How to Improve Customer Service | Stories With Traction Podcast

SHOW NOTES:

SUMMARY: In this episode, Rocco Matteo and Matt Zaun discuss retail and the danger in companies chasing the next trend at the expense of their existing customers.

ROCCO MATTEO BIO: Rocco is the managing partner of E3 Consulting, and he frequently speaks on strategic planning, “the art of retail,” and communication.

For more info, check out Rocco here |
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rocco-matteo-a2a91b6/
https://www.e3-consulting.ca/

MATT ZAUN BIO: Matt is an award-winning speaker and storyteller who empowers organizations to attract more clients through the art of strategic storytelling. Matt’s past engagements have catalyzed radical sales increases for over 300 organizations that range from financial institutions to the health and wellness industry.

Matt shares his expertise in persuasion with executives, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs, who he coaches on the art of influence and how to leverage this for profits and impact.

For more info, check out Matt Zaun here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzaun/

 

 

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

I am fired up for this episode.

So here's why I'm so fired up. So literally just maybe 20 minutes. ago, I had a terrible customer service experience.

Absolutely terrible. Now this experience was with my bank and it was so bad, I was even considering in my mind, should I pull all my money and go to another bank?

Okay, so it was egregious. So I'm excited to have today's guest on to unpack elements of customer service in a big, big way.

So today I have Rocco Mateo and Rocco is the managing partner of E3 Consulting and he frequently speaks on strategic planning, the art of retail and communication.

Welcome Rocco.

 

Rocco

Great to be on. Thank you so much.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

I, this is like the perfect time to have you on. I kid you not right before we hopped on.

I had this absolutely terrible experience. I called my bank. It's basically what happened was I received a letter mail that I had some questions on.

So I called my bank. Called my bank and in my mind, this was such a basic thing to be answered.

I got bounced around to three different people. No one can answer my question. And I literally thought I was being pranked.

Like I was like, there's no way that this customer service can be this bad. I, I'm a, I'm a, I like to get myself a pretty gracious person.

And I didn't want any, I, I wanted to get off the call very quickly. And I'm seeing this more and more.

Like this is the perfect example to lead into this conversation. Cause I'm seeing this more and more. So I'm seeing this, this, this whole transformation where companies are so focused on their online presence, that they are really pulling back on training with their people, whether it's in person or over the phone or virtual.

And I guess people are getting kind of spoofed now where they're, they're, they're looking at AI, thinking, here's where it's all going to go.

We're not going to really need. people soon and they're investing so heavily that they're very much neglecting their people and they're losing business because of it.

 

Rocco

They are. They are. They are. And Matt, you're not the only one. I just wanted to reassure you're not the only one going through those kind of experiences, whether it's at your bank, whether it's at your local grocery store or whether it's at the mall.

Unfortunately, yes, we do have a labor shortage. I mean, this is talked about worldwide, especially here in North America.

It's something that we talk about all the time. But I'm kind of tired of hearing that because yes, there's a labor shortage, but we kind of put too much emphasis on what we need.

We put a lot of emphasis on chasing the next trend. Like you were talking about AI. We're talking about the next e-commerce trend, which, which if you can argue, it's it's the right thing to do.

But at the same time to your point about the training development, we kind of neglected the people that exist in the company today.

So that person that we're, that you were getting bounced around with and you're bounced from from one person to the other.

I can guarantee you that that person has not. received any training in the last months or any recognition or any any kind of follow up from their manager to kind of say, you know, this is where we're going.

So the coronavirus or the the COVID epidemic has caused organizations to shift more to a technological type environment and kind of sacrificed other investments because they needed to put their money there.

And with reason, I mean, everybody was shifting to the e-commerce. Everybody was shifting to the ATM. Everybody was shifting to their doing the business online.

But then they forgot about the people. And now we're paying the price. And so to your point, you experienced exactly what's going on today in our economy, especially if I may on the retail front, because I consider calling a bank a retail type approach, we're suffering.

