Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius | Tags: client experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, customer service process, customer service training
World-Class is not only for the high-end luxury brands – Would you be surprised if I told you about an upscale restaurant that regularly has fresh flowers and fresh ground pepper at every table, meals brought while you are seated, and regular acts of kindness such as employees carrying food for women with strollers and opening doors for elderly? What if I told you this was not an upscale restaurant, but rather a restaurant that competes in the fast food industry. Yes, I am talking about Chick-fil-A, regarded 
as one of the truly great world-class customer service anomalies, like Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and Starbucks. Chick-fil-A is truly an innovator, disrupting a stale industry (quick service restaurants) and serving as a case study business model from which any industry can learn. Chick-fil-A has more than 1,500 locations and has an unheard of 40 consecutive years of double-digit sales increase.
Every guest feels cared for in a way that cannot be duplicated – Mark G. Moraitakis is the Director of Service Innovations and a nearly 30-year veteran of Chick-fil-A. Mark is one of our amazing keynote presenters at this year’s 2011 Secret Service Summit November 3rd & 4th. Mark will share the key reasons for Chick-fil-A’s incredible success, and how they have revolutionized the customer experience model in the quick service restaurant arena that can be applied to any business. Mark describes the purpose of CFA restaurants: to ensure every guest has an experience where they feel cared for in a way that they cannot get anywhere else.
A WIN-WIN Customer Experience – Last week I did an Experiential Tour Workshop with a group of executives from one of my consulting clients. We visited several customer experience revolutionary retailers from different industries, found the common themes they all share, and discussed how those themes can be applied to their business. One common theme that reoccurred was an improved experience that greatly benefitted the customer, left them surprised and appreciative, but also greatly benefited the organization. For instance, if Nordstrom does not have your size in a style that you want, they will order it and ship it to your house or office for no extra charge. Wow, that means I do not have to comeback next week and pick it up! Love that! What it also means is that at other retail stores, more than half of the customers do not come back to pick up their items because it is inconvenient and they lost the urge to purchase that item a week later. This excellent customer service system also ensures Nordstrom closes more sales.
Give your customer permission to buy more – Have you ever ordered at a drive thru only to realize that you forgot something, yet you are too afraid to add it on at the pickup window because you think it will cause mayhem to the drive thru attendant? I personally do not want my customers to ever fear buying more. So what if, as you pulled up to the pickup window, there were a sign that said, “Did you forget anything? You can add it on here.” This sign would make the customer thrilled that they can still get what they wanted and the restaurant gets more sales. Win-Win.
FREE teleseminar September 14th – The DiJulius Group is staring a monthly teleseminar series for members of the customer service revolution personally conducted by John DiJulius on how to create a world-class customer experience organization. Find out the secrets to becoming the best in your industry, making price irrelevant to your clients and changing the world by joining the customer service revolution. Sign up to become a member.
Quote of the week -
Your success depends on the capacity of other people to carry out your vision to the end.
Your individual effect on the outcome becomes less and less. As others, through empowerment,
take on significant responsibilities with zealous commitment, many more will enjoy success.
Receive a “Johnism” of the Day – NOW you can join me on Twitter!
~John R. DiJulius III best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the President of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. Learn more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, America’s #1 Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius | Tags: b2b, British Airways, customer experience, Customer Satisfaction, customer service consulting, Customer service in airlines, customer service process, customer service revolution, customer service teleseminar, Jobs Stanford Address, John DiJulius, Michael Caito, Restaurants on the Run, Secret Service Summit, Steve Jobs Apple's CEO, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group, TravelCenters of America
| Changing the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution…
Competition on the Run – ROTR is a very aggressive company that excels in implementation and execution (Chapter 6 of What’s the Secret?). They recently introduced a service recovery program designed to focus on loyalty and retention processes, which forced them to take a much longer look at what they do when things do not go according to plan. This What America needs is more Jobs…Steve Jobs – Last week Steve Jobs officially removed himself as Apple’s CEO. This may be the end Secret Service by an airline – I get dozens of RSS feeds on customer service stories everyday, but rarely do I get a positive story of an airline. British Airways Using iPads TA making price less relevant – TravelCenters of America, a long time consulting client of The Quote of the week -
“We started off hoping to change a business, ended up changing an industry, community, people’s lives, and the way other companies do business”
Receive a “Johnism” of the Day – join me on Twitter
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Secret Service Certification by John DiJulius
This last class of the year, will provide new insight into the customer service systems used by the top organizations in the world and show you how to use them at your company.
