It’s National Customer Service Week!
How do you define “customer service”?
If I was to boil it down to one sentence, from a place of Extreme Client Care®, I’d say:
Extreme Client Care® means going one step further than the extra mile in service to your internal and external customers/patients/clients.
In other words, think about how they’d define “superior customer service” and go one step beyond.
Beyond Disney. Beyond Nordstrom. Surprise them with the unexpected. Click to tweet.
I recently watched “The Bounty Hunter” with Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston and, at one point in the movie, she asked him, “How’d you know I was here?” and, to summarize his response, “Your mom mentioned you wanted to suck up luck and you told me how your dad said that there must lots of luck lying around the horse track because of all the losers and I know your favorite letter is D so I knew you’d be in this section.”
Imagine her response. He paid attention, retained the info and acted on it. 🙂
Which of the following customer service strategies do you/will you incorporate into your business:
- Keep information about your clients so you can surprise them in the future? For example, one of my private clients is allergic to a lot of things. So when I send her flowers, the florist knows they must not have a scent or they’ll have to stay outside. Imagine her surprise the first time she got flowers she could keep in the house.
- Do you walk away for a bit when creating a new program, process or policy and then come back and go through/experience it as a client/customer? Of the last 3 things I’ve bought online, I promise you that two business owners didn’t take this additional step. Do it, you’ll see things to improve upon that you would have missed otherwise.
- Do you show interest and follow-up when a client mentions something (even in passing)? Going on vacation, sick partner/pet, new car, child off to college, etc.? Extra points if you follow-up offline.
- Do the unexpected, even when you’re not getting paid for it? Years ago I was working on a project for Peace Corps. During that project, I saw something that no one was expecting. On my time, I dug deeper and reported my findings. As a result, I got several more projects.
- Do you identify their end goal? Whether an internal (colleague, team member) or external (customer, client, patient) “customer”, what is it they want? Increased revenue, a promotion, to live to 100+, to be an author, to leave a legacy, to fully fund retirement or college? Look to that end goal and then determine how you can best serve them — rather than simply looking at their request.
Reply below and let me know which of these, or other, customer service strategies you’ll be incorporating in your business.
Happy National Customer Service Week!