We're suffering a lot.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

So I, unfortunately, yeah, and it's, it's happening. And I really appreciate you mentioning the chasing the next trend. Obviously businesses want to make sure their position for the future 100%.

But I. I do see it's almost like there's so much emphasis on positioning for the future that they're sacrificing now.

And they're losing business. Think about so much business that goes elsewhere and then people are building loyalty somewhere else.

So it could be a major loss in business. And I, we can't really talk about retail without bringing up the big, the big dog, right?

Amazon. But I do want to talk about the psychology I'm seeing because I do see some changes regarding Amazon.

And so obviously there's an unbelievable amount of convenience. I mean, as far as the shipment time, it's incredible. One of the things I've noticed though, is I have purchase and this is not a once, or one time thing.

This has happened again and again and again, where I purchase something. It's not exactly the way the description let me on to believe.

So now I need to return it. So now my time goes into the return and there's different ways to return.

But I've started to see that it's Culturally, we might be trending in some categories back to in-person retail, right?

Now, obviously Amazon is probably gonna be here for a long long time and there's a lot that they're gonna be doing in the future, absolutely.

But could we potentially trend to certain categories where people need to be physically present to do that?

 

Rocco

100% and don't get me wrong. I mean Amazon is the giant. Amazon is the reference for e-commerce. I mean, there's their process is flawless.

I mean, I've purchased stuff on Amazon. My whole family's purchased stuff on Amazon, but to your point about the return process, I mean, don't get me wrong.

You're still putting a lot of energy to return a product. So yeah, you're not consuming any gas. You don't have to get in your car and drive to a location, but you are putting time into this.

So I think people have to ship back to brick and mortar for the simple reason that certain products, certain categories, you know, and I think about furniture.

I think about, you know, in the bedroom type environment. products that need to be, you know, you want to touch and feel it, and you want to see how you can fashion it or how you can match it.

I think you got to be in a certain brick and mortar locations do that. And getting some expertise from the employees to help you make the right choice.

I think there's an added value there. So there's definitely going to be some categories where the shift is going to go back to brick and mortar and organizations and CEOs of today.

And I speak to many CEOs. I speak to a lot of business owners, and I keep telling them, you're forgetting about the customer.

You're forgetting about the people in your store. I said, in 2023, going forward, you're three, you're three, you're playing, going forward.

What is, what are you doing for your people? What are you doing for your customer? And who is your customer?

Do you know your customer is? If it's a transactional customer, fine. If it's not a transactional customer, and you put too much emphasis on the transaction, how are you going to turn that customer back to you and not lose business to your point?

So these are very, very essential fundamental things that we have to think about going forward.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Yeah, so let's talk about. more of the cultural shift. Cause I see this happening more and more. And I'm sure that the area that I live in, I'm sure there's other areas that have gone through this, right?

So the area I live in, the main economy was a paper mill. Okay. So many, many, many decades ago, you had tons of people getting a really good livable wage working at a paper mill.

That went belly up a long time ago and the town went through a lot of tough times. I, where I was raised, I was actually raised about an hour and a half north from where I live now.

And it was a steel mill. So manufacturing sector. And at one point, there were tens of thousands of people, literally tens of thousands of people that worked at this steel company.

A lot of people, my family worked there. So right out of high school, they could go work at this steel mill and get a really good salary.

And they can go back to school, company pays, and they could literally work there for the rest of their life, right?

So that was fueling the economic engine. Where I am now, I've seen a lot of people in the world, and I'm not going to be able to do that.

I've seen a lot of people in the world, right? in this unbelievable transition where a lot of microbreweries are popping up, a lot of restaurants, like really good restaurants are popping up.

And now more of a boutique shop feel. So it's this very walkable locations where you have the restaurant, you have the brewery, and you have these boutique retail outlets, candles, clothing, you'd mentioned beds, right?

But the experience is really, really cool. When my wife and I go out on a date night, we're willing to pay significantly more than going on Amazon because of the experience.

