In a few days I'll be speaking to an esteemed company in the health services industry on the topic of Customer Service Excellence. In my years of being in corporate sales and handling people on the frontlines I have been able to gather a wealth of experience and training on this field. But as I synergize all of this information and as I write all of them down I realized one important thing: everything I have learned in the area of selling is practically useless!
Why?
Because I was viewing customer service excellence from the wrong perspective. Let me give you some tips that I will share on my talk on what people and companies that exemplify unforgettable customer experiences do well.
Remember I mentioned that as I was collating my best tips I viewed it from the wrong perspective. As I started writing my speech I realized that I was looking at things from the sales person's point of view.
Wrong.
All of us are customers. We have had our share of the good and the bad when it comes to dealing with the courteous and accomodating as well as the rude and indifferent. To give something you know will be appreciated and remebered we should look at it from the recipient's POV.
Hence tip number one:
1.) People who provide excellent customer service have a twisted sense of reality - thats right. They're not crazy, but the best of them all don't see and approach things the way they see it, but rather as to how the customer sees it! We all have our own perceptions as well as misconceptions about excellent service yet the only real and enduring relationships that create loyalty are the ones that take the customer's expectations as the ONLY standard. Sure we establish our internal corporate guidelines on client satisfaction, but is that really enough to satisfy them? Do we see excellence behind our customer's eyeballs and not our own?
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are!"
"Oh Mr Chan is too busy to ask him what he really wants, I wouldn't want to bug him, but I'm sure this is what he would want."
Lucky for us if Mr. Chan was the vocal type who says exactly what he feels if he was satisfied or not, we'd have a second chance if we messed up. But what if the customer is the one who just leaves disgusted without saying a word who then blasts us to all of his friends and relatives? Excellent service just like a successful medical procedure begins with the intent probe. Don't make any assumptions, nobody wants to be one anyway. Customers are no different. Ever received a remark that was insensitive? What about a well timed compliment?
The moment ONE customer has been satisfied of his own perception of excellence, you have created a NAME. But when more people are satisfied with your service you have begun creating a BRAND.
Ask, then move to tip number two;
2.) People who provide excellent customer service always carry a ruler - literally and figuratively of course. A doctor would never prescribe anything without the proper diagnosis, the same goes with our customers. A person is never a customer unless he has a problem that we we have the product, service or idea that can can solve it. And our customer's priorities and values differ in gravity and urgency so we can't treat anyone single one the same.
John Maxwell the leadership expert said that you can't treat everyone the same for the sake of fairness, but rather treat everyone differently for impact. The excellent companies understand this, and provides the appropriate measures and measurements.
Once the need has been met though it doesn't end there. They constantly evaluate, analyze and eventually do number three;
3.) People who provide excellent customer service value experience more than the product - a salesperson was asked:
Customer: what's the difference between this phone model over the other one?
Salesman: (long pause) Uhmm... Five hundred pesos!
I ask this question a lot of times during my workshops as to what car model the participants would buy if they had won the lotto. My most frequent responses would be a Ferrari, a Mercedes or even a Landrover. I'd then asked the ladies what bag would they buy and they'd say a Hermes, an LV or Prada.
I would go on to ask if they'd have what they wanted and move on owning for a year or two, what would stop them from wanting more?
Did you ever ask yourself why enough is never enough? It's because of one universal truth; man craves for experiences, things and possessions are irreleveant.
It's the experience of feeling like James Bond or a fashion model or pop star that drives people to want the the cars, the clothes and the bling. But it's also that experience that drive people to keep on wanting more. What experience do YOUR customers have with your product? My guess is that same experience is what keeps them from buying in to your competitors. But what experience do your customers have with YOUR SERVICE?
If your customers were asked right now what was their best customer service experience would they mention you?
And lastly..
4.) People who provide excellent customer service are company clones - I have numerous experiences where I have great working relationships with either the company owners or their sales team but dread logging in at the building entrance because the guards were rude and unaccomodating. Did you ever had the experience of working well with the company reps but hated following up with accounting because they made you feel you were getting in the way of their journal ledgers?
Excellent customer service does not mean JUST the relationship between the sales reps and the customers, it is the permeation of a service culture in all of the organization's departments from top to bottom. A product is not considered sold unless it has been delivered, invoiced and collected. Therefore excellent service transcends warehousing, accounting, logistics and collections.
If a company is truly excellent it must not miss this point. It values it's internal customers as much it does it's external. Do you foster motivation and encouragement with your customers but criticize and disparage your coworkers? For a truly customer centric organization to exist fully, the process starts within then emanates out.
When you work well with your people, they work best with your customers.
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