8 Tips for Providing a Superior Customer Experience

Last week, we walked over the idea of giving good customer service even during a bad economy as it makes good business sense. But as a business how do you actually achieve it? How do you give your customer a superior customer experience?

Here are eight simple tips that you can follow that are based on the best known principles:

1. Try to put yourself in your customer’s shoe.

Understand how your customers’ expectations are rising over time. Accept the fact that, what was probably ‘good enough’ last year may not be any good now. Use different form of customer surveys, interviews and focus groups to understand what your customers really want from you, what they value and what they believe they are getting (or not getting) from your business.

2. Always use your strengths to differentiate your business from your competition.

Usually your quality of service is an area whether you can really strengthen your business over time. Your price and products may be reasonable and up-to-date – but don’t forget that your competitors’ are pretty darn good too. So in order to differentiate your business from your competitors, you will need to provide your customers an exceptional service that makes your customer loyal to your brand and not others. So even when your competitor offers some seasonal discounts or price cuts, your customers are likely to stick with you as they value the ‘exceptional service’ that you provide. You can also make a more lasting difference by providing personalized, responsive and extra-mile service that stands out in a unique way your customers will appreciate – and remember.

3. Learn to manage your customers’ expectations.

It is impossible to make every customer happy as you can’t always give them everything their hearts desire. However you can always help them by bringing their expectations into line with what you know you can deliver. The best way to do this is by first building a reputation for making and keeping clear promises. Once you have established a solid base of trust and good reputation within the community and among your customers, you only need to ask your customers for their patience in your difficult times when you cannot meet their first requests. Nine out of ten times they will extend the understanding and cut you some slack.

Another tricky way to manage customers’ expectations is to ‘under promise, then over deliver’. Here’s an example: you know your customer wants something done really fast. You know it will take an hour to complete. Don’t tell your customer that it will take an hour. Instead, let them know you will try to do it as fast as you can, but promise a 90-minute timeframe. Then, when you actually finish in just one hour (as you knew you would all along), your customer will be delighted to find that you finished the job ‘so quickly’. That’s ‘under promise, then over deliver’.

4. Try to bounce back with effective service recovery during the time of a media/public disaster.

Sometimes things can go wrong. It’s very natural especially in a retail industry where your staffs interact with the masses. When your customer is unhappy for whatever reasons, try to do everything in your power to make things right again. Fix the problem and always show sincere concern for any discomfort, frustration or inconvenience that your business may have caused. Then do a little bit more by giving your customer something positive to remember – a token of goodwill, a gift of appreciation, a discount on future orders, an upgrade to a higher class of product and so on. Certainly this is not the time to play the ‘blame game’ to find the actual faulty person or to calculate the costs of repair. Your business goodwill and positive word-of-mouth is worth lot more than that.

5. Always try to set and achieve high service standards.

You can go beyond basic and expected levels of service to provide your customers with desired and even surprising service interactions. Try to make your business the determinant of the standard for service in your industry, and then make a way to always go beyond it. Give more choice than ‘the usual’ that your competitors, be more flexible than ‘normal’, be faster than ‘the average’, and extend a better warranty than all the others. Your customers will notice your higher standards. But eventually those standards will be copied by your competitors, too. So don’t slow down. Keep stepping up!

6. Sometimes you need to appreciate the negative comments that you receive from your customers.

Customers with complaints can be your best allies in building and improving your business. Constrictive comments are the key to improve your service, thus your business will get the best feedback If you work with a experienced Mystery Shopping provider that understands your requirements and trains their shoppers to mystery shop your business to point out what problems they are facing and what and where you are doing thing wrong. Mystery Shoppers can show where your products or services are below expectations and point out areas where your competitors are getting ahead or where your staff is falling behind.

7. Take personal responsibility for everything that happens in your business.

In many organizations, people are quick to blame others for problems or difficulties at work: managers blame staff, staff blame managers, Engineering blames Sales, Sales blames marketing and everyone blames Finance. This does not really help anybody and certainly not your business! Blaming yourself doesn’t work, either. No matter how many mistakes you may have made, tomorrow is another chance to do better. You need high self-esteem to give good service. Feeling ashamed doesn’t help. It doesn’t make sense to make excuses and blame the computers, the system or the budget, either. This kind of justification only prolongs the pain before the necessary changes can take place.