12 candidates will be selected to be a part of this train-the-trainer class taught by best-selling author, keynote speaker, consultant and THE Authority on delivering a world-class customer experience John DiJulius.
This class is tailored to: · Corporate trainers · Consultants · Leadership teams · Small business owners
For details and selection process call Denise Thompson at 440-443-0023 and mention secret phrase “I’m a member of the customer service revolution” for early bird pricing.
Few seats remain available!
“Any company in the world can do what you do, except deliver world-class customer service.” |
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FREE Teleseminar September 14, 12 PM EST This September 14th join John DiJulius in the first of a NEW series of FREE Teleseminars based on the X-Commandments of world-class.
The first teleseminar will expand on The State of Service in America. Why are companies realizing poor service is a sure way to go out of business? How the top service companies endure all economic climates? How do you compete on experience not on price?
To register follow these 2 easy steps:
Add this teleseminar to your Facebook or LinkedIN calendars so you don’t forget:
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~John R. DiJulius III best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the President of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. Learn more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, America’s #1 Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: customer experience, customer intelligence, customer service process, customer service training, service aptitude, service defects
“Changing the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution…
CUSTOMER SERVICE, THE SECRET WEAPON FOR DRIVING REVENUE – Companies spend millions creating and advertising their brands, yet the customer’s experience is what drives customer perception. A recent study reaffirmed what every customer knows, but too many leaders continue to bury their head in the sand and ignore what research shows: that a great experience not only influences where they chose to buy, but also…
- 82% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company as a result of a negative experience
- 55% became the customer of a company because of their reputation for great customer service
- 40% began purchasing from a competitive brand simply because of their reputation for great customer service
- 85% of consumers said they would be willing to pay more over the standard price in order to ensure a superior customer experience
Are you competing on price or the experience? Consumers aren’t only demonstrating power with their wallets, but they are influencing those around them as well. Whether consumers have a positive or negative experience, their friends, family, colleagues and networks are sure to hear about it; and what they are saying carries weight. The top three factors why consumers recommend a company:
- 55% because of its customer service
- 49% because of the product
- 42% because of price
Read the entire report Customer Experience Report North America 2010 – RightNow
Full Disclosure – I have been getting more and more impatient with businesses’ lack of respect for my time. I hate to be kept waiting. Recently I went to a local diner with my family for Sunday breakfast, and upon arrival the hostess warned us saying, “I apologize. We are so busy today, our kitchen is really backed up. It may take a while before you get served.” We all responded with something along the lines of, “We are in no rush.” The waitress eventually got us our drinks, our order and kept stopping by during our wait to refresh our drinks and apologize for the long wait. Each time we kept reassuring her that we understood. The food finally arrived and we left happy.
What was funny was afterward, when I thought about the length of time between order and delivery of the food, it was significant. However, with her being upfront and apologetic, none of us were even the slightest bit upset. It is like when you see an employee nametag that says “In Training” underneath the name. You automatically feel for this person, are more patient, understanding, and sympathetic. You want to help them out so they do not feel so overwhelmed. Disclosing the inevitable service defect upfront is a powerful tool to getting your customers to be more understanding and patient. It is when they are not told about the delay or why or how much longer that people feel taken advantage of and are less forgiving.
Exercise of the week – A few weeks ago I shared the FORD exercise, which measures your employees’ customer intelligence. Another great exercise is the FORD exercise for your management team, asking them to fill in the following FORD on each of their employees. How well do they know the people that report to them on a daily basis? This will demonstrate how well they retain employee intelligence:
- Family
- Occupation
- Recreation
- Dreams
Quote of the week -
“We are not for everyone, nor do we want to be. We are for the 1% who want to
emerge as the best of the best and are not afraid to work hard and challenge themselves
to see how much greatness they actually have inside.”
Receive a “Johnism” of the Day – join me on http://twitter.com/johndijulius
~John DiJulius best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the CVO of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. Learn more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, America’s #1 Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius | Tags: Carmine Gallo, customer experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service process, the customer service blog
“Changing the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution…”
Reverse Secret Service – While reading The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by Carmine Gallo, I came across an innovative initiative by the Westin Hotels, designed to encourage deeper relationships between hotel employees and guests: New employee name tags, which included this phrase, “My passion is ___________.” Westin executives said that the passion tags opened a dialogue between the company’s staff and its guests, and when guests start talking, they are much more forthcoming about any issues that might concern them during their stay. A simple phrase on a nametag encourages guests to talk and engage, and find out similarities and common interests, thus helping to break down barriers and create emotional connections.
