Shep Hyken's Blog, page 240
August 14, 2013
Customer Service Might Not Be Perfect, but It Can Be Excellent
Amazing ServicePerfect customer service is a goal. It’s not reality. It may be attainable sometimes, but there will always, at some point, be a mistake, a problem or a complaint from the customer. This is why perfect is not ever going to happen every time.
However, excellent customer service is reality. It’s what happens during the pursuit of perfection. If the goal is perfection, then along the way, excellence will take place.
You might consider this to be a little customer service motivation. I started thinking about this idea when I heard my friend and colleague, Art Holst, speak at an event last week. Art is a former NFL referee and talked about his friend, NFL star quarterback Bart Starr, who is known for the following quote:
“I don’t think it makes sense to strive for perfection. Perfection is not attainable. I believe totally in striving for excellence, and I think there is a great deal of difference between the two. Although we strive for excellence, we set sensible goals because one of the most frustrating things in the world is to set our goals so high that we have no chance of reaching them.”
In doing a little research about Bart Starr’s quote, I came across another one by Edwin Bliss, who is the author of “Getting Things Done.” He said:
The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time.
I get it. Perfection is not reality, but the goal of perfection is. If you consistently put forth your best effort, positively and quickly react to anything that might go wrong, you are on the path to excellence.
Sometimes the customer service you deliver seems perfect. And, it may very well be… that time. But, there is always a chance something can go wrong, and that is where excellence comes into play. Even when there is a problem, a complaint or mistake, it is the effort to turn that negative into a positive that creates an excellent customer experience. And an excellent recovery may even create a higher level of customer confidence than if the problem had never happened.
Thinking back, I’ve heard people say that a company has great customer service – even amazing service. But, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone say, “They have perfect customer service.”
Perfect customer service is a goal. However, excellence is reality, and is always worth pursuing.
ALMOST HERE! Less than three weeks! Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools to Create the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet will be released on September 3. But you don’t have to wait! There is still time to pre-order the book and get an immediate download of the book and a number of other bonuses. You can start to deliver amazing service today! Go to www.AmazeEveryCustomer.com.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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August 12, 2013
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of August 12, 2013
Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
25 Employee Engagement Tips to Improve Your Workplace by Debbie Laskey
(Debbie Laskey’s Blog) I asked 25 of my favorite leadership and employee engagement experts to answer the question, “What one tip would you give to employers to promote employee engagement?” Here are their insightful tips.
My Comment: Debbie Laskey has done it again. A great article that compiles ideas from 25 experts on the topic of employee engagement. There are so many benefits to an engaged workforce. What’s happening on the inside of an organization is being felt on the outside!
10 customer experience soundbites from Jeff Bezos by Chris Lake
(Econsultancy) I find it totally striking that Bezos was so customer-focused, back in the day. It’s easy to think that the phrase ‘customer experience’ is relatively new. It’s not.
My Comment: Jeff Bezos is definitely one of the rock stars when it comes to customer service. I love this compilation of Bezos quotes. They make great conversation starters for a team meeting. If nothing else, they give insight into just how customer-focused Jeff Bezos really is.
Crazy Makers, Trust Busters And How Customers Get Even by Christine Crandell
(Forbes) While understanding the specific actions and motivations of buyers is important to delivering a valued lifetime customer experience, it is not everything.
My Comment: Trust is such a big part of the customer experience, and ultimately a big driver of loyalty. While the customer focuses primarily on B2B, I believe much of this crosses over to B2C. Here is a list of some of the reasons a customer trusts a business and some of the mistakes businesses make to lose a customer’s trust.
4 Ways to Own Your Customer Relationships by Mark
(Contactzilla) Use these four business management tips to ensure you own the customer relationship.
My Comment: If you want to own your customer relationships, you should take a good look at these four ideas, which fall into four very important areas: culture, customer experience, systems and communication.
Lawmakers push Obama administration on customer service by Donovan Slack
(htrnews.com) According to the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, the federal government scored a meager 68, four points lower than the worst private industry, the information sector.
My Comment: If the government really wants to get customer service right they should pay attention to a very important concept: consistency. You can’t let agencies make up their own standards. Everyone and every agency needs realistic and consistent benchmarks. And, it would help to pay attention to what countries like Singapore are doing. I agree with the comment from Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson who is quoted as saying, “By embedding the concept of customer service into government operations, agencies will ultimately become more efficient and effective.”
Professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314) 692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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August 9, 2013
Guest Blog Post: 3 Morale-Killing Mistakes Managers Make & What To Do Instead by Marilyn Suttle
I am excited to start my “Friends on Friday” guest blog post. This article by Marilyn Suttle focuses on employees and internal customers, which is one of my favorite topics. Thank you Marilyn for your contribution.
No one wakes up in the morning thinking, “I wonder how I can suck the life out of my staff today?” Yet, common mistakes managers make can have drastic effects on morale and ultimately the customer experience. What happens on the inside of a company eventually shows up on the outside. If you’re making the following mistakes, challenge yourself to test out the alternatives listed below and notice what happens.
Mistake 1: Do not involve your staff when hiring their coworkers.
Hiring is tricky business. Even when you think you’ve found the right person, only time will tell if they’ll excel on the job. One of the biggest mistakes managers make is to hire too quickly. They don’t take the time to have the employees who will work closely with the new hire participate in the interviews. Much like the “new kid in school,” your new hire can find herself under scrutiny from coworkers who feel they had no choice with whom they have to work with every day.
Instead, bypass this problem by slowing down the hiring process. Add additional interviews that include employees who would work most closely with the potential new hire. When coworkers get to be part of the selection process, they naturally take ownership for helping those people acclimate and become successful on the job.
Mistake 2: Be silent when things are running smoothly.
It isn’t always easy to manage a service staff, especially when times are tough. It makes sense to speak up when problems arise to ensure things get back on track. But what do you say when your staff is working hard and things are coasting along as planned? Many managers consider that “business as usual” and make the mistake of saying nothing.
I observed a competent manager hired into a crazy-busy position filled with barely manageable client expectations. She was under the gun from day one. During her first few months, her staff began feeling more stressed than usual and less engaged. It wasn’t that she was overly tough or abrasive. The problem was she only had something to say when problems, oversights, or mistakes came to her attention. Employees are internal customers. When they don’t feel appreciated, it has a negative impact on the work they produce. Lack of appreciation is a major reason that key talent lose enthusiasm and leave.
Instead of silence, take time regularly to notice and acknowledge what’s going right. When you see it, say it, “I appreciate you for staying late to complete the order. It made a great impression on our new client.” When a staff member comes up with a creative suggestion that solves a client issue, don’t say, “Okay, go ahead and do that,” without including, “Great solution!” or “That’s the kind of creative thinking that makes our clients want to do business with us.”
You might be thinking, “Yeah, but Marilyn, my staff is SUPPOSED to do the right things. That’s what they’re hired to do. Why should I have to point out the expected?” The bottom line? Those who feel their work is appreciated are more engaged. It doesn’t cost anything and it creates a “you belong here” feeling that inspires even greater quality work and resourcefulness.
Mistake 3: Blame your staff for letting customer service standards slip
Your company spends time and money to develop customer service policies and everyone is trained. You confirm with each staff member that they understand the new expectations, and offer to answer any questions. Shortly after, they stop following through. All that training evaporates and you’re back where you started. Do you get frustrated with your staff? Do you throw your hands up and complain? Over time, even the best of your people can start slipping back into old habits. It’s aggravating! And it’s not their fault.
Instead of blaming and resenting your staff, do what it takes to make service standards stick. Reinforce your standards regularly. Every business has an internal culture of “the way things are done.” When you try to change things, there will be a certain amount of resistance, a clinging to the old ways. Reinforcement doesn’t have to be hard, though it has to be consistent. The moment you stop reinforcing your standards is the moment things start slipping back.
After I am brought in to train for a business, I recommend a series of reinforcement calls. These calls are weekly and quick. If your staff knows that in a week’s time they will have an opportunity to share a success, they prepare. It stays “top of mind.” I suggest spending the first five minutes going over one particular point made in the training, then the call is turned over to the manager who gives each employee a couple minutes to share an example of how they each recently applied that service excellence practice. Each employee gets time to shine. Each employee gets to see how peers are using the skills. The manager gets to acknowledge the good work they’re doing. This is just one of many reinforcement techniques. What you focus on grows, and turns into “the way things are done.”
What about you?
What do you do to keep your internal customers morale high?
