Focusing on Customer Service Consistency
When we aim for consistency in our communications, values, messages, images, offerings, and the customer experiences we create, we take another significant step toward developing long-lasting and meaningful customer relationships that will boost our bottom line.
We know that as consumers, we are able to exercise our choices to achieve
the most enjoyable and efficient experiences possible. But whenever we are
unhappy consumers, how likely are we to complain about it?
Research shows that only a small fraction of customers will inform a company
of what they dislike. The majority of silent, unhappy buyers "vote with
their feet" and simply don't return. Sam Walton, the late Wal Mart founder,
said: "There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in
the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money
somewhere else."
So, since buyers are unlikely to complain (unless they're very unhappy), we
must be extremely careful to ensure that they don't become unhappy about
anything in their experiences, or they're likely to leave without telling us
why!
This article (the first in a series) explains the role of consistency in
boosting customer retention and satisfaction.
Inventing Your Customer "Secret Sauce"
What recipe makes any relationship with a product or service stand out
deliciously from all of the others? Creating consistent customer experiences
is the mantra savvy businesses have been chanting to achieve great
prosperity. These companies pull out all the stops to ensure that dealing
with their products, staff, and services is so consistently pleasant, buyers
will want to become loyal customers.
But that's not all -- pleasantness is fast becoming the minimum experience
buyers expect. The fierce competition today requires creating raving fans of
customers so they cannot stop telling their colleagues, friends, and family
about your products or services. This requires raising the bar even further!
What does it take to go from being a silently shunned company to one that
creates raving fans?
Assembling the Filling
The success of this recipe comes from paying close attention to key
ingredients. These ingredients pertain to quality, business systems,
marketing/sales, customer service, and good common sense. They shape the
"touch points" that influence our customers' experiences. For example:
* It's far more cost effective to keep existing customers than to find new
ones. Why? Customer retention research shows that once companies have loyal
customers, the cost of keeping them is just one-fifth the cost of attracting
new ones. The research also shows that companies can boost results up to
100% just from increasing customer loyalty by only five percent! This means
that marketing to existing customers consistently is far more
cost-effective.
* It's critical not to over-promise and under-deliver. Either we can
under-promise and over-deliver or over-promise and over-deliver, but, at all
costs, we should strive not to under-deliver. One of the situations that
will drive everyone crazy is believing that a product is supposed to be
released on a certain date, and then it's not. Or hearing that a service
will be rendered per an advertised guaranty, and then it's not. Credibility
and trustworthiness evaporate whenever people make promises they can't keep.
Baking the Pie
Common sense tells us to find every possible way to keep our existing
customers, and instead of ignoring them, we should market to them regularly.
Common sense also suggests that if we consistently deliver on time or
earlier, or with greater quality than promised, we will delight our
customers!
It may mean telling our customers truthfully that we won't have a product
ready to offer until next year (instead of next month). But any momentary
disappointment our customers may feel will be relatively minor compared to
the confidence they will have in us when we do release on time or earlier.
And it's nothing like the distrust and scepticism we will earn if we
under-deliver by coming back repeatedly to say, "I'm sorry, we were wrong;
it's really going to be next month!" in an endless stream of broken
promises.
With just the preceding two principles in mind, we have a better idea of
what we can do to become leaders in our industries:
* Retaining existing customers could entail asking customers, in surveys or
during customer support calls, "What do you love about our products? What do
you hate? What would it take to make you a raving fan of our company?" The
answers will reveal what buyers value most, and any pet peeves they've been
dying to unload.
* Over-delivering on promises could entail ensuring that products and
services work even better than advertised, and that interactions with
customer support exceed all expectations for problem resolution. Since one
unhappy experience can sour all other pleasant ones, strive to ensure that
the most memorable interactions -- such as the first and last in any series
-- are especially positive. On a vacation, if lost luggage, forgotten
belongings, or final departure activities are not handled with the utmost
care, everything positive that preceded those disappointments may be erased
from the vacationer's memory!
In conclusion, the recipe for positive and rewarding customer relationships
includes, but is not limited to, recognizing the value of consistency in
customer retention and in over-delivering on promises, both explicit and
implied. These two ingredients are a few of the ways to plug the gaps that
would cause buyers to "vote with their feet." Alone, they might not be quite
enough to create raving fans, but without them, we won't create any loyal
customers, either.
About the Author