Be Different or be dead

June 25, 2012

Why the surprise element makes the best customer service experience

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Why the surprise element makes the best customer service experience.

A mind-blowing service experience is never created when people get what they expect.

Give ‘em what you have led them to expect; they will be satisfied and will give you a “C"on your service report card.

— A household move from Vancouver to Toronto on-time, on-budget with nothing damaged.
— A friendly server at your favourite restaurant.
— Food that is ok.
— A clean hotel room.
— A return telephone call that was promised.
— A flight that leaves at the promised time and lands with your baggage.
— A financial plan that delivers the promised financial benefits.
— Fixing a service blunder made by your local retailer.
— An online purchase delivered when promised.

No big deal. After all, you expect these things. And when they are delivered you are probably more relieved than anything else.

Iff you want to dazzle someone, blow them away, leave them breathless or WOW! them, you have to do something they DON’T expect.

You must surprise them with a spontaneous act.

A random act of caring.

It’s not about exceeding expectations. Trying to do more of what a person expects is not a good investment of resources. All it does is earn you a stronger “C” on your report card.

Earning an “A” on your service report card in fact has nothing to do with meeting expectations whatsoever.

Deliver what you promise and add the surprise element if you want incredibly loyal fans who will tell everyone they know how great you are.

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

• Posted 6.25.12 at 11:22 am by Roy Osing
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June 14, 2012

Why a ‘high definition’ moment is critically important to your business

Source: Unsplash

Why a ‘high definition’ moment is critically important to tour business.

A high definition moment is an interaction between a customer an an organization that is jam-packed with emotion

HD moments either leave your customer breathless or pissed-off. Gasping or in pain. Dazzled or postal. They are vivid in terms of the feelings that are created between person and company.

They are of such high resolution that the picture of what you are experiencing is easy to describe and relate to others (both good and bad news depending on the outcome).

HD Moments are, as SAS CEO Jan Carlzon coined Moments of Truth when advocacy bonds are established with customers or enemies are created.

Or as Seth Godin proclaims, when sneezers who spread your good word to others are born for your organization or protestors scream how crummy you are.

High definition moments are strategic

Loyalty is either created or destroyed. Any organization must as a strategic imperative create HD moments for their fans if they are going to thrive and survive.

How do you create HD moments?

It’s about building a team that can create these kinds of feelings every time their organization touches their customers:

> HAPPY
> AMAZED
> WARM
> FUZZY
> DAZZLED
> BREATHLESS
> GASPING
> SURPRISED
> IMPRESSED
> MAGICAL
> SMITTEN
> HONORED
> IMPORTANT
> HEARD

How often have you felt this way when doing business with a company? How often have you felt warm and fuzzy when interacting with an automated voice response system? Never I suspect.

Consider the HD moment as the driving force in architecting customer interactions in your organization

Assign a senior person as The Chief High Definition Moments Officer to make it matter in your organization and establish a high priority for it.

Recruit people who are at ease with honouring others. Establish rules and policies that leave your fans breathless.

Engineer automated systems to surprise people.

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

• Posted 6.14.12 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
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May 16, 2012

Why your language must change if you want to be customer focused

Source: Unsplash

Why your language must change if you want to be customer focused.

If you are like most organizations, you have your own language.

Whether you are in the communications business, the law profession, or medicine, over time people develop a vocabulary specific to you; it is understood by all.

The problem is that your unique language is reflective of looking inward to your products, technology, systems, and operating procedures rather than outward to your customers.

If you don’t ‘customerize’ your language you can hardly say that you are addicted to serving customers in every way possible.
The words and music don’t match.

In addition behavior can’t change to be outwardly directed to the customer if the internally focused language implies the opposite.

A few examples.

‘Calls processed’

Most organizations have call center operations which typically handle sales and service responsibilities. The productivity objective of most call centers is to process as many calls with as few resources as possible. Other metrics include call speed of answer and average call handling time.

The common denominator of this operation is the word ‘call’. You process calls. You answer incoming calls as fast as you can. You try and minimize the length of each call to maximize productivity.

The problem is that the customer is missing in action. If the call is the focus with implied productivity measures, it is hardly a wonder that taking care of the customer on the call gets lost as a priority.

Employees are more interested in call productivity — because they are rated on it — than creating memorable experiences for customers.

The solution is to eliminate the call processing mentality and start talking about serving customers.

Start talking about the number of customers served; customer wait time and customer serving time.

‘Customer commitment’

At least the customer is in this expression, but it lacks the personal dimension that is so important in serving customers well.

I like the word ‘promise’. Companies make commitments; people make promises. There is much more serving power in customer promises than customer commitments.

The productivity metrics become much more meaningful and visceral under the promises notion. What % of customer promises did you keep? How many promises did you break? Who in the organization is the best at keeping customer promises?

WOW! Much more powerful and easy for employees to relate to than the company commitment paradigm.

To change your language to reflect a customer focus, follow this action plan:

▪️ Develop a dictionary of your current language;

▪️ Identify the word/expressions that you understand but which lack the punch of passionately serving customers;

▪️ Create customer words to replace the internal jargon focused ones;

▪️ Change internal success metrics to reflect your customerized language. For example measure promises kept rather than commitments met;

▪️ Communicate to employees why you are changing your language; emphasize that serving customers is a critical element of your business plan.

You can’t have it both ways: saying that customers are your most precious asset yet through your language highlighting the internal fabric of your organization.

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

• Posted 5.16.12 at 09:13 am by Roy Osing
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April 30, 2012

Why my BE DiFFERENT Quiz will know of you’re unmatched among others

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Why my BE DiFFERENT Quiz will know of you’re unmatched among others.

There is no silver bullet to being different.

No single thing you can do that will vault you to a relevant and unique value provider. No one act that will bring you into focus and separate you from the competitive herd.

Rather, it’s about doing a lot of the right things. The little things that are really uncommon sense — if it were common sense more organizations would be doing them and they wouldn’t be different.

My work is pretty basic. Simple uncommon sense.

I have discovered and successfully implemented practices that propel an organization to achieve a commanding competitive position in their markets.

My supporters comment how straightforward my work is; it focuses on ground zero tactics that actually work.

ARE YOU DIFFERENT?

What is your IQ on the things that need to be put in place to be different?

Take my BE DiFFERENT quiz to discover what you think you are doing right and where progress needs to be made.

My quiz is an opportunity to sort out where to focus your priority to expedite your progress.

The quiz promotes honesty. Take in a private place where ‘no one is watching’. Be brutal with your answers. Only then will you be able to make productive moves.

Take the quiz with your team. Use the process to build a broader honest view of where you are. And be prepared for team spirit to soar.

Just do it — Begin — Stay focused — Execute — Enjoy the success — Reap the rewards.

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

• Posted 4.30.12 at 10:31 am by Roy Osing
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