John Tschohl of the Service Quality Institute takes a look at the results of some of the leading customer-centric companies of 2023.

Amazon I believe is the most customer-driven firm in the world. They are Relentless. Net sales increased 12% to $764.8 billion. A $60.8 billion increase in revenue. AWS sales increased 13% to $90.8 billion. Net income was $30.4 billion. The $1000 I invested in Amazon in May 2023 is now worth $111,648 as of February 11. The net worth of Jeff Bezos, the founder is $192 billion. Obsessing over the customer experience pays off. I have never understood why more organizations do not copy Amazon’s obsession with customer service. Here is a link for their 2023 results.

Amazon has mastered speed and empowerment, they have reduced the friction for doing business with them, awesome at everything related to the customer experience, use your name, service recovery, and price. They are light years ahead of almost every firm in the world. I believe the reason most CEOs do not implement the service strategy is that they fail to understand the financial impact. I guess most firms don’t want a $60.8 billion increase in sales and most founders don’t need a $192 billion net worth. During COVID Amazon never let up on its focus on the customer. It is one of the few firms that used technology to reduce friction and improve the customer experience.

Another Relentless role model is Northeast Delta Dental. This is an insurance company based in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. I have been working with Tom Raffio, President of Northeast Delta Dental, since March 1990. That is 34 years. Tom implemented The Guarantee of Service Excellence starting April 1, 1990, at Dental Dental Plans of Massachusetts before becoming President of Northeast Delta Dental in 1996.

In both my “Relentless” and “Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service” books, I featured Tom Raffio and Northeast Delta Dental. Very few firms in the world provide Relentless customer service.

Northeast Delta Dental’s Guarantee of Service Excellence

These seven guarantees are very important to the companies and employees that use Delta Dental. Instead of saying, “I am sorry,” when they fail to deliver on any of these seven guaranteed services, they pay money.

The Guarantee: Accurate and Quick Turnaround of Identification Cards. Accurate identification cards will be available within 15 calendar days upon receipt of a completed enrollment form. Refund: Your group will be reimbursed $25 per pair of identification cards.

What Happens if They Fail to Provide Identification Cards in 15 Days?

If a company with 100 employees signed up and the cards arrived one day late, or 16 calendar days after requested, Northeast Delta Dental would have to pay out $2,500. 

Here is the link for Northeast Delta Dental’s 2023 payouts. They only paid out $1,248.08 in 2023 with 7 requests. This is the only firm I know of that guarantees their promises with money. Very few firms are willing to gamble real money when they screw up. Maybe that is one of the reasons their market share is so high.

They have 193 full-time employees, so they are smaller than many of the firms I talk about. However, the results are incredible every year. Market share is 62% in Maine, 61% in Vermont, and 56% in New Hampshire. This is an insurance company offering Dental insurance to companies for their employees. I suspect they have the largest market share of any insurance company in the world. Relentless customer service pays off.

In 2023 total revenue was $482,531,334. Total 2023 net income was $13,643,809. Northeast Delta Dental is a non-profit. The Reserve/Surplus is $186,313,898 vs $8,573,838 when Raffio started in 1995 as CEO with the GOSE plan. Primary subscribers are 579,892, and they Cover 1,055,677 individuals. The amount spent on training in 2023 was $102,858.

Northeast Delta Dental has always measured the results each year. They understand the power of their Guarantee of Service Excellence.

The reason most organizations deliver poor or mediocre customer service is that they don’t understand the power of a customer service strategy. John Tschohl of the Service Quality Institute, explains.

Strategy is a powerful tool you can use to gain market share and market dominance. When you develop a customer service strategy, you will crush your competition and grow the value of your business by 100 to 400 percent. It’s a powerful and cost effective tool, but it requires commitment and relentless support from top management. Only a handful of companies deliver great service or understand the real financial impact it has on a company. If you want to drive your business to great heights, you must have a service strategy.

