Creating Devoted Customers with Imaginative Service

The Business Case for an Imaginative Service Culture

1. Fosters a style of communication and an attitude of consideration that promotes higher employee morale.  Research shows that the number one impact on customer relations is employee relations.
2. Encourages leaders to treat employees in the fashion they expect employees to treat customers thus yielding greater employee commitment (lowering turnover costs), more creativity (increasing breakthroughs) and larger contribution (boosting productivity).
3. Promotes sensitivity to barriers that inhibit customers from getting their needs and expectations met.  This bureaucracy-busting perspective leads to enhanced efficiency in all areas of operation, not just those experienced by customers.
4. Cultivates partnering skills that produce better teamwork, greater synergy and interdependence.
5. Enables employees to anticipate customer needs and requirements thus enabling them to eliminate activities and actions that create limited or no value in supporting customer loyalty.  This lowers overall operating costs.
6. Encourages an open-minded and inquisitive mind-set that advances diversity, learning and creativity.
7. Cultivates assertive employee pride that leads to the attraction of more customers to serve and better talent to employ.
8. Provides the ability to charge a higher price because of greater customer value.  Some industries can charge as much as 15% higher prices if their service is noticeably remarkable. 
9. Saves the world, eliminates hunger, and promotes well-being throughout the planet!

Taking Service Out of Customer Service

We were participating in a panel discussion at a conference of Fortune 100 CIO’s.  One senior leader of one of the 10 largest banks in the nation asked: “How can we maximize the profitability and efficiency of our call centers while minimizing the customer’s involvement?” Something about the question left us momentarily confused.  “Let me make sure I understand you,” one of us queried. “You want to remove all of the service out of customer service?”  The audience laughed.  But, he was dead serious as he continued, “Actually, I’d like to take most of the customer out as well!”

There has been an assertive migration toward self-service.  Self-service has had a positive side.  By shifting the lion’s share of the work on the service experience to the customer, it has lowered operating costs.  It has freed up human resources to be used in roles and functions truly requiring a human touch.  Self-service has also made customers more self-reliant as “do-it-yourself” has replaced “I’ll take care of that for you.”  Learning to fend for oneself can trigger education and confidence; customers are less dependent and far more competent. 

The real benefits of the proliferation of all manner of self-service have been the cost-savings to the service provider.  With the rising cost of wages for people who, unlike machines, are expenses rather than annual depreciation items on the balance sheet, cost-saving is accomplished by taking people out of the service equation.  So, despite the intermittent virtues of convenience and time savings, there is likely a mercenary motivation behind the merchants’ persuading us to transfer away from servers toward systems.  We consent to this when it helps us; we rebel when it does not. 

But, there is clearly a downside to taking service out of customer service.  Remember the famous Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef” advertisement?  (If you don’t know the ad, watch it on YouTube.)  The final line in the ad is a prophetic one: “I don’t think there’s anybody back there.”  It epitomizes the potential one-sidedness of self-service.  Before self-service, we could influence, critique, affirm and help guide the service experience as it unfolded.  The service deliverer could adjust, respond, slow down or leave us alone.  It all seemed quite fair.  Now, without the capacity to quality-control it in the moment, customers are more cautious and skeptical of the value they receive.  It explains why 63 percent of e-commerce customers rate “live web chat” as the most satisfying channel.  Live chat says that self-service can be quickly transformed by the customer into full service if the customer determines “there’s no beef, just a very big bun.”

What do the best service providers do…those with reputations for remarkable service?  They design self-service with the customer in mind, not just the short-term profits of the organization.  They craft self-service with a bias for customer trust, a preference for a great experience, and a desire to always let customers be in the driver’s seat of how much high touch they want to add to the high tech of self-service.