Do you see culturally this happening more and more across the country?

 

Rocco

I visited tons of shopping malls. I visited a lot of family-style approach, street shop locations, and people are looking for expertise.

But there are a lot of people today are looking for niche products. So that's a massive version.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Rocco, you're breaking up.

 

Rocco

Mass product approach in the book or Amazon.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

It's OK platforms. Rocco, do you hear me now? No, you broke up really bad after that question. Can you hear me?

 

Rocco

Yeah, I can hear you.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Do you hear me now? Yeah, you're fine.

 

Rocco

But you froze for probably a good, like, two minutes. Oh, wow.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Sorry about that. Oh, no worries. No worries. So could you leave off for a second? I asked you see the trend going more to these boutiques and different areas nationally Hope we're not breaking are we breaking off now breaking off again?

Yeah You hear me now Matt you hear me now I could hear your your freeze I'm pretty bad that are you Okay, sorry about that.

No, okay.

 

Rocco

I think we can go now So try to answer your question Matt in terms of a more boutique style.

It's funny you asked me that question not maybe Month ago. I visited one of the top malls here in Canada And I walked them all and I usually when I walk a mall I walk at two three times because I really need to see who's a new who's a new who's a new kid in town?

Who's a new story? You know, what are the promotions? What are people doing with some merchandising styles? It's my passion, right?

This is what I do And I counted and it's no word of a lie. I counted about seven new stores in different markets with different products that were exactly to your point boutique style locations.

And I think people are kind of getting fed up with those mass merch retailers, mass market retailers. And they want that personalized experience and want the expertise and they want the original type product to be different.

And they're looking for that recognition and it makes them feel a lot better. So if it was from coffee to clothing to candles to cosmetics and these are very independently owned locations with entrepreneurs trying new things.

And it kind of fascinated me because it brought a different look and a different feel to that shopping mall.

So to your point, you're actually bang on because we're shifting to that a lot. And this was something that was president, I would say 20, 25 years ago.

And then we lost it with the big box trend in the last 20, 25 years. But as you know, the market is a circle, the world is a circle we keep going round and round and things come back in style.

And I think that's what we're trending back to. Not sure it's gonna take a big piece of the market because the big box stores will always take the high volume, but I think they have their place.

They do have their place.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Yeah, it's gonna be fascinating to see you the next decade or maybe two where things go culturally. And I love studying trends and how we transition as a culture.

It's just fascinating to me. Now, one of the things I wanna ask you that I'm just, I'm really fascinated by.

Now, I can't remember the name of the book because it's been over 20 years since I read it, but it was a book on retail.

I was just fascinated by it. And basically the premise was studying customers, behaviors when they are in a store.

It was fascinating to me. So basically this author.

 

Rocco

Must be, was it Paco Underhill?

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Why would we? No, it wasn't that again. It's a private about 20 years since I read this book. So I love to find it, but essentially this author studied how when a customer walks in a store, do they turn laughter, do they turn right first?

And then how many steps do they take before they start to look around? And then what are the shelves that they normally go to first?

And how do you build the psychology of the shelves they go to first? Right. And when they're loading their card up to get them to purchase other items once they get to the middle of the store.

And it was like everything was strategically planned and placed and it was fascinating.

 

Rocco

100% and it's a great point, Matt. And I always call it the first 30 seconds. So when you walk into a retail location, what do you feel in the first 30 seconds?

So do you feel price? Do you feel product? Do you feel merchandising impact? Do you feel a customer service?

So what are your feelings in the first 30 seconds? And I always tell them the Walmart story. It's a very quick story.

And. And. Why do people think that at Walmart, you get the best service and the best price? Well, when you walk into Walmart, the first thing there is is the greeter.

And they have a greeter systematically there from Monday to Sunday, from morning to night that greets you and says, welcome to Walmart and gives you your shopping cart.

You don't have that in every location. Second thing, why do they have the best price? Well, the first 12 products when you walk into a Walmart on your right, like you mentioned, you have diapers, you have coffee, you have juice, you got liquor, you got pop, soda pop.

