MA Business Success 48: How to Give Your Customers an Enriching & Engaging Experience

Watch the video below Listed to the podcast below Phil: Well, we've got another cracker of a topic today. Graham came up with this one in particular, because with some of our coaching clients, we've been discussing this recently. The topic actually is, "Has the consumer changed?" You know like, from 10, 20 years ago, to now, has the consumer changed? Are they easier now, or is it harder now? Are there certain things you have to do that is different, or is it the same? Graham? Graham: Look I definitely, personal opinion and you guys might have your own sort of chime on this. I feel that people have changed a hell of a lot. What they expect for their dollar, nowadays, is ten times more than what it used to be when times were good. Now, I'm speaking generically about the GFC - Global Financial Crisis, so for all of our listeners all around the world here, this may hit home to you, it may not, but certainly I know that in places where I speak to clients, in America, on the East Coast of Australia, here in Western Australia, and even in the UK, I find that people have a little bit less disposable income. They're still willing to spend it, but who they choose to spend it with needs to surpass their absolute expectations. So, just chatting with Phil off camera and off the mic, I was talking about, years ago, if we were to say you need five magic ingredients to make this absolutely outstanding martial arts school. Now you may have only had three, but because there was so much free flowing money around, three of those ingredients still got you by. But nowadays, now that money is a little tighter, if you've got two missing ingredients, you're going to find that people are either leaving your school, that is, cancelling and quitting, or you're not finding the inquiries and the sign-ups are as much. So the thing to counteract that is you need to be really, really on the ball with level of service and meeting the client’s needs and even more-so, the customer experience, both before and after the engage. So I definitely, definitely have seen in all of our schools and with coaching clients, a massive change in how the consumer is buying, how they're purchasing things, and what they're looking for. Phil: Yeah. I think something that comes to mind when you just said five things, goes back to a bit of my NLP training, meaning that, you know, people will bring in or take in the world through their five senses, you know. What they see, touch, feel, hear and taste. And if you talking about five things, really your school, or your brand or your business needs to have those things. Now you might be thinking, how do I have taste in my school? Well, you know, there is various elements of taste. It's not just literally putting your tongue on a kick shield and seeing what that tastes like. Otherwise there'll be a lot of kick shield lickers. That's just not going to work. But it's, you know, does it leave a good taste in their mouth? That's what I'm talking about. What do they see? Do they see a dynamic school, do they see proactive instructors, do they see high quality customer service? What do they hear from other customers; friends, families, people they don't know? What's the feeling that they get when they walk in there? Is that warm, cozy, or is it cold and chilly? So this is why people do what they do. This is people take in these things through their five senses, and they create their own experience. Graham: Oh yeah. Look I know that there's a lot of companies outside of the martial arts world that are on par with this. They are continually innovating the level of customer experience and customer service. And myself and Phil have done a lot of research, traveled a lot, looked around at many different companies that are succeeding in this downturn, and asked the question, "Why? What are they doing?" And it's about the client’s needs. Putting them first. So, you know, that's where I go back to. People nowadays are not silly. They don't have blinkers on any more. They're becoming selective. They have a handful of investing money that they want to put somewhere, but they're not just going to throw it frivolously, so they're going to choose to buy from the people that they like, know and trust. And really that's where, well, they've got to like you, they've got to have a good experience, they've got to get to know you, and they've got to trust that you're going to do the right thing. So, I know that now, the standard, the bar has been set. Not by the martial arts industry, by other big companies trying to keep clients. So we need to catch up in this space and make sure that we're on par, if not surpass that expectation. Phil: I think you mentioned before that good is not acceptable any more. In this day and age, people are willing to spend money, but they want to spend their money on something that's fantastic, and they're willing to spend a bit more to get a great level of service, a great level of product or service. Whatever it could be that you're delivering in particular. But what I see most suffering is those guys that are only ticking three of those things, like you said before. Before, that was okay. That was good. Good was enough to bring people in the door, make a living out of martial arts. Not anymore. People I see surviving, the people I see thriving in martial arts business, is those that are the higher level, the professional schools, higher end level, who are charging more, and expecting more, and therefore getting more clients. Graham: So, now we know that the client's changed, what do we do to attract the ideal client, filter out the, what we would call the tire kickers, the people that are just shopping around and not really committed, and