It is twenty four minutes to one on three AW, on five double A at six after midnight, and on six PR it's what is it, it's twenty four minutes to eleven. Yes, sorry, it takes me a little while to get focused on those time calls when I'm getting this show underway. But it's time now to have a
chat to Barry Erkhardt. Barry Erkhart is an internationally international I can't talk this morning either internationally recognized and respected conference keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, business strategist, and consumer behavior analyst. You must also, Barry, be the owner of the world's largest business card to have all that written on it.
Well, I hope it's the explanatory enough because with that sort of introduction, it will take me some time to explain exactly what it is I do and what experience I've gained over the year.
Is fin ah, and what is it exactly you do?
Is?
The answer for me is as little as possible?
Well, absolutely, I think that there there in lies the answer. Though. We're a market rece urch and strategic planning practice, and so I go out and I research the questions not of what people are doing, how they're doing it, but more fundamentally for the advantages of businesses talking about the why question, why is it that people do So when a lot of people talk about research, they want statistics. Fifty four percent of people did this, seventy eight percent
of people will do that. Well, that's very interesting in and of itself, but really that's not going to determine anything because the fundamental thing is, but why do they do that?
Yes? Yes, interesting. Now, so this morning, you wanted to chat about customer recommendations. I love this as a topic.
Yeah. Well, I think that it's a real myth that's been a long, long standing sort of premise that when you say to people, how's business go? I was fantastic, and what do you put it down to? Oh? No, eighty percent of my business comes from recommendations and referrals. Yeah, I've heard that for a long period of time. But when you actually probe the question, that's not the case. Because you can ask a person simon, would you recommend Barry Yurka to pre a servitate or address a conference?
Oh?
Absolutely, But then you say, well, okay, you said that, but how many people actually do it? Because there's an innate reluctance to actually go out there, put your buying a proverbia on the line and say I'm going to recommend Simon or I'm going to recommend Barry, because it's the sort of thing where relationships can be fractured because based on that recommendation, someone else uses you and it doesn't work out. Therefore the person doing the presentation and
sub performing isn't having the finger pointed at them. They go back to you and say, well, hold on, you recommended this guy and he was unbelievably disaster.
It is really interesting to hear you say that, because I was listening to another radio announcer, Lucy and Kell, who do a show in another station, and they would Lucy. Then they happened to be husband and wife, and Lucy was saying that her husband Kel never ever recommends anything to anyone, and be it a movie, he's seen a book, he's read a restaurant, he's eat nut, he never recommends it. He never will come into work and say, hey, guys, I went here last night. You've really got to try it.
And she probed him on air about why don't you ever recommend anything, and he said, because if people don't like it, then they won't respect me exactly.
And that's a long lasting sort of a scenario, and the cascading effects of that sort of thing are quite quite profound. I would always say, all right, by all means, go out and not ask for recommendations, ask for an introduction. Were you happy with that? You're happy with that's fine. Is there anyone that you could actually affect an introduction for me? I don't need for you to recommend me,
just to facilitate the introduction. So that and I would never recommend anyone to anyone because simply I said, look, seventy to eighty percent of the success in business is that the chemistry and the relationship. Does the chemistry click, I'm more than happy to facilitate to say this person is good, he's she or they have all this experience. This is what they do, this is how they do it. It may be of interest to you if you are interested. Here is his her or their phone number or email address.
Make contact. It is the chemistry fits, that's the way for it to be affected.
And that's very good too. Yes, because you're not actually saying you know you must do this because I've had a good experience. You're saying I've had a good experience. If you'd like, if you'd like an introduction, I can help you. It's a subtle difference, but it's an important difference.
I think well, I think that it's all about integrity and transparency. I can hand on heart say to you, over my extended career in business, I have never taken a properation for you. I've never taken a kickbacker. I never taken a gratuity because Barrow, you know, is there anyone that you can help us get some business? We're more than it's a ten percent, fifteen percent and give it to you. I said, no, no, I never want
to be compromised on that type of situation. I will do the introduction because I think the two of you would work together very very well. But it's going to be determined by you. You're going to take the risk. Therefore, there is absolutely no in age recognition or justification for me to be paid any population for you at all.
