3 Things You can do Today to Show Your Customers You Appreciate their Business

Caring for your customers can be a serious competitive advantage. But you cannot claim you put your customers first until you actually do that. The money quote does not get that way without you doing a bit of "show me the money" work.

When I talk to business owners about customer conversations, the ones who can claim success, those whose customers go back to time and time over receive this kind of feedback - you show me you care, you're easy to talk with, you solve the problem.

Customer service is the best form of marketing you could ever execute. With every interaction, you have the opportunity to make a person whole, develop a relationship, and get a referral. That means that you helped them see you care about their needs, you are listening and hearing what they're saying, and they will win friends when they send people your way. Not a small task.

Here are 3 things you can do today:

1. Provide exceptionally good service. That is defined by the customer, but you can get a good idea when you do. If you don't want your customers to kick at and shake the vending machine, fix it. Good service is for average people and none of your customers are average - each is a different person with different needs.

How do you scale that? You do it by listening and hearing the request and problem when it is first presented. Lean forward, don't judge the intent, just take in the issue - then fix it. Do you know how much you lose in reputation and business by asking your customers to fill complex forms, navigate impossible phone systems, and call you back when you're ready?

Pick up the phone on the first ring, answer pleasantly, route the call as appropriate by leveraging your own internal relationships to make sure your colleague has the same sense of urgency you have. Be creative, brainstorm with the customer as necessary. Stop worrying about the form, start talking with your customer.

2. Be the person, humanize your business. I bet you if I polled you, you would tell me the names of the people you do business with - Mike the mechanic, Jim the personal trainer, Rose the hair dresser, Kathy the insurance person. They personify the brand in your eyes. As far as you're concerned, they are the company - your experience of the company depends upon the relationship you have with them.

How do you scale that? Hire well, train better, provide incentives by rewarding the behavior of those who are customer advocates. Do you know who are the people customers love in your company? As customers we don't always provide feedback when someone is caught doing something right - we should. The feedback that comes is called referral - that we provide, if you inspire it, you hardly need to ask for it.

Say you're sorry, it's your fault. Give even the angriest or rudest customers pause. Then move to correct it. Stay in problem solving mode. That is the best way to gain credibility and diffuse rudeness. Ask questions, be interested in what input your customers are willing to give you. Customers can be rude, I know, especially in a retail setting. Don't lower your standards, be polite, pleasant, and helpful. The other customers in the story will notice both behaviors and empathize with you.

3.  Overcommunicate. Let your customers know what you are doing and are going to do at every step of the way. Follow through when you say you will, educate, teach, explain what is going on. Don't just say why a problem occurred (take note, for some people this is a deal breaker), explain how you're going to fix it and when you expect it fixed.

How do you scale that? If several customers are affected, select a member from your team to be the personal concierge for each customer or each group. This will let them feel the personal touch and will allow you to communicate personally rather than impersonally.

It's also good to use the active voice and active verbs - today something happened to a group of people is harder to take than the power in your block is still out for this reason. In your communications stay positive, proactive, and responsive. If you have new information, share it.

In an interconnected world, a problem in one company can affect many more customers than the direct few. Like in the case of PJM Interconnection, as I wrote a couple of years back, they give you power, but you never heard of them. Today at Fast Company expert blog we talk about practical ways to scale customer care and why it matters.

Do you get exceptionally good service? Do feel you need to push companies to help you? When you make a requests, is the attitude of company representatives to your standards?

Comments

[Hendry Lee]

As always, I've been enjoying your post.

Over-delivering to clients and customers is necessary. Doing what you promise and nothing more is not that exceptional nowadays.

In fact, with the whole social media thing, quality of product or service is no longer a compelling feature. Quality is compulsory.

More and more, customers will expect that you take the extra mile to deliver more of what they pay. And with content marketing and such, it doesn't have to be costly.

[Deborah Chaddock Brown]

It's all about developing a relationship with our customers. No longer can we be "order takers" if we want to stand out from our competition.

I would just add to the "over communicate" comment that it has to begin with active listening. We can't begin to make recommendations until we truly understand what our customer needs, what prior experiences they've had and what expectations they've set. We need to ask open ended questions and truly listen to their answers. So often we get so excited about what we can offer that we head down a path before really finding out what the customer wants.

Great post Valeria, thanks so much!

Deborah Chaddock Brown
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[Peter Korchnak]

Exceptional customer service is particularly helpful to gain competitive advantage in economic times like these. Media reports abound with bad news, so helping customers feel happy and important goes a long way.

There are so many options out there for almost anything, so if I don't get great customer service, I mostly just turn around and leave. Coming from a formerly communist country, it continues to amaze me how many times I've had to do that here in the U.S.

Thanks, Valeria, for another great reminder post.

[Zach Heller]

Terrific post. I love #2 here about humanizing the business. If there is anything that the social web has taught us, its that a company can be more personal, no matter the size. A close connection with those people that do business with is as important as ever in this economic environment.

Thanks.

