The True Competitive Advantage: Customer Experience with Author, Speaker David Avrin

Quotes:

“We hear in business: Technology changes, markets will change, but people don’t change. And I am here to tell you, people do change. We’re changing in profound ways in terms of how we do business, how we expect to do business.” (6:11)

“I’m also bold and encouraging in terms of it’s okay to talk about the great work that you do. There is no shame in getting credit for doing good work. And your good work isn’t just overcoming crises. Most of your work is preventing those, celebrate that.” (9:56)

“here’s the basic message: people buy from you and stay with you for one simple reason, because they want to. And the minute they don’t want to, they’ll go work with somebody else because they can because the choices are vast. Everything about this is about making the people who are your prime audience, your prime customers, or clients want to do business with you and wanting to do business with you before they ever do business with you.” (23:09)

“If you screw up and then you fall on your sword and say, we screwed up. Here’s what we’re doing to make it right, or we weren’t able to get a person there or that the part wasn’t the right one. And what we have to avoid doing, and this is super important, we cannot throw our coworkers under the bus.” (30:39)

“You know, blockbuster goes out of business because we’re not watching movies, no, not at all. We’re just accessing them differently. So when I talk about future proofing for your business is they have to sort of put on that Swami hat or the crystal ball and say, how do we think, like how are people engaging with us today and how are they going to do it in the future?” (37:03)

Book Recommendations
Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back) by David Avrin

Book Recommendations
Get Shit Done by Jeffrey Gitomer

We had the opportunity to sit down with speaker & author, David Avrin to hear about his upcoming event in March and to learn more about his current passion, his newest book: Why Customers Leave and How to Win Them Back.

David refers to the fact, “We hear in business: Technology changes, markets will change, but people don’t change. And I am here to tell you, people do change. We’re changing in profound ways in terms of how we do business, how we expect to do business.” Avrin describes that people are changing in how they acquire products and how they expect to receive services. What makes or breaks it for the customer is in their experience with your company.

David states that his mission is to help businesses discover: “…How are people doing business with you today? How’s it going to be different in a year, not 10 years, but next year, and what’s driving some of those changing expectations so that you can attract and thrill and retain the important clients and customers that you have.”

Avrin argues that customers are changing and rather than pouting in a corner, businesses need to adjust and get in the mindset of their customer in order to keep them. The basic matter of fact is that there are other businesses out there and it doesn’t take much anymore for your customers to switch to your competitor. David states, “Here’s the basic message: people buy from you and stay with you for one simple reason, because they want to. And the minute they don’t want to, they’ll go work with somebody else because they can because the choices are vast. Everything about this is about making the people who are your prime audience, your prime customers, or clients want to do business with you and wanting to do business with you before they ever do business with you.”

Customers stay based on their experience. David argues that touch points are incredibly important and need to be used wisely. It does not take much to turn a positive experience for a customer into a negative one with constant pestering and an overuse of marketing to your existing client. Avrin states, “If you have a phenomenal experience the whole way and down in the last 10 seconds, somebody punches you in the face. It’s hard to forget about the punch in the face as little as whether it’s physical or metaphorical. Every point is important. But the last one, isn’t that a lasting impression?”. Avrin challenges businesses to think seriously about the impressions they are making for their 1st time buyers and their long term customers.

Lastly, Avrin encourages businesses to think hard about giving their customers undivided attention. This is such a rare thing in today’s age and is so badly needed. David states, “We’ve all had conversations with people who are half listening or people who are, scanning the room behind us to see if somebody more important is there….. And yes, I know you have a lot to do and we’ll all be there when you’re done with this one conversation. But part of what makes it great is that it’s not done very often and not done very well, right?”. Give your customers your full attention to better their experience with you and build trust in your organization.
Listen to the full episode above or visit David Avrin’s website here for more information about his speaking ventures and resources.

Tags:

customer service communication