Creating "Wow" Customer Service Experiences

On AmericanChronicle.com I read this article by Robert Moment: "Six Keys to Creating "Wow" Customer Service Experiences". In my book it is right on the mark and i would therefore like to share it with my readers.

Customers of every kind of business imaginable these days bemoan the state of customer service. While the global economy and the Internet have given businesses the opportunity to serve more clients than ever before, the trend has also given way to impersonal, lackluster customer service.

It´s unfortunate that most businesses today don´t realize that they are regularly losing valuable customers if they don´t focus on providing an exceptional customer service experience. In most businesses, once a customer begins dealing with the customer service department, he or she is already in a negative mindset. The best customer service representatives aren´t those that simply neutralize the problem. Outstanding customer service representatives take a negative and turn it into a positive that ensures the customer is not only happy, but is convinced he or she has had an outstanding experience – the Wow Factor – that he would not have gotten with any other company.

The key ingredients of the Wow experience are:

1. Seamless Service
2. Trustworthy Service
3. Attentiveness
4. Resourcefulness
5. Courtesy
6. Pro-active Service

Seamless Service means providing everything the customer needs, not just what is required to meet the minimum standards. It´s about making sure that they don´t have to wait and wonder. Customers will appreciate a smooth, seamless process for addressing their needs. If there are several steps needed to take care of their concerns, keep them in the loop – update them by email or with a quick phone call so that they know you are working on the situation and progress is being made. By keeping them abreast of what is going on, you are letting them know you haven´t forgotten about them and that you understand their concerns – reassurance and communication are powerful customer service tools.

Trustworthy Service is essential to retaining customers. Promising a customer anything and delivering nothing is the surest way to not only lose a customer, but get the kind of "word of mouth" bad press that can ruin you. Under promise and over deliver – If you promise a satisfactory solution and then go the extra mile to not only satisfy the customer, but gain their appreciation and "Wow" them, you will get word of mouth that will bring new customers to you.

Attentive Service means paying attention during and after the initial contact. How many times have you contacted customer service and been subjected to an obviously scripted response from the customer service representative? Does it give you the feeling they aren´t really listening, but just trying to get to the end of their canned presentation? Attentiveness should run through every customer service experience, from listening carefully to the customer´s concerns to following up after the exchange is over to make sure their needs have been met. Listening isn´t just about hearing – it is about understanding what is really being said. The words are just the beginning –what about the customer´s tone of voice? Her mood? Is she disappointed, angry or frustrated? Keying in to the customer´s mood and responding appropriately is essential, and it means not following a script.

Resourcefulness means finding solutions when there appear to be none. Many companies have iron-clad policies that must be followed whenever a problem arises; however, sometimes a customer won´t be satisfied by the "company line" approach. Resourceful customer service representatives know that there is always a way to move beyond the standard procedures in order to make a customer happy. Resourcefulness involves finding a solution when a solution isn´t apparent. This may mean moving up the chain of command before the customer demands to talk to your superior. Companies with excellent customer service also give their representatives some leeway so that they can come up with creative solutions on their own. When a customer senses that you are going beyond the norm to help them, they will feel valued and respected.

Courtesy is a commodity that is becoming rarer every day. It takes so little to be polite but it is becoming a lost art. Say please when you ask a customer a question, thank them for their information and take your time talking to them. Nothing makes a customer feel more devalued than being treated like a number. Use the person´s name, make requests rather than demands and know when to apologize. When something goes wrong for a customer, they want to hear that you understand their frustration and that you are genuinely sorry that they are being inconvenienced. It takes nothing to say, "I´m so sorry you aren´t satisfied and I hope we can do something to correct this."

Pro-Active Service means not waiting for the customer to come up with a solution that you simply follow through on. A pro-active customer service representative anticipates the needs of the customer and follows through. Don´t wait for the customer to ask you what you are willing to do – anticipate the question and answer it before they can ask. If they call and say they aren´t satisfied, apologize and immediately suggest some solutions. Customers want you to take the lead – acknowledge their unhappiness, offer a solution or solutions and explain to them how you are going to follow through. Pro-Active service means taking the lead, which will reassure your customers that you know what you are doing and that you will follow through.

If you keep these six keys in mind – seamless service, trustworthiness, attentiveness, resourcefulness ,courtesy and pro-active service – you will be able to offer every customer the Wow Customer Service Experience that inspires loyalty and keeps customers coming back for more.

A poem on customer service...

Here is a poem Ithat Edgar A. Guest in 1942 wrote about the subject of
good service called "Good Business".


If I possessed a shop or store,I'd drive the grouches off my floor!
I'd never let a gloomy guyoffend the folks who come into buy
I'd never keep a boy or clerkwith a mental toothache at his work,
Nor let a man who draws my paydrive customers of mine away.

I'd treat the man who takes my timeand spends a nickel or a dime,
with courtesy and make him feelthat I was pleased to close the deal
because tomorrow, who can tell?He may want stuff I have to sell,
and in that case, then he will beglad to spend all his dollars with me.

The reason people pass one door to patronize another store,
it is not because the business placehas better silk, or gloves, or lace
or cheaper prices, but it lies in pleasant words and smiling eyes;
The only difference, I believe, is in the treatment folks receive.


What say you? Any thoughts, comments?

Eric Fraterman

Engaging employees makes sense for customers and the bottom line!

I just read an interesting blog entry by Forrester's Bruce Temkin. It’s a story about how Joie de Vivre hospitality improved the performance of its hotels by focusing on employees.

After Joie de Vivre Hospitality Inc. took over operations in 2003, the new manager of the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco reduced employee turnover to 25% to 30% annually, about half of the industry average.

Here are some mind blowing statistics. Market Metrix estimates that each departure costs a midrange hotel about $5,000 in lost productivity, and recruiting and training a replacement Joie de Vivre has 2,500 employees. About 90% are hourly workers who take reservations, clean toilets and perform other low-status jobs.

So lets do some math with those numbers. Reducing the turnover from 50% to 25% for its 2,250 hourly workers means that the hotel chain has 562 fewer employees leaving each year. That saves the company more than $2.8 million each year. And that doesn’t even include any revenue from the likely uptick in loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.

Wow! How did they do it?
Former management at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco didn’t like to replace aging vacuums, despite staff complaints. The new management bought a vacuum for each of the 15 housekeepers — and replaces them every year. This was just one example of how Hervé Blondel, the Hotel Carlton general manager, said he tried to treat workers as partners rather than employees. In addition, he did things like sitting in for front-desk workers on their lunch breaks and heeding staff suggestions to eliminate minibars, which generated little revenue at the midprice hotel.

The founder and CEO of the firm, Chip Conley, definitely seems to understand the strong link between employee satisfaction and good customer experience. The article talks about a number of things that he does to engage employees like sponsoring parties and awards, arranging paid annual retreats for employees, hosting regular dinners with those who want to chat, and offering free classes on subjects from Microsoft Excel to English as a second language.

It looks like Joie de Vivre Hospitality is a great example of a key principle of Experience-Based Differentiation: “Treat customer experience as a competence, not a function.”

What say you? Any thoughts, comments?

Eric Fraterman