19: Make Them Rockstars with Dr. Kelly Henry

02
Mar

Dr. Kelly Henry is a customer experience consultant who founded and ran the Henry Chiropractic Clinic for 20 years. By using a system based approach to customer service, he was able to catapult HCC into a leading organization in its field. His book, Define and Deliver Exceptional Customer Service, will launch in January 2021.

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Make Them Rockstars with Dr. Kelly Henry

Our guest is Kelly Henry, who is a customer experience speaker, consultant, author, and coach. He was the founder and the CEO for 20 years of the Henry Chiropractic Clinic, which was a chain of clinic he developed into a leading organization in its field in America, using a system-based approach which allowed him to create systems around acquiring and retaining patients, around creating a team atmosphere, creating loyalty with patients by solving the problems in a proactive way, and created an ease of convenience of using the service. He described his processes in his book titled Define and Deliver Exceptional Customer Service. Without further ado, welcome to the show, Kelly.

Thank you very much, Steve. I really appreciate it.

Great to have you. Great to have you here. Kelly, tell us a little bit about your journey and how did you discover customer experience and how did you evolve into being an expert in this field?

Great question. I got out of chiropractic school and moved my family to New Mexico, near to where my wife grew up, a small community in the southeast corner of New Mexico. And I was fortunate enough to buy a practice from a retiring chiropractor. So that was great. Anyways, we get to this particular town and it, again, small community, had a lot of businesses that had been established and been there for many, many years. And it became very apparent that a lot of these businesses didn’t have, they just didn’t provide very good customer service, just to be honest with you.

Right.

Their philosophy was more, you know, they could flip on the lights, open the doors, and you know, they had business. They, you had to do business with them because there was no competition. And so it didn’t take me very long to figure that out. And I really could not stand the way that they were making me feel. That at times unwelcomed, not important, like I was an inconvenience. And so I made a decision, again, very, very quickly once I moved to this particular community that my clinics would not be like that.

We would value our patients. We would provide great customer service. And that ultimately is what started my path to where I’m at now. And it’s just evolved. I’ve learned, I’ve grown, I’ve studied, I’ve implemented, I’ve failed in things, I’ve changed things to get me where I’m at now, to build my practices up for one thing and then be able to do what I’m doing as far as consulting and coaching and helping businesses to thrive like my business is able to thrive because of the foundation of great customer service.

So, Kelly, what is the definition of exceptional customer service in your vocabulary?

Well, the definition in my opinion is a relentless focus on making the customer feel valued or important or special whenever they are in your business or anytime you interact with them. And that’s every employee, that’s every interaction, that’s every day. Your focus, single focus, is to make that customer feel like they are the most important person in the business.

So how do you do that?

Well, there’s a lot of ways that fill in that piece there. It’s training, it’s hiring the right people, it’s making sure that everybody from the top down is on that same page, having the service mindset. Again, that singular focus of we are here for the customer, the customer is not here for us. So again, it’s just that collective foundation that really puts that into play and really makes that what it is. It’s not just one singular action, it’s a collection of things that are really going to create the perception for the customer that this business really appreciates me, values me being a consumer and a customer for them. And by doing that, that customer is going to say, I’m going to continue to do business with it because they make me feel like I’m important.

Hire the right people, and making sure that everybody from the top down is on that same page, having the service mindset. Click To Tweet

That’s really cool. So what are the key principles of that process? Can you give me some examples of what it looks like?

Absolutely. There are two vital principles. The first one is customer perception is everything in customer service. So your business gives a perception, good or bad. Customers are going to get a perception from your business. And so it doesn’t matter if the owners, the upper management, the employees, it doesn’t matter what their perception is. If they think they give great customer service, but the customer doesn’t, the customer wins out. They’re the ones that are right. You have to keep that in mind.

The perception by the customer is what drives things. The second principle is, and goes hand-in-hand with the first one, is the customer’s perception is driven by how you make them feel. You make them feel valuable, important, special like a rock star when they are in your business or dealing with your business? Or are they just a number to you? Are you just making a transaction with them? So that perception is driven by how you make them feel. And again, how you make them feel is the key component. You want them to be special. You want them to feel special, to be valuable, to feel important, feel like that rock star. And again, that’s where that perception goes up. Customer service is being maximized to create more business, to grow the business, to create profits.