Remarkable service providers trust their customers.  Airport concession stores sometimes put the morning newspaper purchase on the honor system.  Instead of standing in line just to buy a USA Today, customers pick up a copy as they put a dollar through the slot in the money container above the papers.  When store operators are asked about the end-of-the-day shrinkage, they will tell you that, while they may lose a paper are two, it is more often due to customers’ accidently picking up two copies instead of one.  The trust practice benefits the in-a-hurry customer trying to catch a flight.  And, it helps the store to manage efficient traffic flow with customers buying either more items or items less common than a newspaper.

Remarkable service providers are biased toward creating great experience.  The best websites are easily tailorable by customers with obvious access to “somebody back there” via numerous channels––“call us, web chat with us, email us, pony express us.”  The message should be, “We are here for you and enjoy communicating.”  Ensure all customer-contact people have easy access to customer information.  At USAA every phone rep has instant access to all customer files, including the customer letter or e-mail that arrived this morning. 

Remarkable service providers create a back door.  Customers also want to be able to quickly and easily connect with a human being to bring fast resolution to any problem that arises.  Take a look at some of the great web-based companies.  They practically scream, “We would love to talk with you if you need us!”  “Partnering in the dark” means creating an experience that feels like there is a guardian of the transaction always watching over the encounter, eager and able to help if there is a hint of consternation by the customer. 

Take a look at award-winning Zappos.com.  They took a simple business––online buying of apparel––and added the experience enhancers that make them the talk of the neighborhood (and cyberhood).  Sure, you can do all your buying without communicating with a soul.  But, every web page has a deliberate invitation to interact.  And, when the customer clicks to talk, they get over-the-top attention, customized communication, and a live rep who wants to be your new best friend.  It is the perfect blend of self-service with full service that respects the customer while bolstering convenience and cost-savings.  And, how has the market rewarded them?  Their profits went from zero when they started to over a billion dollars ten years later.

When people ask questions like “Is self-service better than full-service?” it implies either-or thinking that may be missing the point––sort of like asking a senior citizen in a nursing home which is better, a back rub or a visit from the family.  Customers have different requirements for different circumstances.  The hotel a business traveler enjoys during the week has a completely different set of requirements if that same business traveler is at the same hotel on a weekend…and with a significant other.  Remarkable self-service starts with an up-to-date understanding of customers to always make certain what they need and the way they need it is available and supported when they need it. 

Have you looked at your “self service” offering through the customer’s eyes lately?

Imaginative Service; Service Aide

It was a compelling story on a popular evening news program.  A reporter was trapped for days under the rubble of a collapsed hotel following the earthquake in Haiti.  He gave much of the credit for his survival to a first aid app he had downloaded on his smartphone. The app even gave him instructions on how to care for a major cut from his knee to his foot.

What would a service aid app be like?  And, since service is delivered through a relationship, one could call it a service aide—the assistant always there to lighten your load, expedite your work, or enhance your effectiveness…much like a general’s aide.

I recently dropped a phone line from the array of five numbers for the business.  The call center agent handled the disconnect and then looked at the other four accounts and started telling me ways I could save on each.  She reviewed my historical use and their current rate plans and ultimately cut my monthly phone bill over $200.  While I was appreciative of her help, I realized I had been paying too much for too long.  Why couldn’t a service aide in my phone keep me always on the best plan that matched my phone behavior?  I know what you are thinking--it was not in their best interest!  But, shouldn’t it be?

My new laptop periodically tells me the icons on my desktops that are underutilized.  Why can’t there be a service aide that monitors my keystrokes and computer habits to tell me shortcuts and efficiency measures I probably missed in the owner’s manual.  My car can tell me if my left front tire is low, but I really need it to be a service aide and remind me to turn on my seat warmers in order to lower the heater setting and thus save me a few miles per gallon.

We live in a time of smart everything. Customers expect you to personalize their experience by monitoring their service performance and using that intelligence to make it better.  Service aide is not all about the computer…it is about an attitude.  What steps are you taking to embed a service aide in your customers’ experiences?

Imaginative Service: The Power of Now

The root canal had a hiccup.  Three weeks after the dental procedure, I called my world-class dentist to alert him that mild discomfort had returned to my wayward tooth.  I was calling for an appointment.  “He wants to see you right now,” said the receptionist.  Minutes later I was in the dentist chair!