A business strategy should focus on this question: What can we do to dominate the market and rapid growth? My answer to that question is this: You develop a strategy that emphasizes customer service above all else. When you provide service that is so extraordinary that you earn customers’ loyalty for life, you will own the market.

There is another benefit of implementing a customer service strategy: Your competitors won’t copy you. If your strategy focuses on price—maybe reducing the price of your most popular product by 50 percent—your competitors will copy you within a day or two. But, if your strategy focuses on providing exceptional customer service, they won’t copy you because they haven’t got the tools ready to do so.

A service strategy must start with a commitment from the CEO and then travel through middle management and down to every frontline employee. I can’t emphasize this enough. And it’s crucial that management understands the importance of those frontline employees because they are in direct contact with your customers and are the faces of your business. You must empower them to make decisions that are in the best interest of your customers—and you support their decisions.

A service strategy is also the least expensive tool you can use to grow your business. Advertising, on the other hand, is expensive and will only get customers through your doors the first time. It’s one-shot deal that won’t guarantee that they will return. Extraordinary customer service, however, is so powerful that it will keep your customers returning to you time and time again.

I constantly use Amazon as an example of how providing superior customer can drive a company to great heights. Amazon, which operates worldwide, spends hardly anything on advertising because it doesn’t need to do so. From its beginning, the company made customer service a focus and has never waivered from its commitment to it. That focus includes everything from speedy deliveries to free returns to the ability to contact its customer service staff members and get immediate help.

Amazon describes itself as “earth’s most customer-centric company,” and I agree with that assessment. The proof is in the numbers. Amazon had sales of $574.8 billion in 2023, an increase of 12 percent  or $60.8 billion over 2022. Simply put, Amazon is amazing.

Costco is another company that is realizing great profits by focusing not only on price but on customer service. During the fiscal year ending September 3, 2023, it had net sales of $237.7 billion and had a membership renewal rate of 90 percent, which resulted in $4.6 billion in membership fees. The company operates in 871 locations, has 316,000 employees, and focuses on a combination of price, quality, and customer service.

In order to drive a customer service strategy, you must value your customers—and your employees. Invest in your employees by training them to provide the best customer service possible and supporting their efforts to do so. When you train them, you are saying, “I value you.” This is critical, because how you treat your employees is exactly how your employees will treat your customers.

Exceptional customer service is the most powerful—and least expense—tool you have. Use it, and you will see your business grow to great heights.

What your consumers anticipate from you will vary as your startup expands, as will the number of their requests. You’ll transition from a reactive phase of responding to requests as they come into a proactive mode of resolving issues before they become a problem.

Consider a scenario in which your customer care personnel are experienced yet exhausted. They’re getting tired of answering the same questions again and again. You know you want to customize each customer engagement, but finding the balance between successfully listening to consumers and keeping them going through the pipeline is increasingly challenging.

Scaling Customer Service as Your Startup Grows

So you’ve decided to expand your business—congratulations! Prepare for the next challenge: figuring out how to manage your business growth. Even if you manage to sell like crazy, you’ll quickly run into another issue. You need to be able to deliver to all of your new consumers.

Scalability is concerned with capacity and capabilities. Is there room for expansion in your company? Will your company’s systems, infrastructure, and workforce be able to handle expansion?

If your company’s expansion leads it to stumble due to misunderstanding, orders falling through the gaps, insufficient employees, miscommunication, or a lack of manufacturing or delivery capacity, you will have disgruntled consumers. This could include manual methods that were good when you were small but now prevent you from moving quickly enough. You’ll either be fighting fires or struggling to keep your head above water. All of this is exhausting.

Scaling a business entails laying the groundwork for your company’s growth. It entails being able to expand without being impeded. It necessitates strategy, finance, and the appropriate systems, personnel, processes, technology, and partners.

Customer service is undoubtedly an essential aspect of any company. It will be tough to acquire new customers and retain existing ones if you do not have a robust customer support base. Startups and growth organizations must juggle many things and deal with hundreds of minutiae at the same time, such as refining products, integrating new personnel, calculating budgets, and streamlining processes.

