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Exceeding Customer Expectations – Make ‘Em Say WOW!
World-class service – the kind of service that gives you goose-bumps and makes you say WOW – That Was Excellent!!! How often do you find yourself saying that after receiving service in these United States…?
It seems that our culture has allowed, permitted and even facilitated degraded levels of service over the last 20+ years. What’s driving that…? Is it our culture? Is it the work ethic of our people? Have service providers forgotten who the Customer is? How can that be?
If you are a business owner or operator, how do you measure the level of service you provide to your Customers? Do you:
· Base your employee performance appraisal ratings (and staff compensation), at least in part, on Customer feedback received?
· Survey your Customers to gain their perspectives on your company, the quality of the services or products you provide, and its overall level of Customer service?
· Track Customer complaints and then fix the issues at their “root cause” to prevent them from ever happening again?
As a Customer, what do you do when you receive less than satisfactory service…? Do you:
· Complain?
· Leave and never go back?
· Tell lots of friends how rotten your experience was?
· All of the above?
In his book, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless…Customer Loyalty is Priceless, Jeffrey Gitomer epitomizes the failures of the service process and paints a picture of what we need to do to stay competitive in our businesses. As standard practice, we give each of our new management consulting Customers a copy of Jeffrey’s book – it’s a great thought provoker!
Developing a Customer base that is DELIGHTED (vs. just “satisfied” or, worse, dissatisfied) will get your Customers coming back time and time again while they tell everyone they know how great your company is! As a County (Fauquier) and a Main Street Community (Warrenton) we can continue to increase our business volumes, attract visitors from afar, and support our “Shop Here Fauquier” buy-local campaign by focusing on the delivery of world-class service to our Customers.
Please share your thoughts. As a Customer what inspires you to go back to the same businesses again and again and, conversely, what triggers cause you to steer-clear of firms you have done business with in the past?
Here’s to a healthy, Customer-centric local business environment! Make it a great 2008!
I really enjoyed reading this, Dennis!
As a Virtual Assistant and business owner, my main objective is to establish long-term working relationships with my clients. To retain those clients, I must provide excellent customer service, professionalism, high quality work and be consistent every time they use my services. Consistency helps gain trust, and with trust, comes referrals. Not only does this provide a steady income for my business, but it also provides me the opportunity to learn more about them, their businesses and their way of doing business to better assist them.
As a customer, if I go to a restaurant for the first time, and the server seats me with a welcoming smile and menu in hand, refills my glass without me asking, later stops by to give me extra napkins, and my menu choice turns out to be delicious, I’d want to go back again because of the great service and good food. If when I return, I get a scowling server that seats me, who then leaves me for ten minutes where I have to ask someone for the menu, then he gives me the wrong drink, and my food eventually arrives cold, it would be awhile before I decide to return again, and if that too is a bad experience, then they’ll have lost me as a customer. Because they are not consistent each time, I don’t know what to expect, and with that uncertainty, I do not trust they will satisfy me as a customer.
I guess at that point, I should refer the owner to you.
Posted by B_Kim_Bloom
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Excellent article Dennis! As a business owner, I nearly 'hug' every person that walks in our door. I want them to feel like they just walked in their best friend's home... kick off their shoes (not literally, I hope) taste some wine, and relax when they are here. Anything less is unacceptable!
Kim Pinello
The Galloping Grape
65 East Franklin Street
Warrenton, VA 20186
www.GallopingGrape.com
Posted by pinello
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