The customer's perception is driven by how you make them feel. Make them feel valuable, important, special like a rock star when they are in your business or dealing with your business. Click To Tweet

So, can you give me some examples how you do that? How you create that thing? How do you, what do you tell your employees? How should they behave in order to create that rock star feeling in the patient, in the customer?

Absolutely. There’s some very simple things that you can do that you can take from this podcast and employ them just immediately. And it takes virtually no training and no money to do it. First thing is everybody in a business should be smiling. Or at least the frontline employees, the ones that are interacting and actually the ones on the phone too.

If you are you answering the phone and talking to a customer, you should have a smile on your face too because that tone comes through. But a smile is the universal welcome. It makes people feel, again, valuable. It makes them feel calm, it calms them down. So a smile is just a, it should be a piece of the uniform that an employee puts on every day. Soon as they get to the business, put a smile on their face so they look like they’re ready to help a customer out. So that’s an easy one. Just put a smile on your face.

Smile is the universal welcome. It makes people feel valuable, calm, and important. Put a smile on your face—it's a piece of the uniform that an employee should wear every day. Click To Tweet

Okay, I’m trying to.

Well, I wasn’t speaking to you directly, Steve. So collectively, put a smile on your face. Not only will it make the customer feel better, it’ll make the employee feel better because it’s hard to be in a bad mood when you’re walking around with a smile on your face all day. The second thing is just be friendlier. You know, a lot of businesses have this idea that they are friendly. And to them, friendly is just because they said hello when the customer walked in. Oh, hello, good to see you. How can I help you?

Well a lot of communication is, most of communication is not verbal as we all know. It’s gestures, it’s tone and those type of things. So being enthusiastic and and being friendly, those go hand in hand. So you need to be friendly. And friendly is how are you doing? How can I help you? Acting generally happy happy that that customer is doing business with you. That’s a big part of it. So just bring up the friendly quotients.

And then the third thing, and then again, this is very simple, but it seems to be going by the wayside the more I deal with businesses and clients and talk to potential clients, using manners and simple phrases such as please and thank you and you’re welcome seem to be going, like I said, by the wayside. They’re not used as frequently as often as they once were. And they’re certainly not used in communication as far as email or text or chatbots, those type of things.

And those phrases really, again, show value to the person you’re communicating with. And it’s such a simple thing to do, to add to an end of the email or say to a customer when they’ve done something or asked a question, or whatever the case may be. Please, thank you, you’re welcome. Again, it’s just adding value to the person you’re communicating with. So those are really three very simple things that can, like I said, be implemented almost immediately with very little cost, but can bring that perception for the customer of the quality and the level of customer service a business provides.

So this really sounds like common sense principles.

Absolutely.

So are you saying that most businesses don’t do that?

Well, I say that, but statistics say that too, to be honest with you.

And why don’t they do that?

I mean, well, some just don’t, don’t feel like it’s that important that they, that marketing is more important than taking care of customer service or training on customer service or doing these little things. And that’s my principle of coaching is let’s do these little simple things, but do them consistently and see where that takes you. And a lot of businesses just don’t do that. That’s just not on their radar.

A lot of businesses, too, think they already provide great customer service. And that’s a myth that I deal with a lot of a lot of business owners. And most businesses do have pieces of good customer service, but as a whole, they really don’t. And they don’t look for those problem areas, the bottlenecks, those issues that they have that are upsetting customers, or the customers are not happy with.

And they don’t talk to their customers, and they don’t get that information. And so consequently, they lose customers. And when you lose customers, obviously you lose profits. So those two things right there are a big piece of why, again, it’s common sense, but there’s some myths or some misunderstanding. There’s some delusions there that businesses don’t necessarily move forward with improving their customer service.

So, what do they misunderstand? What are those common misunderstandings that you feel like preventing businesses from?

Well, like I said, a lot of businesses have the thought that they provide great customer service already. There’s a famous, or I shouldn’t say famous, but there’s a study that was done by Bain & Company. And they surveyed almost 400 businesses in the United States. All kinds of businesses across the board. And when they surveyed these businesses, 80% of the businesses, their owners or managers said, yes, we provide superior customer service.

When this Bain company went back and surveyed the customers of these same businesses, of this nearly 400 businesses, only 8% of the customers said that these companies provide superior customer service. So obviously that’s a big gap. Going back to my principle there is the customer perception is everything. But some businesses just don’t don’t grasp onto that and don’t look at that. That, you know, there’s that huge gap in what they actually the customer perceives that, hey, this is not the best customer service here. And they live on the delusion of, yeah, we do provide great customer service. There’s nothing we need to do about it. Let’s just keep you know, let’s keep clogging along like we always have.

