In last week’s article we discussed the second part of this
3 part series on the creation of a customer service strategy. These principles
discussed here are based on an all-time customer service book by business
authors Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles called Raving Fans. In it the authors discuss the principles of customer
service based on what we call the 3D Approach to Customer Service Strategy –
Decide, Discover and Deliver.
We explored the aspects involved in discovering what your
customers really want having exhausted the first part of deciding what you want
in a previous article. In discover we looked at the various ways that can be
used to find out what customers really want. Now it is time to marry decide and
discover in deliver. You decided what you want and you also discovered what
your customers’ want so what is left is to deliver what your customers want
plus one percent in order for you to realise your vision.
Delivery is the art of giving customers what you promised
them and adding a one percent extra to wow them. Good ideas and good intentions
are worthless without proper delivery. This is the reality check point, the
point where you have to translate words into action. We call it the moment of
truth. This is execution level, where your ideas are tested in real life to
find out whether they can sustain your vision.
How do you deliver plus one percent? This translates into
not trying to put every one of your ideas into play at one time. You will get
overwhelmed. Doing too much at one time decreases the quality of the
improvements. Instead, perfect your current services, and then each week
improve upon this service one percent. Make an extra addition to what your
customers expect, doing it one thing at a time.
This is sustainable and your customers will always look
forward to doing business with you. They are constantly anticipating what you
are going to do next and are prepared to enjoy the surprise. You must exceed your
customers’ expectations, if you want them to come back again, and talk about
their experience to other people. It is not enough just to meet their
expectations. If customers receive only what they expect, they won’t go away
excited or inspired by your service. We must give them more than they expect to
WOW!! them.
Here are a few suggestions of what you could do in
delivering on your promise:
·
Banish the dullness – take
something you provide for customers that is usually presented in a boring way,
and deliver it in an unusual, amusing way.
·
Be a star - demonstrate any
special skills in ways that will WOW customers.
·
Be a friend – be there for
customers in times when they would least expect it.
·
Melt away problems – remove
problems from customers by taking ownership and making them your problems
instead of theirs.
·
Charm with care – do the
spontaneous little caring things for customers that surprise and delight them.
As you do this and many other things that come to your mind ensure
that you have in place a mechanism to measure your progress towards
achieving your vision. Use customer feedback constantly. Give your customers
questionnaires, feedback forms, suggestion boxes and anything that can assist
you to hear from them what they think about what you are currently doing and
how to perfect it. This information will help you to constantly deliver
what you discovered from your customers and reach your decided
vision.
In this 3 part series we looked at how to create a simple
customer service strategy that can be implemented immediately to achieve world
class results. Start doing this today and you can be guaranteed that you will
succeed. Your business will be built centred around customers. Jeff Imelt,
Chairman and CEO, General Electric was once quoted as saying, “at the end of the day, it’s about building
your business around customers and finding ways to help them grow, that will
make you succeed.” True to that adage building your business around a
customer service strategy is the sure way to increase your bottom line and grow
your business.
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