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Title: Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results by Jack Mitchell, Sonny Kleinfeld ISBN: 1-4013-9806-5 Publisher: Hyperion Books Pub. Date: June, 2003 Format: Unknown Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.81 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Hooray For Customer Service!
Comment: In an era of cookie cutter department stores, and speciality shops that require sales staff to complete "Attitude 101", it is incredibly refreshing to learn the story of Jack Mitchell, and his vastly successful enterprise Mitchells/Richards, which is the subject of "Hug Your Customers".
Mitchell, the second generation to run the family clothier, stresses time and time again in this history/marketing/advice tome that the key to retailing success is going the extra mile to please a customer, thereby developing loyalty (as well as increased sales).
Mitchell is not only a shrewd business, but also a great storyteller, and has mastered the art of remembering his customers - the stories he tells in this book about exceeding customer expectations through fairly simple means (creating customer profiles, involving family in business...) are lessons that anyone in business has heard ten times over, and has probably discarded for the latest marketing trend. Mitchell's simple storytelling style works great when discussing the importance of old fashioned customer service principles (selling merchandise displayed on mannequins, charting birthdays, phone calls to customers to remind them of special events...) - his buisness philosophy makes great (common) sense.
Mitchell's ideas of service translate extremely well into any sales environment, and this book is a great resource (and reminder) for anyone in sales, marketing, or public relations work. He is great at capturing the larger picture of the value of relationships in the sales enviroment - as well as valuing the sales staff.
In an era where quality customer service seems to be a forgotten skill, its great to read of someone who has had great success because he practices the very simple rules of successful sales - know your customer - greet them and treat them with respect - go tohe extra mile to satisfy their needs. Unfortunately, we have come to expect less of salespeople these days because such simple courtesies are rarely extended in today's retailing marketplace. I found a number of strategies laid out by Mitchell to be great starting points for customer interaction in my own work, and that is the best reccomendation a reader can give a book of this type.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the best business books I've read in a long time
Comment: HUG YOUR CUSTOMERS by Jack Mitchell is one of the best business books I have read in
a long time . . . it describes how he transformed a little store
started by his parents into two of the most successful clothing
establishments in the business.
I know that I was really into it by the copious notes I was
taking on just about every topic . . . in addition, I kept thinking
to myself that next time I'm anywhere near one of his
stores in Connecticut, I want to stop by and see for myself
how Mitchell has managed to succeed when so many
others fail in the industry.
As he notes, "We shower our customers with attention.
There's no doubt in my mind that our philosophy can be applied
to selling just about anything--from aircraft engines to beanbags."
He does this by showering his customers with "hugs"--personal touches
that impress and satisfy the customer . . . these include such
things as:
Remembering the name of your customer's dog;
Calling a customer to make sure he's satisfied after a purchase;
Having a kids' corner with TV, books and treats;
Knowing your customer's golf handicap; and
Letting your customer use your office to make a personal phone call.
The book was chock-full of other ideas that could be applied
to just about any situation; among them:
When I'm bored at home, rather than reading a book, I often
punch the button on my computer and put in parameters to
pull up our top one hundred or top one thousand customers,
men and women, and I study them like I was studying vocabulary
words for the SAT's. The names go into one of the attic rooms
of my brain and lodge there. As I once knew all stats on Joe
DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, I now try to know all the stats
on my top thousand customers. Because that's the game:
knowing the customer.
A hug can be a thoughtful remedy for an annoyance. When the
Postal Service raised the price of a stamp to 37 cents from 34 cents,
my first thought was, "Oh, great, now I've got to stand in line to get
3-cent stamps so I can use that mound of 34-cent stamps I bought
so I wouldn't have to wait in line for a long time." I hate waiting
in lines, especially at a government agency. But who doesn't? So
I sent out a personal note to five hundred of our good customers,
thinking they might be in the same boat, and included some 3-cent
stamps. "You know you are the focus of our business," I wrote.
"In an effort to make your life less hectic, I have enclosed a
handful of 3-cent stamps." It was a hug out of nowhere, and they
loved it.
Consistency means that if you're going to do anything for the customer,
you have to do it for everyone, including someone you've never seen
before. That means that a customer is more important than a
mannequin. One Saturday years ago, Mitchells was really mobbed,
and this couple came in who had never been there before. The wife
asked if we had a certain tie in a green coloration. I flipped
through the tie racks and couldn't find it. The woman nodded at
a mannequin and said, "There it is." So I got up and removed it and
took if downstairs to be steamed. Meanwhile, the couple browsed
around and wound up buying several suits, a couple of sport jackets,
and twenty-three custom shirts. As they were checking out, the woman
said, "We were in a store in Stamford before we came here, and there
was a tie on the mannequin that I liked and I asked the manager if he
could take it off, and he said, 'Absolutely not, the visual department
is coming out from New York today and the visuals have to be
perfect.' "
Rating: 5
Summary: Creating a Magical Experience for Customers
Comment: A business owner who'll do anything for his customers--even fly across the world to deliver a suit! He turns clothing shopping from commodity to magical experience--and he is very well-compensated. I read this all the way through in about two sittings.
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