The world has changed in such a way that today the buyer, not the seller, is sitting in the driver’s seat. These days, nobody has to convince anybody that the customer is king. Competition is everywhere. People are realizing that their organizations will go nowhere without the loyalty and commitment of their customers. Companies are motivated to change the new rule: If you don’t take care of your customers, somebody else will.
In order to tend to customers in an organization, we need to not only listen and respond to the voice of the customer but also be obsessed to go the extra mile to make our customers happy. We do what we say, we are accountable and we act like owners.
In order to portray friendliness to our customers, we need to treat them right. While everybody seems to know that, few organizations are creating customers who want to brag about them.
I love the Moments of Truth concept that Jan Carlson used to create a customer-focused culture when he was president of the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS):
“A Moment of Truth is anytime a customer comes in contact with anyone in our organization in a way that they can get an impression. How do we answer the phone? How do we check people in? How do we greet them on our planes? How do we interact with them during flights? How do we handle baggage claim? What happens when a problem occurs?”
Great customer service organizations analyze every key interaction they have with customers and determine how they would like to have that scenario played out. Creating raving fans starts with a picture, an image of what kind of experience you want your customers to have. Analyzing your Moments of Truth for each department and deciding how you want them played out, is a good start.
After you decide what you want to happen, it’s important to find out what your customers want to have happen. What would make their experience better? You have to be creative in discovering what customer want. And when they tell you, you have to listen without being defensive. Listen for understanding. When you put together what you want your customer to experience with what they want to have happen, you will have a pretty complete picture of your desired customer experience.
I also believe that in order to attend to customers in an organization, in an effort to portray friendliness, you must empower your frontline people. This can be achieved by turning the traditional pyramid hierarchy upside down so that frontline associates, closest to the customer, are on top.
Finally, a company should execute with positive energy and intensity. Company leaders should be committed to the value of positive energy. People at all levels should exude positive energy, passion, excitement, team spirit and a gung-ho attitude. The payoff once again for the cascading of all that positive energy, is to have it happen for the customers.
