For me, there is a cart and horse principle at work here - without brilliant customer services skills, any sales person will fail. Yes, they might get that sale, but how long does Mr or Mrs ‘gift of the gab’ last? And do their sales numbers stick? A huge revolution in banking sales came when my employers started to measure retention.
All those ‘sales stars’ suddenly found their numbers were different to what they were used to. You can sell all the bank accounts, mortgages, credit cards in the world, but if they remain unused 6 months after opening - well, there wasn’t a need for the service in the first place. So it was a bad sale. And therefore, didn't count!
For me, customer service is the horse that should come before the cart - great customer service will drive great sales - always. It will ensure that your customer not only signs up, but wants to buy from you so much that they will want to buy more, and will want to tell their friends to buy from you, they will have an active interest in your doing well. Instead of you selling, your customer is buying, and that’s a very different proposition. Because we all like to buy stuff, don’t we?
More importantly, we like to buy stuff from people and brands we like and trust. This is all very obvious and yet the same search on Amazon for the keywords ‘customer service’ will produce about 5% of the number of books. This is crazy. If you don’t get the basics of customer service right, you will not achieve as many sales, nor retain customers, let alone convert them into ambassadors for your brand who will recommend your services to their family and friends.
In order to get customer service right, you need to focus on how you present yourself, and your business, to every customer. And, crucially, every potential customer. Every single person you serve is an opportunity to get customer service right. This is also true of every single person you come into contact with.
The number of stories I have been told of poor customer service over the years, by people telling me what they did in certain situations who were actually proud of their negative approach, beggars belief. Within months of starting my career as a DJ, I was told “You’re the best DJ I’ve ever seen” . Indeed, my first ever booking (a kid’s party) generated another booking within a week from a parent who stayed. And yet, looking back, I know that by the measure of what us DJs call ‘DJ skills’ , I was terrible.
I doubt I was even the best DJ in the room at any of my early parties! But what I am good at, what I have a proven track record in, is customer service. Hopefully this article will give you an insight into my approach. My aim is to give you a framework to use for checking how well you interact with the people who have the potential to change the success of your business.
5 THE 4 PILLARS I have organised my approach to customer service into 4 pillars: - Choose to be there - Be present - Always on stage - Reflect your customer CHOOSE TO BE THERE The first pillar of customer service starts the moment you walk out of your front door in order to set off to work.
First of all, you have to go to work, of course. For many different reasons you may not actually want to be doing that. It could be that you have worked a lot lately, and that you’d rather have a night in at home. Or you may have one of ‘those’ customers, you know the type.
Perhaps it’s a venue you don’t enjoy going to, a horrible sound limiter, an F&B Manager who loves to bark orders at you, I’m sure you can think of many more reasons yourself. But you are the entertainment – and very often, much more besides. Your attitude is fundamentally crucial to the success of your business. Be the most positive person you can be, decide to be in work mode, and show the world how utterly incredible you are.
You have to be there, so no matter what, be there in all your brilliance. And leave that Facebook forum negativity behind! “Yes sir, I know you’re running late, I’ll do my best to set up as quickly as possible so that you can get some of the lost time back.” [Not: “My contract says I need an hour to setup so you’ll have to wait for me. "] “Yes ma'am, I have a charger for that phone, leave it with me" (or "no ma'am, I’m really sorry I don’t have a charger for that otherwise I would help"). [Not: “It’s not my job to charge your phone!” .] “Oh, silly me, I went to the toilet, came back and there’s a drunk person behind my decks.
Why don’t we have some fun with that?” [Not: “Get out from behind my expensive gear before I turn the music off and ruin the party” .] All of these scenarios I have seen discussed ad nau - seam on Facebook forums with most responses ranging from things that will definitely ensure they won’t be getting a repeat booking / referral to potentially causing them to end the night in a cell! Your attitude is crucial to how people see you, get that right, and you win friends.
BE PRESENT So now that you are at work with the right attitude it’s time to ramp up to a whole new level - actually being present. Every day I speak to people who are distracted by whatever is going on around them, virtually always in situations where I am a customer. If someone is speaking to you, then listen to what they are saying – giving them all your attention. If you find it difficult to do this, and it’s not natural for everyone, try echoing what they are saying in your own mind.
Repeat their words as they are saying them (in your thoughts, do it verbally out loud and it won’t be long before you are locked away!). Listen to them, absorb their words, and then act on the information. Think of instances where you are served and the person who is serving you is not really ‘with’ you. For instance, you walk up to a counter and the person behind it is busy doing something.
