Are You Delivering Great Customer Experiences?

Amex reports that US consumers say they’re willing to spend 17 percent more to do business with companies that deliver excellent service.  Connect with one of your favorite service providers and you immediately feel the difference in the experience that makes this establishment one of your chosen few.  What is the difference?  There is no doubt that the product or outcome they deliver is one you value and trust but most likely they make a strong emotional connection with you throughout your journey with them that you find meaningful.

How can you make a strong emotional connection with customers?  As we often tell our consulting clients, “it is not hard”!  It does take a well thought out vision of what your unique and distinguishing service experience should be as well as a clear definition of the experiential elements you need to consistently provide to deliver your special experience across the entire customer journey.  There are several common components we find that deliver the “special” feeling to customers that bring them back and cause them to advocate for your business.

We find the top component in terms of “return on experience” is delivering a strong personal connection.  It starts with an attitude for service greatness and a commitment to knowing and using your customers’ name.  What comes next is a sincere curiosity to learn more about your customer and the willingness/ ability to use that knowledge in forging not only a strong connection but in delivering a service experience tailored to their life and/ or their business.  There has been much written about the necessity of good listening as a precursor to delivering great service.  We believe you cannot get to great service without great listening!  In today’s fast paced world of electronic communications (email, text, tweet, etc.) you can differentiate your service with great listening to form strong personal connections.

What is your vision for the kind of service experience you want to consistently deliver to customers?  Have you communicated this vision effectively throughout your organization?  Does everyone understand the attitude and behaviors needed to deliver that unique experience consistently?  How customer friendly is your technology? Are you using the customer’s name whenever possible?  What role does great listening play in your customers’ experience?
 

© Chip Bell Group, 2023.  Courtesy of John R. Patterson (www.johnrpatterson.com).  Permission is given to download and distribute this article as long as it contains this copyright notice.