Customers Don’t Pay For Average

The need for increased sales is requirement! The stakes and level of mediocrity regarding service have never been higher! In the face of increased customer expectations, attention to detail and consistency towards a customer service culture makes all the difference. It is no longer a matter of being compared exclusively to industry competitors. Instead, your customer service competition is coming from any salesperson or company that provides a service experience that the customer uses as a benchmark to compare you against. It would be easy to become cynical about service in America if it weren’t such a GREAT opportunity to differentiate and put some serious distance between you and the competition. Your service effort cannot be about “coulda, woulda, shoulda.” It has got to be consistently focused on a level of excellence that causes your customer to consistently choose to repeat their business with you. The next several editions of Perpetual Insight are going to take an intensive look at the fifteen steps associated with providing a proactive rather than reactive customer service effort. Get ready to explore how you can apply each of these principles consistently and live out the actions that create a memorable service experience for your customers! Note: providing exceptional service is not about a fad or a trend that is connected with the difficulties of the economy. It is about truly desiring to set a standard that is reserved for the truly committed. The good news is that the standard is available to any individual or company that sets their direction and actions toward the effort consistently.

1. Customers don’t pay for average. Meeting the minimum is the expectation of any service experience. Consistently exceeding the expectation is the requirement to move from good to great in the mind of your customer. The “how to” lies in doing the unexpected and following through with a level of detail that causes the customer to be genuinely delighted and excited. The expression “the little things make a difference” is the key to overcoming the mentality of average.

2. Think like a customer rather than thinking like an employee. Anyone who works in the sales and service industry has crystal clear expectations of the exceptional service they should receive when they occupy the role of the customer. Your customers are going to determine your commitment to service by watching what you do rather than listening to what you say. Individuals and companies alike talk a great game, but when it comes to thinking like a customer they fall short. Instead, they think like an employee who doesn’t understand the connection between the customer and their dinner table. The “how to” lies in understanding and applying the principle of the Golden Rule to your service effort.

3. Your internal service effort must be addressed before your external service effort will create results. Ask yourself how many policies, procedures or practices exist within your company that are counter productive to the customer and make their experience with your company more difficult. What you find will probably alarm you. The “how to” lies in reviewing every customer interface and eliminating those things that frustrate your customer by undermining their experience. Anything that exists because “that’s the way our system works” or limits the ease of doing business with you needs to be eliminated.