might respond to their representatives’ overtures. This created a socially awkward moment for their loyal customers who were walking by the sales stand: ‘‘I’m a loyal customer, but you can’t sign me up, and so we have nothing more to say to each other.’’
Perhaps this service deficiency was foreseeable. But you can’t foresee every shortfall in your business. Every situation, and every customer, is different.
This is why you need aware, appropriately trained people. The Times’ sales rep was savvy and empathic enough to notice a service deficiency, even though it was only implicit.
In your organization, when an employee comes back to the office after an episode like this, is she praised for recognizing an issue and supporting an existing customer, who is arguably more important than an impulsive new one? Or is her hand slapped because she came back to the office one gift short? Would she get bragging rights if you noticed her profiled in this chapter, or would you worry that you really couldn’t afford to have your employees improvising in this manner?
More generally: Do you hire the appropriate people, give them the discretionary power they need, and praise them when they fill in the gaps in your systems, thereby catching customers before they fall out?
We hope by the end of this book you will be answering ‘‘yes’’ to all of the above.
Write-Offs Lead to Write-Offs
It doesn’t always feel good to go to extreme lengths to pacify a customer. It can be hard to remember the upside, to know that your work is ultimately going to pay off. So here’s an overriding philosophy which can help you through thankless moments: Individual customers are irre-placeable. Regardless of the size of your market segment, once you start 44
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit
writing off customers, we can predict the day in the future when you’ll be out of business. (We’ll chart it on a big piece of paper for you if you like.) Think you have a huge market and it’s okay to kiss off customers and replace them down the road? We all watched Detroit automakers make that assumption and let imports chip away at the edges until there was little remaining as a core.
We suggest in the strongest terms that you think of every one of your customers as a core customer—and treat the loss of a customer as a tragedy to be avoided.
CHAPTER FIVE
Keeping Track to Bring
Them Back
Tracking Customer Roles, Goals, and Preferences
Even if you hired a platoon of statisticians to pore through your customer data, they’d never uncover a single style of ‘‘good service’’ that can please every customer. Good service requires custom fitting. This is one principle on which true customer service virtuosos—successful barkeeps, booksellers, shopkeepers, and maitre d’s—agree.
So, to succeed far beyond a Mom and Pop scale, or even to run a Mom and Pop that continues to thrive when Mom and Pop are chillin’
in Cancun, you need to ensure that all of your employees are able to provide individualized service—no matter how briefly they’ve been part of your team and no matter how poor their memories are.
The solution is to develop a tracking system that captures each customer’s likes and dislikes, as well as what each customer personally values and is hoping for when doing business with you. After each customer interaction, your staff will use this system to note the idiosyncratic personal values and preferences of the customer and then share that information, however or wherever it is helpful within your company.
45
46
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit
A commitment to systematic noting and sharing will separate you from that wonderful dry-cleaning business on the corner (the one that lost most of its customers when the owner fell ill). It will allow you to avoid the fate of the popular, lively restaurant in LA that never quite succeeded when it tried to open other locations.
Principles of Noting and
Perhaps this service deficiency was foreseeable. But you can’t foresee every shortfall in your business. Every situation, and every customer, is different.
This is why you need aware, appropriately trained people. The Times’ sales rep was savvy and empathic enough to notice a service deficiency, even though it was only implicit.
In your organization, when an employee comes back to the office after an episode like this, is she praised for recognizing an issue and supporting an existing customer, who is arguably more important than an impulsive new one? Or is her hand slapped because she came back to the office one gift short? Would she get bragging rights if you noticed her profiled in this chapter, or would you worry that you really couldn’t afford to have your employees improvising in this manner?
More generally: Do you hire the appropriate people, give them the discretionary power they need, and praise them when they fill in the gaps in your systems, thereby catching customers before they fall out?
We hope by the end of this book you will be answering ‘‘yes’’ to all of the above.
Write-Offs Lead to Write-Offs
It doesn’t always feel good to go to extreme lengths to pacify a customer. It can be hard to remember the upside, to know that your work is ultimately going to pay off. So here’s an overriding philosophy which can help you through thankless moments: Individual customers are irre-placeable. Regardless of the size of your market segment, once you start 44
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit
writing off customers, we can predict the day in the future when you’ll be out of business. (We’ll chart it on a big piece of paper for you if you like.) Think you have a huge market and it’s okay to kiss off customers and replace them down the road? We all watched Detroit automakers make that assumption and let imports chip away at the edges until there was little remaining as a core.
We suggest in the strongest terms that you think of every one of your customers as a core customer—and treat the loss of a customer as a tragedy to be avoided.
CHAPTER FIVE
Keeping Track to Bring
Them Back
Tracking Customer Roles, Goals, and Preferences
Even if you hired a platoon of statisticians to pore through your customer data, they’d never uncover a single style of ‘‘good service’’ that can please every customer. Good service requires custom fitting. This is one principle on which true customer service virtuosos—successful barkeeps, booksellers, shopkeepers, and maitre d’s—agree.
So, to succeed far beyond a Mom and Pop scale, or even to run a Mom and Pop that continues to thrive when Mom and Pop are chillin’
in Cancun, you need to ensure that all of your employees are able to provide individualized service—no matter how briefly they’ve been part of your team and no matter how poor their memories are.
The solution is to develop a tracking system that captures each customer’s likes and dislikes, as well as what each customer personally values and is hoping for when doing business with you. After each customer interaction, your staff will use this system to note the idiosyncratic personal values and preferences of the customer and then share that information, however or wherever it is helpful within your company.
45
46
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit
A commitment to systematic noting and sharing will separate you from that wonderful dry-cleaning business on the corner (the one that lost most of its customers when the owner fell ill). It will allow you to avoid the fate of the popular, lively restaurant in LA that never quite succeeded when it tried to open other locations.
Principles of Noting and
Similar Books
