SNAP’ED stands for: SNAP the Extended Dimension; using the extended dimension is one way to get a big step closer to mastery.
“Because we want to provide good service for our customers, we often promise more than we can deliver. In many cases, firms are promising things beyond what anyone has seen or experienced. … We’ve raised their expectations too high, so we can’t blame our customers for being unhappy when we don’t keep our word.”
… from Customers For Life, by Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown
What can we do to really manage these expectations?
So far we have covered the basic version of SNAP. There is also an Extended Dimension. The Extended Dimension comes after you have used SNAP for a while. It is part of mastering SNAP. You will discover that simple SNAP statements can be mixed and matched, linked with other SNAP statements, used in a variety of sequences or combined in other ways to greatly extend how your use of SNAP. More importantly, this will let you leverage your SNAP customer impact.
Here are several ways to push SNAP to the limit.
When you toss out a SNAP statement, include a preview of when a follow-up SNAP will take place. This approach is very effective with longer, or more complex work flows because those work flows will have several spots that are good and natural candidates for SNAP statements. Using follow up SNAPs also work especially well with customer relationships that span longer periods of time. This gives you pre-set opportunities (commitments) for getting back to your customer. Keeping your customer informed is a great way to reinforce expectations, drive customer perception and improve your service levels.
SNAP even when nothing has changed. The power here is in the act of SNAP, not in the new information. The power is in the act of connecting with your customer. This can be done with both short- or long-term customer relationships. If your customer is waiting five minutes for a sandwich or waiting 20 minutes for a table at a restaurant, a SNAP — even though nothing has changed — lets the customer know you still have them in mind and value them. If your customer relationship is longer spanning several months, these SNAP statements become even more powerful. Our customers want to know they are valued, and we continue to think of them.
Include others on your team when you toss a SNAP to your customer. This can be done easily with SNAP messages that are emailed, since email is such a dynamic and real time way of communicating. For example, if you and I are members of the same team, you can send a SNAP message to one of our customers and include me, your team mate on the message. I then respond to all, meaning I reply so that the customer gets my response and in my note I make a point of saying what a great job you did. This is just one way of doing a reply. Also, use the team sharing to confirm a SNAP from a team member; responding to your team member; for this to be effective, include the customer.
This tag teaming can be focused on any number of things, such as, confirming and / or talking up a team mate, your manager, your company, your product, the customer’s purchase, the customer’s choice regarding some aspect of their relationship with you or your company. Tag teaming also can be effectively aimed at addressing other concerns the customer might be experiencing or voicing.
Link one SNAP to another. This technique is simple enough. Use one statement to link or hook right into another. This can be done as noted above by tag teaming with a co-worker, and it can be done by tag teaming your own messages. An example of this might be using a standard SNAP message focused on status and next steps, and then following up with a message that contains a testimonial important to your customer. Or, your linked SNAP might contain information about resources, support groups or similar products. We see this happen very easily in the automated world with auto-responders. This can be easily adapted to more simple person to person communications and to one on one emailed follow ups. Auto-responders are not needed for us to be effective with a technique like this.
SNAP in real time. Some customer interactions are real time, so SNAP happens in the here and now. For other interactions, you may have discretion in timing; don’t delay, move your SNAP to real time. Avoid end of day batching. Real time is particularly effective when your customer is right in front of you. SNAP now.
Include closing questions. Don’t assume the relationship is either going well or is going to end well. Ask. At the end of your SNAP statement ask for feedback from your customer. Ask them if there is anything else they need. In the world of automation, with web based purchases and web based customer relationships you may have received a post action, emailed customer satisfaction survey. Using closing questions is not about doing a customer satisfaction survey. It is about staying focused on your immediate relationship and asking specifically if there is anything else needed, asking if the customer needs anything else as the immediate service is brought to completion.
Another way to use closing questions is to purposefully ask questions to which the customer will give a positive answer. You are after a positive answer to positive aspects of the customer relationship, the product or your service. Your goal here is to get the customer to say “yes”. When the customer says “yes” they must choose to say “yes” and that means they are taking an action, hearing themselves share a positive message — this reinforces for the customer that they have had a positive experience.
In addition to using closing questions, use a closing statement. Share your basic, simple SNAP message, then close it with a strong and powerful aspect of the Extended Dimension. Tell your customer that you have fulfilled your commitment, met your part of the bargain, kept your promise, delivered on the expectation. While this sounds very much like bragging about what you have done, what you are really doing is informing your customer. You are helping to support and manage key expectations that drive or form your customer’s perception.
Consider a key advertising principle. “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; then, tell them what you told them.” Watch or listen to any commercial on the TV or radio. You will hear a message that literally tells you what you are going to be told, you are then told the message and then you are told what you were just told. This is both simple and complex all at the same time. Meaning, it is simple to do, but difficult to get all the right pieces in the right places.
Why does this work? It works because, as customers, we don’t work to understand what is going on. We accept what is going on at an intuitive or gut level. Think about any experience you have had as a customer. You don’t study what is going on. It happens. You experience it. You accept it.
On the flip side, those providing the service or the product study very hard to make what is happening a great and meaningful experience for you. The provider works hard. The receiver does not work.
As the provider of service, do your hard work. Extend your SNAP statements. Make some of them mini commercials. Advertise what you are doing, what you did, what you plan to do. As you use the Extended Dimension push your self. SNAP statements can be thought of as short, to the point, and frequently shared mini commercials.
Undoubtedly, there are many other ways to extend your use of SNAP. Find them and use them. The ideas shared above are just a starting point.
• Preview when a follow-up SNAP will take place.
• SNAP even when nothing has changed.
• Include others on your team in the SNAP.
• Link one SNAP to another.
• SNAP in real time.
• Include closing questions.
• Ask questions that will get a positive answer from the customer.
• Use a closing statement.
Use the Extended Dimension of SNAP to leverage your customer relationships and significantly improve your service levels. When used consistently, with thought and purpose, you will find this is very powerful stuff.
© 2012, Philip Espinosa. All rights reserved.