what are some of the things that we're actually doing actively now to make sure that when people leave us, they've got that really good taste in their mouth? Phil: I think it's almost like the before, the middle and the end. You know, it's like, what are they seeing in all your media and marketing? What are they seeing, is it congruent with your message? Now, this is just, if you're a fight school, then your message should be about fighting. Do you know what I mean? If you're a family school, your message should be about that. Don't confuse the two. I've seen too many martial arts schools have too many different types of messages and brands, and that's when it gets a little bit confusing. I mean we do have two different brands. We have the WA Institute of Martial Arts, which is our family friendly brand, we do have a small percentage out of school, which is the Muay Thai guys, who compete full contact Muay Thai rules, and that brand is called Predator Muay Thai. Now they are very separate brands, and actual fact, we actually don't market Predator Muay Thai. We don't have it anywhere. We decided long before, that it would almost be this underground thing. It would never be spoken about, we would never advertise it, we would never do anything about it. Graham: Think I've heard that somewhere before. Phil: Yeah. So people would see at a fight night and go, "Those guys are cool, they fight well." Then they'd come down, or someone would talk about it. But all our marketing, our advertising, our brand is all about family friendly. And I think that's where a lot of schools may get confused. Trying to be too much to everyone. Graham: Yeah. So, we've got the right client coming in the door. Let's have a walk through about pretty much what we do. So I know that we have a really nice person on the phone. You know they're fantastic phone mannerisms, they make them feel really welcome, they take lots of notes about building that great rapport on the phone. What happens when they walk in the door? Phil: Ah well you know, the guys would definitely have already, you know, hopefully during the phone procedure, would know their name, know why they're there, so they're coming out ready to go, engage, get that rapport. They're going to be doing a beautiful tour; they're going to be explaining everything about our school, because I think everyone wants information. I know I will not buy something unless I've done the research. So I'm really, before someone asks me a question, I'm going to tell it to them. I'm going to give it to them early. So, and if I want to buy a camera for example, I will go all over or online, and I'll go find out everything about it, before I decide that's the one I want to buy. And I think that's sort of the new age customer. The consumer has so many avenues to go and find out what other people are doing, other martial arts schools, same as like for a camera, so they'll check out online, they'll get reviews, they'll go out there and see what's being said, what's being done in social media, and then you know they come in to your school, so I think in that process of that whole first experience, it's about answering the question within their head before they have to ask it. I think that's important. Graham: Something that we took on board probably about a year ago, ah probably, oh, sorry. Thinking back now, probably two years ago now, everybody that walks in the door as a new client is offered a bottle of water. And whether it's the dead cold of winter, or in the middle of summer, you're offered. And the reason for that is again, building rapport, and giving them that wowness. Now most say, "No thank you, I'm fine", but it's that simple offer, and it's going to somebody's house, and them asking you, "Would you like a drink?" You know, it's that little one percenter there that makes that good taste in your mouth. That good experience. We've obviously done the tour, we've done a meet and our greet. What happens when the person's leaving, Phil? Or they've left the business, they've gone away. What happens after the fact? Phil: Well, at the end of the day, although we'd love to keep all our clients, we can't. It's just impossible. So the thing is about that, is we want to make sure that they leave with a good taste in their mouth, and make sure that they have fun, enjoy it, and you know, being part of the school is an awesome, awesome thing, but leaving, we want to make sure they have that good taste in their mouth, and that the door is always open. Graham: Yep. Well look, team, this is again as we say, we've got a lot of knowledge in this space. We can't go on about this for hours on this podcast, but if you guys have got any questions that you want to throw towards us in regards to this space, and that newness, drop us a line, you know, [email protected]. We'd be happy to answer all those questions, and really steer you in the right direction, where we can. Phil: Yeah guys look, if you want to get us to talk about a specific topic, or you have a question that you would like asked, then please, send us through, drop us a comment, don't forget to rate us and like us on iTunes. It helps us get rates a little bit higher, so we can be seen by more people, and just get out there within the community. We just want to help people be the best they can be in their business. So, by all means, do that guys, and for the podcast, listen up, we do have that special deal where, just for $99, you get full access to all our online membership, and you also get a one hour free coaching call with us. So what's stopping you guys except for yourself, so get on the phone, get on the email, send us an email, we'd love to hear from you guys. Graham: Alrighty, take care, we'll see you soon. Announcer: TIMA. Innovating the martial arts industry.