BUSINESS MATTERS
0Are You Prepared for the
?
By Michael Raine
The moment a customer sends an email , makes a call , fills out an online form , or walks into your store for the first time , that is the “ zero moment of truth .” It ’ s the moment you , as a company , learn that potential customer exists .
“ Can anybody tell me the relationship with 70 per cent and the zero moment of truth ?” asked web marketing expert Marcus Sheridan as he looked around a ballroom of MI retailers during his NAMM U Breakfast Session at The 2018 NAMM Show . “ This is what we know : that today , on average , 70 per cent of [ a customer ’ s ] buying decision is made before the zero moment of truth . Seventy per cent of the decision is made before they call you , before they contact you , and certainly before they walk into your store .”
“ I personally did not come up with ‘ zero moment of truth .’ It ’ s a phrase that people have been using for about five or more years , but I just tend to talk about it more . To me , really , this foundational shift – the amount of the decision that the buyer has made before they physically talk to the company or to a sales person – is unquestionably the greatest shift that ’ s happened in business over the last 50 years . There ’ s no question at all ,” Sheridan tells Canadian Music Trade after the show .
He had this revelation while rethinking his own approach to business when his Virginia pool company , River Pools , nearly went under during the economic crash of 2008 . Now , Sheridan ’ s practical approach to customer service , which emphasizes honesty and valuable information for customers , is featured in books , publications , university case studies – even a New York Times profile – and is the core of his latest book , They Ask , You Answer .
As he sees it , for about a century , in terms of influencing buying decisions , the salespeople did 90 per cent of the job with marketing and customer service splitting the other 10 per cent . “ Today , often times , the sales team or sales person has zero impact on the decision or on the purchase . That is profound ,” he emphasizes . “ Marketing is the new sales , and customer service is the new marketing . Why is customer service the new marketing ? Because we ’ re so stupidly prolific in how we use reviews and ‘ shop with me ’ videos or ‘ test drive with me ’ videos or all these things that we can do right now . You know , “ play with me ” videos in the music space . All these things , so much of that is contingent on the customer service that the person got after the fact , and so this drastic shift is quite interesting and needs to be recognized by all retailers ; otherwise , they ’ re in significant trouble .”
What can a retailer do if their customers have mostly made up their minds before they ’ ve had any contact with them ? Sheridan specializes is helping companies rethink their web personas , and that goes far beyond just the aesthetics and functionality of their websites or social media . There are five pillars of customers ’ buying decisions today , Sheridan says :
Cost Drawbacks Comparisons Reviews What ’ s Best
Satisfying these five interconnected elements is really about two things : honesty and usefulness . Even simpler , it ’ s about answering the questions customers have with unbiased information and comparisons .
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CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE