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Customer Engagement is a contact sport – When dealing with Customers face-to-face, there are three ways employees can engage with Customers: incidental contact, secondary contact, and primary contact. Don’t just tell your employees to be present or to provide genuine hospitality without telling them how. Make it black & white, and make it measurable. One of my favorite hospitality systems for making a Customer connection is the “5 E’s.”
It is important to note that not all 5 E’s should be used in every Customer encounter, as some might appear unrealistic in certain circumstances.
Incidental contact – This is traditionally very brief, like a walk by, seeing the Customers (coming within 10 feet), but
Secondary contact – This type of contact with the Customer is usually some type of support team, i.e. hostess, greeter, or receptionist. The first three E’s should be executed every time and these also take a total of two seconds to execute simultaneously:
Primary contact – This encounter is involved, it is typically with the main person who is providing you service, i.e. a service provider, account executive, consultant, or Customer service rep. All five E’s need to be executed every time. The first three only take a few seconds to execute, the fourth and fifth ‘E’ are a little more detailed, can be done extremely quickly and efficiently, and are where the relationships are made, and expertise is demonstrated.
Johnism
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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.