Creating Devoted Customers with Imaginative Service

Imaginative Service: We've moved!

 

Thank you for visiting.  We are still in the neighborhood!  We just moved to a different street!  You can now find our blogsite at our new address:

http://www.wiredanddangerous.com

 Please come by for a delicious, provocative snack!

Chip + John

Imaginative Service: The Taste of Customer Disappointment

“Because of Winn-Dixie” was a 2005 hit movie based on the best-selling novel by Kate DiCamillo.  In one scene the movie’s star, 10-year old Opal (played by AnnaSophia Robb) with her new dog Winn-Dixie, visit the local storytelling librarian, Miss Franny.  The storyteller spins a tale about her great grandfather who created a candy factory that baked feelings of sadness into a sweet candy he called “Litmus Lozenges.”  Miss Franny gave Opal a decorative can of the antique candies to share with her friends.  When Opal gave a piece to her seven year old best friend, Sweetie Pie, she put the candy in her mouth and exclaimed, “It tastes like not having a dog.”

Sweetie Pie’s powerful and poignant line got us thinking about customer disappointment.  If the sadness of service could be baked into a candy and customers ate a piece, how would they characterize their feelings?  And, if a service provider could truly understand the emotions behind their service sadness, how would it alter the response?  How might it shape their service recovery?

“It tastes like losing a game to an opponent who cheated?” a customer might say.  “It tastes like being turned down by your best friend?”  “It tastes like having to leave an enjoyable performance at the intermission.”  “It tastes like missing the winning shot of a championship athletic contest.”  “It taste like someone carelessly left your best hat out in a hard rain all night.” 

What can you do to accurately interpret how your customers feel when your service leaves them disappointed?  How can you alter your service recovery to make customer sadness quickly disappear?

Imaginative Service: A River Runs Through Service

Standing on the banks of a magnificent river, you can let your imagination run wild.  A mighty river can take you many miles, connecting you with countless ports and people along the way.  Rivers are still an important source of commerce transportation.  It is the source of electric power in many places.  Just, consider of all the stories told about the Mississippi river running over 2300 miles from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans.

After a long rain or heavy storm, a river’s power can quickly erode a solid rock bank, bringing havoc to all in its path.  Swollen rivers have toppled large dams and swallowed up entire towns.  They can completely alter the landscape in their path.

Today’s customers are wired and dangerous.  Like a mighty river, they are connected to thousands of customers.  They can participate in an amazing channel of commerce that links them to goods and service in a fashion brick and mortar businesses could never achieve.  And, after the storm of disappointment, they can dangerously erode the profits of a business enterprise or bring down a dictatorial country. 

But, wired customers don’t have to act as dangerous customers.  Serving with a partnership perspective can turn a frustrated customer ready to go viral into an advocate ready to voice admiration.  What can you do to put more partnership into the way you serve today’s wired and dangerous customers?

Imaginative Service: Let Frontline Servers Run Their Race

“Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?  Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?   He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; he does not shy away from the sword.  In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground; he cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.”

These powerful words from Job: 39 open the movie Secretariat, a film about the greatest horse that ever lived.  Not only did he win the Triple Crown, he won two of the three races in record time that stand today, almost 40 years later.  The storyline of the movie was about owner, Penny Chenery Tweedy, insisting trainer and jockey let Secretariat run his own race--that is, with minimum supervision.    

There is a service chip in all of our brains.  We grow up knowing the meaning and power of helping, serving and contributing to others.  Along the way we get distracted with “all about me” interests and “get ahead” tactics.  But, when we see an act of selfless generosity, or are the recipient or witness of a random act of kindness, we get a glimpse of who we are supposed to be.   There is often a faint longing to run our race.

What if service leadership was all about removing, not about adding?  What if service leaders believed they had a prize service “race horse” that only needed the permission, proficiency, and protection to deliver championship service to customers?  What if leaders worked as hard to get out of the way as they did to control and direct? 

Had Secretariat trainer Lucien Laurin or jockey Ron Turcotte decided they needed to dictate, direct and domesticate Secretariat we might never have gotten to witness his “frenzied excitement to eat up the ground” as he ran the race he was meant to run.  Set your servers free and let them “serve like the wind.”

Imaginative Service: Fly-Fishing for Customers

Big disclaimer!  There are parts of a fishing metaphor that do not work when it comes to great customer service—like bait, hook, catch, or reeling in.  But, regular fishing is to fly-fishing what whittling might be to scrimshaw; or grilling might be to gourmet confectionary baking!

Successful fly-fishing starts with a deep understanding of the fish.  Regular fish might be attracted to any old slimly worm on a hook, but a rainbow trout is very particular.  Buying or crafting a tiny lure that looks exactly like the insect the trout enjoys is an art in itself.  It means gathering up-to-date intelligence on the trout’s preferences and requirements. 

Then, there is presentation.  In fly-fishing, you don’t just throw a line in the water and wait for the cork to go under.  You present the lure to the trout in a fashion that is appealing and animated.  Are you starting to see how this fits customer service?  Fly-fishing takes enormous respect for the trout and special patience to get what is offered to precisely fit a trout’s interests.