You’re happy to wait for them to finish what they are doing, after all, they were engaged in something before you made your presence felt. However, then the phone rings and they pick it up. First of all, they really should acknowledge you even if just to say, “I’ll be with you in a moment” . But then there is the fact that you have made all the effort of getting to where you are, yet someone who is sat on a chair in their home or place of work is now taking priority over you.
Not fair is it? Now let’s transition this into our DJ world. Imagine that you’re busy doing DJ things and what happens? Right at the point you are transitioning to your next song, you are approached with one of those usual questions.
What is your standard reaction? Is it annoyance? Do you ignore the person until you have finished your work? Or do you look up briefly with a winning smile and say, “just a sec - wait there, I’ll be right with you”?
"Y our attitude is fundamentally crucial to the success of your business" TRE-1201 14.4KG, TRE-1501 18KG TRE-1501 – 15” ACTIVE SRP £– 12” ACTIVE SRP £ I’m astonished by the everyday instances I experience where people have no idea that they are doing themselves and/or their employers or even their own business a disservice. As a DJ, you are always on stage, even when you think you aren’t. The most memorable ‘on stage’ moment I can think of was back in 2004 when Ron Atkinson made a racial comment about a Chelsea player.
It was a watershed moment for Ron, and indeed for broadcasters in general. If you’re going to make a crude joke in a situation where you and your buddies might have a laugh, you need to be sure that the microphone is not switched on. Unlikely to happen to us? Imagine commenting about a particular guest, even if bated by another guest or a member of staff, and that person or one of their friends overhears?
I saw the result of exactly this type of moment on social media recently, which meant a photographer known to me was named and shamed on a very public forum. This also particularly applies if you have a sign-written van. I was recently driving on a road near my home on which you often have to wait for traffic coming the other way because of parked cars. I had a car on my side meaning I had to wait for the oncoming van, yet he deliberately stopped and flashed to allow me to drive round the obstruction long before I even got near it.
He was much closer, had right of way and yet was incredibly polite. The very next day I went to Majestic Wines to spend some money with them. The van driver knew he was on stage. Or he’s just an incredibly polite driver!
Either way, his employer won a new fan. Rather puts road rage into context doesn’t it? At any party we are in front of potential customers. I know it’s obvious that the customers are your priority, and that the attendees are potential customers.
But the venue you are in is also a significant source of potential business. Even the 17-year-old glass collector? Well, his mum may soon be having a 40th or 50th. By always smiling, being engaged and helping in any way you can, you never know who you may be impressing.
From the moment you walk through the door of an event to setup, you are ‘on stage’ , act accordingly! REFLECT YOUR CUSTOMER This final pillar is really all about how you communicate with your customers, or potential customers. If you’re in the right frame of mind, are listening properly, and demonstrating your customer service skills, you’ll probably naturally start to communicate with them in the way they want. By reflecting, you are showing empathy.
Any customer interaction should never be about your agenda, it should be about theirs. The best example I can give is the car salesman. It’s no good opening with the number of valves an engine has when the customer has commented on the lovely colour of the car. Yet on so many occasions I see DJs talk about their kit when a customer wants to talk about their guests having fun.
I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at communication models, mostly for the purposes of communicating with the people who staffed our banks, however it actually proved more helpful for dealing with customer service situations. There are four broad categories of communication style; and there are a load of models you can read up on that give names to these and flesh them out. What you should then try to do is become an expert in reading the communication style you have in front of you, and then reflecting it.
I definitely don’t mean that if your customer is angry then be angry as well! But if they are talking about having fun, then ask them questions about what fun they mean. If they want to know what equipment you use, then by all means, knock yourself out. But that’s rare; they want to hear things that make you sound like you know what you’re doing, but relevant to what they feel is important.
And all of the time you are learning all this stuff, remember one important thing: encourage your customer to talk. That makes them feel important to you. And they will like you for it. Don’t tell them what you do.
Ask them what they want, and then demonstrate how you’ll deliver it. You won’t have sold them a thing, but they will have bought as much as they could afford and they won’t begrudge a penny! "AS A DJ, YOU ARE ALWAYS ON STAGE, EVEN WHEN YOU THINK YOU AREN’T" Professional effects Add texture with all , plus the 6 SOUND COLOUR FX, from the DJM-900NXS2. High-quality sound and multiple EQs Wow the crowd with crystal-clear audio.
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