In the last post from this series, we learned to picture the customer with the issue as someone’s slightly confused, 95-year-old great grandmother. We do this primarily so that we’re always on our best behavior; but this exercise will also help us handle the nastiest of irate customers by teaching us to kill them […]
Resolving customer issues is not actual customer service, it’s reactive customer service. Businesses that assume this is actual customer service completely miss the point of managing the customer experience. The goal, of course, is to eliminate issues before they occur. When you’re faced with resolving an issue – that is, practicing reactive customer service […]
I think readers of this series are fairly clear on my feeling that great customer means never having an issue in the first place, right? Well, okay, but what happens when we mess up? What happens when we screw the pooch? Responding to and solving a customer service issue is required whenever your team […]
There’s a great 2002 study on manipulating the customer experience that was published in The Journal of Applied Social Psychology detailing how something as small as an after dinner mint can be used to dramatically increase a waiter’s tips. For those of you not wanting to read the entire study (I don’t blame you), here […]
Lesson number five of our Five Simple Strategies to ensure we never have customer service issues, is to always maintain the goal of Customers for Life. Why customers for life? Well, as we learned in the first post in this series, it costs six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than […]
Fourth on our list of the 5 Simple Strategies that guarantee you never have customer issues in the first place is dubbed Real Alignment (like “wheel alignment,” get it?). The alignment I’m referring to here is getting your customers’ expectations aligned with your realities. In other words, we are going to manage their expectations […]
The third simple strategy of the 5 Simple Strategies that keep you from ever having customer services issues in the first place is called Convenience Store… as in 7-11; Circle K; QuikTrip; Wawa; RaceTrac; Speedway; Sheetz. You know, convenience stores; stores that are convenient. To prevent customer service issues from occurring in your business, […]
Any real fan of Road House (1989) knows that when Dalton gives his famous “Three Simple Rules” speech, he actually combines two rules into the first rule, giving his bouncer team four rules: “All you have to do is follow three simple rubies. One: never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two: take it […]
As we learned in The Customer is Not Always Right, good customer service means never having to say you’re sorry. In other words, if we want the customer experience to always be a positive one, then our customer service efforts cannot be focused on solving issues, but instead on preventing customer service issues before they […]
Enough about leadership with this series for a while; let’s jump back onto the front lines. Great customer service from a frontline employee comes from being aware: aware of your surroundings; aware of the rules; aware of your strengths; and, especially, aware of your customer. What do you mean, aware? Great poker players, salespeople and […]
Leaders who like being snowed about how their customers are being treated ask single, closed-ended questions like “Did your team institute the customer service policy we discussed?” or “Did you satisfactorily solve that customer issue that arose last week?” The answers to questions like these always match what the leader wants to hear; “Yep.” Conversely, […]
As we learned in the previous post in this series, creating great customer experiences are a top-down proposition. In simple terms, this means how you treat your frontline employees is likely how they will treat your customers. So, if you’re fair, thoughtful, and respectful with your frontline teams; then you can expect they will be […]
Let’s recap a few of the things we’ve agreed to so far in this series: that is, that good customer service is not about solving issues, it’s about not having issues in the first place. Furthermore, if we can provide good customer service, this leads to higher customer retention, a willingness for people to spend […]
So, you think Disney is pretty good at customer service, do you? They have the pedigree; and they certainly must have a reputation for effectively solving customer issues, right? Well, no, actually. Disney is not all that great at solving customer issues. It’s not just Disney, but Ritz-Carlton and Chick-fil-A are also not all that […]
Think what you will, but the customer experience is exactly what your customer says it is. Their perception is their reality, and their perception is all that matters. To put it more succinctly: the perceived experience is what matters. How is the experience with your frontline team perceived by your customers? Would customers say that […]
As we learned in the previous post, little things like eagerness can have a huge impact on how your company’s service is perceived. At Chick-fil-A, for example, having eager employees who serve decent fast food with manners makes all the difference. Conversely, little inconveniences I call Tiny Hurdles and Miniature Hassles can have an adverse […]
Wanting to serve the customer – being downright eager about it – is easily projected. Customers feel this and they appreciate it. Moreover, the more eager you are to serve, the more likely customers are to forgive mistakes. You cannot hide genuine eagerness. Likewise, you cannot hide a lack of genuine eagerness. Being eager, I […]
Actually, let’s clear some things up right from the start: Chick-fil-A doesn’t provide “mind-blowingly great” customer service… and, there is no secret to what they do. In fact, the title was just click bait. The customer experience at Chick-fil-A is good. Compared to their competitors, it’s great. Compared to a First Class seat on Emirates […]
You’ve probably heard (more than once) that the customer is always right. They are not. Of course, they don’t have to be right. They are your boss’ boss. They pay the bills. The customer is not always right, but they are always the customer. Now that we understand that, let’s talk about what we mean […]
Over the years, I’ve met a number of department managers (even those making their living in the sales arena) that will openly question why the customer experience matters? Why, they’ll ask, do we need to focus so heavily on doing more than just delivering a good product at a good price? Why isn’t ‘good enough’ […]