Call Center & Cast Members – Do you have employees in mundane roles, doing the same task over and over again all day long, answering the same questions, dealing with frustrated customers, whose problems and issues where not your fault? Well guess who else has the exact same scenarios, maybe even worse? Walt Disney World! Disney is and always will be the leading example of world-class customer service. Even though you have heard numerous examples, if you really think about it, they apply to any business. I swore I would not share another Disney story until just recently when I heard someone say, “Our customer interactions are not as romantic as a theme park, where people are excited to be there. It is not apples to apples.” I disagree!
I took my three boys to Disney World this past August — the absolute worst time to go. The temperature was in the mid-nineties, and the average wait time for an attraction was about 60 minutes. It was miserable. Like everyone else, we waited, baking, all while the kids are whining, “How much longer.” I observed the Disney cast members who stood there the entire time, in costumes, as uncomfortable as we all were. The only difference is that eventually we got to enjoy a ride, while they just ushered people on and off. I saw them being asked the same stupid questions hundreds of times, “how much longer,” “my child has to go to the bathroom,” etc. They had to deal with frustrated customers who were literally losing their cool because of the anxiety of waiting in the heat with an impatient child. And I was amazed at these young 18-24 year olds and how well they kept their composure. They acted like the questions were unique, they kept smiling, and I watched as tour guides returned with a new group, reloaded another dozen people and they had to start the script all over again. They said it fresh and enthusiastically like it was their first tour of the day.
There is something to be learned from this about making sure our employees understand the importance of their roles in our customer’s day; and while it may be our 100th same old interaction of the day, it is our customers only one with us. We owe it to them to provide an experience saying they were the only customer we contacted that day.
Adding theatre to your job – Just like call centers, receptionists, and cast members managing wait times, flight attendants’ jobs can get very monotonous by performing the same duties and saying the same scripts flight after flight, day after day. You have to watch this video of how a Southwest flight attendant changed it up, making it a memorable experience for the passengers and himself, and breaking out of the same routine.
Resource of the Week – The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by Carmine Gallo. I am a huge Steve Jobs fan and found this book excellent. So much so, I had everyone at The DiJulius Group read this book.
Quote of the Week -
“Leaders are fascinated by the future. You are a leader if, and only if, you are restless for change, impatient for progress, and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. As a leader you are never satisfied with the present, because in your head you can see a better future, and the friction between what is and what could be burns you, stirs you, propels you forward.”
~John DiJulius best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the CVO of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. Learn more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, America’s #1 Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Client Services, Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, Malcolm Gladwell, Patient Experience, Patient Services | Tags: Customer Service, customer experience, client experience, The DiJulius Group, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, customer service consultant, the customer service blog, Client Services, Patient Services
If you ask managers of any business how important their customers’ experience is to customer satisfaction (i.e. engaging, memorable, personalize, relationships, etc.), along with the quality of service or product they deliver, nearly every manager would say that the customer experience is critically important. Yet they contradict themselves by their actions.
Managers get frustrated because their employees and professional service personnel think it is all about the expertise. ‘Wowing’ the customer consistently takes a back seat. Why? Because it is just lip service by management! Want proof? Think about most professions; nearly all the degrees, licensing and on-going education is spent on the technical expertise of the profession. Now compare that with how much customer service training is put into a new employee and how much on-going training is put into an existing staff? How many colleges offer Customer Service as a major, a minor, or even a class?
How many companies require their professional service providers to have certain levels of customer service training and/or licensing before they are allowed to work with customers, patients, or clients? Hardly any.
Medical brilliance is a Commodity
A recent study found that, of the doctor’s surveyed, most seemed to overrate the patient service they provide. The following results are from research conducted in 2010 by The Management & Business Academy, sponsored by CIBA Vision and Essilor.
- 97% of practices rate the quality of the service they provide as above average or higher.
- 32% rate their service as “outstanding” – the best in their community.
- When patients rave about the service of an optometric practice, they most commonly mention the quality of the human interaction that occurs during an office visit rather than the technical quality of the exam or the technology used in the practice.
- The most frequently mentioned comment from highly satisfied patients is that “staff is friendly.”
This study presented research of highly satisfied patients, and rarely did the highly satisfied patients ever mention the technical competence of the doctor or staff, the technology used by the office or thoroughness of the exam.
What does this mean?
Patients expect excellent medical treatment and trust they will receive it at most professional medical practices and hospitals. As a result, medical brilliance by itself is a commodity and unacceptable today as a single measuring tool.
Want more evidence of how important demonstrations of caring and compassion can be in the medical world?
Consider the following findings from the book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
- The risk of being sued for malpractice has very little to do with how many mistakes a doctor makes.