Automation is the bedrock of modern, scalable customer care. Customer care call centers and chatbots automate responses to frequently asked inquiries and direct customers to the appropriate staff for assistance. While the employment of bots may appear to be a less personal experience, in reality, AI-driven technologies may positively enhance a customer care team and allow your team to focus on moments where a personal human touch is truly appreciated.

Strategies to Scale Customer Service

If you’re turning away clients or customers due to a shortage of products, workers, or simply not enough time in the day, it’s time to scale up. Building a customer base is critical to the sustainability and stability of a developing organization. Your clients are the foundation upon which your growth and income are built. Accepting every client you can to gain a footing in your industry is only normal, if not vital.

Over time, your company should build a wider client base while also nurturing the ever-growing baseline. The network will eventually overwhelm the business’s employees, and rejections will become unavoidable. Knowing when it is time to grow isn’t about your company rejecting possibilities due to its success or limiting opportunities due to its size. It is more about whether or if your company is lucrative, steady, and follows a tried-and-true model.

If more individuals are interested in your service and want to work for you, it is a good sign that you should prepare to strengthen the infrastructure, create new goals, plan future steps, and scale.

Secure the Sales

Scaling your business presumes that you will sell more. Do you have a sales structure in place that will allow you to create more sales? Examine sales from beginning to end. Do you have the following:

• Is there enough lead flow to generate the appropriate number of leads?
• Marketing systems for lead tracking and management?
• Is there a sufficient number of sales personnel to follow up on and close leads?
• A solid approach for managing sales orders?
• A billing system and a receivables function to ensure payments are collected on time?

 Invest in Technology

Scaling a firm has become much easier and less expensive as a result of technological advancements. If you invest intelligently in technology, you can get massive economies of scale and higher throughput with less labor. By reducing human effort, automation can help you run your business more efficiently and at a reduced cost.

In most firms, system integration is a high-priority area for improvement. Companies today don’t rely on a single system; they may have a dozen or more. If such systems do not communicate, silos form, which exacerbates communication and management issues as your organization grows.

Now is an ideal moment to assess new products on the market that save time and money while accommodating significantly larger volumes in all areas of your organization. Consider CRM, marketing automation, sales management, inventory, manufacturing, accounting, human resources, shipping, and other technological systems. You will soon come to appreciate the numerous customer service outsourcing benefits, such as an increased customer satisfaction rate.

Find Staff or Strategically Outsource

Last but not least, there are the hands required to do the work. Technology provides enormous leverage, but at the end of the day, people are still required. Ask yourself, do you have a sufficient number of customer service representatives? Examine industry standards to establish a general rule of thumb for how many consumers one service representative may be anticipated to handle.

What about the people in charge of your manufacturing, inventories, and product or service delivery? How many per customer is customary in your sector, and how many will you require? How do you easily locate appropriate assistance? Recruiting and recruiting procedures, as well as benefits and payroll, are critical.

Management is also a critical aspect. The value of a management bench develops in tandem with the size of your company. You won’t be able to keep track of everything.

Rather than hiring internally, it is sometimes better to outsource or look for partners. Scaling necessitates making difficult decisions. What internal functions can and should you execute or not perform?

The Results of Scaling

It can be difficult to maintain quality while expanding your support workforce. However, with the correct set of processes and technologies in place, you may expand your capacity while retaining quality. Introducing automation and developing a solid knowledge base are excellent places to begin your scaling efforts.

Consider innovative alternatives, such as creating an online customer community. Investing in an online community not only allows you to scale your support operation but may also help you engage your audience and boost brand loyalty.

It is a business situation that has been repeated in towns across the country – a “big box” store comes to town and the local businesses get nervous. How can they compete with the larger inventory and lower prices of a store like Costco or Home Depot?

The big stores seem to have more tools at their disposal – buying power, national advertising, etc. Local business owners can list a myriad of concerns, and while there is some truth to their fears, it is really just making excuses. There are ways small business owners can keep their customers – even attract new ones – and flourish, when a larger competitor moves into town.

