Habits of Amazing People: Create a Predictably Positive Experience
Be Amazing or Go Home by Shep Hyken discusses “Amazing People” and the habits they all have in common. I’m sharing In this blog series, some of these habits. So far, we’ve covered:
- Show up ready to amaze
- Understand what being amazing means
- Always be on stage
- Show up early (be on “Lombardi time”)
- Always act as if you’re on the clock
- Create an anti-NO zone
- Always be proactive
- Think Ahead
In this post, I’ll discuss the habit of creating predictably positive experiences.
“Any loss in consistency lowers the level of trust in the relationship and undermines the loyalty of the person who has chosen to work with us.”
As I have been reading this book, I have found some habits that are “duh” moments and others that I have to think about. This habit was one where I had to stop and put myself in the shoes of a customer in several scenarios before I had the “aha” moment.
What was this moment? Ross Stores versus Macy’s Department Store. Each of these stores provides a specific customer experience, and you know what you are going to get when you walk in the door. Ross provides lower prices all the time (this rates high on the Customer Experience scale), but you have to dig for your product and check for issues with clothing (this ranks low).
On the other hand, Macy’s has higher prices (Low rating). Still, you will find an associate willing to help, and the goods are easy to find and professionally displayed (High rating). Both of these businesses are highly successful because both offer a predictably positive experience, but in different ways.
Following the “Loyalty Formula (Good Service + Consistency = Potential Loyalty)” should be a vital part of any service. I think most of us know what good service is, so I would like to focus on the word, “consistency”. As a customer-facing business, we love to provide those WOW moments, but what if you are doing this at the cost of the client’s perception of what excellent service is? Remember, every time you raise the bar to provide better service, you need to make sure you can hit that mark consistently.
Here is an example of trying to get a WOW for the sake of a WOW that could ultimately hurt the customer experience and your relationship. You are on the phone with a customer, and they ask you to include a training guide when you do the training session with them. They are a new client, so you spend an extra two hours (at no charge) to provide a training manual for your session, which you would not normally do.
The manual has screenshots, which you have made sure match the customer’s system, and you have also added their logo and personalized it just for them. You have created a WOW moment. Good? No. While this might lead to future training sessions, you have now set an expectation that you will not be able to provide consistently. In the next training session, you won’t be able to spend the extra two hours at no charge to add those nice, personal touches. So, your customer will now view your excellent training as lacking and will see all future sessions as failing in comparison to the first session.
Being consistent is hard. As a service provider, my company must determine where we want to set our service level and then hit that level every time. Do we want to be the Dependable provider, maybe a little slower to respond but one customers can count on for the right answer every time? Do we want to be the Fast provider, where the customer gets a person to talk to right away but might need to endure several attempts to get the correct solution? Are we Ross, or are we Macy’s? Knowing what your customer’s expectations are as well as how and if you can meet them EVERY time is critical to Amazing Customer Support.
What do your customers expect from you? What processes or policies have you put in place to create a predictably positive experience, and can you sustain it? Please share these ideas with us and with your company; then contact us to see how ArcherPoint’s customer service offerings can help you.