Grabbing Attention in a Saturated Market
Your customer has their choice of products and services. You want them to choose yours. If they can’t find you, they can’t buy your product or service.
Know your market. See what your competitors are doing, look at what you’re losing, and put all of that information to use to increase your market share.
Make data work for you. You need as much data as you can get from your customer: data is a powerful tool that will help you get attention.
Consistency is key. Your customer wants to be confident they will get a consistent product or experience every time they come to you.
The gold standard of customer service requires creativity and flexibility. Be prepared for any eventuality and to do whatever it takes to deliver on your promise.
Serving Up an Unforgettable Customer Experience
Great service comes from ruthless editing. The best customer service is consistent, personalized, authentic, timely, and appears effortless.
Luxury no longer means elite. It’s accessible and within everyone’s reach. Customer service is the new luxury.
Every customer is different, even when they can appear to want the same things. Don’t presume to know them. Instead, presume to know the choices you think they would enjoy.
Always go above and beyond. If you can’t give your customer what they want, they can easily find someone else who will.
Customer Service Is the New Currency
Proactive service is the gold standard. Reactive customer service corrects a situation when something goes wrong but doesn’t anticipate or prevent a problem from happening.
Play where the puck is going to be. Proactive service anticipates customers’ needs and gives them what they didn’t know they wanted.
Implement the 3x5s. Proactive service requires templates and protocols to ensure every client gets a consistent experience.
First impressions count. Your customers’ first impression of your service or business colors their entire experience.
Making an Emotional Connection
Seduce your customer by creating an emotional connection. An emotionally connected customer will buy more of what you’re selling and is less price sensitive.
An emotionally connected customer is your best brand ambassador.
Your customer dictates what and when they want to hear from you.
Keep the connection going. Look for unexpected opportunities to connect with your customer.
Nurture long-term relationships. Even the smallest gesture can create a strong connection.
Every Complaint Is an Opportunity
People complain for a reason. Be sure to put yourself in your customer’s place when you’re evaluating their complaint.
We all make mistakes. When you discover you’ve made a mistake: acknowledge, apologize, assess, assume responsibility, diffuse, recover, and reset.
An apology should be sincere.
A complaint or compliment is data you can use to improve your customers’ experience.
Offer your customer some kind of compensation. It’s better to take a short-term monetary loss than lose an unhappy customer for life.
Own Your Brand
Practice what you preach. Your brand is what your customer thinks of when they think of you.
Creating and maintaining a brand is essential to a thriving business.
Be agile. You can diversify if you don’t compromise your standards and stay true to your mission.
Your vision statement explains why your business exists. Your mission statement tells people what drives you to do what you do and how you do it.
Your mission is supported by your guiding principles, or core values.
Lead with the Best Version of Yourself
It’s your vision. You set the tone and expectations of performance for your organization.
Build a team. Hire people to complement your skills, not replicate them.
Listen to everyone in your organization. If you don’t listen, you won’t learn.
If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of your business and your team.
Cultivate discernment. Know when to say no.
The qualities of commitment, determination, discipline, and discernment are essential for success.
Company Culture Fuels Exceptional Service
Surrounding yourself with the right people sets you up for success.
Your emotional connection to your team is just as important as your emotional connection with your customer.
When your team has a hand in shaping and establishing company goals, they buy into implementing them consistently.
Your company culture is the fuel for your business.
Failure Is a Necessity
Prepare for the unthinkable. Failure is an inevitability and integral to success; if you’re going to stay in business, you must train yourself to find the light in the dark.
Making assumptions without doing the necessary homework and research means leaving things to chance.
The easiest failures to recover from are the ones that are your team’s fault or yours.
“Why me?” isn’t the question to ask when something goes wrong. The right question is: “What can I do to prevent this from ever happening again?”
You Win the Race by Looking Ahead!
You, today: You have your morning routine on autopilot. You’ve honed your service protocols to a razor’s edge. You know your team has internalized your standards and practices, and you trust them to bring their own excellent instincts and emotional intelligence to any service situation. Your business routinely gets five-star reviews. Do you get to rest on your laurels? Sorry, but no. Never. Tomorrow is another day.
When it comes to customer service, you can’t sit back and wait for things to happen. You constantly look ahead and for opportunity because things change. Nothing stays the same. Change doesn’t mean things change for the better and things don’t change for the worse. It’s always different depending on what you want and what you are doing.
What might mean good news to you could mean disaster for someone else. Technologies change, and our customers’ expectations change. Sometimes there’s a black swan event, and evolution becomes revolution. That’s never been truer. We evaluate and reevaluate our procedures and business models constantly, and we’re continually looking for opportunities to do things better. Are you doing the same?