Creating Devoted Customers with Imaginative Service

Imaginative Service: A Fond Farewell to 2010!

As 2010 draws to a close it is a time to reflect on the good that came from the challenging times of the past year and to express our gratitude to all of those who helped make 2010 the best it could be.

“Thank you!” These are arguably the two most powerful words in the English language. Customers love to hear and feel a sincere “thank you”. Imagine what would happen to your business if everyone increased their use of these two words with associates and customers. We have all heard “thank you” directed at us, knowing full well there was little sincerity behind it.   In imaginative service, thank you means communicating gratitude in a fashion that makes customers feel your authenticity.

What are you doing to deliver an authentic communication of gratitude to your customers, your family, your friends and everyone else who helped you make 2010 the best during very tough economic times?

As you look forward to the New Year remember that you create your own future.  Sure, these are challenging times.  Of course, we are in an era of frugality and reduction.   We've been in tough economic times before.  The winners are those who view it as an opportunity to turn lemons into champagne. As Deepak Chopra says; “The spell that our habits hold over us is one that we have created and thus one we can break.” Resolve to break your negative habits in 2011 and approach every day with an attitude of gratitude.  

We sincerely thank all of our readers and especially our clients for their business, for following our writings and for being a part of our world. Our best wishes for a very happy and prosperous 2011!

Chip and John

Comic Relief: Imaginative Service Heals Customer Gloom

Customers are reacting to a down economy with despair.  We think they need a bit of comic relief!  What if the features of customer service mimicked the elements that made a great joke work?  Examine the construction of two simple jokes:

Comedian Joe Weinstein:  “My dog is worried about the economy      because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can.  That’s about $7.00 in dog  money!”

Comedian Larry the Cable Guy:  “Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.”

What makes these lines funny?  First they create a mental pattern and then unexpectedly break the pattern in the last one or two words.  Second, the construction of the humor is simple and easy-to-get.  Finally, both lines have a “tongue-in-check” levity that is playful and joyful.  What if customer service was unexpected, simple and joyful?   

Need an example?  A woman traded in her old car for a new one.  A week after she had her new car she turned on the radio and discovered they had programmed in her radio stations from her trade-in—unexpected, simple and joyful! 

Ask everybody to try it on your customers as well as each other.  They get comic relief for their gloom; you get their devotion!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imaginative Service: Has Customer Service Really Gotten Worse?

The ‘50’s version of Dilbert was a very popular comic strip called Mutt and Jeff.  The clever “tongue in cheek” style made many a reader chuckle over their eggs and bacon before rushing off to the office.  One strip had Mutt and Jeff enjoying a bit of verbal sparring.   

“If everyone saw like I did,” boasted Jeff, “Everyone would want my wife.”

“If everyone saw like I did,” quipped Mutt, “No one would want your wife.”

It provided a humorous lesson on the “eye of the beholder” side of understanding relationships and experiences.  When someone asks us, “Why has service gotten so bad,” we think of that comic strip.

Remember the scene in the movie Back to the Future when a customer pulled into a gas station and two squeaky clean attendants cheerfully washed the windshield and carefully checked the engine fluids?  Audiences laughed at the obvious spoof.

Was that great service?  We do not remember thinking it was back then.   It was typical neighborly care by loyal employees with time to leisurely serve one customer at a time.  They worked for an enterprise with healthy margins, friendly competition; and without the scrutiny of regulators, the screams of litigious consumers, or the impatience of shareholders.  They served customers with limited choices, relatively low expectations, and plenty of time to wait.

Perhaps the gap between good and bad service is less about how far the bottom has dropped and more about how high the ceiling has been raised.  As customers, we are a lot smarter than we have ever been.  Recall buying your last car?  You probably had more information than the sales person had tactics.  Additionally, as customers we have witnessed great service in pockets of our lives.  When the FedEx or UPS delivery person walks fast, we assume the postal service person should do likewise.  If USAA Insurance’s call center can answer their phone in one ring, why can’t the power company.  Everyone today wants service to always be Disney friendly, Amazon.com easy and Southwest Airlines frugal. 

So, has customer service deteriorated?  It depends on whether you are asking Mutt or Jeff!

Keeping the “R” in “CRM”

CRM has been hot for a few years.  But, IT wizardry and the push to cut costs by un-humanizing the service experience has too often removed the “relationship” from “customer relationship management.”    The by-product was aptly characterized by a friend of ours describing her bank. 

“They installed this new customer relationship management system so all my correspondence from them is now tailored––they even knew my son was heading off to college this year.  Now, when I call and give them my account number, they comment on the fact that I have a new Buick, financed by their loan department.  But all that is just mechanized.  When I walk in any branch no one acts like they know me or even wants to get to know me!  Give me back old fashioned personal service, not this customer-ized baloney.  It’s no more genuine than the ATM.” 