Results coach Marilyn Suttle is an international conference speaker and co-author of the bestselling book, “Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan.” She works with companies who want to create and maintain cultures of customer service excellence. For more information on Marilyn’s presentations, online training, and books, contact (248) 348-1023 or Marilyn@MarilynSuttle.com or visit www.WhosYourGladys.com
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August 7, 2013
Customer Service Is Simple, But It Is Not Always Easy
Create a great service experienceSometimes the difference between a good company and a great company is the smallest amount of extra effort they, which means their employees, do for the customer.
When you walk into a store, the employee standing behind the cash register looks at you and gives you a little nod, as if to say, “Hello.” How hard would it be for that employee to come out from behind the counter, greet you and ask, “What can I help you find today?”
Have you ever asked for something special at a restaurant? Maybe you have a food allergy. Maybe you’re trying to eat healthy and would rather have a vegetable instead of a starch. I remember going into a restaurant and was disappointed to read the large print in the middle of the menu that stated: No substitutions. The description of the entree that I wanted to order indicated what it came with. I don’t like green beans, but rather than test the theory of their substitution “rule,” I simply requested that there be no green beans. The server told me that the chef wouldn’t do that, as that was considered a change or substitution. I calmly disagreed and stated that I wasn’t asking for a substitution, but just wanted something left off the plate. The server told me that the chef was very busy in the kitchen and wouldn’t be able to acknowledge the special request. I acquiesced and just didn’t eat the green beans. I thought, how hard would it have been for the server to take care of it, even if the chef wouldn’t? How much “extra effort?” I don’t think very much.
The point is this. Sometimes when there is a big problem or complaint, it’s easy to spot and usually obvious that something needs to be done to fix it. But, the little things can nip away at the customer’s experience. They may be too small or insignificant to notice by themselves, but collectively they add up to the customer having a negative experience.
And these little things are simple to the customer walking away with a sour taste.
Here’s the lesson: Don’t take the easy way out. Find ways to say yes instead of no. Give a little more effort. Sometimes just a tiny bit more. Don’t view a special request as a nuisance. Instead, look at is as an opportunity to show how good you are. Capitalize on opportunities to create a great service experience for your customer.
I don’t know who said it first, but I heard it from Zig Ziglar. He used to say, “There’s no traffic jam on the extra mile.” And, when it comes to customer service, that extra mile, while not always super easy, isn’t always difficult either. It is sometimes something very small or simple, and most likely, if you have a customer service mindset, is a pleasure to do for your customer.
ANNOUNCMENT: Just over three weeks and counting down! Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools to Create the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet will be released on September 3. But you don’t have to wait! Pre-order the book and you can get an immediate download of the book and a number of other bonuses – and you can start to deliver amazing service today! Go to www.AmazeEveryCustomer.com.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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August 5, 2013
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of August 5, 2013
Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
The employee’s guide to complaining by Catherine Milward-Bridges
(Bizcommunity.com) Employee complaints have a legitimate place in business, with some tempering needed – in some cases more than others. A key role player in the engagement equation, employees need a voice and a platform that are both taken seriously. This voice should be allowed to speak freely but constructively, in the interest of business-building.
Consider these questions to help you think twice before complaining.
My Comment: A truly customer-focused company is also an employee-focused company. Complaints from customers are acknowledged and dealt with, so why shouldn’t employee complaints. However, employee complaints will always be viewed differently. These five questions (and probably others) should always be considered by an employee before he/she complains.
7 Ways Bad Customer Experience Teaches Business Growth by Stefanie Amini
(360 Connext) Here are 7 tips to help you grow from each bad customer experience situation and retain your customers.
My Comment: The old expression is: “Complaints are opportunities to show how good you are.” Turning a complaint around isn’t that complicated, as this article shows. And, it is not just about resolving a complaint. It’s about restoring confidence. If the complaint is resolved correctly, the customer should have confidence to continue to do business with the company – maybe even more confidence than if the problem had never taken place at all.
Why Improving The Customer Experience Matters: A Love Story by Mike Maddock
(Forbes) Customer experience experts understand that a “love affair” with your consumers is the ultimate brand advantage because in life and business, love conquers all.
My Comment: Great version of the “circle of life” for a customer. Well worth considering as the various stages and touch-points through the customer lifecycle. I also like the concept of the company having a “love affair” with the customer. We want our customers to love us. When they do, they enjoy doing business with us, they give us more business, they spend more money… and everybody is happy!
