10 elements of outstanding customer service.

May 13, 2009 · Filed Under Customer Service, Small & Medium Businesses · 1 Comment 

Here are 10 elements of good customer service. This is by no means comprehensive but these 10 points are very important.

1.         Finish strong. We often have heard of the saying “First impressions count”, however with customer service last impressions count more.  The final customer interaction is what resides in the memory of the customer.  That is not to diminish the service throughout the experience but just put particular emphasis onto the last impressions.

2.         Get the bad experiences out of the way earlier.  Save the best for last.  Get the unpleasant side of business out of the way early in the process.  It is often found, particularly with professionals ,that they like to leave the fees to last or don’t discuss it all and just send a bill.  So the last impression that they are leaving is the nasty bit.  Freeing the customers of the bad experiences early allows them to focus on the positive aspects of your service.

3.         Combine the pain, segment the pleasure.  Our time perception is linked to the number of breaks in the experience.  Smaller chunks of pleasant experiences will be perceived as greater than one large segment.

4.         Build commitment through choice.  Providing your customers with choices in the product or service delivery can assist in customer service.  A study has revealed that blood donors experienced less perceived pain when they had a choice of which arm the blood would be drawn from.  However in this aspect of choice it is also important to be aware that too many choices end up confusing the customers.  It is a fine line but if you only have one option then it may be worthwhile considering giving the customer the choice in the matter and this will assist.

5.         Give people rituals and stick to them. People find comfort in regular repetitive rituals.  However it is imperative to note that if you set the rituals you must stick to them because missing them has a massive hit on customer service.

6.         Attention to detail.  It is all the little things that add up to a perceived experience.  Usually these little things surround the core service or product. Immaculate attention to detail on the liitle things that matter will lead to a superior customer experience. The core product or service must also be of high quality. This is the starting point. If we can get the little things right the customer will believe that we can not anything right.  On this matter I often give the story of Rod McGeoch, the head of the Sydney 2000 Bid Committee for the Sydney 2000 Olympics when the delegates came to Sydney he always organised that every traffic light would be green whenever they were travelling around Sydney.  The purpose of this was to show the delegates that they could do it, that they could actually change the lights to suit so they could easily hold an Olympic Games sized event.  It was this attention to detail that assisted the bid being successful.

7.         Choose your audience.  You do not have to accept all customers as customers.  Not everybody will want to deal with the business the way that you will want to deal with them.  Not everybody will want the service or the product in the manner that you wish to deliver to them.  Not everybody therefore is a suitable client for your business.

8.         Empower your team members.  The Ritz Carlton, which has achieved an extraordinary reputation for customer service, gives all its teams a card which has a message that in essence says that a customer’s concern is their concern and it’s their responsibility to fix it.   And in this respect they are given significant power to fix a customer’s issue.  No matter what grade of team member, they are given the power to deal with the customer’s issue.  It is these people who are dealing with the customer that need to be able to provide the customer service that gives your business the reputation.  They cannot do that by always having to check back to some superior.  If you care for your team they will care for your customers.

9.         Encourage complaints.  The Marriott did a study some time ago that discovered that the likelihood of a customer making a return visit increased dramatically if they encountered a problem and it was resolved.  Their survey showed that :-

(a) if there were no problems encountered during the stay, 89% of people would return

(b) if they had a problem during the stay and it was not corrected to the customer’s satisfaction, 9% would return

(c) if however they had a problem during the stay and it was corrected to the customer’s satisfaction ,94% of those customers returned.

If a customer complaint is properly handled you will actually build a more loyal customer.  Sometimes customer complaints are seen as some threat or judgement on an individual’s self esteem. Complaints  should be viewed as valuable information and opportunities to increase customer loyalty and good will.  If you go the extra mile in correcting any problem the customer will remember this outcome long after the original error has been forgotten.  Also if you examine the stories of great customer service that people relay, you will often find that it is about a situation that went wrong and how that company was able to rectify it and fix it on their behalf.

10.      Personalise.  Remember that profit is a result of behaviour and the behaviour is what is going on in the customer’s head. Every customer is an individual human being.  So whilst we will have service standards in a business, we must have the team empowered to personalise the service to each individual within sensible guidelines.  If you were caring for your customer, your team will be aware of what matters to that particular individual and how to deliver that.  If we feel that it has been personally targeted, personally directed for us then we will feel that that company, those individuals serving us, have taken the time to care about our needs.

These are 10 elements of customer service – what do you think? Have I missed something obvious?