Attitude is the fuel of imaginative service and  an attitude that clearly shows the spirit of greatness can provide the energy as well as the magnetism needed to deliver an imaginative service experience. It is a contagious attitude!  Customers love to be served by people whose spirit to serve is unmistakable in its strength and commitment.  And, it is the consistency and sincerity of attitude that causes customers to tell friends about their imaginative service experiences.

Most of us like tailor-made service.  We enjoy a service provider that knows our preferences and caters to our unique needs and expectations.  But, we still want the service provider to treat us like an important and valued person.  We want to know that inside customer service is a human, not a program.

 

Imaginative Service: Rx for Growing Customers in a Tough Economy

A large brokerage company added a twist to their toll-free telephone cue—“...punch 6 if you’d like to hear a duck quack!”  Word of the playful feature spread and soon millions of people were weekly calling to hear the duck.  The company had to remove the unique feature because it overloaded their phone system and ran up a huge tab!  The story communicates just how bored customers have become. 

Something else has happened to your customers.  They’ve been getting way over-stimulated.  Television has become both high definition and multi-media.  The nightly news shows the weather report, ball scores, stock market numbers and a crawling headline simultaneously on the TV screen.  That steady stream of sensory arousal risks making a trip to your unit or organization seem humdrum and plain vanilla. 

What’s an organization to do?  Imaginative service!  Want a small taste?  The service techs at Sewell Lexus in Dallas program in the radio stations for a new car buyer from their trade-in and let customers discover it.  Miller Bros. Ltd in Atlanta, an up-scale men’s clothing store, has a large gumball machine in its entrance.  Beside it is a large bowl of shiny pennies.  Guess where junior gets to go while daddy is trying on trousers?

At a time when value-added service has gotten way too pricey maybe it is time try value-unique. Customers recall, return, and refer others to those experiences that engage them emotionally and leave them with a positive memory.  Creating a place of joy can help your unit or organization become the customer’s “oasis of choice.”  And, imaginative service can take their breath away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imaginative Service: Following the Rules of Combat

Several years ago Logan Graves posted the “Rules of Combat” out on his website.   We filed the clever set of rules away but recently dusted them off for a fresh look at imaginative service.  Here are a few of his rules.

1. The easy way is always mined.  There is an adage that goes “only dead fish swim with the current.”  Imaginative service seeks the road less traveled in the pursuit of ingenious and novel.  Today’s customers are bored with pretty good service.
2. No combat-ready unit ever passed inspection; no inspection-ready unit ever passed combat.   Imaginative service is scrappy and provocative.  It focuses on what works, not on what’s cute.  The ‘function over form’ orientation enables you to race past preoccupation with appearance to outpace those mired in convention.
   
3. All five-second grenade fuses are three seconds. Imaginative service requires preparation, not serendipity.  Dancers do rehearsal, planners create what-if scenarios, and product makers use dry runs.  Granted, everything cannot be pilot tested.  But imaginative service providers know that mastering the unexpected comes through forethought and study.
4. When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is NOT our friend. Imaginative service requires the courage to try new and different.  And, such courage comes from a sense of accountability to those you serve.  It enables you to embrace challenge as a chance to test limits and reaffirm principles. 

Would your customers describe you as brave or courageous?  Do you celebrate excellent efforts that fail?  Are you constantly seeking a path to new experiences your customers will find memorable as well as valuable?

 

 

 

Imaginative Service: “If I Were a Rich Man”

Luxury.  The dark side spells opulence, conceit, and gluttony.   On the high side, it is associated with excellence, majesty, reward, and worth.  It is the choice of the rich and famous; the aspiration of wannabes.   But, it is more than pricey stuff.  “Luxury is fundamentally a state of mind,” says David Williams, North American director of The Orient Express.  Luxury is an expression of excellence—particularly acts that exhibit fine craftsmanship, obvious pride, superior training, and a perpetual attention to detail. 

What if you examined your service experiences through the lens of what luxury customers expect?  You might discover applications relevant for all customers?

*      Luxury seeking customers know they are different and search for service that acknowledges that difference.  This does not necessarily imply arrogance or superiority. 

*      Luxury seeking customers expect quality throughout and know it when they see it.  Cutting corners in perceivable service dimensions will net an overall mediocre experience.

*      Luxury seeking customers value classy over flashy, authentic over pretentious, and personalized without being invasive.  They want it real and respectful.

*      Luxury seeking customers have an aversion to opulence and excess.  They prefer experiences unmarked by puffery and waste.  Err on the side of being understated.

*      Luxury seeking customers are enamored by extremes…as stirred by the magnificent painting in a hotel lobby as the simple silk mat on the floor by the bed.  They are stirred by the rareness of place and the brilliance of practice.

*      Luxury seeking customers value privacy, yet enjoy an inclusive connection. 

What can luxury seeking customers teach us about service in general?