Does Good Service Get You Into The Game?

Most firms feel their customer service is good. The question is does that provide customer loyalty and more sales. Is Good Service enough?

In the US firms spend all their money doing Surveys. They feel it’s the thing to do, the same as everybody else does.  They include a survey for almost everything you buy from products to services. Most people are not willing to spend their time filling out such requests as I suspect most people feel the same as me that no one will do anything with it.

If the survey results are good we feel we have exceptional customer service. Many surveys are written with questions designed to get the results they really want.  Surveys are a definite red flag so take a step back before you waste your time and money on data that is likely to create more questions than it answers.

I believe you have to provide outstanding service every day with every customer, all the time if your goal is to win the Gold. In Seoul do you remember anyone who won the Silver or Bronze? Other than the day athletes receive the Silver or Bronze medal no one really cares. On the other hand, we celebrate an athlete that won the Gold for years.

There are only a handful of firms that really provide awesome customer service.  If this is true why do most firms feel satisfied with just okay customer service? My research shows service leaders increase the value of their company by 100-400 percent or more.  I don’t understand why more companies don’t tip the scales in their favor by copying successful companies.

If you give your customers and partners less than they expect, the service will be BAD.

If you only give them what they expect then the service will be considered GOOD.

But if you give them more than they expect, the service will be EXCEPTIONAL.

Facts….

• 82% of U.S. adults are loyal to brands (ICSC)
• 82% of satisfied customers will “likely” or “very likely” keep shopping with a company and give it another chance if something goes wrong (MarketingSherpa)
• 50% of U.S. consumers said they switched companies they buy from this year because of poor customer experience (Accenture)
• 8 out of 10 consumers are willing to pay more for better customer experience (Capgemini)
• 94% of consumers name a consistently good customer experience as the main reason they remain loyal to a brand (Blackhawk Network)
• 86% of consumers engage with a brand they are loyal to by recommending it to others (Blackhawk Network)

 These are some of the steps critical to exceptional service:

1. Speed. Customers want everything fast. Most firms are slow on everything.
2. Eliminate stupid rules and policies. They decrease speed and get the customer upset. They turn off customers and cause defections
3. Master empowerment. The most important employee is the person closest to the customer. Are they willing to spend your money taking care of a customer?  Will they bend the rules to make a fast decision to have an over happy customer?
4. Focus on Speed. Shrink the time by 90 percent. Eliminate the friction.
5. Use Service Recovery when you make mistakes. We all make mistakes regardless of how much we try to deliver awesome service. About 98% of organizations have no grasp of what Service Recovery is or the benefit of using Service Recovery to their bottom line.
6. Train all employees on customer service with something fresh, new, short and engaging every 4 months. Use training programs that change attitudes and behaviors, teach the art of great customer service and dramatically decrease employee turnover.
7. Use and remember the customer’s name. It shows you care.
8. If you have over 100 employees have a call center open 24/7 that answers the phone in 1-3 rings with a live person. NO IVR.