- Analysis of malpractice lawsuits shows that highly skilled doctors get sued. In nearly every single malpractice case, the patient was quoted as saying something negative about how the doctor made them feel.
- At the same time, the overwhelming numbers of people who suffer an injury due to negligence of a doctor never file a malpractice suit at all. Why? Because of the bond they had with the doctor. They would never consider suing the doctor or his practice, even though there was negligence on the part of their doctor.
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
Patients don’t file lawsuits because they’ve been harmed by shoddy medical care only. It is how their doctor treated them on a personal level. People don’t sue doctors they like.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consultant, customer service consulting, customer service process, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
In order to create brand loyalty and customer evangelists, you must operate at a high level in six distinct areas of business and constantly evaluate your company’s customer service across each category, separately, and as categories overlap:
1. Physical: Deals with the actual brick-and-mortar component of your operation.
These are the physical elements that are more permanent or long term, that cannot be changed daily.
2. Setting: Refers to the controllable setting you create daily. As Disney says, “Everything speaks from the doorknobs to the dining rooms sends a message to the guest.” The setting communicates a message about what you can provide your customers. This isn’t always visual, it may be the music your customers hear when they call and are placed on hold or the mood your web site creates. The setting reveals the characteristics of your business as they appeal to the five senses of your customer: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.
3. Functional: Refers to the ease of doing business with you-return policies, hours of operations, and other factors. Functionality has nothing to do with human interactions, such as being pleasant or saying please or thank you.
4. Technical: Refers to your staff ’s level of expertise in their particular skills and in the company’s systems and equipment, such as product and job knowledge. Again, this has nothing to do with whether they are nice.
5. Operational: Refers to the actions that team members must execute behind the scenes before, during, and after a customer’s experience. These actions assist in the day-to-day transactions with customers, the tasks, compliances, and duties of our jobs.
6. Experiential: Refers to the actions that team members execute while interacting with the customer. Those actions that make the customer say “WOW!” The customer is delightfully surprised. Experiential actions are the reason why customers return, refer others, and become brand evangelists. These include Secret Service, personalization, anticipating customer’s needs, and others.
Let’s look at some real-life examples of these components:
• Your server is the most incompetent waitress (technical) you have ever met, but she is trying her hardest and being extremely nice (experiential).
• The place needs a good paint job (physical).
• The store where you shop is always out of what you want (operational).
• Your favorite store is difficult to get to and has barely any parking (physical).
• This salon has high energy and always smells great (setting).
• The quality of the food (technical) is unfit for human consumption.
• An associate overheard that you really wanted a diet drink and ran across the street to the drugstore to get it for you (experiential).
• At the diner, everything is themed 1950s style (setting).
• It is impossible to get a human being on the phone. No matter what you try, you cannot get out of the company’s voice-mail maze (functionality).
• The company has a 24-hour answering service and guarantees a call
back within 60 minutes (functionality).
• My sales rep always screws up my order (technical).
Specific examples of each of these six components are:
| Physical
Brick and mortar Building Structure Architecture Location Accessibility Parking availability Design Décor Public areas Floor coverings Signage Spaciousness Handicap accessible |
Setting
Ambience Candles Theme Lighting Acoustics Grounds Furnishings Comfort of chairs,beds, etc. Mood Signage Sound system TV placement Noise level |
Functional
Policies Hours of operation Ease of doing business Accessibility to a human being Product selection Design of your web site How well you are staffed Reliability of vendors Security Payment options Phone number on website |
| Technical
Employees level of expertise Speed of your technology Computers State of the art technology Ability to use your website Equipment Phone system Software Product knowledge Quality of product Timeliness Knowledge |
Operational
Daily tasks Cleaning Dress code Preparation Answering the phone Duties Checking people out Processing orders Functions of the job Compliances Paperwork |
Experiential
Hospitality Customer engagement Personalization Above and beyond Using the customer’s name Remembering preferences Presentation of food Verbiage/vocabulary of staff Congeniality Willingness to help Anticipating needs Service recovery Soft skills |
An example of physical excellence would be the beauty of Disney parks or how The Cheesecake Factory restaurants are designed. Starbucks has mastered setting, from the comfortable, inviting furniture to how well they merchandise their cafes, just as Disney has mastered how well they theme their parks and hotels. A couple of great examples of Functional excellence are Nordstrom department stores and Zappos.com who have simplified the process of returning merchandise.
Cleanliness is a great example of operational excellence. When you are considering your customer’s experience, you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Consider a hospital room, or massage or facial room. Because patients and customers are lying down for extended periods of time, they may notice the condition of areas of the room employees never look at.