The reality is that any business must consciously implement effective strategies to address competition from any new business that moves into the same market. This is true for any type of business or industry, no matter whether the established business or the newcomer is small, large, a deep discounter, whatever … the strategies are the same. And some don’t cost a thing.

Low- and no-cost ideas that can help you compete:

1. Make it about more than the merchandise. You sell the same product or service as your competitor, and the competitor happens to be a “big box” store with the buying power to offer a lower price. Is it still possible to keep the customers coming through your doors? Yes! This is where customer service becomes the strategy of choice. Offering a better customer experience adds value to the product and can set you apart from the competition and free you from the commodity trap.

2. Or, do make it about the merchandise – the merchandise that the competitor doesn’t have. One small hardware store that happens to be just down the street from a Home Depot has found a way to flourish. They figured out what Home Depot doesn’t sell and then made sure to offer those items. Now Home Depot even sends customers their way for the products that have been so thoughtfully and purposefully stocked.

3. Know your strengths – and let customers know, too. Hopefully, you are known for offering good customer service, but what else sets your business apart? Why should someone do business with you instead of the competition? Figure out your advantages and then let others know.

4. Make it about more than the business. Lend your name to other causes in the community, be it the local, national or even international community. The company’s market will define the scope of your “community.” For many small businesses, this means taking an active role in the local community by being visible – sponsor a sports team, let a local charity hold a bake sale outside your store on a Saturday, etc. Show the community that you care.

5. Let your loyal customers lend a hand. Keep in touch with your customer base through a variety of ways – social media, mail, and so on – and build an army of evangelists. Engaging with them will encourage them to promote your business.

6. Consider a formal loyalty program. Airlines, hotels, restaurants and more use loyalty programs to offer incentives for continued business. Would such a program work in your business?

Whether you choose to institute any or all of the strategies mentioned here – or dozens of other options – there is one ever-present way to compete in any market. Simply stated, just deliver amazing customer service that makes the customer feel so special that he/she wouldn’t consider doing business with anyone else.

About the Author

Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. As a professional speaker and best-selling author, Shep helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

I have been writing customer service articles for more than 25 years, and in that time I have received plenty of feedback. I always appreciate readers’ comments and stories, and a memorable response from Jacques De Villiers brought up the concept of shifting your vocabulary.

The idea is that if we call our customers by another name it can change the mood, feeling and culture of the company.

Ace Hardware uses this concept, referring to its customers as “neighbors.” It’s clear to see the different connotation that word conveys, and it has had a positive impact on the company culture.

While a simple change of words alone may not turn around a company’s culture, it can at least be an indication of what the company is trying to be or achieve. It changes the way you think about the customer. This is why Disney calls its customers “guests” and your local gym might call its customers “members.”

In Jacques’ comment, he wrote that he refers to his customers as “clients.” That is a commonly used term, but it does give off a different vibe than “customer.” When I think of the word client, it brings to mind someone who does business with some type of professional service business – a law firm or accounting practice.

The definition of “client” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary confirms that and more. According to the dictionary, client might be “a customer in a shop or hotel.” If you work in a traditional retail or service business then, perhaps you might start thinking of your customers as clients. It does have a different feeling and could have a positive impact on customer service.

And there’s more. Jacques specifically noted an interesting aspect of the meaning of “client”. The full definition included the following:

“One that is under the protection of another.”

Consider that view of the concept of a client. What impact could that have on customer service? Here are a couple of examples:

In order to protect the client, you would put their interests first. Your main goal would be to sell them what they need, not what costs the most or what will help you to meet your sales goals. And how do you know what they really need? The old fashioned way – talk to them and ask the right questions.

Sometimes by communicating with the client and determining his or her needs, you may rightly suggest the purchase of other products. Some call this “upselling”, but the true test is the intention behind it. If a client is buying a can of paint and you are trying to ensure the best experience possible, it makes sense to ask if he or she needs a paint brush or other supplies.

