| Think Customer Success
That’s right. Forget about customer service. It’s not enough. Now more than ever, we're told we must do more with less. But maybe more service is not the answer. Providing all the customer service in the world will not help you unless your customers are successful.
Instead of focusing on customer service, let’s focus on customer success. In fact, instead of having Customer Service Teams, let’s have Customer Success Teams, whose guiding principle of every interaction would be "What does my customer need in order to be successful?" Too many times we lose our focus on why our business exists in the first place: because of our customers. No customers, no business. Yet, how many times have we, as customers, been treated as an interruption or a distraction?
Picture this: In June of this year a technology consultant, Sue, was flying to Portland from the East Coast. In mid-flight, she realized that her travel agent had given her suggestions for a car rental but hadn’t actually made the reservation. Sue had a conference meeting that she needed to attend and her schedule was very tight for making it on time. She certainly didn’t have time to try to find a car once she landed, so, she grabbed the in-flight phone and began dialing.
The first place she called told her that she was in luck, they had one car left. She quickly tried to reserve it, but, there was a problem. The rental agent told her that she would have to give her credit card number in order to hold the car. Sue told the agent that she was on a packed flight and she didn’t want to shout her credit card number over the phone; could she please make an exception. "Sorry," the rental agent said "that’s our policy."
Sue hung up and called the more expensive car rental place and explained her situation. The agent listened to Sue and said: "Well, I wouldn’t want to shout out my number either. Technically, we are supposed to have the number, but, we’ll help you out."
How many times do we lose business because we are not focused on what the customer needs to be successful? When a customer comes calling they need help, they need answers, they need to make a problem go away.
Here’s an exercise: think about every time a customer interacts with your company and analyze each interaction by asking yourself these questions:
- Why is the customer contacting us?
- What do they need?
- What are they really looking for?
- What would truly help the customer succeed?
- What do we want them to feel and think about our company?
The bottom-line is that every customer interaction tells a story about your company. Every interaction shows the customer how you feel about them.
Do you value their business?
Are you focused on their success?
Or are you focused on what’s most convenient for you and what saves a few bucks?
Any company can say that they are focused on their customers, but how many of them actually demonstrate it? Are you happy with the story that you are currently telling? What story do you want to tell and show?
Earlier this year, I was contacted by a company because, as they told me in our first phone conversation, "We’ve come to realize that our customer service department is the best sales tool that our competitors have."
It simply doesn’t matter how many new customers we bring through the front door when existing customers are running out the back door. And the answer isn’t what so many businesses resort to: locking the back door and trapping the customer with long-term contracts or high switching costs. Those tactics might work in the short-term; at least until someone figures out how to open the back door or slip through a window. It's simply not as effective as having customers who want to stay.
Here are just a few different ways to enhance the customer’s experience with your company:
- Have guiding principles, not policies.
Principles are established to enhance the customer’s success (and, ultimately, in turn, the success of the business); policies are meant to serve the company. When is the last time you encountered a "no" policy that helped you succeed? How much did you feel about that company afterwards?
- Communicate better.
When you have a problem, how long do you like to wait for the answer? An hour? A day? A week? Indefinitely? Waiting isn't necessarily bad, but if you do have to wait for the answer, isn't it nice to have at least a ballpark idea of when you might get the answer?
Quick test: Do you return phone calls
a) within an hour;
b) within four hours;
c) by the next day;
d) when it’s most convenient for you; or
e) do you just wait for your customer to call you back?
E-mail responses are particularly bad. In a recent Peppers and Rogers study a full 20% of online businesses never responded to e-mail requests at all. Yet, according to Inc. Technology columnist, Jim Sterne, "If you can keep up-to-date on your e-mail, you have a chance of staying ahead of the competition."
- Anticipate the needs of your customers.
Analyze your business. Why and when do most customers contact your customer service department? Bill Strauss, the CEO of Proflowers.com, scrutinized this issue and found that most customers contacted their customer service department after placing an order to simply see if the flowers had been delivered.
His solution: a three-part automated e-mail response to keep the customers in the loop. The first e-mail is simply a confirmation of the order. The second e-mail lets the customer know that the flowers are on the truck. The third e-mail lets the customer know not only that the flowers were delivered, but, who signed for them. How can you apply this concept to your business? How can you be proactive in serving your customers?
- Help your teams understand the big picture.
Show them how they help the customer. Case in point: earlier this year I facilitated this exercise for a credit union.
Afterward, a woman stood up and said "You know I have been a loan officer for almost fifteen years and everyday as I drive into work, I think to myself: "great, I’m going to push paper around." But, now I see the bigger picture. I’m really helping my customers to achieve a dream – whether it’s the dream of owning their own home, of sending their kids to college or simply taking a family vacation. Wow, I’ll never do my job the same way again."
In talking with others like this woman, without seeing the big picture, it’s easy for them to be resentful when a customer calls because the call represents even more work on an already full plate. However, with the focus on the bigger picture, they report later that it’s not only easier to be patient, but, it’s more motivating and rewarding.
Customers spend money with us (or our competitors) because they want a service. Doesn’t it stand to reason then that the way we actually serve the customer is where future sales are won or lost?
Copyright © 2004 Bobbi Kahler. All Rights Reserved.
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