Customer service is dead.
If my expectations are met, I am satisfied. If I go to a restaurant or retail store, I go in with low expectations. I expect to be interrupted. I expect to be ignored. In some cases, I expect to be harassed mercilessly by a sales person. If I go to the local oil change place, they will try to sell me a $6 air filter for $20 and do it with a straight face. And when I leave, I will leave satisifed.
Why do I leave satisfied? Because the overall experience was at least what I expected.
Customer service is about expectations. When I expect to be harassed by an annoying sales person and it happens, I say to myself, "See...I told you so." But I am not necessarily dissatisfied. If someone stuck a feedback card in my face, I might even give them a 4 or 5 out of 5 with 5 being extremely satisfied. The owner of that store would then say, "We are doing a good job." And they would be both correct and very wrong at the same time.
They are correct because they are measuring the wrong elements. They are measuring satisfaction, but not loyalty nor what the customer really wants. They are measuring what they want to measure. The customer's real voice isn't heard.
It's not that customer service is really that bad. But it is that bad. It's that customer service typically doesn't exceed expectations on purpose. It could be a LOT better and it's actually pretty easy to dramatically exceed expectations. But first, we have to want to.
Customer service has to be put to rest. Bury it in the backyard with relics of the past. Today, we need to emotionally engage our customers in a purposeful, consistent manner. A sure-fire approach to exceeding customer expectations is to emotionally engage customers in a way that is meaningful to them. What does "emotionally engage" mean? Well it depends on the situation and customer. However...There are a few universal truths in beginning the Sine Cera Customer Experience. Use these four key elements to dramatically improve most (if not all) of your customer experiences:
- Eye contact
- Smile
- Name
- Tashi Deley Greeting (more on this in a future post)
When is the last time someone looked you in the eye, smiled, and said, "My name is Chris... How can I help you?" And then listened intently and then asked for your name and used it? It rarely happens. When it does, you feel special.
Now go Maximize Possibility!
Other blog posts you may be interested in:
- What Time is the Three O'Clock Parade?
- Being a "Yes Man" Helps to Create a Powerful Customer Experience
- Angry Customers Mirror You
- Don't Let Customers Ruin the Experience
Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention. Bring Chris in today!
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