And those are the best prices you can get in USA at that moment. So you walk in the location, your first perception is, oh, I'm getting a good price here.

Second, you were told welcome to Walmart. So you're shopping, your whole customer journey within the location of Walmart is you're thinking, it's the best price and it's the best service.

Well, I can guarantee you one thing. Try to find someone in Walmart after you pass the line there for help, you're not gonna find anybody.

Try to compare prices within the Walmart. Apart from those prices, I can guarantee you some of them are just some other competitors are more competitive, but they give you a perception that the price was there.

So when I worked for 10 years in a cosmetics industry, so I was direct sales and operations. And the first thing I told the people, I said, when people walk into a cosmetics store, they need help.

They need expertise. So yes, there's a welcome approach. Yes, you have to welcome the customer. But one of your first things you have to tell the customer is how can I help you be a better person today?

That's why they come into your location. So when it's cosmetics, it's expertise. When it comes to Walmart, it's volume and price.

When it comes to the bedroom set environment, well, it's more what is your budget? So every customer that walks in, your merchandising impact or your customer service impact or your store environment impact has to be geared to the need of that customer that you're targeting.

So that's essentially what it boils down to. And so your point about the bank, that's where we're. not doing today anymore.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

All right. So there, there is so much I want to unpack with what you just said. Right. So let's, let's talk about a few of these things.

So you had mentioned first 30 seconds you walk in and you can quickly tell, you know, price, product customer service.

 

Rocco

You mentioned a few things.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Right. A question for you. So let's talk about speed, price and customer service. So the three of those speed price customer service, do you think a business can have all three or do they, or are only allowed to pick two to make it a viable business model?

 

Rocco

Spreep speed, price and customer service. The one retail that comes to mind that probably, and it's, there's very little retailers that can do that, but there's one retail that comes to mind as Costco.

I think Costco at some point has all those three factors in their, in their, in their business model. You have the best price.

You have service because it's quick. So you have the merchandise. You have all the quality. So they kind of take all the boxes.

But at the end of the day, I would find it very difficult for every retail to take all the three boxes.

A customer will probably sacrifice your other two mentioned points if you're giving them the service and if you're really satisfying their needs.

So if you're waiting in line at a store and you know that you get the best price, what is taking too long.

You kind of have a different feeling of that location. If you're going into a store, you don't have the best price, but the person that served you really gave you everything you wanted, really gave you all the needs really satisfied all your needs, and really made you a loyal customer.

I can guarantee you that that part of the equation will outweigh the other two factors that you mentioned. But getting back to Costco, I mean, they they kind of have a down pack.

I think their model is really is really strong. They keep getting better. They keep improving themselves. I think their operations are geared to those three factors that you mentioned.

And I think a lot of these. I'll struggle with that, but I would not recommend to try to be the best at all those three I would really try to recommend and start with what the customer wants and what your vision of the organization is to your customer It's a really good point.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Let's talk about a couple questions The first I have a comment and then regarding questions So the comment is there is a grocery store that I've been going to now for years and years and years It's called Wegmans.

They have a fairly big presence on the east coast of the US and what fascinates me about Wegmans is whenever I walk up to An employee and I say hey, where is blank?

Doesn't matter what employee it doesn't matter if they're they have a cart and they're stocking shelves They'll say let me show you and they will walk even if it's all the way across the entire store For that $2 to the toothpaste that I didn't know where it was because it's a new or whatever

They have been coach. They had to have been coach that if we lose a customer, we're losing on thousands and thousands of dollars a year.

It doesn't matter if it's a 30 cent item. You take time to do that. They've been highly coached. I mean, my hats off to Weigmans, they do a phenomenal job.

But I bring that up because think about just a few moments of taking the time to do that, to create that wow experience that's lacking in other arenas.

Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry.

