Perpetual Development, Inc
©2007 Perpetual Development, Inc.

Customers Don’t Pay for Average 3
By Brent Patmos

This is the final in a series of three issues of Perpetual Insight dedicated to the series; Customers Don’t Pay For Average. In the June and July editions, we introduced the first nine elements required for you and your company to provide a differentiated service experience:

1. Customers don’t pay for average.
2. Think like a customer rather than an employee.
3. You must address your internal service effort before your external service effort will deliver results.
4. Exceed what the customer thinks they are going to receive.
5. Seek a strategic service outcome.
6. Your agenda and the customer’s agenda should match.
7. Make fewer service statements.
8. Moving beyond what to why.
9. Positive service messaging.

This month’s edition of Perpetual Insight continues to take an intense look at the final six steps of the fifteen, associated with providing a proactive rather than reactive customer service experience. 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. 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!

10. Under promise and over deliver – You arrive at a restaurant only to find out that there is a waiting list. When you ask how long of a wait, the host or hostess tell you it will be about 20 minutes and they hand you a pager. Somewhat skeptical, you take the pager and proceed to wait. Time passes and 30 minutes later, you still haven’t been seated. How does this leave you feeling? If you’re like most people, you are a bit impatient, angry and upset. It was only ten minutes longer than expected you think to yourself as you try to gain perspective on the service level provided. It is a classic case of over promise and under deliver. As a result of this one situation, it is likely that your perspective on your meal and the server’s tip will both share a decreasing perspective. When it comes to service, there are three choices to choose from. You can over promise and under deliver. This certainly isn’t your best option. You can over promise and over deliver. This is the ideal scenario and it is reserved for those few select companies who have made customer service the driving force of their company. Finally, you can under promise and over deliver and this is where a majority of people and companies have the opportunity to delight and excite their customer by exceeding their expectations. While it’s the best option, it’s also important to remember that in addition to over delivering, you must create an experience that excites the customer and causes them to want to do business with you or refer you to others. Providing service that under promises and over delivers is one of the best ways possible of insuring repeat business at higher margins with the right kind of customer.

11. Customize the experience by listening. – Customers just want someone to listen and they want someone to listen well. They want their voice to be heard and know that someone actually understood their situation because listening took place. As a customer, there is nothing more frustrating than trying to communicate with someone whose primary objective is to hear themselves talk and justify why they can’t service you as a customer. Listening gives you the ability to customize the service experience by targeting your actions and responses specifically to the concerns or needs expressed by the customer.

12. Hire people who reflect the values and beliefs of customer service. - Let’s face it; some people were just not meant to have customer service and their name connected in the same breath. Despite this fact, many companies continue to view customer service as an area that anybody can work in regardless of their skills or temperament. How can this be? Customer service is the area of your company that is built on first and last impressions. This is the area where you need the very best people, with the very best attitudes. It is a place where enthusiasm makes a difference and the values and beliefs of your team should match the requirement to serve the customer. Hire the best and forget the rest if you want a superior service effort consistently.

13. Leadership sets the tone. - Find a company where leaders personally practice exceeding the service expectations of their customers and you will see what it means to truly embody the essence of service. Their continuous example shows everyone in the company how they are expected to internalize the service effort consistently. Their example is visible through their willingness to actively participate and be involved in the actions of service. No matter how big or how small, leaders who set the service tone choose to pitch in regularly and remain connected to their customer.

14. Rely on common sense – Most customer service policies and procedures are written to discourage rather than encourage the effective delivery of customer service. They are written to limit the decisions that any one person can make or the extent to which any one person can take action. They are written in response to an abuse on the part of an individual or to proactively prevent abuse. In many cases, they should be called customer disservice policies. Here’s a prevailing thought to consider when determining what your policies and procedures on customer service should be. Use common sense and do the right thing. If everyone is trained with this expectation in mind and they understand how to apply it in the course of their day, they are equipped to exceed the expectations of the customer. After all, how can you go wrong when you use common sense and do the right thing on behalf of your customer?

15. Remember, the customer puts food on your table and pays for your housing. This is really what it comes down to when talking about service. Absent the customer, there’s no job, no food and no housing. The customer doesn’t need us, we need them. Acknowledging the fact that the customer has more choices today than ever before, they deserve to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect. They are entitled to our full attention and our full commitment to insure that the experience that they receive exceeds their expectation. It never pays to take the customer for granted. When we do, is when they exercise their choice to do business elsewhere.