how etiquette and customer relations impact the success of your business (relate live london)

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James FieldDebrett's Limited

@MrJamesField

How etiquette and customer relations impact the success of your business

Soft Skills Development Economics Research Group Survey 2015

2015

Soft skills worth over £88 billion in Gross Value Added to the UK economy each year. Underpinning around 6.5% of the economy as a whole

By 2020

Annual contribution of soft skills to the economy is expected to grow in real terms to £109 billion

By 2025 To just over £127 billion

Customer experience

is all the rage

Fashionable?

Customer experience

Style verses fashion

L U X U R Y

‘A state of great comfort or elegance, especially when involving great expense’

‘An inessential, desirable item which is expensive or difficult to obtain’

L U X U R Y

What’s the link?

Luxury: The art of story telling

Luxury: Kindness

Luxury: How it makes you feel

Competition

How do we get there?

We need:

• To be able to read our customer • Show confidence • Build trust

Reading the customer Never assume

Recognise that customers want different things

1. The ‘experience’ customer 2. The ‘functional’ customer 3. The ‘to be guided’ customer E.g British Airways

Reading the customer

The ‘experience’ customer

• Refer to your company heritage and high profile customers (NOT by name)

• Take time

• Let them talk and you listen

• Be friendly, don’t seek a friendship

Reading the customer

The ‘functional’ customer

• They are time poor

• Get to the point

• Talk numbers, prices and time scales – less about features

• Key – is that an experience remains ‘high-end’ but adapted

Reading the customer

The ‘to be guided’ customer

• Those wanting guidance can be the most indecisive

• Be patient

• The danger : To patronise

Reading the customer

Confidence

Trust

Pacing and timing

Pacing and timing

Pacing and timing

Be INTERESTED not just INTERESTING

Know your customer

Creating an environment that feels like home

Familiarity +

A sense of belonging

=An environment to buy

What is etiquette?

Etiquette

A code of behaviour that delineates expectations according to conventional norms within a society class

or group

Set of rulesExclusivity Outdated

Class orientatedBritishness

Etiquette

Putting others at their ease

Easier said than done?

How many hats do you wear?

How many plates are you spinning?

First Impressions

7seconds

to form a first impression

7seconds

to form a first impression

Eye Contact

Business Social Intimate

Physical Protocol – Handshakes

Handshakes

Handshakes

First Impressions - Silent Signals

What is your one goal when meeting someone?

What is your one goal when meeting someone?

To make them like you