 

Rocco

No, I would have to say right off the bat that that's part of the culture. And when I talk about culture, this might sound cliche, but it's really top down, top to bottom employees from the CEO all the way to your part time cashier that works at Weigmans.

I mean, this is part of the culture. And getting back to my example, the cosmetics chain that I worked for, we revamped the whole sales culture.

We revamped the whole customer. So Tap left. service approach. And I left in 2009 and still took today. That banner or that cosmetics chain is in the top five customer service approach here in Canada, year after year.

And so it's part of every presentation. It's part of every speech of a CEO. It's part of every project.

The customer is at the heart of their decisions. And every training and development that is done to those employees, they talk about the customer.

And to your point, they talk about the impact of losing that customer. So I can name you. I'm not going to name you any other grocery chains.

It's not part of their culture. And so if we're going to does that, we're going to does that is because it's something that it's that's really encrusted from day one into the integration of the employee when they get employee that works 15 hours a week.

We'll get the same training for an employee that works 40 hours a week. So every employee is important. And it's part of their integration package to understand what we're meant to represent and what the customer represents for them.

But it has to be at the. It has to be reinforced not day by day, hour by hour. It's something that managers have to be top of mind.

And when they have their sales hurdle in the morning, when they have their workshops, as you mentioned before, this is something that has to be repeated all the time.

It's repetition will be the only way to really get these people to master the customer service.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

I appreciate you mentioning repetition. It's not once and done. It needs to become part of that culture, like you're saying, I love that.

But that's me asking a question to the employee, right? Hey, where is this product? What about questions that team members ask customers?

And here's where I see a lot of locations getting this wrong in a big, big way. It's almost funny to me in a not so funny way.

Here's what I mean. I always find it amusing when I'm in line at a store. So imagine retail location, I'm in line.

There's a line of people behind me. And I get there and we're happy. halfway through the checkout and the person asked me, did you find everything that you were looking for today?

And in my mind, I'm thinking, am I gonna say, no, I didn't. Can you actually stop the entire line, all these people, can you stop bringing me up and can you help me find what I had difficulty find?

It's not gonna happen, right? So normally I'll say, yes, or I don't know, whatever the pleasantries gonna be, but it was a good experience or whatever.

But why is that the question being asked? And this is asked in a lot of retail locations, by the way.

And also, there's other questions where someone will come up to you and they'll say, hey, can I help you?

And this normally happens when I'm on a date night with my wife, we just had dinner, now we're going to one of the, like a boutique location.

We're kind of browsing, so to speak, more than likely we're gonna buy something, but we're just looking, the last can we help you?

No, we're okay, we're just looking right now. And then 30 seconds later, can I help you? Yeah, grapes are quite good group and yeah, I think any hitting a morphology way I finishing up is ways to try to pat them and get along, but you sort it first things in kind of a WalkthroughGr managers as well.

Oops. I'm good guys. I try to come back. There's a lot of energy. I love plantation foresty fertilizer. Love corn Crest, I'mhosting CBD, Forest woodwood.

Keep it regionally, I think you might know. It's been 4 15 years, definitely. I live here in the NP.

It support it and we're connected. We really turn the world into a big classroom. every onudible school. football right now.

Step into hallway library, There's a lot of people showing up in fields, right? Yeah. You got to get intoplays out here..

and then four minutes later, can I help you? And you're like, should we leave or should we stay here and browse?

I'm going to just open our wallet. So what are your thoughts on questions?

 

Rocco

Well, I mean, that's the old fashioned way of approaching the customers that could be classical question of can I help you?

Getting back to your example of the, when you're ringing up your transaction, have you found everything you need? A lot of times you'll say yes, but I can guarantee you by just a simple fact that she asks you that question, you feel good, right?

Because she's giving you a special attention, right? And for sure, you're not going to say, no, I forgot my bananas or I forgot the milk.

Can you get somebody to run over and get them for me? You're not going to say that, right? Because as you said, you got people huffing and puffing behind you because it's taking time to get through.

But just a simple fact that she told you that, I think it makes you feel good and I think it gives you a full customer experience.

