd be bland, boring, or look like it was designed using some freeware paint program. This company's Web site is static, stale, and childlike. No, Comic Sans doesn't cut it for a professional image. This company sells to the world but doesn't have a toll-free number. Small. Small. Small.

The problem compounds when their smallish business operates with biggish company actions. Call their business and you get a long maze of buttons to press only to land at the bottom of a voice mail dump. Send an email? Forget it. Most emails are ignored, and the ones read are answered weeks later. “I'll get back to you” never happens. Customer service issues aren't resolved in hours, but in weeks. If you insist on working 4 hours a week, your business won't grow because your selfishness is more important than growing a business meteorically. Look small and act big and you dig your own potholes.

Beat Competitors Before They St art

My other purpose for “looking big” was to beat my competition before they even started. When someone (or some company) wants to set up shop and compete with you, they investigate you first. They look at your Web site, see what you're doing and the prices you're charging, and decide if they want to invest money and time to enter the space. To the untrained entrepreneur, a big company will scare would-be entrepreneurs almost like it scared me away … “Oh jeez, how can I compete when they have 12 employees against little me?”

If an entrepreneur thinks they can't compete because you're too big and too well funded, you've won before they've even started. They either engage half-heartedly or defer to another industry with duller competition. Look big, but act small.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Complaints are valuable insights into your customers' minds.
• Complaints of change are difficult to decipher and often require additional data to validate or invalidate.
• Complaints of expectation expose operational problems in either your business, or in your marketing strategy.
• Complaints of void expose unmet needs, raise the value of your product or service, and expose new revenue opportunities.
• Great customer service is as simple as violating your customer's low expectation in the positive.
• Poor service gaps are Fastlane opportunities.
• Satisfied customers can be human resource systems who promote your business for free.
• Satisfied customers have a dual residual effect: Repeat business and new business via discipleship.
• Your customer and their satisfaction hold the key to everything you selfishly want.
• Looking big but acting small sets up customer service expectation violations in the positive.
• Looking big can scare away potential competitors.