As for the sixth component of the customer’s experience, experiential excellence, there is no need to provide specific examples here because the rest of this book is focused on experiential standards.
Keep in mind that it is important to constantly review how customer friendly your company is in each department. With regards to training of new and existing employees, the majority of your training will deal primarily with technical, operational, and experiential.
The vast majority of companies focus their training on the technical with very little if any emphasis on the experiential. Having been fortunate to work with some of the best customer-service companies in the world, I have both learned and helped create some amazing training that truly prepares new employees to be able to provide a world-class experience, regardless of their backgrounds.
Are any of the components more important than another? No, all are critical and all need to be reviewed and tweaked on a regular basis. The components differ significantly in terms of required people skills training. Physical, setting and functionality have little to do with training or people skills, but the other three components absolutely do involve people skills and training. There is a difference, however, in the training required for each component. It is much easier to train employees on technical and operational skills; they are job-specific, and they include easy-to-train subjects, such as product knowledge, and checklists. Also, technical and operational skills tend to be present and thorough because of prior education, degrees, licensing, certifications, and trade schools.
Many industries today mandate continuing education credit hours. The vast majority of companies are weakest in the experiential category.
~John DiJulius best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the CVO of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. John DiJulius is the innovator of a methodology called Secret Service a customer service system which consistently enables organizations to deliver World-Class Customer Experiences. Find out more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, the #1 National Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, secret service, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
Your customer service has many legs and pockets. It is not only the way your employees interact with your customers, but it’s all the messages being sent to your customers in countless ways. Everything speaks: verbal cues, systems, technology, physical signage, uniforms, etc. It is imperative you take a step back and review any negative cues that are making your business appear less than world class.
Verbal – Medical practices are the leaders in negative cues of all kinds. First, negative verbal cues: when a patient is checking in and the receptionist says, “We need to VERIFY your information.” Verify makes me feel like they don’t believe who I am; that maybe I am trying to use someone else’s insurance information. How about saying, “we need to CONFIRM your information?” Another example is when a patient is being seen by a doctor and a nurse comes into the room during the exam and says, “Your 10:30 is here,” or “You have a call on line 2.” At that point I am convinced the doctor is now rushing and more concerned with the patient waiting rather than focusing on me. Some great medical practices have created both verbal and non-verbal codes for this.
Signage has by far the highest occurrence of negative cues. I have collected so many examples over the years and am constantly receiving more each week from all of you. Businesses are so concerned about getting taken advantage of by 2% of customers that they end up insulting 98% with threatening signage. Here are just a few examples:
This is an actual sign on the glass door at the entrance to a high-end wine bar located in a beautiful shopping area. There are 12 things they tell you that you cannot wear. But they have a line underneath it all that says, “Business casual or business attire is suggested.” Couldn’t they have just put that on the door?
This one is so popular that Amazon.com actually sells it! I have another one that says, “No English, No Service!”
I was recently speaking to a group in Sydney Australia, where a partner of one of the most successful real estate companies in Sydney approached me. The partner confessed that he has some negative cues. When they have an open house for potential buyers, they display the following sign on the door that reads, “CONDITIONS OF ENTRY,” and it proceeds to tell you that you cannot enter with food or drink or shoes or unaccompanied children or a slew of others barriers to viewing the house. I was so excited when this gentleman said, “I realized we could position this notice in a more positive way by saying:
Out of respect for the homeowner, we appreciate your removing shoes…
He got it!
On Stage vs. Off Stage
Do your employees really know what is considered on stage and off stage? I recently worked with some QSRs (quick-service restaurants) and after touring some of their locations, I repeatedly saw their employees on break, standing in front of the restaurant where customers were walking by, smoking. This goes back to last week’s service aptitude article. This is not their fault. To them, they are on break and can do what they want. It is management’s responsibility to make them aware that even though they are not interacting with customers while on break, if they are in uniform where customers can see them, they are “on stage.” This can apply to all our businesses. I worked with a hospital and found nurses chatting behind the nurses’ station forgetting that they still can be seen and heard by patients and their visitors.
It is critical that you do a periodic review of the negative cues that can be expressed in numerous ways and can project a less than world-class image.
