See It the Way They Do – Impressure Points
By Jay Forte, Humanetrics, LLC
Published in Sales and Marketing Excellence
August 2002
In the course of business we have many customer contact points– places where we deal with our customers; this happens on the phone, face to face, providing information, taking an order, settling a claim, delivering a product. At each of these contact points, we have the ability of impressing or disappointing our customer by our response. These contact points are called “impressure points� – named as such because they are points were we have the ability of making an impression and they have the impact of a pressure point – they exert a lot of influence on whether the customers stays or goes.
Each “impressure point� can be either positive, known as a success point or negative, known as a breaking point. Success points encourage the business and relationships with customers; breaking points send customers and their business elsewhere. Controlling each contact point is the responsibility of the entire organization and directly affects its success.
Since all employees are responsible for the creation of success or breaking points, it is important to encourage their involvement in a continual review of operations from a customer perspective. Each business has direct control over the quality of the contact or “impressure points�, but it first requires that the organization be able to identify each one, then assess whether from the customer’s perspective, it is a success point or breaking point.
On a regular basis, outfit one of your employees with a clipboard and a pair of special glasses. The glasses are used to encourage the employee to see the business as the customer sees the business (not as an employee) – to notice things that customers notice and employees seem to overlook. The clipboard is used to document all of the employee/customer findings. He should record every “impressure pointâ€? that is noticed, then assess whether it was a success point (made a favorable impression) or a breaking point (made an unfavorable impression). Every detail about the business should be noticed. Take the time to view all the items that a customer would see – ease of access, entrance and exits clearly marked, adequacy of parking, proper lighting and directions. Have the employee continue into your location noting how he was greeted, does the staff look and act professionally, is the staff knowledgeable and friendly. Be sure to notice the tidiness and organization of the areas that customers see including warehouse or manufacturing facilities, storage and shipping areas.
As customers approach and enter your facility, they are constantly reviewing and judging what they see. They make up their minds about your business based on the responses they see or get at each “impressure point�. Not all points carry equal weight with each customer – a neat and tidy location may be far more important to one customer than the personal greeting he receives on the phone. In either case, each “impressure point� is giving the customer information about your business and is creating that all important impression of you, your product and your service.
The same analysis can be done where customer contact is on the phone. An employee can call the company pretending to be a customer and noticing and documenting every “impressure point� – number of rings before answering, quality of greeting, ability to solve problem or gather information, level of care and concern, etc. All should be documented then assessed as either a success point or breaking point.
Once your employee has completed the “impressure point� review, present the findings at a regular team meeting. Applaud the team for the success points; congratulate and acknowledge those who made the success points happen. Then, review each of the breaking points. Host a discussion to determine why the breaking points exist and what the impact to the customer is from each. Finish your review with a discussion of the steps that are necessary to convert all breaking points to success points. Have employees take responsibility for the existence of breaking points (what has caused the breaking points) and involve them in creating and implementing the action plan to correct them. Remember to applaud all movement from breaking points to success points at the monthly team or employee meeting.
This “impressure point� analysis should be done on a regular basis – to constantly verify the image that customers have of the business and to check on the progress of improvements once a breaking point was identified.
Your customers are continually gathering information about your business in all of the contacts they have with you. Be sure to review all aspects of your business from their perspective and classify each contact point as positive or negative. Since time is limited and we all too many things to do, this will help focus where you and your staff should concentrate your efforts to favorably impress your customers – focus on improving the breaking points. Companies who are able to see their businesses as their customers do, have valuable information about how to manage it and direct its performance. Knowing what customers need and value is critical to the success of every business – get in the habit of seeing your business as your customer sees it and you will spend time on the things that create a positive image in the minds of your customers; this will direct and control your success.
Humanetrics LLC. All rights reserved 2007.