Emery County Chamber banquet/awards

By Patsy Stoddard
Editor

Emery County Business chamber recently honored local businesses with awards and recognition. The chamber also hosted an installation banquet and a business speaker.
Ben Forstner was the speaker, he has spent 15 years in financial operations and has experience as a human resource director. He enjoys the outdoors and lives in Highland with his wife and three daughters.
Forstner looks at growing your business from the perspective of the customer. How do we grow and build loyal customers? Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are two different things.
“A satisfied customer got more than they expected,” said Forstner.
When shopping for groceries where do we go? Oftentimes it’s the store closest to where you live. There’s not a lot of satisfaction with a grocery store. They solve a problem for us. You’re out of milk, you go to the store and get a gallon of milk. You can go anywhere to get a gallon of milk.
A loyal customer will come to you first. They will tell others about your business.
Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless. Loyal customers will come into your business again and again and they will tell others about your business.
Walt Disney said, “We do what we do so well that people who experience it will return again and again and will tell others and bring a friend.”
Customers want experiences. Solve their problems and they leave feeling great about their experience. Businesses can’t compete on price alone. You have to be different to gain customer loyalty. Customer trust is an issue.
Your process and your systems must work. Like reserving a motel room, if your process/system fails then people are ticked. “If you put really great people into a poor system, systems win every time.”
Fortner described the situation they found at the hospital where his wife gave birth to one of their daughters. They had everything ready, they did all the insurance work. They signed in on line with a pre-check in. On baby day, he was in Provo and she was in Halliday. He in a panic drove 110 mph to pick up his wife and take her to the hospital. At the hospital they hit a brick wall. The lady at the counter didn’t know what a precheck was and she made them fill out all the paperwork again. He didn’t have a copy of his insurance card with him and they wouldn’t let his wife check into the hospital without it. He had to call a colleague to access his computer and print out an insurance card. “They were really great people, it was just a bad system.”
“What systems of yours frustrate your customers? Walk through your business and see it as a customer would see it. Sometimes common sense alludes business owners.
“Costco is the happiest place on earth. Their return policy is amazing, you can return items without a receipt for a full cash refund. My watch quit working and I took it back and they replaced it.
“If you try to take something back to Target, they treat you like a criminal.
“How do you measure loyalty? How likely are you to recommend a business to a friend or a colleague,” said Forstner.
What is a recent experience you’ve had at a restaurant? One attendee had been to Groggs recently and gave them an 8. Andy Urbanik wouldn’t tell where he’d been, but he gave them a zero.
Nationwide they give numerical scores for customer loyalty. USAA gets 80 percent; Costco-78 percent; Apple-78 percent; Dillards 75 percent and Amazon-69 percent. Where is your customer loyalty?
Organizations don’t behave, people behave said Stephen Covey.
Forstner had put some hot tips cards on each of the tables. He said they contain ideas for simple behaviors that will change your business. There are 31 hot tip cards in all.
One of the cards said to smile and greet all customers through the door.
Forstner said how the boys scouts teach every boy one thing. To stand tall and look people in the eye, and shake their hand firmly.
Forstner said at convenience stores, you need to acknowledge the customers as they come through the door. Recently in a store he went to one attendant was busy playing on her phone and with ear phones in and acted very put out to wait on him and ring up his order. She even held up her hand to indicate wait a minute. He’s not going back to that store, needless to say.
A better experience he had was at the IFA store where he went to look for fertilizer for his lawn. The 16 year old boy working there showed him where the fertilizer was in the store, told him how to apply it so his lawn would look great and even carried the fertilizer out to his car and loaded it for him. “I never go anywhere else now, whenever I need something I go to IFA” said Forstner.
“What are your employees willing to do. Most want to do a good job. You have to teach them. Find unique ways to be nice to the customers. Find ways to deal with unique situations.
“I have a friend who puts in HVAC systems. He is now the only provider that some of the house builders will use. Why? He cleans up after himself and not only his area, but he will leave the area around him clean. Now he is getting 100 percent of the installs in this hugely competitive business. He is looking at hiring someone to help him. It didn’t take much time but it makes a big difference.
“My background is in hospice and home health care. In our area there are 100 plus companies like this in a two city area. How can we stand out. The only way is in our service. The little things that the employees can do. They take the time to talk to their patients. We build our system around this. Customer loyalty means a lot. Connect with people. Care about people.
“Go and do something tomorrow, take one of these cards and follow the steps to make your business better. Maybe it’s as simple as picking up the trash around the business. Do one small thing. Poll your employees, take the time and poll your customers. What can you be doing better?
Mother Teresa said there are no great things, only small things done with great love. Find happiness in your work, and that happiness will roll over to your customers,” said Forstner. Other tips included: In every interaction today, strive to be interested, not interesting. Be extra helpful and nice to fellow employees every day this week. Notice each person’s eye color and turn your heart to them. Notice repeat customers and use their names without having to ask them. Ask three customers today, What can we do differently to be even better. Come up with one idea today on how to improve something. Today treat each and every complaint as a gift. Thank the person for bringing the problem to your attention and do all you can to positively solve it. Find a way to say yes to something, even if you don’t have what the customer wants. Visit stores and websites to know competitor products and prices. Listen carefully and deeply to what the customer is saying about his or her needs. Memorize your company or team mission statement and really think about it. Stop, look and listen when a customer approaches you. Say nothing negative about a co-worker or customer all day all week.