Is this because it’s hard to measure customer service or is it because it’s seen as a soft skill that is perhaps less exact, less interesting or feel like less professional in nature?

I think all that, although it’s not that hard to measure. And really the only three metrics that I, were not required to request and recommend my clients use is patient or customer satisfaction surveys. And basically you just ask them, rate our customer service on a scale of one to 10. And if it’s less than an eight, then you need to talk to that customer and see where you’re missing the boat. And they’ll show you exactly what needs to be done. Second survey is an employee satisfaction survey.

If your employees aren’t satisfied, if your employees don’t feel valued, it is impossible for them to turn around and to provide great service. So that’s actually even more important than the customer satisfaction. So you need to make sure you’re treating your employees as good, if not better than the customers. And then the third metric is just cash flow and profit. When you start working on these things and you start building loyalty with customers and keeping more in and they’re referring, you’re going to sell more. Profits should rise. Cash flow should increase. So that’s a pretty easy metric to follow and to measure.

Definitely the cash flow and this internally generated happiness. I mean, some companies have this as their value. One of my former clients who runs the Richmond division of a construction company, their value, customer value is happiness like Disney, happiness. And they really put great focus on their own employees’ happiness, their customers’ happiness, obviously, as well. But they have all these events, they build, they create team cohesion. And then when people feel happy inside the company, then they’re going to project that feeling out to the customers, and the customers is going to rub off on customers as well.

Absolutely. You can’t stop it from happening. So my business mission statements, and what I try to have my clients all adopt is their mission statements is be the best part of the customer’s day. Be the best part of the customer’s day. Make sure that when that customer is interacting with you that they can leave your business and that will ripple out because you’ve made them feel better, you’ve made them happier, you’ve made them more positive. And as they leave there, that’s gonna ripple out to the people they interact with.

So again, it goes above and beyond just transactional and relationships in that particular business. You’re actually affecting people outside the business really one way or the other. So if it’s credit service, again, you’re leaving the negative out there for customers to ripple out that effect? Or are you providing that great service where you’re making people feel valuable? And again, that’s going to ripple out in a little different way.

So what are the companies that are doing well in this arena? Can you give us some example of companies that really provide outstanding customer service experience?

Absolutely. There’s some huge companies. Some of the biggest companies in the world were built on the foundation of great customer service. Everybody knows Disney. If you’ve been to Disney World or Disneyland, you can see how they work. And you feel pretty valuable. There’s a reason it’s called the happiest place on earth. And that’s their philosophy. So Disney’s one of them. Amazon was built on the foundation of customer service and convenience.

And I’m sure we were all, most everybody listening here has been touched by that. Apple, Apple’s another one built on great customer service and how they run and how their stores are put together. And then Southwest Airlines is another example of great customer service and being built on the foundation of customer service. And they’re, I may not be totally correct in this statistic but as far as I know right now, they’re the only airline, at least in the United States, that actually turns a profit every year compared to the other airlines. So if you fly in other airlines and compare them to Southwest, there’s a big difference in the customer service generally.

And I just heard that for the other day that they are picking up routes from other airlines that are suffering the pandemic and they’re actually in investment mode, which is pretty amazing.

And it can be the difference between, I hate what’s going on right now and a lot of businesses have had to close down or obviously had to back off. And customer service and providing good customer service can be the difference between surviving and or thriving, not only now, but when things open back up. So it can be that powerful for a business.

That’s definitely true. So what is a common mistake that you see that businesses commit when they are trying to improve their customer service?

They use it or look at it as a new shiny object, as kind of a flavor of the month club. You know, yeah, that sounds good. We should implement that. Let’s put a couple of pieces in play and see what happens. When really it needs to be a foundation principle that needs to be there, needs to be trained on, needs to be worked on and taken care of on a daily basis to perpetuate forward. That’s the key component. The other mistake I see is it doesn’t come from the top down.

The owners, the upper managers say, yeah, this is a great idea. Let’s just train the staff. But the upper level really never grasped the idea. And it’s got to come from the top down. So in my coaching and consulting, I want to I want to train the trainers. So we want to we want to work from the top down, make sure they’re on top of things, make sure they have grasped the idea, make sure they’re completely on board with the philosophy and the foundation. And then they in turn can train those below them. And again, really establish that foundation.

