The Lie: My business provides great customer service. It’s what sets us apart .
Ask a group of business owners to raise their hands if their business provides great customer service and you’ll find all their hands in the air. Who wants to be the business owner that admits that their business doesn’t give great service? Everyone, and I mean everyone, thinks that great service sets his or her business apart. Business owners believe this because they remember the positive feedback and try to forget the negative. It’s a natural human bias.
But while most business owners say they provide great customer service few can define what great customer service looks and feels like. They have a hard time putting into precise words what really sets their customer service apart from everyone else. If they can describe what they mean, it’s often in the context of point of sale or service delivery.
The Truth: The majority of businesses provide good customer service.
The lie of “great” customer service is something we have come to believe and your customers have come to expect. While you may have good customer service it really is not something that set your business apart from your competitors.
The truth is that your customer service is not remarkable. It’s simply the standard.
Consumers now judge your business not by service, but by experience, the overall feeling of doing business with you. And while it is true a negative experience is shared more widely than a positive one, far fewer positive experiences are orchestrated to deliver a “WOW” result. The truth is no one talks about a boring business.
The Action: Forget customer service – aim to create a great customer experience.
The customer experience shouldn’t be thought of as merely the occurrence of the customer crossing the threshold into your business. It begins with awareness and progresses throughout the length of the relationship. With some strategic planning, design, and execution you can create great experiences and something that your customer will really say “Wow” about.
How a prospects comes to learn about your business, what’s different about your business, and how and why to buy from your business, all are important for setting the stage for the fulfillment and delivery of an experience that is remarkable. Mapping out your customer touch points allows you to create the best possible experience for your customer along the path of the relationship. Don’t restrict it to only the “in store” or “service delivery” episodes, orchestrate the entire customer lifecycle.
A great tool for mapping this process is the Duct Tape Marketing Marketing Hourglass™. The Marketing Hourglass™ allows you to think and plan the touch points of your entire customer experience. Beginning with attracting new prospects (the Know, Like and Trust building phase), then transitioning into the conversion phase (Try and Buy), and then how you continue to delight them (Repeat and Refer phases) the Marketing Hourglass provides a visual context and roadmap. Find out more about the marketing hourglass by downloading this free eBook.
Are you creating a truly great experience for your customers or simply setting your britches on fire?