STEP TWO

Define Great Service
for Your Organization

OVERVIEW

  • Recognize what customers want
  • Create customer loyalty
  • Understand the importance of word of mouth
  • Review leadership behaviors

After you have determined that there are solid reasons to be in your field, the next step is to define the elements of great service. This requires responses to the questions:

  • What do your customers think is great service?
  • What do your customers want?
  • What creates loyalty?

Recognize What Customers Want

The answers to the previous questions might seem obvious, but they are not always apparent. What you think customers want may not be important to them at all. For instance, in the 1980s, leaders in some companies determined that it was critical for phones to be answered within a certain number of rings, usually three. Companies scrambled to have enough staff for phones to be picked up by the third ring. However, after extensive study by service firms, researchers discovered that customers were willing to wait longer for the phone to be answered if they received what they expected when the connection was finally made: courteous and efficient service.

Current research validates studies conducted in the past. Pleasing customers, in whatever terminology you choose to use, has been and continues to be the overall goal of great service. TARP, one of the most recognized customer service research firms, now uses the term “customer delight” to describe exemplary service. Delight is achieved when

  • customers receive service beyond their normal expectations
  • customers are “surprised” with pleasurable experiences leading to positive word of mouth.

Many books have been written with the same “take people by surprise” theme, evident in the titles: The Pursuit of WOW! (Peters, 1994), Positively Outrageous Service (Gross, 1991), Treat Your Customers (Miglani, 2006), and Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service (Performance Research Associates, 2007). Surprise is all about delivering fabulous service using random acts of kindness. Refer to Tool 2.1 for simple ways to catch customers by surprise.

POINTER

Customers want to receive service beyond their expectations. They want to be surprised with pleasurable experiences.

Actions that produce customer loyalty (sustained commitment) are

  • proactively providing information
  • notifying the customer of new opportunities
  • avoiding unpleasant surprises
  • providing consistently good service
  • creating personal relationships.

Create Customer Loyalty

People can be wowed in many ways. Just a greeting, such as, “How are you doing today?” could be a surprise and a pleasure. To capture the hearts of customers on a more permanent basis, an ongoing relationship is important to sustain the positive feelings that have grown in the short term.

As TARP points out, the behaviors don’t take much time, but produce the longest lasting and most dramatic results. The following story illustrates how a few minutes can have a lasting impression.

The first time I got a call from a clothing store announcing an upcoming sale, I was totally astonished. The manager, who enthusiastically assists me in the store, called me personally to say that some items she knew I liked were on sale. I thought that was so considerate! I went to the store and purchased the outfits, on sale, as promised. I continue to shop in the store, and at times, just drop by to say hello to the manager while I am in the mall. Of course, I usually buy something.

The previous example of customer loyalty was a direct result of a manager proactively providing information (phone call), notifying the customer of new opportunities (sale on particular clothing), avoiding unpleasant surprises (price as described), providing consistently good service (had been helpful before), and creating personal relationships (participated in warm, friendly conversation in the store and on the phone). Mission accomplished. And it was simple.

The following are examples of staples that can be used to provide excellent service.

Staples

Staples are focal points for service. While they may be simple and often overlooked, applying these staples regularly and consistently will make the difference between mediocre and excellent service.

  • Be friendly.
  • Establish rapport.
  • Listen to what a customer wants to tell you.
  • Be especially kind when someone has experienced a loss.
  • Provide information.
  • Continually provide good service even in the tough times.
  • Ignore customer mistakes.
  • Bend the rules if you can.
  • Tell a customer about a sale coming up or a new product or service.

Demonstrate Personal Effectiveness

Personal effectiveness creates a foundation for building customer loyalty. The Forum Corporation, another top-notch research firm, identifies the following areas for personal effectiveness:

  • effective communication
  • service attitude
  • problem solving
  • continuous learning
  • integrity.