That’s interesting. That’s a very similar philosophy to what we are doing with EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. You also have this idea that you don’t want to enable companies, you want to teach them how to fish, right? So you go to the LinkedIn team and make sure that they fully bought into the principles, that they have mastered the main concepts of the system. And then you help them, you basically coach them so that they can roll it out to the rest of the organization, but you don’t actually do it yourself. Because it means that they might just be enabled with this whole thing and they don’t own it. And then the staff is obviously not going to follow them if they are not leading.

And then, you know, they’re back to square one eventually, or very quickly. So that’s probably what you don’t want.

Now you have a discredited concept.

Exactly.

So it sounds a little bit exhausting. So the way you explain it, that the leadership has to be fully involved and it has to be done constantly and it requires a lot of training and coaching. So how can a company, a private business owner wrap their minds around that? OK, I take on this process. It’s not going to be an overwhelming burden for me. And it’s going to be somehow contained so that I can I can keep keep on top of it relatively practically.

And that’s a great question. Like I mentioned before, I take simple actions, simple ideas, simple principles that will create major results. So it does seem overwhelming, but it’s really the simple stuff. And the main thing is to commit to consistency. You know, that’s really anything in life. If you’re consistent with it, you’re gonna get better at it is what it amounts to.

But again, you have to be consistent and you have to be committed to it. My program, I call it the 5% Bump Program or consulting program. The 5% Program or the 5% principle is based off a study from Harvard Business School. And what they did was they found that if you can increase customer retention just by 5%. All right, so just a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to 25 to 95% increase in profits. And so that’s pretty powerful.

So what I’ve done is I’ve looked at and studied what are the main things that a customer wants from business and I’ve identified those. And so it’s the 80-20 rule. So let’s just focus on these four key areas that a business, if they’ll improve them, will create the best and greatest impact, the 80 percent of the impact. And so that’s where we can keep it from being so overwhelming. We can narrow it down, take these simple concepts, put them into play and see some phenomenal results because of it.

So, what does your process look like? Do you have like a proven process that you can describe what the steps take and how a company goes from being mediocre in customer service, customer experience, to being in the top 10 percent in like your firm was. Do you have a process that you can describe what the company goes through and what how long does it take and what does it look like?

It really doesn’t take that long. Most of my coaching is or consulting is really only working five to six months with the business. And again, it’s not implementing a ton of stuff. It’s implementing simple concepts, philosophies, foundational principles, and then moving forward. What I do in my process is I audit a business when I’m hired, and we’re gonna look at their strengths and certain their weaknesses, mainly their weaknesses. And then we’re gonna prioritize those weaknesses and the areas that we can get the greatest results and the greatest impact, that’s what we’re gonna focus on first.

And then we’ll just work down through that list. And then we can look at the business as a whole where they can, because each business is different, each business is unique. So we can look at the unique aspects of a business and tweak and do some different things to add the wow factor to again, create that extra added oomph to jump that perception up. But the main principle is let’s look at these areas that I’ve identified, where are they weak at? Let’s let’s sure them up, shore them up so we can create the greatest benefit the quickest.

So that’s kind of implementing it. And then what about maintaining it? Do you have a process to maintain so that these companies don’t fall back into bad behavior?

I do. They can self-maintain and there’s a little bit of a process for that or you like any any good business generally you keep a coach and you help maintain through that so Have somebody from the outside look at it and see where we’re missing the boat See where the numbers are dying off seeing where certain things may be missed and I in my chiropractic world, that’s something that I valued. I’d go to a seminar, talk to my coach, you know, every six months or every three months or so. And sure enough, there was, I missed, you know, I forgot this and this fell through the cracks. And I, you know, stopped doing this for whatever reason. So come back in, talk about those areas, shore those areas back up and keep moving forward.

That’s definitely you really have to focus on maintaining. It’s not about just implement, but you have to keep the cadence that they do this and becomes a habit. And even with habits, we can forget them, right? Sometimes,

Exactly. Like I said, this piece falls through the crack and this piece falls through the crack. And you have to you have to be reminded of it. What’s exciting, though, is you start seeing the the benefits, you know, the increased profit, the increased retention, the increased referrals, you know, I think it’s exciting. And that tends to make you want to continue to maintain it and keep the momentum going. So it’s not so easy when you’re not seeing the results, but when you see the results and you see what has happened, hey, let’s, we don’t want to let this go. Let’s continue to maintain it and do whatever we can to not only maintain it, but continue to grow.