The most reliable way to bring about constructive change in your organization is to take personal responsibility and help make good things happen. When you see something that needs to be done, do it. If you see something that needs to be done in another department, recommend it. Be the person who makes suggestions, proposes new ideas and volunteers to help on problem solving teams, projects and solutions.

8. Try to see the world from each customer’s point of view.

We often get so caught up in our own world that we lose sight of what our customers actually experience. Make time to stand on the other side of the counter or listen on the other end of the phone. You can even trying becoming a ‘mystery shopper’ at your own place of business. Or become a customer of your best competition. What you notice when you look from the ‘other side’ is what your customers experience every day. Finally, always remember that service is the currency that keeps our economy moving. I serve you in one business, you serve me in another and the cycle goes on. When either of us improves, the economy gets a little better. When both of us improve, people are sure to take notice. When everyone improves, the whole world grows stronger and closer together. So now is the time to make it happen! We live by that motto, do you?

article courtesy of MysteryShoppingLive.com

Customer Service Proves Key to Retaining Clients

by Dave Dougherty and Ajay Murthy
Harvard Business Review

Superior customer service can be an essential source of strength as companies emerge from the recession, but managers need to understand the extent to which the consumer landscape has shifted.

Weakened brands, customers’ easy access to information about vendors and the erosion of barriers to switching among competitors have combined to create a much more challenging environment for service, whether it’s outsourced or delivered in-house.

Evidence shows that customers will no longer tolerate rushed and inconvenient service. Instead, they are looking for a satisfying experience. Companies that provide it will win their loyalty.

Our recent research demonstrates that when customers contact companies for service, they care most about two things: 1) Is the front-line employee knowledgeable? and 2) Is the problem resolved on the first call?

Yet those factors often aren’t even on customer service managers’ dashboards. Most service centers continue to measure time on hold and minutes per call, as they have for decades. Such metrics encourage agents to hurry through calls, resulting in just the kind of experience customers dislike.

Bad experience = exit

More than half of the customers we surveyed across industries say they’ve had a bad service experience, and nearly the same fraction think many of the companies they interact with don’t understand or care about them. On average, 40 percent of customers who suffer through bad experiences stop doing business with the offending company.

To get a better understanding of what customer experience, managers should draw on a variety of information sources, including customer satisfaction surveys, behavioral data collected through self-service channels and recorded customer-agent conversations.

In addition, companies must revise processes to give agents the leeway and authority to meet individual customers’ needs and provide positive, satisfying experiences.

In evaluating service, managers should measure across all channels the percentage of customer problems resolved within the first contact, determine what is at the root of problems that aren’t settled in one call and make any necessary changes.

They should also aim to have consistently high-quality interactions between customers and front-line employees. That may sound costly, but knowledge management systems, speech recognition for automated calls and other technologies can help to substantially offset the expense.

Forgive and forget? Nope

Some executives believe that irritated customers will forgive vendors and come back for more. Our research indicates that, on the contrary, alienated customers often disappear without the slightest warning.

And as companies rebuild themselves after the recession, this silent attrition represents a host of lost opportunities for future sales and positive word of mouth.

Special Report: customer service

by Janet Caggiano
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Katherine Haynes has learned to be sneaky on the job.

Her success as a mystery shopper depends on it.

“I have a lot of fun with it,” Haynes said. “I really get into it. It’s kind of a thrill to come out of a store and say, ‘Boy, I pulled that off!'”

The Chesterfield County resident visits shops, restaurants, banks, gas stations, grocery stores, hotels and other businesses in the Richmond area to evaluate how they serve customers.

She poses as a customer, asking questions that cover a variety of scenarios, and rates the company in customer service, operations, selling skills, employee integrity, merchandising and product quality, among other things.

“Mystery shoppers are there to simply measure what’s going on,” said John Swinburn, executive director of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, a trade association based in Dallas that works to improve service through the use of mystery shoppers. “It’s very useful for a company to know what’s happening in their store environment.”

