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Feature:
When is Excellent Customer Service Not Good Enough?
[Hint: Everyday]
What does customer service really mean for your organization?
Every day we are bombarded with information from companies boasting the “Number 1” rated customer satisfaction. As business owners, what we want to talk about is our superlative customer service, knowing that satisfied customers are the lifeblood of our business.
But is better customer satisfaction the measuring stick you think it is? In Customer Satisfaction is Worthless: Customer Loyalty is Priceless, Jeffrey Gitomer shares, “Satisfaction is no longer the acceptable measurement of Customer service success. The standard and measure of success in this millennium are loyal customers.”
Let’s look at why that is such an important distinction, and some steps you can take to get there.
What is a satisfied customer? A loyal customer?
It’s important to define what a customer is to you, with two important components. First, it is a person who wants your product or service, and will pay for it. Second, and most importantly, it is someone your organization is building a unique relationship or emotional experience with that will bring them back for repeat purchases. Without a two-way intent and relationship, customers are not likely to repeat.
How do customers determine whether they are satisfied? There are at least five criteria that customers will use to rate their satisfaction as outlined in Delivering Quality Service: Balance Customer Perceptions and Expectations, by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry.
- Reliability – Can Customers depend on you to provide them with service?
- Assurance – Is the service provider confident in their product/service, and can the Customer trust them?
- Tangibles – Is the appearance / environment of the service area appropriate, clean, open, friendly, etc.?
- Empathy – Does the service provider care about the Customer?
- Responsiveness – Does the service provider deliver prompt or timely service?
When does a customer become loyal? The transition to “loyal” occurs when a satisfied customer refers you to his/her friends and associates. As advocates, loyal customers are not likely to take their business elsewhere if a better “deal” comes along because they value your service and relationship. The benefits of developing and maintaining loyal customers are significant. In fact, they may literally transform your business through dramatic increases in referral revenue, reduced cost of sales, and improved employee morale and retention.
Four Key Steps to Increased Customer Loyalty
Implement these key ‘get started’ steps to begin developing more loyal customers:
- Commit to Customer loyalty as a business strategy.
- Put on your customer hat, and rate each individual point of contact as either an excellent, neutral, or negative customer experience.
- Focus improvement on three key components of customer loyalty, including development of trust, creation of a positive emotional experience or tie, and the building of customer relationships with empathy.
- Believe that every contact is equally important and that each individual in your organization can (and will) make a difference. Your goal is to ensure that the difference is an excellent one that exceeds expectations.
The most compelling thing about customer loyalty as a competitive advantage is that success variables are things you can control. How you present yourself and your firm, communicate with your prospects and customers, and build your relationships through time is up to you. Your actions, trust, sincerity, and consistency will determine your success. Get started today and transform your business!
Learn more about how Larry Warnick, Business Coach with Passkey Strategies, helps organizations develop and sustain high performance teams by contacting him at 678-427-5145 or http://www.passkeystrategies.com/.
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