It’s How They Want to Buy… Not How You Want to Sell by Ernan Roman
(Huffington Post) Companies that focus on what they want to sell — not how customers want to engage — miss the boat on opportunities to drive initial and ongoing sales.
My Comment: When a company builds a strong relationship with their customer, making a sale is easier. We want our customers to buy from us, rather than us having to sell them. If a company has a product or service that works, and their customer relationship skills are strong – and note that the customer service they provide is a very important part of that relationship – then the customer will buy with much less sales effort.
The Chief Executive of Customer Experience Management is You by Laura Bassett
(Business2Community) When organizations first start looking into Customer Experience Management they soon discover it’s not just a new twist on traditional customer service delivered by a contact center. It’s a paradigm shift in which the contact center becomes a key player in a broader strategy.
My Comment: It is very important to remember the internal customer concept, and this article does a good job of giving us a brief refresher. Everyone has a customer that they service; internal or external. If you’re not serving the outside customer directly, you are probably servicing someone who is. You are a supporting cast, who regardless of job or responsibility, is supposed to do what is necessary to ensure that the customer is taken care of.
Professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314) 692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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July 31, 2013
6 Customer Service Amazement Tools
Customer Service StrategiesIf you were to survey ten random people about who they thought the best customer service companies are, you would probably hear companies mentioned like Amazon.com, Apple, Zappos.com, Nordstrom, Ritz-Carlton and a number of others. Well, last year BusinessWeek mentioned many of those same companies, including Ace Hardware.
Ace Hardware is that local store that has the really helpful employees who can help you with that weekend project, find that obscure part and much more. They are the small locally owned stores that compete against huge “big-box” stores that are ten times bigger and spend 30 times more on advertising. They play in a very competitive market and they thrive because of their special brand of customer service.
One very important reminder is that great customer service is table stakes. It’s the ante. You have to come to the competitive game of business with a sound customer service strategy, or you might as well just send your customers to the competition. So, here are some basic strategies and tactics that customer focused companies like Ace Hardware, and other rock stars in the world of customer service, do to provide service that differentiates them from their competitors:
The truly great companies add a signature or brand to their version of customer service. For example, as mentioned, Ace Hardware focuses on helpful. It is their tag line as well as their brand promise. They want to be the most helpful hardware stores on the planet. They really don’t want to be known as the nicest stores. They want to be known as helpful. By the way, part of helpful is nice.
Great companies have clarity of their purpose, and they get all of their employees in alignment with this purpose. Call it a vision, mission, credo, mantra – whatever – the employees must know it, understand it and embrace it. Ace’s brand promise “the helpful hardware place” and Ritz-Carlton’s credo, which is, “We’re ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen are great examples of short, simple and concise brand statements that promise an amazing customer service experience. Pretty simple and clear. Every employee gets it. Every customer gets it. And when they experience the
Great companies hire the right people. They hire people that fit the personality, mission and vision of the company. This is really where the culture starts. Not just with the employees, but hiring the right employees.
Once the right people are hired, they are trained, not just on the technical skills of the job, but also the softer skills like, and you guessed it, customer service.
The best companies empower their employees to do the job they were hired to do. They expect the best and help their employees deliver their best.
The best companies celebrate the success of their people. They let their trained and empowered employees own their experiences. The customers shouldn’t be the only ones that get to enjoy the hard work that leads to the success of the company.
ANNOUNCMENT: One month and counting down! Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools to Create the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet will be released on September 3. But you don’t have to wait! Pre-order the book and you can get an immediate download of the book and a number of other bonuses – and you can start to deliver amazing service today! Go to www.AmazeEveryCustomer.com.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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July 29, 2013
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of July 29, 2013
Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
Top 10 Most Amazing Customer Service Stories Ever Told (Slideshare) by Merlin
(Merlin) Here are 10 amazing stories that will either blow your mind or warm your heart.
My Comment: What makes these ten customer service stories amazing? Sometimes it’s just the attitude of the people. Sometimes it’s some creativity. Sometimes it’s the company and the employees having fun. I’d take one each week and share it with the team. What can we learn from each story? What can we take from each story and use in our own business? Let’s not just enjoy these stories. Let’s use these stories to learn how we can take our customer service to the next level.
