HARDISON’S TIPS – DECEMBER 1, 2020 – Best Practices for Working With the Affluent Customers
Given that the affluent have high expectations of your service, how do you ensure that you’ll meet (or exceed) their expectations? Here are three techniques that might be helpful in making sure you are giving affluent people the type of service they want:
- Don’t make assumptions about your customer before you have proof
There are many versions of the story of the man who walked into a Cadillac dealership wearing torn overalls and no shoes, who asked to see a car. The salesperson made a snap decision that this person could not afford a Cadillac and promptly told him so, at which point the customer pulled out a roll of hundred dollar bills more than sufficient to buy any car in the showroom.
Given that today it’s hard to tell the affluent from the people with fewer assets, it’s easy to get pulled into making assumptions about who belongs in that special group. Rule number one is to never make an assumption about any person until you have proof of who that person is, or who that person knows.
- Provide instant recognition
If you have talked to or helped an affluent person before, make note of who that person is, so that in the next interaction, you can provide instant recognition.
Many clubs and organizations take pictures of their members so service staff can recognize them. Other companies use systems to flag a unique piece of information (such as the social security number) to help staff people recognize an affluent, influential customer right away. If your company does not provide you with tools to help you recognize your most valued customers, build your own.
- Remember customers’ preferences
Once you’ve recognized a customer, you are now prepared to help that person. Every time you see or speak to any of your affluent customers, you should be making notes on their preferences — how do they like to be addressed, what procedures for service do they prefer, how do they like to find out the results of your task, which types of products or services are they most likely to inquire about, etc. At every new encounter, you can use this information to make each one of your affluent customers feel very important.
By doing any one of these things, the customer experience will increase for you and your guests.
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