If you sincerely strive to “serve and protect” customers by selling them what they truly need, you will earn their trust and confidence. And over time, that translates into customer loyalty.

About the Author

Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. As a professional speaker and best-selling author, Shep helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

On an almost daily basis I speak to companies about their thoughts and strategies on providing the best possible customer experience and it’s fair to say that the vast majority view it as a high priority on their business planning agenda. However, in the real world the challenge is often converting great ideas into a practical operational plan that can really improve the customer experience.

I believe that there are four key pitfalls that many organizations face when searching for the right Customer Experience Management (CEM) strategy for their business and it is worth all management teams being mindful of them and planning to avoid them:

Departmental silos

It’s very easy when you are setting up a CEM program for it to become a project for just one department, rather than involving the whole organization. You have to develop a consistent customer experience that emanates from across all your departments and is an integral part of your brand values. I like to envisage it as the “DNA” of your business. It should be part of the way the organization operates. Letting the program fall into small isolated silos would make this very difficult to fulfil. The CEM strategy must involve the entire organization and all of its touch-points.

Think of your business from the customer point of view; they will not see your organization as a number of departments but as a single entity. Customers only see your products or services offering and are looking to get a particular job or need fulfilled by your organization – anyone from outside the business is unlikely to care how it is organized.

Implementing a CEM strategy for just the contact center may fail to cover other parts of your business that are also customer facing; such as your stores/branches and the customers they serve, for example. The entire organization and all its parts need to take ownership of CEM and ensure that the strategy is carried out wherever a customer comes into contact with it.

CEM is more than just the tools you use

In contrast to what some software providers would have you believe, integrating a CEM software platform into your processes is not the complete answer to delivering a great customer experience. Technology is a great tool, but on its own it is just a facilitator and not a panacea for all your needs and goals.

When developing a CEM strategy, it’s important that it is a strategic choice encompassing the whole organization – ultimately it is the people within the organization that will drive forward the changes that are implemented, not the technology that is used.

To fully embrace a new CEM strategy a company needs to work from the outside in, to ensure it works efficiently to benefit customers and addresses their needs rather than simply being designed to fit convenience internally. This can be a real challenge for many organizations because it involves really listening to customer feedback and acting on their actual needs, rather than delivering preconceived brand promises about great customer experience and excellent service. If there is no clear vision that focuses on cultural changes, even the most advanced IT solution will fail to properly implement an effective and fresh CEM program.

Focus on positive customer feedback as well as the negative

It’s all too easy to simply focus on the negativity from dissatisfied customers, as their voice will often be the loudest. Obviously managing customers that are at risk and making them happier is a vital part of any successful CEM program – but what happens with those customers that genuinely really love your products and services? These customers are ambassadors for your company and its offering. Additionally, they offer a lot of valuable insights and positive feedback on the things you do well; this will show you exactly why they are so enthusiastic about your business, preventing you from changing your proposition and inadvertently discontinuing the very things your customers like!

Focusing on the positives is also hugely beneficial internally, giving your team pride in what they provide, demonstrating why your business makes the offerings that it does and boosting the self-esteem of the whole organization. Additionally, sharing positive feedback publicly has been shown to boost revenues markedly and adds great kudos to your reputation.

Fully understand the digital experience

Many people tend to underestimate the complexity (or often over-complexity) of their business digital channels. It’s very easy for organizations to plan and develop their digital channels so that they are more complex than traditional touch-points, whether they need to be or not, sometimes simply because the functionality is available. Prospects and customers can perform many tasks and services themselves through one website portal; searching for product information, managing their online account, using self-service tools, asking questions online through IM and obviously buying new products. This is a very different proposition for a more traditional contact center call which will typically be done for a specific purpose or issue, such as a specific service related question for example. It’s important to understand this and ensure you are meeting your customers needs and expectations fully.