[Lauren Vargas]

Something I find funny is when PR people say one of their redeeming traits is "they like people" yet when the going gets tough and they have to extend beyond their media relations comfort zone, this trait is nonexistent. It is the simple things, personal touch, customers are seeking. Going above and beyond is ideal, but if we just focused on basics, we might not have such extreme loyalty issues.

[Linda Forrest]

Your post resonated with me not only because we work with companies in the customer care space, but also because we've all been subject to customer service both good and bad. As B2B marketers, we're very conscious of the competitive differentiation that stellar customer service offers our clients; as individual consumers, we too know that we choose to patronize companies that treat us with respect and seemingly go above and beyond the call of duty.

To speak to your point on over communication, this is indeed an area where we have found it important when communicating with our clients the value proposition of our services. A lot of PR is invisible to the naked eye. By communicating these activities to our clients, we can ensure that they recognize the activities that are taking place behind the scenes and that we're expending a great deal of effort in order to achieve outstanding results.

[WilmaWoodson]

Great practical advice on how to maintain good customers in a time when live customer service is rare indeed.

www.Twitter.com/WilmaWoodson

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Hendry - what is expected is often that nothing goes wrong with the product or service. Great, you might say, but then along comes another product or service that is comparable and looks better and you go with it. The opportunity to shine and win customers for life actually takes place when things do not go as planned. The lengths to which a company is willing to go to fix the problem and how it goes about it show its culture and create a bond. I'm not advocating bad products here, but think about it, why not put the best people to fix the problems, get to know the customers, and win the business?

@Deborah - thank you, yes. I put aggressive listening up top above all three principles. Also, we need to listen in order to understand the problem. As a customer, I often spin cycles trying to get the reps to understand what I'm saying. I've resorted to drawings and screen shots more than a few times.

@Peter - think about it. When you're with your friends, who do you prefer to spend time with - those who make you feel great and important, or those from whom you are constantly defending yourself? Same with colleagues, same with companies. We tend to want to stay away from bad experiences. It's amazing, isn't it?

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Zach - to you as a customer, the person in front of you or the person on the phone *is* the company. You experience the company through them. Why not make that a human experience?

@Lauren - yes, forgetting the "public" in relations. The characteristic of "go to" people is that they solve your problem. Doing that is a great way to attract business, especially when things get a bit tight.

@Linda - everyone is talking about value propositions these days. To me it's about doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons. Value is always in the eye of the beholder. That is a bit of a soapbox of mine as value props change depending on context and time. Customers may tell you they want "x", how you get there and how it feels to you getting there are very important. So it's not just about getting "x", is it? Just brainstorming here. The point you make about effort being invisible behind success is excellent. Just because it looks effortless or it seems to come easy, it doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of sweat equity and experience behind it. In fact, the easier it looks, the more work went into it. Well said!

@Wilma - thank you for stopping by.

[Ed]

Really love all 3 points you have written on in here. Companies will now need to pin this up infront of their working desk and read it every morning before they start their day. If they don't, they will be returning to where they come from in a matter of hours.

[JustinSMV]

you know these simple tips can be applied in every aspect in a work environment. I remember in my manager class that we need to appreciate also our employees often and treat them with respect. Not only in business but the same rules can be applied in a relationship too.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Ed - hopefully some people in companies will find it useful :)

@Justin - indeed, it does start inside the company. When there is respect and collaboration internally, it's easier to present a good attitude to the outside. Good point on it applying to all kinds of relationships.

[Ricardo Bueno]

Unfortunately I've had many unpleasant experiences with customer service reps at other companies. Their quality of service, or rather lack-there-of is motivation for me to step it up and not do the same to my clients! After all, it's the companies whose customer service rocks that I ultimately remember and evangelize on a daily basis. Take your experience with apple for example, remember when you wrote about that a long time ago?

On point #3, I used to think that I was being bothersome in over-communicating at first (hey, I was young). Now I sent status updates via email each and every morning, and if a problem arises, I bring it up along with an outline of the steps I'm taking to clear things up. I've come to find that people appreciate me a whole lot more for those things. They're little things, but they've earned me a great deal of appreciation. People respect my time because I put in the extra effort in letting them know that they're being taken care of!

All in all, I think that word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best forms of marketing. And if anyone took the steps you've outlined here and implemented them, well, I think they'd see an improvement in their word-of-mouth marketing efforts.

FYI: if that's your own photo and quote, I do believe I owe you credit :-)

[Vaibhav Domkundwar - ReadyContacts.com]

Great points. Its funny how these simple things also get ignored by companies in pursuit of new customers and more revenue. I'd like to add another point which has worked very well for us: turn every mistake or problem with the product or service into an opportunity to win over your customers for the long term. In case of a problem or mistake, take immediate and full responsibility for resolving it at the earliest possible, communicate every step of the way and don't get into arguments about the cause of the problem (definitely not until you have fixed it). Doing this just seals your relationship with your customers for the long run.

[Monika Katke]

Great Post!

I agree with the comment by Vaibhav Domkundwar: never get into arguments about cause of the problem. In fact, you have opportunity to gain the customers trust by listening and hearing what they're saying, so you can win your customers for long relationship.