Be Different or be dead

July 7, 2014

Why ‘serving’ customers is way better than ‘servicing’ them

Source: Pexels

Why ‘serving’ customers is way better than ‘servicing’ them.

What promise do you have in your service strategy?

“I promise to service you.” or “I promise to serve you.”

Which sounds more appealing? Which sounds more sensitive to your wants, desires and expectations?

Do you really want to be ‘serviced’?

Customer service in most organizations involves the application of the company’s service structure to people. It subjects them to the rules, policies and practices the company has created to control the customer engagement process.

It boils down to a set of policies being applied to everyone regardless of circumstance.

How often have you heard: (even though we all know it’s ridiculous) ’I’m sorry you can’t do that because it’s company policy.’

And yes, control.

Policies for the most part are intended to minimize risk (for the company), increase efficiency (for the company), maintain or reduce operating costs (for the company) and create consistency (for the company).

What’s missing?

Service is all about the company yet it implies that it is all for the customer. Nonsense!

If you REALLY want the customer to come first, you need to subordinate the company to a serving role. And you need to start talking about ‘serving customers’ not providing customer ‘service’

What it means to serve:

▪️ The customer is engaged to determine what the company’s rules, policies and procedures look like;

▪️ Employees try to find a way to say yes to every customer request whether it satisfies a policy or not;

▪️ Frontline conversations with customers always include the question “How can I help you?”;

▪️ The measure of the customer engagement is whether or not they were dazzled by the service experience they had, not how proficiently the rules were applied.

Do you service or do you serve?

Should you be trying to improve your customer service, or should you be trying to serve customers in a more warm and caring manner?

What do you think is the winning approach?

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 7.7.14 at 03:01 am by Roy Osing
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June 9, 2014

Why amazing customer experiences needs a responsible executive leader

Source: Unsplash

Why amazing customer experiences needs a responsible executive leader.

Most organizations continue to be product and service focused; they flog, or push products at their customers.

They push what they produce or supply at you. They claim their stuff is the best value at the cheapest price.

Research has proven conclusively that people get more long term gratification when they spend their money on experiences.

A family vacation. A Zip-line ride. Fishing off the beach with the grandchildren. A 4-hour snorkelling adventure. A movie with someone you love.

Sure, a new SUV is exciting at first but it doesn’t take long before it becomes a used car.

With customer gratification and happiness comes loyalty, which means that organizations must focus on experience creation if they want to stand-out from the competition and thrive.

A number of companies are waking up to the importance of experiences to their overall marketing program by appointing a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) to be accountable for the creation of “memorable moments” for their customers.

Marriott is one example. Their “EVP, Chief Resort Experience Officer Marriott Vacation Club International” sets the tone for what’s important to Marriott and what customer success looks like.

The CXO works across the organization to ensure that all functions work synergistically to provide a seamless dazzling experience for the customer. Not an easy task to be sure but one that is critically important to move the focus away from flogging products and services.

Dip your toe in the experience pool.

Declare that experiences are your end game.

Establish accountability at the most senior level in your organization.

Do it now.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.9.14 at 03:01 am by Roy Osing
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May 26, 2014

How customer service can improve to be the best and unbeatable

Source: Pexels

How customer service can improve to be the best and unbeatable.

Organizations today are challenged to create the kind of experiences that result in customer loyalty.

In the face of empowered and knowledgeable customers, fickle customers (who will leave you in a heartbeat for better treatment) and hyper-competition (the rate of new business formation has increased like never before) there is a struggle to get the right formula to both attract new customers and keep the ones you’ve got.

What’s the answer?

There are two components involved in providing loyalty-engendering customer service.

Core service

The first component, core service, represents the basic foundation of your business.

It is your basic product or service without which you simply don’t have a business. In the telecom world core service could be defined as a stream of wireless data. In finance it could be investment advice. And in software development it could be a smartphone operating system.

Your customers expect your core service to work according to specifications. They expect uninterrupted wireless data service; they expect the financial plan to deliver the benefits promised and they expect working internet service 100% of the time.

As a result when you provide working core service customers rate you ‘ok’ and no more. However, when your core service is not working as promised you get an ‘F’ on your report card; they leave you and they don’t go quietly, they tell everyone how bad your organization is at serving customers!

Bottom line: your core service has to work all of the time as promised.

But don’t expect loyal customers when you do.

Loyalty comes from the second component of serving customers - the service experience.

Service experience

Whereas core service is what you get from an organization, the service experience is how you feel when you get it. Or it’s is the way you are treated by the organization when you do business with them.

If the service experience you provide is memorable; if it takes their breath away; if it blows people away; if it WOW’s them; if it dazzles them, you get a ‘A’ on your service report card.

And you are rewarded with customers telling others how great you are; they stay with you at least until you deliver a de-dazzling event which puts everything in jeopardy.

So, how to create customer loyalty?

Provide core service in a satisfactory manner all the time - consistency is key here.

Once you have risen to this challenge you have earned the right to move on to loyalty building by providing dazzling service experiences every time a customer touches you.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.26.14 at 05:38 am by Roy Osing
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May 5, 2014

For the best customer experience, who should set the rules?

Source: Unsplash

Some organizations talk about providing customer service but what they really mean is enforcing their rules that define how customers are “allowed” to do business with them.

How they buy a product. How they get information on products. How they pay. How they register a complaint.

Customer service isn’t about controlling people. Nor forcing them to do things they don’t want to do.

It’s about serving them.

Who typically influences the rules that control customer engagement? Internal Auditors. Systems Analysts. Process Engineers. Efficiency Experts. All focused on “the inside”.

Something’s missing.

It’s about time the real “C-Suite” be invited to help design the customer engagement process and the rules that should govern it.

Do you regularly review your rules, policies and procedures with your customers?

Do you allow them to help determine what they should look like?

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.5.14 at 03:58 am by Roy Osing
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