The practice is growing in popularity. In 2004, businesses spent about $600 million nationwide on mystery-shopper programs, according to the association. That same year, mystery shoppers conducted more than 8 million evaluations. The organization is expecting those numbers to climb about 11 percent this year.

When visiting a bank, for example, a mystery shopper might ask about home-equity loans or CD rates, then report on the employee’s knowledge. While eating at a fast-food restaurant, the undercover shopper might record how long it takes for food to be served and the cleanliness of the establishment.

“A third-party provider gives us unbiased feedback that our managers can use to achieve . . . objectives and helps us ensure our customers enjoy the best banking experience possible,” said Jason A. Huffman, customer advocate at Richmond-based First Market Bank.

First Market has used mystery shoppers at its 33 Virginia branches since 1998, shortly after its formation in 1997. Locations are reviewed three times each quarter, which adds up to nearly 400 surveys per year.

Businesses typically use mystery shoppers monthly. Doing so helps them reward outstanding employees, create training opportunities in areas where employees fall short and locate dishonest employees.

“Mystery shopping is not about catching people doing something wrong,” said Mike Bare, president of Bare Associates. “It’s giving them the opportunity to be successful. It’s finding out who is doing a great job and who is not — so they can improve.”

While employers tell workers that mystery shoppers will visit, they don’t announce when. Rarely do mystery shoppers blow their cover.

“I try to dress differently each time, just in case,” said Wayne, a mystery shopper the past six years. He asked that only his first name be used. “Sometimes I’ll wear glasses or a hat backward. It’s a lot of fun.”

Wayne, a full-time manager who lives in Mechanicsville, became a mystery shopper to supplement his income. Others who sign up are stay-at-home moms, retirees and college students. They work part time and earn $10 to $20 an hour and are reimbursed for any purchases.

For the most part, Wayne said, workers he encounters while mystery shopping seem to like their jobs. But that’s not to say he hasn’t written a bad report. At a fast-food restaurant, he once received a burger that was only bun. At another company, one employee continually talked about “getting out of there.”

“You experience it all as a mystery shopper,” Wayne said.

Taking a Fresh Look at Customer Service

by Karen Gomes Moore

As a businessperson, you know how important it is to make sure your customers come first. Your employees have gone through some orientation or training program. You see your employees assisting customers in a friendly, professional manner whenever you are on the premises. So you are sure your employees are providing topnotch customer service… right?

If your answer is “yes”, congratulations! Your business is undoubtedly thriving and a force to be reckoned with.

If you answered “no”, or you can’t be at all of your locations 24/7, you might consider a formal customer service evaluation program, a.k.a. “mystery shopping”.

What is a mystery shopping program, exactly? It is a cost effective way to objectively evaluate customer service from the customer’s point of view. “Secret shoppers” visit your business, appearing as average customers. They evaluate what they find based on criteria established by you, the client. Their goal is to be unobtrusive while observing the customer service and sales skills of your employees. In so doing, they provide a fresh look at how your most valuable asset, your customer, is being treated.

To launch a successful customer service evaluation program, first consider the following:

What do you want the program to do? What is your goal?
Mystery shopping programs can do several things:

Provide a “snapshot” of current employee customer service skills prior to developing or conducting a training program

Evaluate the effectiveness of training programs post completion

Be the cornerstone of employee recognition/incentive programs

Monitor competition

And much, much more…

What is your budget?
How often do you want evaluations to take place?
What mystery shopping company will you work with?
How will you bring your management team on board?

A well thought out mystery shopping program, with clearly defined criteria and objectives as well as appropriate follow up, is a visible show of management support for the maxim “the customer comes first”. Such a program gives businesses a valuable and unique opportunity to see their services as their customers do. If the program is promoted at all levels of management, the importance of superior customer service at all times will be reinforced to front line employees.

Cost is based on many factors, including volume, complexity and location. Shopping services that employ online reporting can usually deliver a completed report within 48 hours of the shoppers visit, and often sooner.

If you’d like to talk about ideas for your mystery shopping program, contact Customer Perspectives at 1-800-277-4677 or email marketing@customerperspectives.com.

Visit us online at www.customerperspectives.com.