But for the can I help you? I continuously preach, Matt, that can I help you? It's kind of the cliche old fashioned.

I think you need other phrases, icebreakers. OK. And I call them the ice breakers. Did you see what happened outside the weather?

There's a snowstorm coming up. Did you hear about that? Oh, did you see the Dallas Cowboys lost their game last night?

Like type of ice breakers for the customer to make them feel even more at ease with you. When you say kind of help you, it's kind of, and I don't wanna use the word, but it's kind of harassing you, right?

It's kind of saying, well, okay, I know, I don't need help. I can guarantee you seven out of 10 customers do need the help.

They just don't want you, they don't wanna talk to you. But if you ice break the conversation, if you become more, more real, more realistic, more humble and more, you become much more credible to the customer.

So I was getting back to the conversation of, of the, you know, when I was in cosmetics, a lot of times that's what I would tell them, make it a nice breaker.

When I worked in the hardware industry, I always tell them, make it a nice breaker. How's your project coming along?

And now I have so many problems. Well, I just opened up. I just opened up. Sales opportunities endless sales opportunities to the guy who's repairing his bathroom to the guy who's renovating his kitchen endless opportunities, so I think the keyword there is icebreaker Matt and I'm sure I can guarantee you that is one of the major major Sentences or ways of doing it that will convert your sales in a very significant way.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

I Love that the icebreaker idea that is really really important and I don't want people listening to miss this No, you shouldn't it's huge One of the things that I've learned now this is happening more and more and more that I really want people to recognize this so and Maybe this is due to covid worth a lot of people working virtually So maybe their communication skills have radically plummeted which is it's happening, right?

But I feel more and more people need permission to ask And what I mean by that is I've noticed, especially in the last three years, when I'm doing a session, so whether I'm doing a workshop or like a very intensive training with companies, in the past, I would naturally say, does anyone have any questions?

Right? And I've noticed that more and more people need permission before they even ask questions. So simply pointing to someone in the room and saying, Susan, can you start to see how these concepts could be applied to your day to day?

And then Susan starts talking, it gives permission to other people in the room that they can speak as well.

It's just kind of something that I've learned. So when I'm hearing you regarding this icebreaker piece, going up to someone and saying, how's your project coming along?

Or what project are you currently working on and giving them space to talk? If they need help, they're going to be, oh, and could you help me find X, Y and Z?

Correct. And you said, what a great sales opportunity because you're... learning more about their life. I mean, it's amazing how just talking about sports or talking about something that's happening in the community, how it can open up so many other opportunities to supply more value to them, even more sales, and we're missing those opportunities.

 

Rocco

So thank you for saying that. No problem. And then I think, I think, you know, the COVID has not helped.

I think the world is upside down, you know, and I think there's a perfect opportunity now for a lot of organizations.

And I talk for retail because that's my passion. People are my passion. And I say that because a lot of organizations are searching for themselves, right?

And if they would touch the person right now, if they would touch the people, if they care to people, I think they have to empower the people.

I think people have lost a lot of confidence in the last two, three years. I think, you know, being away, being virtual, having no contact with their co-workers, no contact with the culture of the organization.

I think there's a 180 to do right now. And I think it's urgent. Organizations have to work on this very urgently because, as you said,

People need permission, people have lost confidence, and to customers and to the employees in the store. So this is one area that I put a lot of emphasis when I'm doing a strategic planning, is that I asked the CEO, okay, we talked about your vision.

You wanna double your sales in the next three years. That's fine. I think a lot of people do, and a lot of people will love to do that.

Second thing I talk about, right after that first question is, how about your people? How are your people doing?

How are your people envisioning this strategy? How are your people engaged in this vision? How are your people gonna embrace it?

And most importantly, how are your people gonna execute this strategy? And unfortunately, there's a lot of statistics out there, but more often than not, a strategy will not go to fruition, will not be fully executed.

