Are you delivering high rate customer service, or a customer experience? Ensuring that customers are happy and turning them into raving fans, where they will refer their colleagues, friends, and family, should always be a top priority. If we believe that the most important thing is customer service, we are wrong.
Before you throw away your company culture statement about how you want to treat your customers, hear me out.
Customer service implies how we treat our customers. It has become the rule, not the exception. The Golden Rule states “Treat others like you would want to be treated.” The Platinum rule states “Treat others how they would like to be treated.”
What does it actually take to become the exceptional company that delivers something customers weren’t expecting? Going above and beyond to WOW them?
The statistics show that it costs 6 times more money to find a new customer than to keep a current customer. So, what does it REALLY cost to deliver a little extra something to retain that current customer? Here are a couple examples I’ve witnessed recently of companies, or individuals, who focus on customer experience, rather than customer service:
• Outback Steakhouse (and many other businesses) are now putting water stations in their lobby, or passing out samples. What does this cost? Next to nothing. But what does it say to customers who wait a long time to be served?
• I witnessed a Publix bagger pass out Pokemon cards to little kids when they walked their parents to their car. They didn’t do this for the tips. They did this because they cared about customer experience.
What does your organization do to ensure top-notch customer experience; not just customer service?
Remember that Customer Service is not a department, it’s an attitude. Go out there and do something different, stand outside the box and create a customer experience that will bring them back again and again.
If you’re not standing on top of the pack in this area talk to your business coach about how you can improve your delivery mastery and WOW your customers.