Your digital offering is also another area where it is vital to avoid being reliant on isolated departments within the organization. This will make it harder to offer a consistent service but equally, makes it harder to correlate any feedback or insights back to all parts of the business. The technology is now available to ascertain exactly how visitors are using your website and to ask them questions about what they like, what they don’t like and what they would like to see in the future; when it is most relevant for them. This offers a much wider view of the digital customer experience and consequently helps to get a much clearer understanding of the whole customer journey and its suitability for your customers.

About the Author

Udesh Jadnanansing is Founder and Managing Partner at Mopinion. Mopinion offers a full SaaS (Software as a Service) solution for setting up and maintaining Voice of the Customer programs according to the Closed Loop Feedback mechanism. Their software provides real time insights from the most important touch points, giving a direct view on how customers experience a business and where improvements can be made. The company specialises in solutions that offer Customer Feedback, Social Commerce, Customer insights, Communities, Customer Experience Management, EFM, Enterprise Feedback Management and Voice of the Customer information.

1. Experience your own customer service

If possible, personally mystery shop your own company. Find out how easy you are to do business with through your own experience. Sure, you can hire a company to do surveys and mystery shopping, but learning through your own experience can be an eye opening experience.

2. Create a customer service culture

It starts by setting an example and practicing what I call “The Employee Golden Rule” which is: Treat your employees the way you want the customer treated – maybe even better. By the way, everybody should practice this because when it comes to customer service, everyone is a leader.

3. Be better than average

Amazing companies don’t always deliver “Wow!” type experiences. No, they are just a little better than average – all of the time. All of the time is the secret. Anyone can be good or great once in a while. It’s the consistency that makes them amazing.

4. Care like you are the owner

You may not be the owner, but you should care like you’re the owner. Not all owners or executives make great leaders, but the ones that are should be emulated. Watch how they take pride in how they deal with customers and employees. Then copy them. Act and care like you are the owner.

5. Analyze when things go right

When a company receives a complaint people usually have discussions to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. Next time you receive a letter of praise, meet to find out what went right and how it can be repeated. Don’t, as the cliché goes, just learn from mistakes.

6. Pay attention to details

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest impact. Figure out the details that your customers enjoy and make them a routine part of doing business with you.

7. Focus on 100% wallet share

A loyal customer is a repeat customer, but may still buy from your competition. The ultimate loyal customer is a repeat customer that buys what you sell, but only from you, and not your competition. So, what are you doing right now that is going to make sure the customer, the next time they need what you sell, will come back – the next time, every time?

8. Make the most of social media

Use social media to enhance your customer service by sending value added messages, creating users groups and monitoring what others are saying about you.

9. Create a consistent experience

One sure way to erode loyalty is to deliver an inconsistent customer service experience. One time it’s great. The next time it is barely average. And, the next time it may be great again. Inconsistency creates uncertainty. Uncertainty erodes confidence. Lack of confidence leads to lack of trust. All of that leads to giving a customer a reason to consider your competition.

10. “Peoplize” your business

(I made that word up.) People do business with people. Make it personal. Customers should want to do business with you because of you and your employees. Make your customers “feel at home.” You may have a great location, cool displays, great signage, etc. That’s all great, but if your people can’t make your customers feel welcome and appreciated, all of the other “stuff” doesn’t matter.

Bonus #1

Don’t forget to say “Thank you!” It would be remiss of me not to remind you to show appreciation. You can thank a customer in person, on the phone, with a thank you note, an email. You get the idea..

About the Author

Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. As a professional speaker and best-selling author, Shep helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

Here are some simple practices that you might add to your customer service routine.

Customers are kind of funny. They will rarely tell you how you messed up, they will simply leave. Poof…gone!

No matter what the size of your firm there are ways to get to the bottom of this problem.

Call them. Talk to them. Mail them. Do your maintenance.

Don’t just take the order and run. Remember, it is a lot easier and a whole lot more profitable to do more business with your existing clients than it is to find new ones. So, do whatever it takes to make sure those existing clients are happy campers.