And that's where we lose a lot of momentum, that's where we lose a lot of credibility, and that's where we lose employees who are not implicated and lose that permission to speak up to your point.

And very important, I think, engagement, I think embracing division. Those are two things that have to be looked at in much detail.

And a lot of organizations today have a window opportunity right now to really kind of distinguish themselves from the competitor.

And I hopefully, this is something that can help some organizations with for sure.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Sure, and what's amazing to me is like the bar is so low. It is. It is. It is.

 

Rocco

Like if leaders would just grab ahold of what you're saying. And it's a great point.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Yep. Creating that culture. Think of the, like, yes, I shared some like bad customer service experiences today. But there are experiences that I've had that are so good that I go out of my way to go to different places.

Knowing I'm going to feel great. I'm going to have an awesome interaction with the staff. There are places I'll go in.

And my wife and I will try to figure out what else can we buy here. We love the experience.

Exactly.

 

Rocco

Like, is that a great place to be in? Exactly. And customer experience is a huge thing you're going to talk about.

I mean, we can talk tomorrow about this. Again, I'm repeating myself, but a lot of retailers have gone to the e-commerce, but customer experience is the full cycle, right?

So you might buy online, you might go to the location, you might speak to somebody on the phone, you might speak to somebody in person.

So don't just think of customer experience as your e-commerce platform. Think of customer experience for your entire organization. And that's where we fail to evaluate the person in the store.

We fail to evaluate the person responding to your call at the bank. So what we just evaluate is my website performing is my website on the top of the list.

Is my website error-free? Is my website, OK, but I do get that. I get it. I get it, but stop for a minute.

Look at the entire cycle. Look at the entire picture. Look at the entire organization. And look at the entire team that's involved in every step of that customer process or that customer journey.

And that's where we fail, Matt. And that's where the opportunities are endless. And that's where you say that the bar is low.

The bar is low. is very low. And I wish I can speak to a lot of CEOs and tell them a lot of things they can do.

And maybe we can leverage that platform.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

For sure. For sure. Well, they could definitely. Opportunities are endless.

 

Rocco

The opportunity is endless. Yeah.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

No, thank you so much. And I very much appreciate your time today. I feel like we touched a lot of different things.

But there are three things that really stood out to me the most based on our conversation that I'm going to take away from this.

Is I really appreciate you mentioning a lot of businesses out there.

 

Rocco

They're chasing the next trend.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

Yes. At the expense of their people and their business now, which can be really dangerous. I also appreciate you mentioning the first 30 seconds are paramount.

It's almost like us talking about first impressions are really important. Well, the first impression is someone walks in, you mentioned price, product customer service.

What do they feel in the first 30 seconds? I love that. And then the third and final takeaways. I really appreciate you talking about positioning it as an ice break.

breaker. Not just saying, can I help you? What does that even mean? Help with what? So how do you position as an icebreaker?

Sales could potentially skyrocket based on the questions we're asking our customers. So thank you so much for that.

 

Rocco

I very much appreciate it. It was a pleasure.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

It was a pleasure, Matt. It was very interesting. Yeah. So thanks. If anyone wants to get more information on you, what you do, where's the best place they can go to check that out?

 

Rocco

Well, obviously there's the LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile. So Rocko Mateo on LinkedIn for sure. I have my website, www.e3-consulting.ca. So my email address is there.

My phone number is there. So like I said, I do some speaking events. I can coach the sales district teams.

Retail is my passion. People are my passion. And as you can tell, I want organizations to succeed. That's where I find my personal satisfaction.

And I've been in this industry for so long that I see a lot of low hanging fruits. I see the bars that low like you mentioned.

And I think we can raise the bar and a lot of work. position. So it might pleasure to help them out.

 

Matt Zaun (mattzaun.com)

I love it. All right. So to make it extremely convenient, I will include that in the show notes. People could just click and go right to these links.

But again, thank you so much for your time today.

 

Rocco

I very much appreciate it. It was my pleasure, Matt. My pleasure. Thank you so much.