Year-end tax planning yielded a couple of unexpected technical questions.  I called my tax accountant to set up a phone appointment.  “If you have the time I can put you through to her now,” said her assistant.  Seconds later I was in a conversation I predicted I would have to wait several days to have. 

My car odometer matched the “Get an Oil Change” sticker on my windshield.  When I called my auto repair and maintenance shop to schedule a time for them to change the oil, rotate and balance the tires and any other needed maintenance, I got a friendly voice that said:  “Can you bring your car in right now?”

My dentist, accountant, and auto repair shop all have very successful practices.  And, they carefully manage their client load to match their work load.  With careful attention to effective business management they are able to successfully trade on their capacity to rely on the power of now. 

Customers today have a new mental clock when it comes to service.  Order shoes from Zappos.com before you go to bed at night and they are delivered to you right after breakfast the next morning.  Now has become the new fast.  Overnight has been replaced by “It’s on the way.”  We all know that instant is sometimes impossible.  And, we do not expect miracles as standard trade.  However, if your goal is remarkable service, what will it take for you to say to your customers, “I can take care of that right now.”

Imaginative Service: Rx for Growing Devoted Customers

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 to 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.

How are you adding joy and fun to your customers’ experience?

Imaginative Service: What Attitude Are You Choosing?

Customers have changed! As we exit the “great recession” we know that customers’ expectations are higher than ever. Research we have reviewed suggests customer expectations have risen as much as 33% in a year! We also know that customers report they do not get great service very often; about 50% report they only get their expectations met sometimes, rarely or never!

Consistently delivering imaginative service that takes your customers’ breath away is the prescription for providing incredible care to your most important asset – your customers! Great customer service gives us an experience to remember; imaginative service gives us a magical story to tell and gives customers a reason to come back and buy again.

As we help organizations change their definition of the service experience they choose to consistently provide their customers to the kind of service that takes their breath away, we find ourselves more and more discussing the importance attitude plays as a vital determinant of service success.

Eighty five percent of success in life, according to a well known and often cited Harvard study, is due solely to attitude. An attitude that shows the spirit of greatness provides the energy and magnetism needed to deliver an animated experience for customers and drawing devotion from them. While customers like dealing with employees who are committed, they absolutely love being served by someone whose spirit is unmistakable in its passion, pride and commitment. The new normal customer has a highly tuned “attitude sensor” watching for those truly dedicated to serving. Occasional demonstrations of a spirit of greatness are not sufficient. It is both the consistency and sincerity of attitude that brings customers back and causes them to tell their friends about their experience.

The most important thing to know about attitude is that it is something one selects. No normal person comes into the world with a particular attitude. It is chosen (or not). The second important thing to know is that a spirit of greatness attitude can be contagious. When we are around happy upbeat people it is much easier for us to join in the spirit – especially if the invitation to join is coming from someone who clearly prefers we enroll. An unbridled spirit has a magnetic power on employees and customers. It draws out their higher self.

The first step is your own Animation—choosing to demonstrate the attitude you seek from others. Remember – people (employees and customers) can hear your smile and they can see as well as feel your attitude very quickly!

What attitude are you demonstrating to your employees and your customers? Is it the type of attitude that screams we value our employees and customers or are you contributing to the feeling that half of all customers report as service is getting worse?

Customers Have Changed - Designing A Survey Your Customers Will Complete!

We have exciting news!  Our new book, Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About It will be in bookstores in May.  We invite you to log on to www.wiredanddangerous.com for a sneak preview.  Our editor thinks it is easily the best business book ever written.  John’s mother feels the same.  So, there you have it…two completely unbiased critics! 