10 Ways to Improve the Customer Experience by Gallup
(Gallup) Executives must start by engaging their employees and then taking these steps to help their workers become effective brand ambassadors.
My Comment: Excellent ideas on how to improve the customer experience. Implement any of these ten “ways” and you, your customers and your employees will be better off for doing so.
3 Ways Customer Service Will Enhance Your Bottom Line by Jason Boies
(Salesforce) Goodman says that not even 25% of customers bring their service issues forward because it’s often just too much hassle. Many of them still believe companies won’t care and/or won’t fix the problem to their satisfaction, even if they did receive their complaint. Here are three ways for customer service leaders to address this particular challenge.
My Comment: Three great ideas on creating a better customer experience; empower your people, ask for more complaints and communicate/educate to prevent future problems. Yes it’s common sense, yet it’s nice to be reminded of some of the more sound customer service/experience strategies and tactics.
The True Cost of Bad Customer Service by Desk.com
(Desk.com) Bad customer experiences are more expensive than you think. Learn the true impact of bad customer service and its effect on customer loyalty and satisfaction.
My Comment: This infographic illustrates the high cost of bad service, and has a few great ideas on how to deliver a better customer service experience. While a very general overview, the concepts will make you think – and hopefully take action.
Expert Feature: The Hidden Truth That Allows Some Businesses To Charge More Than You Do by Scott Aughtmon
(Bay Business Help) I heard of a Chinese legend that a man named Morris Mandel once shared. It first reveals an obvious lesson about the fact that many good things in life are ordinary. But it reveals a hidden lesson that I think you’ll want to see.
My Comment: The title of this short article should compel just about anyone to read this article. How do you make price less relevant? Read this story and you’ll start to understand how and why some companies can get away with charging more than their competition for similar products.
Professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314) 692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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July 24, 2013
Customer Service Is More than Just Being Nice
Amazing Customer Service
We don’t want to be known for having the nicest people. We want to be known for having the most helpful people.
– Tom Knox, Vice-President of Retail and Business Development, Ace Hardware
Last week I had the privilege of presenting a speech to the fine people at Ace Hardware. As usual, the focus of the speech content was about creating customer service – actually amazing customer service. Tom Knox was one of the corporate speakers. The comment he made about nice versus helpful really resonated with me. Anyone can be nice. But he wants more. He wants his people to be nice plus knowledgeable. The combination adds up to the Ace brand promise, which is to be the helpful hardware store.
Have you ever done business with anyone where the people were extremely nice, but you didn’t get what you wanted? You might argue that the people are “so nice,” or that “they try so hard.” But in the end, they don’t get the job done. I’ll argue that nice and not getting the job done is better than not nice, but it still isn’t good enough to keep my business long-term. Nice might earn the company another chance or two. But in the end, no matter how nice the people are, if you don’t get what you want or need, you’re going to eventually do business somewhere else.
And, just as important, if the people at a business are knowledgeable and not nice, you go and find another place to do business. Sure, there are some customers who will put up with lousy attitudes and non-appreciative people, but the majority of customers would like the total experience, which includes nice people, who know what they are doing – and by the way also sell a quality product or service. In all of this, I have to make the assumption that whatever the company is selling, it does what it is supposed to do.
For Ace Hardware, the formula looks like this:
Nice + Knowledgeable = Helpful
Helpful is what Ace wants to be known for. That’s their brand of customer service. Helpful creates confidence and confidence leads to repeat business. In other words, it leads to loyalty.
So, what do you want your customers to say about you? The point of this lesson is that great customer service is more than just being nice and having a great attitude. It’s a total package. Define what that total package has in it and you’ll find your customers are happy, confident and willing to come back.
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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July 22, 2013
5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of July 15, 2013
Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
2013 Customer Service Hall of Fame, by Karen Aho
(MSN Money) The 10 companies most often credited for ‘excellent’ service in our annual survey share a similar focus — and results that suggest focusing on customers pays off.
My Comment: The MSN Money Customer Service Hall of Fame is always interesting to look at. Look at the companies that made the list and see what they have in common, what they do different, etc. We can learn a lot by understanding how these companies do what they do. It doesn’t surprise me that Amazon is at the top.
4 Customer Service Tips from Disney, by Anna Eschenburg
(Salesforce) Here are four customer service lessons you can learn straight from Walt Disney.