Yeah, absolutely. So Kelly, let’s switch gears here and let’s take a bigger bird’s eye view of your business that you built for 20 years. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the concepts that you used into growing this business? I sometimes call these management blueprints or business frameworks. Examples could obviously be the entrepreneur operating system, but it could also be something what I did when I was running my consulting firm and we were part of a global network. I traveled to different countries where the most successful firms were and I interviewed their partners and I made copious notes and then tried to implement all those pieces in my business to have a better framework. So I wonder what is your experience and what was your approach to building your business?

You just described it actually. So the biggest principle was having the service mindset and the foundation of customer service. That was obviously a big piece. We’ve already talked about it. But outside that, just like you mentioned for your business, I had many coaches and consultants that I worked with. I started with one, they helped me put in a framework to grow my business. Then I actually outgrew that particular consultant and coaching firm. So I found another one that could help me continue to move on, use them, kind of outgrew them, move to another one. Then after using them for several years, collectively I took the pieces that were more comfortable to me, the pieces that I really utilized the most, put together my own framework, and that ultimately is what I’m coaching and consulting and using at this point. But I use those pieces from the foundation of the coaching and consulting that I utilized through the years.

So, you wrote on your LinkedIn profile, which is really interesting about these four areas which you worked on in your business to make it more better more customer friendly or more productive, more successful, more profitable. And could you give us an example of each of the areas, one tool or one approach that you implemented? So, for example, we talked about acquiring and retaining patients. So beyond what you already described, was there anything else that you did specifically for the acquisition of patients?

Well, the four areas are, and this is really the framework of my 5% Bump program, but the four areas are developing and having a team atmosphere with your employees. We talked about that. That’s the key component. That really has to be done. If that’s not done, you can have minimal success with implementing some of the customer service principles, but it will not be near as effective. So that’s gotta be job number one.

So how do you do that? Give me an example of scaling the team atmosphere.

Well, again, it’s making your team, your employees feel valuable. And let me give you a story of where I was for several years in my practice and what my philosophy, my employees were. I had the mindset that an employee was a liability. And my job was to continually find where they were messing up and correct them and make sure they did their job right. And that’s the complete wrong attitude to have.

And finally, through my coaching, the coaches that I had, you know, they finally said, listen, you’ve got to have a different attitude. You can’t have that attitude of your employees that are liability. You need to change and think of your employees as an asset and start looking for the good they’re doing. So that was a huge piece for me. And I was suspecting it could be a huge piece for a lot of employers, start looking at them as assets and seeing the good. Because those employees are doing way more good than they are bad.

And make sure you’re complimenting them on it, make sure you’re recognizing them for the good they’re doing, making sure you’re seeing that and continually pouring out that information to them, let them know they’re doing great and that they are an asset and just build that team up that way and that creates loyalty with those employees to you and to your business and also in turn they they want to continue to provide great service and And serve those customers like you would want them to but again That was a huge mindset shift for me that made a world of difference. So that’s that’s a key component right there.

Okay. What about the customer acquisition piece?

Well, again, when you get this customer service rolling, customer service is the new advertising. And so when you implement and you start retaining more customers and they feel valued and they feel important and they have loyalty to your business, they’re going to want others to come in and be valued and feel important. So they’re going to tell their friends, they’re going to tell their families, they’re going to tell their acquaintances, hey, go do business over here. They treat you like a rock star.

So that becomes the acquisition part of it. Now, you still need to market, but the beauty of it, and like I mentioned on the five percent bump, you increase your profits by 25 to 90 percent because, again, you get more customers in, you keep those customers, they keep referring, and then you don’t have to do as much marketing because you have this giant referral source.

And one of my favorite quotes is, marketing is the price you pay for bad customer service. So as your customer service improves, acquisition improves, you don’t have to do as much marketing. Another aspect too, though, is when you are acquiring new customers, they are, again, they’re your mouthpiece and they are your marketing piece, but they also are going to perpetuate making your employees happy as they’re seeing the increase in customers. So it’s a vicious cycle going in the right direction for you.

A virtuous cycle.

As opposed to the other way.

And what about, that’s really cool. What about the ease of convenience? You also talked about ease of convenience. So how can you improve that?