10 Steps to Successful Customer Service addresses these five areas of personal effectiveness. These themes will be recognized throughout the book. Topics in subsequent steps will provide ways to improve communication and problem solving, promote a service attitude, and foster continuous learning and integrity. Recommendations are provided based on a landmark study by Leonard Berry and his associates at Texas A&M University (Performance Research Associates, 2006). They conducted the original research for the long-standing, successful Knock Your Socks Off customer service series, which focused on the following elements of customer expectations.

Customer Expectations

  • Reliability—delivering what is promised
  • Responsiveness—doing it promptly
  • Assurance—knowing how to do it
  • Empathy—doing it with respect and understanding
  • Tangibles—ensuring that buildings, surroundings, and materials are attractive

Recognize the Importance of Research

It’s good to know why certain behaviors are being suggested as ways to enhance service. Research is conducted to provide a roadmap on how to excel, whether it’s for the company’s gain or for your peace of mind and enjoyment at work—both important objectives. However, as we all know from roadmaps and MapQuest, you can’t always “get there from here” without being aware of the terms used on a map, their interpretation, and how to regroup when directions are erroneous. Following the steps in this chapter will provide you with the most direct route to get you where you want to go and lead you to your final destination of great service.

WORKSHEET 2.1

Your View of Customer Expectations

Instructions: Complete Worksheet 2.1 to gauge your awareness of what customers want.

Who are your customers? What are their demographics?

 

 

What do they consider important?

 

 

How do you know?

 

 

How does your organization define great customer service?

 

 

What do you think of your organization’s customer service?

 

 

What are ways you can bend the rules?

 

 

What do you do best when serving clients?

 

 

How can you improve?

 

 

What did you learn about customer service expectations from this step?

 

 

Understand the Importance of Word of Mouth

One of the ways that businesses grow is by word of mouth. Word of mouth is the conversation trail of the service your company delivers, as well as comments about company products and processes. What people say about a company establishes and maintains the company’s reputation and the likelihood that people will continue to buy or use its services. Latest statistics indicate:

  • One satisfied person will tell three to four others about the experience, and one in four of those people told will take action on the referral. This is not taking into account electronic communication.
  • Personal interactions have the most impact on customer opinion of the company.

According to John Goodman (2006) in “The World According to TARP,” other summations of what can be measured include:

  • About 50 percent of customers will complain to a frontline person; only 1–5 percent will escalate the complaint upward. An 800 number will double the odds that corporate hears the complaint.
  • On average, twice as many people are told about a bad experience than are told about a good experience.
  • More and more people have a degree of “hopelessness,” and don’t bother to even take advantage of free service such as warranties because of the hassle they perceive they will have to endure to get what is promised.
  • If you help a customer who has had a bad experience, and you do it quickly and practice excellent interpersonal skills, that customer becomes more loyal than if the problem never existed (up to eight percent more loyal).
  • The ratio of cost to win a new customer versus cost to retain a current customer varies from 2:1 to 20:1.

Pete Blackshaw (2008), in Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000, gives examples and stories about how the Internet has changed consumer power. Anyone can say anything about a company, changing the nature of how many people are willing to complain or post comments about good service. Those comments—good, bad, or ugly—can be viewed by thousands of people, and “word of mouth” increases substantially.

Websites such as MySpace, SixDegrees, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and LiveJournal show us that the larger someone’s primary social network is, the larger the extended network becomes. If someone posts a comment, thousands see it. Blogs, websites, and social networking pages make it possible to reach an untold number of people, inducting a new phrase into our vocabulary: consumer-generated media.

The following are some examples of traditional word of mouth versus consumer-generated media.

Traditional Word of Mouth

Customer:       “I’m here to pick up my prescription.”
Assistant: “It’s not ready. We don’t have it in stock.”
Customer: “But, I called three days ago to be sure you had enough time to fill it.”
Assistant: “It will be in next week on Thursday.”
Customer: “But I need it today!”

The customer walks out without the prescription, vowing never to use that drugstore chain again. She tells three other people about her experience.

