Chris Zane Tucker Show Keynote Summary

Last Friday, Chris Zane spoke at the Tucker Show about how he has grown his bicycle business from $56k to $26M in annual revenue. In his speech, he explained how his team changed the game in the industry by selling service instead of products. Below are some of my notes from Chris' speech at the Tucker Show.

Creating the ultimate customer experience is the secret. To do this, focus on providing more service than your customers believe is reasonable. Chris used the example offering quarters to people and discussed how nobody tried to take all of them.

Customers are reasonable. Avoid making rules and policies because 3 out of 100 people take advantage of you. Rules and policies do NOT focus on the customer. Stay focused on the customer.

Many of high maintenance customers are the ones people go to for advice. If 3 out of 100 are really high maintenance, there's a good chance they are the ones people go to when getting into the sport. Providing exceptional service has to be without exceptions.

Zane's has gamified the relationship (having a game with it). They have fun letting the customer win... like taking a customer to play golf. Focus on helping the customer win, and ultimately you will win.

No doesn't mean no to a customer. It means 'I don't want to.' Eliminate 'no' from your vocabulary, and you will find ways to better serve customers.

Hire nice people, and train them on the products and services you provide. Too often, businesses hire for product knowledge instead of nice, customer service-oriented people. Focus on the attitude of the person when hiring, and make everything else a distant second.

Customer Service starts when the Customer Experience fails. And, Customer Recovery starts where Customer Service fails. Work on getting it right the first time, and when you fail, be willing to pay more than reasonable amounts for it. Customers appreciate this and spread the word when it happens. Use the bad experience as an asset instead of a liability.

Retailers are in the relationship-building and experience selling business. Whatever business you are in, you're selling the relationship and experience.

For more information on Chris Zane and his message, purchase his book Reinventing the Wheel. It's a quick read and great for any retailer wanting to grow their local business.