Well, a lot of that has to do with the business type and the uniqueness of the business. But we live in a society where we want everything now. We want everything then, actually, but it’s always now. Microwave society. And so the more convenient you make your business for your customers, the more they are going to enjoy that. And that, patients, customers will pay for convenience, they’ll pay extra for convenience. That’s how important that can be.

So how can you be more convenient as a chiropractor? Is it about the instant access or is it, I don’t know, is it the office that I can do some work while I wait? What is it?

Well, it’s limiting wait times is the biggest component. The two things that really improved my perception or patient’s perception of my business was decreasing wait times, because some patients I needed to see more often. So if they had to wait 20, 30 minutes and they were in my office for an hour, seven days a week, that’s pretty tough. Even if they were in dire need of my treatment. But if we can make it where they waited less than five minutes and they were out of my office in 15, 20 minutes, they can get on with their life and still get great quality care.

So that helped tremendously. The other aspect of it was having it open to take in new patients whenever I could. Where if a new patient called in, they could get in that same day. And they appreciated that. They’re like, oh, my goodness, thank you so much. They would come to my office. I’ve dealt with chiropractors and physical therapists, some in the medical realm, where both those aspects are terrible. They’re making their patients wait for 20, 30, 45 minutes, and then they’re several days out to weeks out for a new patient to get in.

Now, if your reputation is so good and your service is so great, sometimes you can get away with that. But the vast majority of those in the medical realm, particularly chiropractors and physical therapists, that’s no good. Those patients will go find somewhere else to find that service somewhere else because they won’t put up with that.

Of course. Okay. And the final one, the fourth one, was this idea of the problem handling.

Well, first of all, handling a problem can be a huge, huge benefit when you do it in the proper way. Because if you’ll take care of a problem in a way that satisfies the customer, really even more than satisfies them, you go above and beyond that particular customer, patient, client, their level of loyalty will be greater than just the average customer. So if you do that right, again, those are your next level customers. Those are the ones that are really going to tell their friends and family and be a huge advocate for a business. So that’s why it’s important. Now, I’m not saying you should purposely cause problems so you can take care of the problem in the right way.

That’s not what I’m saying.

Don’t do that. But have a formula in place so you can take care of it in a way that, yeah, you’re gonna make these people, these patients, these clients, these customers really happy. Main thing is the first principle is just do it immediately. And actually, if you can handle a problem, if you can communicate a problem to a customer before they know that was a problem, that will blow their mind. Like, my goodness, I didn’t realize that was an issue.

An example for me that one of my favorite restaurants, we had, was with my family, we had ordered, we were just sitting around talking, waiting for our meal to come out. All of a sudden the manager shows up, she says, “Hey listen, you ordered over 20 minutes ago, our rule here in this business, in this restaurant, is if your food’s not on your table in 20 minutes or less, you get two desserts for free.” We were just blown away by that. So again, if you can recognize a problem before the customer knows, that’s pretty huge. That’s a big thing.

But if you can’t do that, then make sure you’re acknowledging the problem immediately and showing that you’re trying to take care of it immediately. That’s the biggest component. Because you can go through the other pieces, but if you’re not, if you don’t, if the customer doesn’t perceive you’re trying to take care of this problem as quickly as possible, then you might as well quit because they’re out. They won’t feel you like you’re trying to help them. Another way is to make sure you’re satisfying the customer.

Some, you know, and ask them, how will this make you happy? What can I do to make this right? And the vast majority of customers, they’ll give you a reasonable request. You know, there’ll be a few that will try to get, you know, everything they can from you, but the vast majority, they’re gonna wanna just be satisfied. So make sure you do that and a little bit more. Another piece is to apologize. Apologize. Put pride behind you and apologize. “Hey, we’re sorry for dropping the ball.” “We’re sorry for messing this up. We are gonna make it right. How can we do that for you?” And just acknowledge that issue and apologize for it. It’s okay to even apologize if it happens to be the customer’s fault that there’s a problem too.

Now you don’t have to lie and take it upon yourself and say, oh, you know, hey, we’re sorry for missing the sub. You can say, hey, I am so sorry this is happening to you. I’m so sorry that you’re going through this and having to deal with this. How can we make this right? Let’s get this fixed for you. And that is such a psychological positive for the customer. Medium puts them at ease. Medium, again, makes them feel immediately like you’re valuing them and making them feel important. And then you can move forward fromthere.

