Customer Service Mastery: Delight Every Customer

Vital

It’s common to focus on marketing and advertising but not service.  Every business involves customer service.  Assessing quality is difficult for customers.  It’s an easy measure of satisfaction.  Customers judge on SERVICE not QUALITY.  

Basic vs. Delight

Covers how it’s important to cover all the Basics by making sure you have a procedure for all of these.  Customer’s don’t notice if the basics are completed but they will notice the basics that are MISSED.   

Delight requires creativity and to be different from everyone else.  Chocolate on hotel pillows is not a standard at EVERY hotel, so it’s a “delight” to receive it at your hotel.  Considering borrowing from other industries.

Delighers will provide recommendations for others to buy your product or use your service.

Basics

1. Make the customer feel important.  
2. Use eye contact and smile.  Smile on the phone too!
3. Get names correct.
4. Be easy to get hold of and have a good voicemail.  Have an email footer/signature.
5. Call back when you promised.  Have a “to do list” and follow it.
6. Keep your promises.  Meeting deadlines that you confirmed.  
7. Train everyone highly.
8. Keep everything clean.  Uniform, personal appearance, workspace
9. Keep customers informed.  Even bad news.
10. Adapt to each customer.  What is important to them?

1. What is easy?

• What do you know about it?
• Give valuable advice
  • Small for you but valuable for them.
• Give progress updates.
  • Explain the “why”
• Reply quickly to call/emails – same day
• Be creative about how you help.

2. Unexpected/Unrequested

• Unexpected bonus
• They become expected
  • If a dealership cleaned your car after maintenance, you begin to expect that everytime you receive maintenance. 
• Others might copy you
• Doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated.
• What unexpected joy can you bring?

3. Creative swiping

• Look at different sectors
• Restaurants stealing from cinema – providing the ability to select your table/seats when reserving.
• Banks learning from airlines/car rentals – have a premium line for high value customers

4. Worst case

• Imagine the worst service and reverse it.
• Use barriers are your strength

5. Watch and learn

• Watch/ask your customers and learn.  Fix what you see.
• What pain can you remove?
• Don’t let your customers feel stupid.
• Get to know your customers closely
• How can you take away the pain?

6. The Queen

• What if the Queen/President walked in?
• Sending a thank you letter
• Welcoming guests on a TV/Monitor screen at reception.

7. In their shoes

• Place yourself in your customers shoes
• Offering toothpaste at reception in hotels when a guest forgot it
• Customer Service does not need to be expensive
• Providing bills under doors at hotels
• Cleaning cars in the parking covered in bird poo or removing snow from vehicles.
• Take every opportunity to be creative.

8. Breaking rules

• Hospital visiting time – be flexible – tell them it’s normally not okay but allow a small additional time to visit.
• Make them feel extra important.
• Letting someone go over their baggage allowance, if they have a good reason.
• Train your staff on rules (and flexibility).   Bed and breakfast offering free coffee to friends joining a guest during breakfast.
• Make an occasional 5 star service rule bend.

9. Be alert

• Be alert for opportunities.
• Someone bought something heavy and offered assistance to bring it to their car.
• Offer assistance to help elderly with their bags or packages.

10. Personal relationship

• Make it feel like a relationship.
• It can be a system, not just memory.
• Learn names or birthdays, something personal.
• Offer alternative options.
• Generosity will play off

11. Easy repeat others

• Make repeat customers easy.
• They won’t go anywhere else.
• Have unique useful features.
• Remember previous orders.

12. Ask others

• Just ask customers what they like and don’t like.
• Likes & dislikes with your competitors.
• You don’t have to think of all of this yourself.
• Try asking for yourself on the phone.
• Ask… and then change.

13. Technology

• Personalize or Speed up the process.  
• Add extra service with tech
• Car starter, map showing your parked car, recent journeys, etc.
• Use tech to fix life pains.
• Customer recognition system on your phone
• Tracking your parcel – name of person delivering, date/time, and delivery.

14. Over and above (expectations)

• Give more than they expect.
• Try to go above and beyond.

15. Nailing basics

• Keep the basics on track.
• Get unusual names right.
• Doctor seeing you on time.  That’s almost a delight factor.
• You might be surprised how rare things are!  
• Waiter brings food to each person without asking “who ordered this, ordered that?”

16. MMFI

• Make Me Feel Important Important
• Ask questions and listen
• Repeat back some of what you heard from the customer
• Foreign flag for visitors from that country
• Customisation works very well
• Learn the name of the kids when serving meals at the table

17. Contact points

• Perfect each contact point.
• Can the bill be brilliant (chocolate or mint in a restaurant)
• Can returns be brilliant and easy

18. Communication

• Preferred communication method (email vs. text vs. phone)
• Ask them what they preferer and use it
• How many methods do you use?

19. Be better

• Be better than competitors
• What can you do extra?
• Don’t let small costs lose business
• Free parking for a small amount of time to allow for drop off and pick up
• Do you want to follow or lead?

20. Marketing

• Marketing for ease
• “People also bought this”
• You can be helpful to upsell
• Don’t miss an opportunity because of logistics
• Use generosity as an opportunity to upsell
• Send a gift instead of an advert
• Marketing can be a bonus to customers
• Could you “try before your buy”

21. Indifference

• Avoid “perceived indifference”
• Care about the customer (and show it), show caring at every point
• Make sure no one feels ignored.
• Ask for feedback (be genuine)
• Make every interaction special

22. Flexibility

• Provide flexibility or choice
• Do you fit around their needs?
• Offer unexpected bonus
• How flexible is your cancellation?
• Don’t let petty money ruin a relationship
• Give your staff freedom to be creative

23. Fun factor

• Have some FUN!
• Celebrity voice wakeup call
• What can you do to make it fun?

24. Speed

• Increase speed
• Invest in not keeping your customers waiting
• It will make customer feel like you care
• Can technology increase speed?

25. Personalize

• Technology makes personalizing easy
• Can you remember preferences?
• A small bit of effort goes a long way
• Learn a few phrases of foreign language when meeting foreign visitors or guests
• Ask for a chance to personalize

26. Remember

• Create a system to make it easy
• Take notes of things to mention
• Back to “make me feel important”

27. Promise

• Make a public guarantee
• Make people notice how great you are
• Make a promise and keep it

28. Communicate/Give updates

• Communicate & update often
• Communication does not cost much
• Tracking your parcel/order
• Communicate every stage
• Use good communication as a chance to sell
• Explain issues clearly

29. Personalities

• Adapt to the type of customers
• Four types of people – see download
• Be efficient and direct
• Allow time to building a bond
• Add some fun element

30. Great staff

• Invest in a fantastic staff
• Staff makes system work
• Expert knowledge is priceless
• Employ older people may have more knowledge
• Invest in charisma/gravitas
• Make staff feel valued
• Try to hire related people
• Hire aspirational staff
• They provide creativity