About the Author
~John DiJulius is President and Chief Visionary Officer of The DiJulius Group, a customer experience consulting firm used by top organizations, to create, develop, and improve their customer service systems. Our customer service consulting engagements help improve and maintain a healthier corporate culture and performance; lower employee turnover costs; increase customer retention factors; generate more referrals and make price less relevant. Companies across the world use The DiJulius Group to create World-Class Customer Experiences every day. John will be a presenter at The Secret Service Summit 2010.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, Dennis Snow | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service process, Dennis Snow, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
The term “customer service” evokes different images in people’s minds. One image could be that of friendly, smiling, helpful employees who go out of their way to serve you. Or it could be the opposite – indifferent, unfriendly employees who can’t wait for you to leave or hang up the phone.
Most people can recall many examples of poor customer service. Whether it’s the help desk employee that puts you on hold for 20 minutes or the store cashier who engages in a personal conversation instead of ringing up your purchase, poor customer service can make people feel frustrated and vow never to do business with that company again.
On the other hand, great service feels like a gift. It makes us want to continue to do business with an organization over the long haul. And that alone is the secret to business success – retaining customers by providing great customer service. With so much competition out there, customer loyalty is the single most important attribute your business can have. You achieve loyalty by doing the “little things” that make customers want to deal with you again and again and recommend you to their friends. The real difference is how a business makes their customers feel. If customers feel valued, most will remain loyal. If they feel under-valued, sooner or later they will defect to a competitor.
Several reasons exist for why customers defect from a company. The customer may move away, a competitor may lure them away, or they may leave because they are unhappy with the product. However, a recent study found that a whopping sixty-eight percent of customers who defect do so because of poor service. That’s a sobering statistic. The study further noted how customers defined poor service: “an attitude of indifference on the part of employees.” So while bad service certainly causes customers to leave, indifferent service can be just as detrimental.
With every two out of three customers citing poor customer service as a reason for leaving, what can your company do to achieve customer loyalty? Assuming your products and prices are competitive, you need to focus on providing superior customer service in order to gain loyalty. To do that, here are three simple steps to help you make sure your customers stay with your company.
1) Look through the “lens of the customer”
No matter what industry you’re in, chances are that you interact with customers at some level. Realize that customers can be shoppers at a store, patrons at a bank, patients of a doctor, clients of a law firm, etc. Because customers have their choice of where to obtain goods or services, the business has to convince the customer that they truly care. An engaged, caring employee raises the customer’s confidence that the business is looking out for the customer’s interests. When that employee suggests a new product or service, the customer trusts that his or her best interest is at heart. On the flip side, if the customer senses a lack of caring, he/she will question the motives behind any recommendations.
Every business has its jargon, so be careful to speak in a language that customers understand. Successful businesses speak the language of the customer, not the language of their own industry. Take, for example, the banking industry. Would a young couple buying their first house be looking through the same lens as a customer who buys and sells real estate for a living? Of course not. That young couple purchasing their first house is excited and nervous – that is the lens with which they are experiencing this purchase. Therefore, they need loan officers who are excited for them, who explain the terms in everyday language, and who provide information that will make their buying experience easier. A bank that shows that level of care is likely to earn that young couple’s ongoing business.
The same applies for customer complaints, which can be frustrating for customers and employees alike. As employees, we often can’t understand why a customer is making such a big deal about a particular issue. Didn’t the customer read the contract? (Probably not.) Doesn’t the customer understand that researching a problem takes time? (No, they don’t.) Remember, it’s not the customer’s job to see through the business’s lens; it’s the business’s job to see through the customer’s lens and show an understanding of the customer’s frustration.
Next time you are working with a customer, stop and ask yourself: “Am I seeing this experience through the customer’s lens?”
2) When it comes to a company’s environment, recognize that “everything speaks”
Imagine visiting a fine dining restaurant for a special occasion. You’ve been looking forward to the meal and you’ve heard good things about the restaurant. Then imagine noticing something crusty dried to your silverware and old lipstick marks on your water glass. Wouldn’t you begin worrying about the cleanliness and quality of everything else in the restaurant? Everything speaks!
Now imagine a customer entering your place of business. She notices trash in the parking lot. When she enters the reception area, she sees delivery boxes stacked by the receptionist’s desk. She sees employees standing around eating and having personal conversations. All of this detracts from your business’s image. Consciously or unconsciously, the customer’s antennae go up and makes them question, “Do I really want to spend my money here?”
The “everything speaks” philosophy means that all employees understand that even the little things count. So pay attention to everything, including whether the physical environment is neat and clean, whether all necessary supplies are available, whether the employees are dressed appropriately, etc. Anything that sticks out as “wrong” becomes an intrusion on the customer experience. These intrusions add up and result in customer concern. On the other hand, when customers sense an atmosphere of professionalism, care, and order, they feel a sense of confidence.