Here are a few simple practices that you might consider adding to your customer service routine:

1. A week after a client buys a product or service, follow-up. Ask them what worked, what didn’t.

It’s an interesting fact of business but, sometimes, as long as people get the chance to tell you what’s wrong and you do what it takes to fix it, they may become some of your most loyal customers.

2. Send postcards, letters, article reprints, notes, whatever, as often as you can. By staying in touch you create a bond that will serve you well when you launch new ventures and new product lines. Sending postcards, for instance, gives that personal touch to your marketing plan that sets your company apart from your competitors.

3. The most powerful yet cheapest research you can get. Talking to your customers about what works and what doesn’t work is the greatest way to find hidden gold mines in your industry. Understanding very specifically why people choose to buy from you over others is the secret to marketing.

Be on particular lookout for phrases like…that’s how we’ve always done it or we don’t like it but we’ve just come to live with it.

4. Schedule routine maintenance appointments or calls with your clients. Often after your clients have been enjoying your product or service they forget how much value it is bringing them. Find a way to build regular meetings with your clients into your service. Use the time to educate them on just how much you have done for them. (How much weight have they lost, how much money have they saved, how much more efficient are they, how much more business they now have, how much of what ever it is that you do)

They will appreciate the time and it is a great way to introduce new products and ask for testimonials and referrals.

5. Find out everything you can about your clients. Don’t stop at name, rank and serial number. Devise a method for collecting personal information about your clients. Information about a client’s spouse, children, hobbies, schools, community involvement can be a tremendous way to further your relationship and offer clues for networking and referrals.

You don’t have to be intrusive or nosey to make this strategy work, sometimes you just have to be observant. Most people wear their allegiances on their sleeve. I find that as a customer service tool you are simply looking for ways to get a deeper understanding of the needs of your client as a way to uncover more ways to help them get what they want.

About the Author

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker and best selling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine and The Referral Engine. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System and Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network that trains and licenses small business marketing consultants around the world.

Most companies believe they provide a unique offering to their customers. In many industries, a company achieves this uniqueness by delivering customer service that is superior to its competitors.

This leads us to the question, “What does superior customer service mean?”

While the details are industry and even firm specific, the basic principles can be generalized. The following list provides a good starting point for thinking about customer service research and how it can help your company deliver superior service.

1. Always try to exceed customer expectations. Whether customer expectations are set by the firm or by a competitor, exceeding these will reflect on your company’s reputation and leave a lasting impression.

To achieve this, you must have a strong understanding of customer needs as these dictate expectations. Conducting a customer service survey will provide you with a true understanding of these needs. Managing expectations up front sets the stage for you to exceed customer expectations later in the relationship.

2. Track changes in customer expectations over time. Any successful company must learn to identify and adjust to changing trends, many of which will be reflected in customer expectations. Measure customer satisfaction with tracking research in order to monitor trends over time.

3. Make a strong first impression. The first contact with a customer (the “moment of truth”) often sets the tone for their lasting impression of the company. Customer Satisfaction Research shows that how a customer feels about a transaction tends to be more important than the product or service purchased.

4. Be accessible, approachable, and responsive. If your customer finds it difficult to get in touch with someone at your company, they are less likely to do so, and the prospect of developing a strong, long-term relationship built on customer service satisfaction is greatly diminished. Make a habit of regularly reaching out to your customers to enhance customer service satisfaction and build lasting relationships.

5. Determine how your well company delivers. Initial customer satisfaction research will provide a baseline against which to measure future improvement initiatives. Regularly conduct a service satisfaction survey to help identify specifically what attributes of the product/service are of greatest importance to customers, how the company performs against those attributes and how both change over time.

6. Solicit input from your service personnel. Most public-contact employees are self-motivated to achieve customer service satisfaction. They are the best source for identifying roadblocks to superior service delivery (too much paperwork, difficult return policies, lack of information, interdepartmental miscommunication, inability to schedule service call times, etc.) and what upsets customers most.