I definitely had experiences where I screwed up with a customer and it created an opportunity to demonstrate in a dramatic fashion that I go out of my way to correct things and it actually left a positive impression at the end. This is a net positive for me in this relationship with the customer.

Absolutely.

So that’s really cool. So we are getting close to the end of the show. Let me ask you, if you look back, let’s say 20 years, and you were going to be coaching your, I don’t know, your 30-year-old self or 25 or whatever, I don’t know how old you are.

That’s pretty good. I’m 49, so you hit it pretty good.

49, okay. That’s pretty good. So what would be the most important thing that you would share with them that you know now but you didn’t know that.

Quit fearing failure. And one of my favorite quotes, and I didn’t learn this till, I don’t know, maybe seven, eight, nine years ago, but there’s no such thing as failure, there’s only feedback. So quit being so timid that way, just move forward. I also love the quote or the idea of ready, fire, aim. Quit waiting until everything is supposedly perfect to move forward, to put in a new idea or implement this or take this action. Just do it and then course correct, take the action and course correct.

Quit waiting until everything is supposedly perfect to move forward, to put in a new idea or implement this or take this action. Just do it and then course correct, take the action and course correct. Click To Tweet

Now there’s some decisions, yeah, you need to take more time to analyze and make sure you’re making the right choice or long-term ramifications, but the majority of our decisions are not that critical. So we can move forward. So just don’t fear that change. Don’t feel that fear of failure. Just move forward and continue to correct as you go. That’s the biggest thing. I was so timid and just, I don’t know, and wishy-washy to some degree. And I was able to achieve a lot and had a lot of success, but I know I could have even done more if I just wouldn’t have been so timid and not feared failure and not worried about it, you know, anybody or anything, what they thought or what was going to happen, just move forward and keep pushing towards my goals and dreams a lot quicker.

So definitely the trial and error is basically the entrepreneurial function, isn’t it? It is. People are willing to try a trial and error and go forward. As long as you don’t make such a huge mistake that you take yourself out of the game because that’s obviously the barrier don’t get yourself in a Position where you have to take a job because you’re out of cash As long as you avoid it and you manage your risk the upside takes care of itself. I think

But even in those scenarios if and this is something that I’ve had in me since day one since I started my business way back in 1998 is it wasn’t a question of if I was going to be successful is always win so even if you make a you know a fatal decision so to speak and have to take a job because you’re running a cash just keep pushing yeah you took a wrong turn yeah it’s a little painful. Yeah, it’s going to take longer.

You’re going to have to do something different. But you can still course correct from that and continue to move forward. Again, you still achieve your goals and dreams. It’s never in the manner that you thought it would be anyway. It’s always twists and turns in entrepreneurial journey, ups and downs, sideways, back and forth. You just got to stay focused on where you want to go, what you want to do and have that attitude of it’s not if it’s, it’s when you keep pushing towards that.

Okay. That’s a, that’s a great, a great way to finish this, this, this discussion. So for those of you that would like to learn more about your process of customer experience, customer service, or where can they learn more? Obviously you have your book define and deliver exceptional customer service. Awesome. Is it available on Amazon?

It will be. Actually, it’s being launched on January 11th. So that’s just the pre-copy, but yeah, January 11th, you’ll be able to get it off my website and on Amazon.

Okay, awesome. So definitely, is it available for pre-order?

It isn’t yet, so. Yeah.

Okay. All right. So make a note in your calendars, January 11th, and go on Kelly Henry’s website. Can you share your website? Did I miss it?

Yes, it’s drkellyhenry.com.

Okay.

Pretty simple there. Learn more about my philosophy and what I’m trying to help businesses with. I’m trying to help businesses. I’m helping to serve those businesses so they can serve their customers better and grow and see the success that I’ve seen. That’s my ultimate philosophy and goal, my consultant.

That’s awesome. And many people can sign up for your book on the website or something?

Absolutely, so we’ll have that link here fairly shortly. Okay. I also have a link to a strategy call that is free of charge. We can talk about your business, where I might fit in to help you grow and really maximize the profits and growth in that business. You can also email me actually at Dr. KelleyHenry.com. If you have questions and would like to learn more, communicate with me, I’d be more than happy to go through email as well. So I’m just open to talk and help businesses grow and thrive.

So thank you, Dr. Kelly Henry, author of Define and Deliver Exceptional Customer Service. Great to have had you on the show.

You too, Steve. Thanks for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

 

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