Until next time

Steve Major

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Five Steps to Make KPI’s work.

May 11, 2009 · Filed Under Key Performance Indicators, Small & Medium Businesses · Comment 

There has been considerable effort and attention given to all manner of indicators. Unfortunately three things end up happening :-

1.      Too many indicators are created

2.      Once created the information provided by the indicator is ignored (or not understood)

3.      The indicators focus only on the internal performance of the business.

So should we be concerned about this?  Yes absolutely yes.  But why?

Because what you measure and reward is what you get. Recently the Australian Financial Review asked a number of successful business people for top 5 things that help business succeed and one of items that they stated was – know your numbers. Numbers can tell a story of the business.

But there are 5 key steps before KPI’s  work :-

1. Decide what constitutes success

This sounds obvious but the success I am referring to is not your bank balance but what will make the business grow. Success must be defined the way your customer defines it. How the customer defines success or value will often include aspects that you may consider trivial. But it is these little things that the customer values. Often time the focus of measurement is on the cost or production. This is not where success lies. All it will bring is reduced costs or increased production efficiency but not necessarily customer delight.  It is imperative to look at your business the way your customer does. What is important or valuable to your customer?

2. Measure the right things

Businesses fail because they want the right things but measure the wrong things. People are smart so even if you define success right but still measure and reward the wrong thing your team is going to give you what you measure eg if you were to measure employee adherence to an employee manual then you will have employees who abided by the letter of the internal rulebook but probably give lousy customer service.

When measuring the right things don’t go overboard.  It is usually only necessary to have 1-5 items that are measured right across the business and that everybody knows and follows. There may be other measures for separate sections of the business but there will only a couple of headline measures.  Too many measures lead to people losing focus.

3. Make sure everybody understands the goals and measurements.

If people either don’t know or understand the goals and metrics they will create their own which are probably nothing like what you want. The goals need to be communicated to everybody regularly. The team must understand what the goal is and how they form part of it. Every decision then needs to be made in the context of the goals. If an idea is brought up, before effort is wasted it needs to be determined whether it helps achieve the goals. The goals and the measure need to be presented in such a way so that it is easily understood. Numbers are not appealing to everybody so make it fun. Numbers can be expressed in many creative ways that everybody then understands. We need to keep the score in a manner that everybody can determine how we are going. The scoreboard must be available constantly. When we attend a game of sport we want to know at all times how our team is going and the scoreboard is always plain to see for everybody. Lastly the goals and measurements must be reasonable. An unachievable goal is no goal at all. It will only lead to dispirited and cynical team.

4. Reward

For behaviours to change the measurements need to be coupled with rewards. We only get what we reward. Gordon Bethune in his recount of turning Continental Airlines around states that this was one of the most important things he did. Each employee got a monthly bonus if they reached the onetime arrival target. The behaviours changed to meet the target.Once rewards are promised then they must be delivered if the target has been achieved. Keep your word. When people are given clear direction and clear rewards they will achieve. This is applicable to all levels of the team.When the rewards are given make it certain that they know they have got the rewards. For instance if there is a monetary bonus then instead of the funds going in with the normal wages then it should be a separate payment. This has more impact. Anything that can be done to intensify the experience of the reward makes the message stick. Don’t reward the wrong people. If a company wide goal that has been achieved then everybody gets the reward not just senior management. Everybody is necessary for the success therefore reward everybody.

5. Never stop

When driving a car we rely on a number of measurements which we are constantly referring to e.g. speed, fuel. If we decide that everything is fine or that we are too busy to look at the dashboard then this will only lead to disaster. We could run out of fuel, be caught speeding, have an accident through speed.  We must refer to the dashboard to know what is going on.Never, never, never stop measuring what matters. The dashboard of the business will have a couple of important measures that must be constantly measured. There will be a number of other measures in the business just like the car e.g. km’s travelled, tyre pressure, coolant level, oil level etc. However the headline metrics (ie the dashboard) gives us a good indication of how everything is going. If you do keep an eye on the measurements, as soon as a problem shows up you’ll know about it and you can take action to fix it. It is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the measurements. If the speedo is out then this can give us a false sense of comfort. Over time the measurements in a business must be constantly refined and made accurate.  Measure more and measure better. Measure everything that matters.

Conclusion

These five steps will ensure that measures work in your business and not just become despised numbers. To achieve success you must know your numbers.  That is the numbers that matter. So in conclusion – MEASURE WHAT MATTERS.

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