Value has always been defined as price, product (or outcome) and experience. But, two of these three have become table stakes. Customers assume they will get a quality product or outcome at a fair price. They now look at the experience as the component of value that differentiates. Research shows almost 80 percent of customers decide whether to do business with a company based on that company’s customer experience reputation!
Here is the challenge for businesses. Customers get terrific service in pockets of their lives and use those experiences to judge everyone. So, who is your competition for a great experience? How many of your customers have ordered from Amazon.com, been to Disney World or shopped at a Nordstrom?
Not your industry? It matters not. Customers generalize a great experience with one service provider to every other organization. Figuring out how to attract and retain customers is no simple task. However, there are five loyalty drivers that fit most customers most of the time.
Include Me
Customers’ loyalty soars when they discover they can be active participants in the service experience. Harley-Davidson created the Harley Owners Group (HOG) as a forum to bring together Harley loyalists for education and recreation. Build-A-Bear Workshops with their interactive build-a-stuff toy experience has grown to more than 300 stores around the world. Customer care when they share. Help your customers feel like partners.
Assure Me
If the plane we board lands in the right city, we do not cheer; but if it lands in the wrong city, we’re upset, no matter how delightful the onboard experience. Customers are loyal to organizations that ride herd on ensuring the basics are done perfectly. You loose points on their experience report card when you make them wait, create extra effort, or focus on your processes and not on their experience. Be easy to do business with and remove all anxiety from their experiences.
Know Me
Great service providers are great listeners. They know that unearthing the essence of a problem will point to a solution that goes beyond the superficial transaction. It entails standing in customers’ shoes to get a bead on hopes and aspirations, not just their needs and expectations. It means viewing every customer contact person as a scout who can gather customer intelligence that ensures early warning about emerging issues and hidden concerns. If you were arrested for being a poor listener, would your customers have the evidence that would get you released or acquitted?
Teach Me
Customers live in a complex world that requires extra effort just to keep up. As such they value organizations that help them learn and enable them to be self-sufficient. Make every employee a mentor, eager to help customers increase competence about your product or service. Build customer learning into the process itself. Examine signage to ensure it helps keep customers informed and enlightened.
Surprise Me
Customers want sparkly and glitter; a cherry on top of everything. Features have become more titillating than function; extras more valued than the core offering. It means making the service experience exciting, bold, and innovative. Remember Cracker Jacks? What can be your “free prize inside?”
Loyal customers act as a volunteer sales force, championing you to others. The formula for creating loyalty comes through understanding customers, including them, assuring them, teaching them, and surprising them. Put these in your customers’ experience and watch their admiration soar right along with your bottom line.
Chip R. Bell is a renowned keynote speaker and the author of several best-selling books including Take Their Breath Away, Managing Knock Your Socks off Service, Managers as Mentors, Wired and Dangerous, The 9½ Principles of Innovative Service and his newest book, Sprinkles: Creating Awesome Experiences Through Innovative Service. Global Gurus ranked him both in 2014 and 2015 as the top keynote speaking in the world on customer service. His work has appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, Leader to Leader Magazine, CEO Magazine, Fast Company and Businessweek. He can be reached at www.chipbell.com.