So over the years I've always been able to see very sound at night, knowing full well that I have never been compromised on the drive of well, there's going to be some money in it for me and people. I've understood that over the years that they kind of say, now, that's a credible introduction, and I can take that, and I will make the decision and take responsibility and enjoy the rewards of the subsequent and consequential relationship development.
Now, Barry, what are your thoughts on Google reviews? And I asked this because a little story of something that happened to me when I holiday. I holiday a place called Balnarring Caravan Park. Family have a little spot down there, and there was a pizza shop that was about a fifteen minute drive away, and I got a pizza from there and it was an incredibly good pizza to my tastes.
And so they asked when I was at the pizza shop, they had a little thing They're saying, Google reviews, Can you, if you enjoy our product, please post a Google review. So I did a Google review and said five stars, this pizza was magnificent, the taste was fantastic, the crust, blah blah. I went into great detail about why I
thought the pizza was great. About six seven months later, I got a little notification from Google saying your review has been viewed twenty thousand times, And I thought, well, that's magnificent, What a great favor I've done for the company. So when I went down the following year to the caravan park again, I thought, I'm going to get another one of those fabulous pizzas. The place had shut down.
And therefore the question is you have put your personal integrity on the line. It comes back to personal recommendations. You know, one of the things that you didn't ask me, Will Barry? What have you done over the years, I've written the two largest selling books in Australasia on customer service. Everyone says, oh, no, no, we are wonderful small businesses in particular, Oh we can be the big guys because
we give customer service. Well, the problem is that a lot of Australians are now saying the one thing that is lacking in customer service, particularly with the introduction and intrusion of artificial intelligence, is one word personal. And so what you've got to do is to say yes by all means in race it, innovation, creativity and that sort of thing, yes, but you make sure that that actually complements it doesn't replace humanity. Today the biggest factor in
customer service, and there's fourteen steps of customer satisfaction. The first three relates to getting access and communication with the organization when there's an artificial intrusion of technology coming in and say your calls are important to us, or you know, push what age people want, even young people who used
to be on Twitter and Facebook. And that's so, I just want to have access or a default recognition that I need to speak to a human being sometime, because it's not the sort of thing where someone who is a computer nerd can say I know all the answers and here are the five options. Well, if there's five options that you're offering. The one thing that a nerd doesn't do, particularly when they're very good at communicating with
technology or algorithms, is personal contact. One of the great problems in pizza shops, in particular coffee lounces would be another example, is young people interesting in love have lost the art of eye contact. Now just imagine that when and I walked into a coffee Lounce today and I said, hello, Maria, how are you? And she said, Barry, You're the only person who ever comes in and treats me by name. And people say to me continuously, Barry, why is it
that you get good customer service. The first thing that I do if I'm going to go back and have a lilace, no matter how tenuous or distant it is, is to find out the name of the person, because the one thing that will register most of all is when you recognize them by name. Immediately they stand up their cloud, They're recognized, They're there's not this lack of
eye contact I always appreciate. At the end of the drinking of the coffee, I pick up my empty cup, I pick up the little tray that's got the end of the number on I take it back to the count and say thank you very much. Well, there's no need for you to do that. You're absolutely right, there was no need for me to do it. But I
am most grateful for the service you provided. And what effort did it take me to take that empty cup with that little sign that says seventy eight because that was my table number and give it back to you. There are some simple things about recommendations, referrals, social contacts, but above all else, when it comes down to customer service, the thing that wins it every time is one word personal.
Isn't that lovely? Yes, I had an incident the other day I have a that needs some repairs done to it, and I booked a company to come out and do a repair and they told me it was a one hour job and we'll be there on Thursday. We'll book you in for Thursday. And I knew I was going to be home all day Thursday, so I didn't bother negotiating a time because I had no plans to leave my house for the whole day Thursday. By five thirty pm,
they still hadn't arrived. I did ring them to say that I was going to be going out for dinner because I just assumed they'd be there in business hours and that it would all be over. So I did ring them at two o'clock and they said, oh, yes, we'll be there at four. And by five thirty they still hadn't arrived. So I just left the house and went out for dinner. They rang me about fifteen minutes later and said, look, not going to get there today.
