Be Different or be dead

June 21, 2010

Why an ‘opportunity spotter’ is necessary for amazing customer service

Source: Unsplash

Why an ‘opportunity spotter’ is necessary for amazing customer service.

If your organization really is obsessed about customers, spotting opportunities routinely happens because it is a fundamental part of your business plan.

I’m talking about the inclination and ability for someone (normally a customer server) in the organization to anticipate an opportunity — a moment — to do something special and unusual for a customer and do the thing that will dazzle them.

Give them something they don’t expect. Blow them away. Surprise them. WOW! them.

Spot it; Act on it

My son and his family recently vacationed with us in Maui and they took the opportunity to spend an evening in the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, comforted by the fact that the kids were in good hands with Gramma and Papa.

Knowing that I am an absolute customer service experience fanatic, he told me the story of what happened to him around the Ritz pool; he was obviously very impressed.

Apparently he was lying in his lounger struggling to adjust the back position of his chair and was startled when a pool attendant came up to him and said “Here, sir let me help you”, at which point the attendant adjusted the chair back to the precise position my son desired.

He apparently he did it cheerfully, with a gleam in his eye and an attitude that shouted out “I want to help you (no, I really do)!”.

A customer opportunity spotter in action! Not serendipity. Not a fluke. Not an isolated incident.

This was an occurrence that I would bet is hammered into Ritz employees heads as an expected behavior. Look for every moment to serve a customer in a way that they don’t expect.

This is the essence of creating dazzling customer moments.

If you can surprise them and do something they don’t expect you will literally take their breath away. They will remember the moment and they will tell others about it.

They will take every opportunity to visit you again, and again, and again…..

So if your organization professes to create amazing service experiences for your customers, does your strategy include the customer opportunity spotting tactic?

Does it articulate this specific expectation of customer servers? Is it included in the server performance and compensation plan?

If not, your customer server journey has just begun.

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 6.21.10 at 01:00 pm by Roy Osing
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