Articles - 'The Extra Mile'
Published in Sales & Marketing Professional
Surprisingly, in many industries satisfied customers defect at high rates. So if satisfying a customer isn’t enough to keep them, what do we need to do? - We need to delight our customers. When did you last experience customer delight and what did the business do to achieve it?
Customer delight is defined as a customer response upon obtaining a service or product that produces unexpected appreciation and satisfaction.
Is it really worth the effort? – research has shown that a delighted customer is twice as likely to make another purchase as a satisfied customer. This higher level of satisfaction is thought to be the key to the more evasive goals of loyalty and loyalty driven profit. Customer Delight is the key to business survival and growth.
Chris Merrington of Spring 80:20 outlines his 10 commandments to deliver customer delight.
Commandment 1 - Understand what your customers really value.
Don’t assume you know, ask them, find out what really matters to them, especially your best customers.
Commandment 2 - Personalise your service.
Tailor your product or service to your customer as much as you possibly can. Think about the best old fashioned grocer who really knew his customers and provided a tailored service for his customers.
Commandment 3 - Treat complaints as a gift.
When a customer complains about your service how do you treat them? This is actually your opportunity to demonstrate just how well you treat your customers. In fact a customers whose complaint is resolved well can often become the best advocate, even better than a delighted customers who has never had cause to complain. I have heard about a restaurant where the owner deliberately mixes up a new customer’s order so he can present the customer with a complimentary bottle of wine and spend time talking to the customer to build the relationship – it works for him
Commandment 4 - Put the customer second.
Put your employees first and they will then put the customer first. This approach has been very successfully followed by a leading travel agency group in the US, which has grown to be a very successful and profitable travel agent with the best record for customer retention and staff retention in their sector.
Make it fun for your employees - smiles are infectious. Your employees are the ones who make the customer experience a delight.Make sure they do the simple things right.
The CEO of Sears in Canada said “you can’t have crabby employees and happy customers”
Commandment 5 - Identify your most profitable or potentially most profitable customers and focus your efforts on them.
As a guide, in most businesses the top 20% of customers account for 80% of the revenue.Do you know your top 20%? Do you really look after them, because your competitors will happily take them off your hands. Find out how what they value in your business it may differ from the other 80% of customers.
Commandment 6 - Go the extra mile and make your customers day.
Do you and your staff really put themselves out to look after your customers, especially your best ones? Be imaginative when you go the extra mile. It doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Sometimes the little things make all the difference. Why didn’t my laptop manufacturer call me after the first month to see how I was getting on with it? They may even have sold me some accessories or software. Send a client a copy of an article you think will be of interest to them? On a recent holiday the owners of the apartment had left a bottle of bubbly in the fridge for us to celebrate the start of out holiday.
Commandment 7 - Build delight into your customer proposition.
If you buy a phone from Carphone Warehouse and they subsequently reduce the price in the subsequent 3 months they will send you the difference in price, unasked. Customers part exchanging their car at a car dealer in Australia are often very surprised when they receive a cheque a few weeks later with a note from the dealer explaining they managed to obtain a better price than expected for their part exchange. Can you imagine the power of word of mouth about that car dealer? Where would you go to buy a new car and part exchange your old one? Imagine the word of mouth.
Commandment 8 - Avoid complacency.
Even when you think you have ‘cracked it’ with your best customers and they have become loyal advocates of your service, don’t sit back. They have just raised the level of the bar and you need to deliver more.Over the past few years there have been some major businesses which used to delight their customers. Then they took their eye off the ball. They failed to keep in touch with their customers and understand how to delight them. Can you guess who?
Commandment 9 Learn from your lost customers.
It is accepted that a 5% improvement in customer retention equates to 25-85% improvement in profitability. How much more profitable would your business be if you had delighted those lost customers? This becomes cumulative. Find out how you compare to your competitors – ask your ex-customers, they are most likely to be truthful.
Commandment 10 - Find the WOW factor.
There is no point in adding extras which your customers don’t value. Find out what really makes a difference to your customers.What takes their breath away.