I can be there at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. I'm sorry about this, but I'll be there at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. And I thought, well, that works well for me. I'll be doing the overnight thing. I'll get home at six. I'll be up at seven. I can cope with that nicely. He seven o'clock came, no sign of him. I texted him. He replied at about seven twenty and said, yes, on my way. I'll be there at eight thirty. And he finally got there at nine, and there was no sorry,
I'm lt sorry about yesterday. He came in, did the job, did it quickly, did an excellent job. I can't fault the work that he did. But I had worked all through the night hosting this program, got home at six am. He had said he was going to be there at seven, so I stayed up. I was still up at nine when he arrived, and finally got to bed at ten. And even though the job he did was magnificent, there is no way in hell I would recommend that company to anyone more.
Particularly, you would not say that that was good value. One thing that people have got to recognize is and there's always this sensitivity with the cost of living crisis that we've got. Oh, everyone's looking for those specials. It was only yesterday the toll said they're going to have three hundred and seven pitts they had discounted to an average price of teen percent day as a defective from today in Melbourne time and hold on, guys, that's all rubbish.
All we want really is we don't want three hundred and seven specials. We want you know, there's twenty four thousand products out there. I want control and access. So that if you gave me one promise that you keep doing in your advertising and what has made Walmart the biggest and most successful retail group in the world. Don't be selective on what you offer. Just say that when Walmart says Simon, when you're ready to buy, no matter what you want to buy in as of Halibert Walmart,
you will get. And here comes to quote every day lower prices. It means that with that seven day petrol cycle and you kind of buy their petrol on Wednesday because you're missed out getting cheap ass tuesdays discounted prices and you're now paying seventeen tents of leave. The more you are aggrieved and upset. And that's what is the difference. I wanted everyday lower prices. And so what we've got to recognize in customer services one price is consistently the
fourth most important thing. And look with the economic circumstances, it's probably migrated to about the third most important thing. But today value and this is what value was all about. Value was really built up on modules of time. If you say, and this is what happens all the time, well, yes, okay, so we'll get this and you put something in and you're get an electrician or a plumber, and they say, look,
will be there as soon as possible. Well, can I tell you right now if you've phoned the plumber at three o'clock in the morning because you're tought it's overflowing. And I say, yeah, we'll get there as soon as possible. No, that's not good enough. Be specific. Recognize that it's modules of time and if you can't meet those times, so they advise them in advance to let them make sometingency plans. But what we need to do is to take a
better sense of what is value. And I've just written an article I get syndicated by forty nine trade and industry magazines around the world, and someone put to me, Barry, what is value? And they said, well, and this is the critical issue that you know. This is one time that you can look and say you are important in this equation. If you want to be valued, you've got to offer value. Think about that. It's not about price.
It's not about saying, hold on, I'll be there at four o'clock and then five point thirty or seven o'clock next morning. What value is about is a piece of mind purchasing. When I make the phone call and they say they're going to be there at five o'clock, they should be there every time. Because Macy's the you know, the big department store in America they had, and we all always hear the criticism about Tony Abbott, you know, with the three word policy just stop the boats one.
It's easy to understand too. It's quantifiable and people could remember it. All that macy said is satisfaction guaranteed period three words, compellingly attractive. And that's the personal commitment that was committed and delegated that everyone at the front line within Macy's had that authority to ensure that there was customer satisfaction guarantees, even to the extent of replacing the product without referring it to a manager.
Amazing Barrier Carter, It's been delightful chatting to you. I've kept you far too long. We are well overdue for a break. It's been marvelous chatting to you. I look forward, well I don't look forward to the next time Tony's ill, but I look forward to the next time I happen to be on and we get to speak again. Barrier Carter, thank you.