Consider Treating Loyal Customers Better - Customer Service Lesson

Treat Your Current Customers Better than Your New Customers

It
drives me a little crazy when I receive an advertisement in the mail
from my cable TV or phone company offering me an incentive to sign up
with them. First, I’m already a customer and can’t understand why they
can’t figure that out. Second, why is the price they are offering a new
customer lower than what I’m currently paying?




This concept, offering a new customer a better deal than an existing
customer, is nothing new. (I’ve even written about this before.) And
it’s not just cable companies that do this. The strategy is simple. A
company wants to acquire new customers and is willing to cut its rates
to do so. But, how do you think a customer, such as myself, feels when
we see the deal, then calls the company to ask for the same deal, and is
told that it’s just for new customers? Isn’t my loyalty worth
something? I would think my loyalty would be an incentive to give me a
better deal, versus giving a better deal to a customer they have never
done business with before. But, apparently, that’s not the case with
some of these companies.


Then, there are companies that take the opposite approach. One of those companies is Naya Traveler.
They are a boutique tour operator, specializing in high-end, immersive
trips to culturally rich destinations, and they offer a $500 discount to
any new customer that signs up for a tour. But, if you’re an existing
customer, the discount is $1,000. That’s twice the discount for a new
customer. It’s obvious that Naya Traveler values their existing
customers.


So, maybe you want to offer new customers an incentive to do business
with you. And, maybe it’s an incentive in the form of a discount –
something that existing customers don’t receive. I understand the
strategy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something else for your
existing customers. A cable company may offer a lower rate to new
customers for the first year. That same company can offer their existing
customers a bonus, perhaps a free month of cable or a free upgrade to a
premium channel. This is just something that shows “a little love” to
their existing customers.


So, when advertising and promoting to new customers, consider the
message you are sending to existing customers. All customers should be
treated equally as far as customer service is concerned. All should be
made to feel special.
But, when it comes to the deal, you might consider treating your
existing customers, the ones that have shown you their loyalty, a little
better.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and
experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times
bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

(Copyright © MMXVIII, Shep Hyken)

Eliminate the Gap - Customer Service Lesson

I’ve written about the customer service gap before. The first version referred to the gap
between you and your competitors. You want the gap to be wide. It means
you are putting yourself further ahead of your competition and picking
up market share.



The second version of the gap focused on narrowing the distance
between you and your customers. The closer you are to your customers,
and the more you are meeting their needs, the narrower the gap is
between you and your customer. This also puts your competition further
away from your customers.

Now comes the third version of the gap, which is the difference
between how good a company thinks their service is versus what their
customers actually believe they receive.



A number of years ago, I read an interesting report from Bain and
Company that found 80% of companies say they deliver superior customer
service, yet only 8% of customers agree. That is a surprising, almost
staggering, statistic. Is there that big of a disconnect? Is the gap
really this big?

There are other studies that have similar findings, although not
quite as severe as the numbers from Bain and Company. Even if that
number was cut in half, it would still be a problem. In a perfect world,
there wouldn’t be a gap. In a truly customer-focused organization, you
might even see the gap reversed. In other words, the customer perceives
the service they receive from a company is even better than that
company’s leadership believes it to be. Maybe that’s because that
company won’t settle for anything other than the best, and is always
striving to deliver a superior level of service, never settling for
mediocrity, never resting on their laurels.



So, what can you do to avoid or eliminate this gap? Here are just a few ideas:

1. Survey your customers.
   This one is obvious. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. You can
   use several different survey questions and techniques but just consider
   this one suggestion. Keep the surveys short. You stand a greater chance
   of the survey being returned if they are short and take less than a
   minute or two to fill out.
2. Ask the customer directly, at the time they are finishing their
   interaction with you. This is a form of an “exit interview.” Again, keep
   it short and you’ll get more customers willing to respond.
3. Have leadership mystery shop
   your company. Don’t hire mystery shoppers, but have the executives
   actually pick up the phone and call their own companies. Find out how
   easy it is to get to the right person, how long they are required to
   hold while waiting for customer service, and more. In other words, have
   them play a simple version of “Undercover Boss.”

So, don’t fall victim to the customer service gap. What you hope your
customers will perceive as good customer service, and how they perceive
it, are two different things. Narrow the gap so that what you want your
customers to experience is in fact what they experience.

Shep
Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning
keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For
information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

(Copyright © MMXVIII, Shep Hyken)

Leave a Powerful Last Impression - Customer Service Tip

People say all the time that the first impression is important. No
doubt it is. Just as important, if not even more so, is the last
impression, as it leaves a lasting impression.






If you’ve been following my work, this concept may be familiar to you. Recently, I tweeted about lasting impressions (follow me on Twitter @Hyken if you aren’t already doing so). I received a response from Nayeli Burns (@Nayelihrc),
the concierge at Encore Event Technologies, an “in-house” event
production company in hotels and resorts throughout North America. If
you’ve ever been to a hotel for a conference, they are the people who
set up the audio/visual support, the staging, lighting, rigging, and
more.


Nayeli shared that Encore has a relentless focus on customer service, and part of their customer experience includes a “departure meeting”
where they can personally thank clients and get feedback on the event
they helped produce. But, there is more to it than just saying “thank
you” and asking how they did. The meeting is orchestrated between the
concierge (yes, Encore has a concierge in each of the venues they
support), the sales manager, and the director of events. The meeting is
meant to create a memorable last impression for their client. Prior to
the “departure meeting”, the director of event technologies is briefed
on some of the highlights of the client’s conference, which are brought
up during the discussion. The personalized nature of the meeting is
important, as it reminds the client of the great service they received
and that they made the right choice to do business with Encore. In
Nayeli’s words, “Our clients love this.”


This “departure meeting” works for a number of reasons:

1. It is a great way to say, “Thank you!” to a customer. And, all customers deserve to be shown appreciation.
2. It is an opportunity to receive face-to-face and eye-to-eye
   feedback. Getting your customer’s feedback in a timely fashion is vital,
   so why not do it just as the event is coming to an end?
3. It’s personalized. This is a crucial point. Encore’s director of
   event technologies gets briefed before the meeting to learn about what
   happened at the event and uses that as part of the conversation.
4. Recapping the event reminds the client how Encore helped make the
   meeting a success. It reinforces why they should hold their meeting at a
   venue that Encore supports.
5. Finally, the meeting serves the purpose of leaving a powerful last impression, which is, as mentioned, a lasting impression.

What I like about what Encore Event Technologies has done, is that they have made the last impression
a formal part of the client’s journey. It isn’t a “thank you” in
passing. It’s a sit-down meeting, which is a central part of the
process. The “departure meeting” is a major touch-point in a long
process that helps ensure that the client will want to come back.

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