But, the key difference between regular fishing and fly-fishing is what happens after the trout accepts your offering.  Regular fishing requires you set the hook and reel in the fish.  If you did that with a fly line as thin as a thread, the weight of the fish alone would snap it allowing the trout to escape.  Just like customers, you land a trout, you don’t catch one.  The fish remains in the water until it can be gently led into a dip net.  And, then the most important part--the experience of the trout after it has been landed. Granted, some end up in the frying pan (that part should never fit customers!) Fly-fishing typically involves the use of a tiny barbless hook aimed at causing zero harm to the fish as it is released with minimal physical contact.  Give a rainbow trout a great experience and it will taste your lure on a future fishing trip.

Customers are particular about your offering and require a tailored offering and appealing presentation uniquely suited to their interests.  It means going to school on customers just like anglers carefully study fish.  Once a customer has accepted your offering, provide an experience that remains customer-centric from start to finish.  But, gaining a customer is only the beginning.  The goal is to get customers to return and bring their funds and friends. 

How are you preparing to provide a service offering and experience that ensures your customers will want to continue to “taste your lure?”  Let’s go fishing!

Imaginative Service: The Service Olympics

It is an athletic event that makes us proud, puts our hearts in our throats, and causes us to cover our mouth in disbelief.  The opening ceremony is an over-the-top display of attractive pageantry and alluring talent.  Some Olympic events—like gymnastics or diving—require subjective judging.  Others—like downhill skiing or swimming—are judged by the clock, assuming no rules are broken by the contender.   Winners are emotionally moved on the medal stand; losers in the locker room.  It reminds us of customer service.  But, then most everything does!

Customer service typically starts with the fanfare and attraction of brand.  There are ceremonial components—image, ad, sales pitch and allure.  Customers judge some components of service based on subjectivity—the hospitality of the call center rep or the sincerity of an apology; some components are judged based on objectivity—the responsiveness of follow-up or the accuracy of the order.  And, winning service ends with an emotional response from customers influencing their decision to return.

In his new book, The 1% Solution, author Tom Connellan points out that the average point spread between the winners on the medal stand and the non-winners in the locker room when National anthems are played is less than 1%.  So it is with great service.  Famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, “God is in the details.”  Another great person said that greatness comes, not from doing one thing 1000% better, but by doing 1000 things 1% better.  Olympic winners and great service providers manage all the many details that collectively earn them a spot on the stand. 

Olympic service comes from making the checkout line move 1% faster, the smile 1% brighter, and the “thank you” 1% more sincere.  How can you deliver all the details of service just 1% better than before?  How can you win the customer’s gold medal by delivering Olympic service?

Imaginative Service: The DNA of Customer Experience

DNA had been a star in recent years.  TV shows make it the centerpiece of crime solving programs; the news media throw the label around like they might WMD’s or TSA. DNA is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms.  And, like fingerprints, forensic specialists are able to use the DNA in blood, skin, hair or any bodily fluid located at a crime site to identify the “bad guy.”

So, what is the DNA of customer service?  What if we assumed there was a component in the service encounter unique to each customer?  If we could “crack the customer’s service DNA code” we could fire off a special experience that encouraged the customer to shoot back their loyalty.   We believe the service molecule containing the customer’s unique identity is “Connection.”

Connection is the intersection point between a customer with needs and expectations and a service provider with resources and capacity. Connection has many dimensions—structure, sense, and surprise.  Customers in need of a new pair of ladies black dress shoes or a high performance camera are much like all other shoe-hunting or camera-seeking customers.  An element that makes them distinctive is their preferred connection. 

I like to buy books only online.  But, you will never catch me buying clothes online—I want to feel the fabric and fit.  That is the structure of the connection.  Structure is the form of the connection including the channel, format, and organization.  Some customers enjoy a warm, enthusiastic greeter when they walk in a hotel lobby; others want a highly efficient, cut-to-the-chase encounter that focuses on getting the guest in a room quickly—that’s the sense of the connection.  Sense relates to feeling, sensation and emotion.  Keep in mind the same customer might expect a different form and feeling for different needs, or at different times, or under different circumstances. 

But, the most powerful part of the connection “molecule” is surprise—the type of value-added or value unique included with the experience.   All customers enjoy service with a “cherry on top.”  Surprise alerts customers that you care about them and value their business.  Surprise works when it is unexpected, simple and most important, fits the customer and the situation.  I like surprises that make me laugh or tug at my heartstrings; my business partner enjoys value-add’s that make him smarter, saves him time, or enhances his efficiency. 

So, what does a customer forensics effort look like?  Given the many combinations of structure, sense and surprise among customers, customer forensics seeks to create ways and means to quickly read the service DNA of a particular customer.  Some organizations rely on inbound call or point of sale technology.  Others depend on psychographic research and service anthropology to help them “crack the service DNA code.” But, it all starts with a desire to personalize the experience coupled with the recognition that customers change all the time.  Today’s fad is tomorrow’s antique.  Service wisdom lies in finding ways to deliver the experience each customer values in the fashion preferred at the time desired.

What steps can you take to “crack your customer’s service DNA code?”  How can you dissect your customer’s experience to ferret out the many dimensions of the customer connections?  How can you become a customer forensics specialist?