My Comment: Hard to believe that Walt Disney opened the gates to Disney land 58 years ago. How many businesses have earned and maintained an excellent reputation for that long. Read these four quotes by Walt himself and you’ll understand (and learn) why Disney’s customer service and excellent reputation have become legendary.
Three Tips For Finding (And Retaining) More Customers, by Young Entrepreneur Council
(Forbes) While many business leaders are content to sit at their desk waiting for the phone to ring, in today’s competitive business environment, you must begin thinking differently in order to grow (or retain) your client or customer base. This doesn’t mean changing your service offerings; it means spending time on the prospect-client relationship itself. Below are three tips to help you do just that.
My Comment: Three simple ideas to keep your customers; make it personal, go the distance (actually the extra mile) and empathize. Sounds simple, so why don’t more people/companies do it?
How to Sell the C-Suite on Service, by Sumair Dutta
(SmartVan) A customer-centric transaction doesn’t necessarily mean less focus on product features and capabilities. It means that the features and capabilities built into the product are tied to the needs of the customer. Note, I didn’t say that product features are solely designed based on what customers want or fancy; they are tied to a deeper understanding of customer needs and how you can maximize value.
My Comment: The best leaders don’t just focus on the numbers. They also focus on the people/customers. Customer service is not just for the front line. It’s for everybody. It’s not a department. It’s a philosophy.
What Your Company Can Learn From the Best, by Ed O’Boyle and Jim Harter
(Gallup Business Journal) Only 30% of American employees are engaged in their jobs — a figure that hasn’t moved much in more than a decade. Given the proven links between employee engagement and financial outcomes, this low level of engagement is a drag on an already sluggish U.S. economy. Imagine the positive — even dramatic — impact on the country’s economic prospects if companies could double the number of their engaged employees.
My Comment: Engaged employees are happier, harder working and do a better job at delivering a better customer experience. Here are four concepts that every company should consider when creating an engaged workforce.
Professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314) 692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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July 17, 2013
Focus on the Customer, Not the Money
Deliver the Best Customer ServiceDon’t worry about the sale. Just take care of the customer. Give the customer the best customer service you can deliver, even if the customer isn’t buying, and eventually the sale will come.
This idea actually goes back to a concept I’ve been writing about for almost 30 years. Dr. Ted Levitt, senior professor at Harvard Business School, once said, “The function of a business is to get and keep customers.” However, when I ask many people what the function of a business is, most of them say, “To make money.
Making money is not the function of a business, it is the goal. If you confuse the function of the business, getting and keeping customers, you don’t always reach your goal, which is to make money.
Dr. Levitt’s comment is brilliant. Focus on getting and keeping customers, and eventually you’ll make money. Simply put, you need customers to make money. Without them, there’s no money – and no business.
Once again, I’m bringing up Ace Hardware, who is the feature of my upcoming book, Amaze Every Customer, Every Time. They are a role model case study for this concept. Here is a “Good Samaritan” story.
Maria lives in Mesa, AZ. Her eight-year-old-daughter, Lisa saw one of those color-changing Mood Rings in the mall and pushed it onto her finger. Unfortunately the ring was too small and wouldn’t come off her finger. After struggling for an hour, she was showing signs of circulation problems. What did Maria do? She went to the local Ace Hardware store. Why? They help with everything.
Floyd, one of the Ace associates came to the rescue. With a special pair of pliers, Floyd carefully maneuvered the ring and eventually it came off.
Once the ring was off, Maria took a picture of her daughter showing off her newly liberated finger at the store. She was smiling and posted the photo on Facebook and told everyone how Floyd at the Ace Hardware store had helped her. The post received great response.
Maria bought nothing that day. But, that didn’t deter Floyd from delivering the amazing customer service Ace Hardware is known for. While Ace didn’t make an actual sale, they made a customer very happy, so much so that the customer evangelized on their behalf.
Ace knows that the customer is more important than the money. Once customers recognize this, they reciprocate with business and loyalty – and that leads to profit.
NOTE: This article is based on one of the tools from Shep Hyken’s upcoming book Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools for Delivering the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet, which appears in stores everywhere in September 2013. Preorder the book and get valuable extras at www.AmazeEveryCustomer.com .
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright ©MMXIII, Shep Hyken)
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