Spotlighting and addressing these issues not only improves customer service satisfaction but front-line employee attitudes as well.

7. Improve employee satisfaction. Regularly conduct an employee attitude survey to measure and improve employee satisfaction. This will, in turn, have an impact on customer service satisfaction. More satisfied employees will produce higher quality products and provide better service to your customers.

These seven strategies provide a generalized approach for exceeding customer expectations and achieving superior service. An ongoing customer satisfaction research program will help to identify the issues facing your particular business, as well as their relative importance to customers.

Through such a program, a full-service marketing research firm could help identify the specific improvements that will have the greatest impact on improving overall customer service satisfaction.

About the Author

Brian Backer is a project manager with Polaris Marketing Research, specializing in customer service satisfaction research. Backer can be reached at the Atlanta marketing research firm by phone at 404-816-0353 during normal business hours.

Social media is enabling customers to complain like never before – are you ready for “customer revenge”?

When was the last time you took revenge for poor customer service?

When a disgruntled BA customer recently paid for a promoted tweet to complain about the loss of his fathers luggage by the airline – it got sent to the top of BA’s Twitter feed and the feeds of related companies across the world.

It went on to gain more than 25,000 impressions within 6 hours, with commentators heralding it as a ‘new trend in online feedback.’

You would think that BA would have tried to limit any brand damage with a swift response – but alas they didn’t.

They added fuel to the fire by taking four hours to respond via a direct message on the social networking site that read: ‘Sorry for the delay in responding, our twitter feed is open 09:00-17:00 GMT.’

Another example of the general consumer fighting back is the recent news coverage of an enterprising man, who got so fed up with cold marketing calls that he set up his own premium rate phone number so that the companies that called him got charged 10p per minute, pocketing him over £300 ($475) to-date.

So you have to ask yourself – how sweet is revenge?

Well, whilst the customer may get some short-term satisfaction, both the brand and the consumer are losers in the long run. The company risks losing business through brand damage and the customer has had to go to great lengths and financial costs to resolve an issue, which should have been handled swiftly in the first place.

The business 9-5pm ‘computer says no’ mentality no longer has a place in today’s 24/7/365 fast paced world, where consumers expect constant availability and customer support but the key issue for many organisations is how they offer a consistent customer service across all customer contact channels.

Social media is helping spread customer complaints

Before you review your customer service strategy, below are key questions to consider:

1. What technology do you have in place to support your contact centre staff?

How can you ensure that all contact centre staff are up-to-date with the latest information / offers on your products and services?

How do staff shifts affect the transferal of knowledge – how is this communicated?

Will customers calling out-of-hours receive a poorer quality of customer service?

2. How do you handle customer enquiries out of office hours?

If your phone lines are only open 8 hours per day – are customers able to self-serve answers to their questions quickly and easily on your website or other channels?

Do the majority of your customers contact you for pre and post sales support during work hours or do they frequently require assistance out of office hours?

How do you handle overseas customers in different time zones?

3. What channels do your customers use to contact you?

The contact centre is only one channel available for customers to contact you over – how are you handling enquiries across other channels like the web, mobile, e-mail and social platforms?

4. Are you listening to your customer’s feedback and complaints?

How quickly and efficiently are you responding across all of your channels?

Do you have a mechanism in place to ensure you monitor customer feedback so you are able to improve the quality of your products and services and level of response in the future?

Delivering a high quality round-the-clock customer service isn’t easy. Without the right technology in place to support a customer service strategy, organisations will constantly fail to meet or exceed their customer’s expectations and in light of the ‘new trend in online feedback’ – ignore social channels at your peril!

About the AuthorPeter McKean is founder and Managing Director of Synthetix Ltd – a leading provider of multi-channel online customer service solutions. Founded in 2001, Synthetix develops integrated web self-service, call-centre knowledge-bases and live chat. With over 20 years of experience, Peter regularly shares insight and best practise tips for online customer service deployment.