How many times have you seen employees in a business walk right by trash on the floor or a display that has been bumped out of alignment? Employees who understand that everything speaks will take a moment to pick up some wadded paper and straighten the display because they know that such behaviors have a direct impact on the customer experience.
Take a moment to think about your company’s environment. Since everything speaks, what are the details saying about your organization?
3) Create customer “wows”
Small gestures can create customer wows. Consider the housekeepers working in the hotels at Walt Disney World. Housekeepers have a tough job. Cleaning up after people on vacation is a challenge. Even in such a challenging job, Disney’s housekeepers will do little things that make guests say, “Wow.” For example, while spending a day in the Magic Kingdom children will often leave their stuffed Disney characters in their hotel room. Housekeepers have been known to position the characters with playing cards in their hands or tuck the characters into the children’s bed to create a moment of magic.
Employees can do many things to create wows. Remembering a customer’s name is a huge wow, creating a feeling of family. Letting a customer know that another product may better meet their needs is another wow. Sending a goody basket with a handwritten note to that young couple who just took out their first mortgage is a wow. Some wows are small and some are large, but make no mistake about it – wows add up.
One of the most powerful ways to create wows is to share best practices with fellow employees. Hold a company meeting so employees can share things that they have done that dazzled customers. Just talking about these behaviors increases the likelihood that others will adopt some of the practices or create new ones of their own. It is also likely that some wows can become standard procedure, whether it’s a grocery store bakery handing out fresh-baked cookies to children, or salespeople escorting customers to a product rather than simply pointing.
Next time you’re helping a customer, ask yourself, “Will my behaviors make this customer say or think, ‘wow’?”
Take Action Now
Excellent service is not about policy manuals. Excellent service is about excellent behaviors. When employees focus on excellent service, the results can be magical. Customers are happy, employees are happy, and shareholders are happy. Everyone wins. The key is to make service excellence a habit. Encourage every employee to internalize the above steps so they become habits. When employees focus on these principles, your company will achieve the most powerful result of all – intense customer loyalty.
About the Author
~Dennis Snow is a a speaker at The 2010 Secret Service Summit business author, speaker, and consultant who helps organizations develop world-class customer service. He is the author of two books, “Lessons From the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life” (DC Press), and “Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service.” (Wiley). Dennis can be reached at www.snowassociates.com, or at 407.294.1855.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
Marriott World Center Orlando
Recently I was a keynote speaker at a company’s annual conference held in Orlando, Florida. Their meeting was held at the Marriott World Center, the largest Marriott property in the world. When I arrived from the airport at around 10:00 am, I requested of the nice bellman to please have my luggage sent directly to my room so I could meet with the meeting planner and then deliver my keynote.
Unexpected Surprise
By the time my presentation and book signing were completed, it was now 5:00 pm. I was free, but I had a productive night scheduled. My plan was to run up to my room, change out of my suit and tie and go work out. I would then come back to my room, order room service and get caught up on several days of piled up email.
Well, things didn’t work out as planned. When I got to my room, I searched for my luggage, but it was nowhere. I then called down to the front desk, informing them that the bellman never delivered my luggage as requested. Shortly after, the front desk called me back and said they were unable to locate my luggage, but would try to as quickly as possible. So here it goes again: yet another horrible customer service experience!
I sat in my room, in a robe, like a prisoner. I had no workout clothes, couldn’t go to the gym like I had planned, my evening schedule was being compromised, and everything was getting pushed back. Why me? I was working myself up, getting stressed over the inconvenience, and imagining a horrible night’s sleep as a result.
Opportunity to be a Hero
What seemed to be hours later (actually only 10 minutes at most since I called the front desk looking for my luggage), the phone in my room rang. “Mr. DiJulius, this is James. I am the head bellman. I want to apologize for your inconvenience. We haven’t found your luggage yet, but I promise you we will soon. Can I ask you if there was anything in particular you needed that I can send up to your room?”
I responded with, “Just my work-out cloths. I was planning on getting a work out in.”
James responded, “Mr. DiJulius, I apologize. If we do not locate your luggage within the next 15 minutes, I would be happy to get you a pair of workout shorts, tee shirt and tennis shoes from our store outside our spa. Can you tell me your sizes?”
I responded that he didn’t have to do that! I could easily flip -flop my plans and get my emails done first, and hopefully by then my luggage would be found and I’d work out then.
James said, ”Are you sure? I promise you, I will personally find your luggage and get it to you ASAP! You are the last person we want to inconvenience, and I am truly sorry.”
