This week’s tip comes to us from Tip of the Weeker, Joseph Klein. And he really knows about giving great service. Check out the amazing Fairmont Resort at Lake Louise, Canada where Joseph is the manager… fabulous!

Your number one customer service advantage is the personal relationship you build with your customers. And there is no better way to strengthen that relationship than to…

USE YOUR CUSTOMER’S NAME.

Joseph makes sure his front desk clerks always address their guests by name. “Thank you, Mrs. Jones. I have your reservations right here. You’ll be in room 127 this evening.”

Here are a couple of ideas to make using your customer’s name work especially well.

• Be respectful. Using your customer’s last name; Mr. Smith, Ms. Johnson, Mrs. Jones, is probably your best bet until you have developed a close relationship or unless they have introduced themselves by their first name only.
  
• Introduce yourself first. It’s uncomfortable to have someone know who you are and not know who they are. Give your customer your name as a great way to begin building a relationship.
  
• Say their name correctly. Not too tough if the name is Smith or Jones, but what if you get “Woltjer” or “Olechnowicz” (real names from our local phone book)? If you’re not sure, ask, don’t guess. Most people like having their names spelled and pronounced correctly. Ours hardly ever is! By the way, it’s pronounced NA-gen – rhymes with Ronald Regan.
  
• Be sincere. If you’re just rattling the customer’s name off as part of your canned pitch, or if you only look at the customer’s credit card for their name and never make smiling eye contact, you’re probably eroding the relationship, not building on it.
  
• Be sensitive. Always be aware of how your customer wants to be treated. If they are casual, chatty, and friendly, using their name will probably be a plus, if they are formal, stiff, or rushed they may feel you are taking liberties by using their name.

Do you have any good ideas or tried and true methods for using customer names? Let us know so we can pass them on!

There are two basic ways to “add-on” during the selling process.

One is to suggest products related to the main item the customer is buying – a tie with a man’s dress shirt, a tail with a kite, a maintenance kit with a new sewing machine, or socks with a new pair of running shoes. It’s easy and it’s great customer service.

But my favorite way to add-on is to show customers a great product, even if it’s unrelated to the original purchase, at the cash register. Choose add-ons that are fun, easy to sell, and perhaps most importantly, high margin items.

Why is it my favorite? Because it’s easy money. All you have to do is ask. So ask every customer, every time.

Kate Moynihan from Moynihan Gallery in Holland, Michigan tried it last Christmas. Her best add-on was a “Fizz Ball” – a bath salts ball in beautiful colors and delicious scents that fizzes when you drop it in the tub. She piled them up in a huge glass jar and they flew out the door, into Christmas stockings everywhere.

She reports that it added about $10,000 to her holiday sales!

My favorite add-on at the Mackinaw Kite Company was the Whistling Balloon Helicopter – a fun, silly little toy with great universal appeal. They retail at only $1.99, which may not seem like much… until you consider the fact that we sold thousands and thousands and thousands of them every year!

We guarantee this tip will generate tons of additional sales for YOU – if you use it constantly and consistently.