“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” – Jeff Bezos
The times are changing. Before the buzzword was “customer satisfaction”. Now, it is “customer delight.” It does not mean that we should abandon “customer satisfaction”. We should always give customers exactly what they want. Then, we must add a good experience, if possible memorable.
Happy customers keep coming back. Happy customers tell their friends about our products or services. However, some business gurus believe that “customer delight” might be a waste of money. I believe otherwise. It is only a waste of money if the business does not deliver the first part, which is giving the customers what they exactly want.
Happy customers must be our objective. Yet we must remember that before we can deliver customer delight, we must deliver customer satisfaction, then our people must connect or engage the customer positively. This is primarily important to service oriented companies. Yet even before that, our people must have the self-confidence to engage the customers.
Developing Your People’s Confidence. Your people cannot deliver good customer service if they do not have confidence in their ability to interact, to convince, to appease, to communicate, and to inspire. Customer service begins with increasing the team’s confidence. The company must deal with issues that can paralyze a front liner from speaking with confidence. It must also deal with boosting the individual’s perspective of himself and the company.
Developing the Ability to Connect. Customers should be engaged in a positive way. The failure to engage the customer in a positive way may result in decreased loyalty to the company’s products or services. When the customer calls or visits a branch, every front liner should be able to engage the customer in a positive conversation even if the customer seems upset.
Creating Customer Delight. Because the front liners are equipped with self-confidence and with the ability to engage, the next goal is creating customer delight. For service companies, this is critical. Assuming that all things are equal between your product and your competitor’s. The edge will have to be in the personal touch.
I have been loyal to a barbershop for many years. But before that, I was at another barbershop. What made me switch? First, because almost all the barbers in the new barbershop understand how I want my hair to look and they are able to give me that look. Second, because there is always a short relaxing massage for the back, arms, neck and head, which I do not get from my first barbershop.
My wife and I decided to invest in a condominium unit. The sales agent helped us make the decision. We are happy with the purchase but we also recall having so much fun conversing with the sales agent. We then bought another condominium unit plus four parking spaces from the same agent. When we decide invest again, we intend to buy through the same agent.
If the customers feel happy buying your products or services then you have the upper hand in gaining new customers and in retaining them.