I responded, “James, I appreciate your effort, really. I am fine. There’s no inconvenience. Thank you.” Within 15 minutes James brought my luggage to the room, and I thanked him and gave him a big tip for his effort.
Attitude Adjustment
What happened here? One moment I was an angry guest, working myself up, feeling sorry for myself: poor me, why does this have to happen to me, my entire night is screwed up, not realizing that I had an option of rearranging my plans. The next minute I was feeling bad for the bellman, telling him I was fine with plenty of things to do, it wasn’t an inconvenience at all, stop with the fuss. Why did this attitude transformation occur? (I went from being a potentially angry dissatisfied customer to telling them they were making too much of a fuss.) Because this particular Marriott properly trained their associates to recognize when something goes wrong, empathize immediately with the customer, and instead of focusing on the problem, (missing luggage) to focus on the inconvenience and offer solutions and alternatives. As a result of James’ sincere empathy to my horrible situation (exaggerated in my mind), the situation flipped and I was feeling badly for him and how hard he was trying to please me.
While they may complain about the Service Defect,
They are going to rave about how we handle it!
World-Class customer service companies train their employees to be Zero Risk. Commandment VII is anticipating your service defects and having service recovery protocols in place to make them right. We can’t eliminate things from going wrong, but what we can do is reduce errors and be better prepared to be a hero when things do go wrong. With over 2,000 visitors per day, just on that sheer volume, Marriott is going to misplace a small percentage of luggage from time to time. They know this and they are prepared.
- Have you recognized the reoccurring service defects in your operations?
- Have you trained your employees on how to show empathy and recognize the inconvenience versus the problem?
- Do you have protocols in place to turn your potentially upset customers into even more loyal evangelist?
~John DiJulius is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, consultant and the President and CVO of The DiJulius Group.
Filed under: Customer Experience | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Service, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
Having a service vision for your company is only the first step in developing a top-flight, customer experience oriented business. Even the most visionary organizations can’t pull off top service if they don’t have a world-class internal culture. That is accomplished only by attracting, hiring and retaining only those people who have the all-important service DNA.
As business leaders, we need to have standards that require prospective employees to earn the right to be a part of our company. Having a set of non-negotiable hiring standards will turn your prospective employees either on or off.
People need to earn the right to work for you. The main objective of any human resource person who conducts first interviews with prospective hires is to try to scare the applicant out of working for you. If the applicant doesn’t scare, chances are high that he or she is a good fit for your company. What “scare” really means is to help candidates recognize that a job at your company may be either a much bigger commitment than they wanted or exactly what they have been looking for. In order to do this, your company needs to have its own set of non-negotiable hiring standards.
Very similar to creating the service vision, there are two distinct parts of creating your hiring standards:
- creating the values that truly embody what your company stands for and
- being able to articulate those values to potential, new and seasoned employees so clearly and passionately that, within minutes, you can tell if your are turning them on or off.
A world-class culture does not compromise values; rather, it remains faithful to values, even when remaining faithful means doing things differently from everyone else. A legendary culture is created in the head and the heart of the leader and passed from team member to team member.
Build the culture and the customers will come
If you truly want to be a world-class customer experience organization, then you have to be the employer of choice. And to do that, you need to be known for four things:
- Being a great place to work
- Providing great training
- Having superior customer service
- Offering unlimited opportunity
If you can create that type of reputation, you will never have a shortage of applicants.
The employee career experience
The employee career experience encompasses the traditional stages an employee has during his or her career with your company. These stages are quite consistent from company to company; recruiting, screening and hiring, orientation and training, 90 days after hire, six months after hire, one year after hire, two years after hire, and after five or more years of employment.
Because the employee’s mentality is different at each stage, managers need to be trained how to coach, so they effectively emphasize and avoid certain factors at each stage. By creating this, you are designing a blueprint on how to create a positive working environment. This blueprint teaches new managers – and reminds experienced managers – how to create a great culture throughout an employee’s career in a way that continually reinforces his or her emotional capital in the company.
There are three components of each stage: service defects, standards and above-and-beyond opportunities.
Service defects are the things that the company and management need to avoid at each stage because those things can cause the employee’s morale to take a nosedive.
Standards are actions we want the company and management to deliver at each stage because those are the things that will differentiate the company from any other company for which the employee has ever worked.
And finally, above-and-beyond opportunities allow management to demonstrate a culture of going out of their way to care about the individual employee, leaving a reoccurring impression that this company is unlike any other for which they have worked.
I have never come across a world-class customer service organization that wasn’t a world-class company to work for — not only vertically (management to employee) but horizontally (employee to employee), as well.