Consumer-Generated Media

Contrast the previous dialog with a similar story on PlanetFeedback, the website Pete Bradshaw started several years ago (www.planetfeedback.com). Add to the scenario that the medication was for the customer’s son, who had diabetes, and that it had been ordered for years on a monthly basis. For several months, it was out of stock. Because the customer was concerned for her son, she switched drugstores. However, she had to go across town for the medication instead of three miles from her home. To add insult to injury, after being a customer for three years, the first drugstore never recognized her when she came in.

Hundreds of thousands of people read this customer’s story posted on PlanetFeedback. If just a fraction of the people who read the post did not buy from the first drugstore, the store’s sales would drop. As it is, that drugstore’s reputation is in question indefinitely for those who read the comments.

There are many online sites where you can read comments from customers about what they think of service and products. The following are some resources for reviews and information about a variety of goods and services.

Review Leadership Behaviors

At the helm of all good organizations are its leaders. Forum research shows that leaders can increase customer loyalty by being customer focused, rewarding customer-focused behavior, valuing employees, providing vehicles for customer feedback, knowing how to increase customer loyalty, and providing solutions to meet customer needs. The following suggestions will help you explore leadership within your company.

If you are a leader, have each person on your team complete Worksheet 2.1 or have the team fill it out together. Do the exercise yourself and compare perceptions. If you are a staff member, fill out the worksheet with your perceptions, and then complete Tool 2.1 to see how your company fares with customer service leadership.

WORKSHEET 2.2

Customer Expectations

Instructions: True or False (Put a T or F next to the statements below, indicating whether you think the statement is true or false.)

  1. ___Being friendly isn’t particularly important to customers.
  2. ___When dealing with you, people want you to make them feel good.
  3. ___When interacting with angry people, it is important to first get your point across so they will understand what to do and calm down.
  4. ___People don’t expect you to give them your attention at all times.
  5. ___Customers want to be in control of the situation.
  6. ___Your body language and tone of voice account for 40 percent of how people respond to you.
  7. ___If you are friendly and nice, it will not be as important to solve customer problems.
  8. ___When you say, “Those are our procedures,” 90 percent of the people with whom you work will stop complaining.
  9. ___If a customer has a problem and it gets resolved, he or she still won’t be loyal to the company because of the bad experience.
  10. ___Price always wins out over service.

The answers to Worksheet 2.2 are in Step 3 on page 35.

TOOL 2.1

Leadership for Customer Loyalty

Review the statements in the left column. Describe how the behavior in each row is practiced in your organization. List any suggestions you would have regarding how you would like the behaviors to be practiced.

 

Leadership Behaviors Your Responses
1. Top company executives are
customer focused.		  
2. Employees are rewarded for
customer-focused behavior.		  
3. Customer and employee
experiences are inextricably
linked; managers value
customers and employees.		  
4. Managers know what to do to
improve customer loyalty.		  
5. Employees are kept informed
about business results.		  
6. Managers ensure that
employees use their skills to
benefit customers.		  
7. Nonfinancial measures such as
customer satisfaction or loyalty
are as important as financial
measures.		  
8. Customer feedback is gathered
continuously in a variety of
ways.		  
9. The company constantly gains
insight into their customers
needs and provides creative
solutions.		  
10. The company acts on customer
feedback.		  

 

Simple Surprises

Have you ever . . .

  • Written a thank you note to a customer?
  • Called to say that there was a sale or special promotion going on?
  • Let a customer know that hours have changed at your location?
  • Sent a personal note about something you knew a customer would like?
  • Emailed a thank you?
  • Let someone have a magazine he or she was reading in the office?
  • Brought in magazines for people to take home?
  • Called to follow up on a conversation that you had in which you offered to refer a customer somewhere?
  • Complimented a customer?
  • Given a flower?
  • Given a thank you sticker?
  • Walked someone to his or her car at night?
Put It All Together

To define great service, you must be able recognize what customers want, understand how to create customer loyalty, and interpret the research behind why certain behaviors enhance service success. The next step is to identify concepts that will help you form great customer relationships from the start. Step 3 will take you through this process.

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