Customers have changed.  Today they are picky, fickle, vocal and “all about me” vain.  They are also wired--edgy and connected!   When singer-songwriter Dave Carroll had an unresolved issue with United Airlines over the damage their baggage crew did to his guitar on the tarmac while changing planes in Chicago, he wrote a clever little song and put it on YouTube.com.  It has been watched by over 9 million people.  The Economists blog claims it may have cost United $180M.  Is that dangerous or what?  You can read in the book more about such wired and dangerous incidents--and how to prevent them.  Incidentally, Dave Carroll wrote a really great endorsement to the new book!  

 Designing a Survey Your Customers Will Actually Complete

1. Use a personal connection to alert customers that a survey is on its way and is important
2. Ask for your customers’ help in the opening communication.
3. Use a stamp for mailed surveys
4. Keep the number of questions fewer than twelve…ten if possible!
5. Make questions sound like a conversation
6. Surveys need to have emotional attraction...make yours interesting and appealing
7. Make the survey and envelope look unique and intriguing
8. Let respondents know why the survey and what will happen with the results
9. Make the survey matter to them
10. Make the survey matter, period!

 One more thought:  Regardless of the scientific gobbledygook that you are likely to get from the folks down in market research, asking your customers to rate their service experience from “unsatisfied” to “very satisfied” is like asking them to give you no grade higher than a C!  

 As we earlier described, satisfied means “met my needs,” was “adequate” or “sufficient.”  It also means “finished, done, no more for me.”  Look it up in the dictionary!   If you asked a 10 year old to evaluate his or her weekend at Disneyworld, you are not likely to hear “I was very satisfied.”  Service is emotional.  Use the language that fits it!  

2011: The Year of Generosity

Welcome to 2011!  We are excited about the sparkling opportunities and shining moments that lay ahead.  We believe this year will be remembered in years to come as one in which people in the world of work embraced a sense of gratitude for what they have, generosity for the moments they share with others, and passion for what they can become.

Generosity goes by many names--abundance, giving, bigheartedness, even kindness. Paraphrasing the character Portia’s speech about mercy in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, generosity is twice blessed--it blesses the one who gives; it blesses the one who receives.  ‘Tis the mightiest in the mightiest. 

Generosity turns the taking hand of greed into the charitable hand of bounty.  It causes the “Scrooge’s” in the front office care about the “Tiny Tim’s” in the back office.  And, it serves as the foundation of fair play without needed regulations, community at its best, and partnership at its finest.  It is the basis of peace.

Thank you for following our blog. We hope 2011 is your best year ever! We wanted to share with you our firm’s resolutions for 2011.

 The CHIP BELL Group New Year’s Resolutions

1. Help our customers become the world’s smartest buyer by hardwiring learning into every customer’s encounter and becoming our customers’ key source for valuable market information.
2. Learn as much about our customers’ hopes and aspirations as we do about their needs and expectations by asking questions that help our customers problem solve, not just report or respond.
3. Create access to our organization that says we care about customer communication.  Make it super easy for our customers to reach us anytime and any way.  If the Publisher’s Prize Patrol were calling us about our check, we sure wouldn’t put them into our voice mail!
4. Stay in touch with our customer through follow up by phone, newsletter, fax, and e-mail always with a personal (“Thought you’d enjoy page three”) type note.
5. Let our customers customize our processes by building our systems and procedures around what works for them.
6. Make every part of our customers’ experience totally consistent with how we want our organization to be remembered.   We know DisneyWorld doesn’t do “partial” magic; they try to make magical everything from the parking lot to the attractions.  We want to follow that same example.
7. Never stop learning from our customers about ways we can improve by pleading for face-to-face candor and then thanking our clients for what they teach us.
8. Never, ever break a promise or commitment.  Keep it or renegotiate it early.
9. When we make a mistake, acknowledge it quickly, honestly and with a sincere apology.  Then, make service recovery something our customers tell others about.
10. Remember that great service to our customers starts with great service between our associates.  We want to known for zero silos, awesome handoffs, seamless systems and colleagues who enjoy serving each other as much as serving customers.

Best wishes for a fantastic 2011!

Chip and John