Tagged : coaching

in Customer Experience, Customer Service, Excellence

Customer Service is Not Like Star Trek

I admit it, I like Star Trek and hopefully you’ll continue reading this. Customer Service is not like Star Trek! In Star Trek, battles in outer space are centered on space ships’s shields. The first one to lose their shields is destroyed.

Keeping your shields up in customer service is the destroyer. Shielding yourself and your organization from customer interaction is destructive to the customer experience. Lower your protective shield and win the great customer service battle.

Top Sources of Customer Satisfaction Are Related to Customer Experience

Creating positive customer experiences is the key in great customer service. In a recent study, Press Ganey Associates polled nearly 140,000 customers in roughly 230 different establishments in a specific field of service providers. The results were very interesting.

The top 15 sources of customer satisfaction were related to customer interactions with staff members and employee satisfaction among staff members.

It’s almost to say that it doesn’t matter wether the answer for your customer is yes or no, but it’s how you work with and treat the customer that matters. Ok, maybe the answer does matter, but it’s not the only factor. Or at least, not as an important factor as we make it out to be.

Every extra layer between your customers and you is an extra layer to the customer service shield preventing great customer service experiences from happening. Each additional hoop customers have to jump through before getting service adds to the customer service shield keeping your customers from having meaningful, personal, loyalty creating experiences.

Each layer added to the customer service shield saves a little money by reducing the number of customer service issues you have to handle. But in the end, customers are so frustrated by the massive shield keeping them from being able contact you and get things done that they just give up and leave.

Lower your shields! They block good customer service experiences from happening.

We spent thousands and thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising trying to get customers to come to us and give our organization a chance. Once we have them, we then create hassles for the customer at every turn, as if we we’re bothered that the customer is contacting us. Too often, it’s written in some company policy manual that this is the way we have to do things.

Give your front-line employees as much authority as possible. They’re the ones who know best what the customer needs are right then and there.

May your great customer service make you live long and prosper.

Learn from the Nordstrom customer service school and re-write the policies that are keeping up the barriers between your customers, you, and the great customer service experience.

Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.

in Culture, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Training

Disney’s 3 Keys to Magical Service Experiences

I recently spoke to a rock star customer service team at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel on the Disney property in California. Disney is famous for their customer-focused training regiment for all of their employees at their resorts and theme parks.

People come from all over the world, and many plan years in a advance before visiting Disney’s theme parks and resorts. Because of the expectation of a magical experience, Disney’s customer service focus HAS to be based on creating magical experiences for all of their customers (“guests”).

Service at Disney, involves a number of “Magical” aspects, of which I’d like to touch on 3 of them.

The Magic of Setting

At Disney’s parks, guests are treated to re-creation of famous Disney settings. Visiting the various areas of the park, guests are immersed in the Disney experience and feel as if they’re a part of Disney. Every detail of the settings counts towards creating that magical customer experience.

Your customer experience setting will be wherever your customers interact with your people and systems. Every detail of the encounter sends a message to the customer. Phone calls, emails, live chat, even Web sites speak to customers. What’s the message you’re sending? Does it say “we care about the customer”?

The Magic of Cast

Think of your last Disney experience? What were the people like? At Disney, all “Cast” Members (Employees at the Park) are friendly, approachable, and helpful without being condescending or mechanical. I recently was at Disneyland with my family and as we entered the park at opening time, we were greeted as we walked down Main Street by smiling, happy, employees waving to guests with giant Mickey Mouse hands.

at Disney, every team member knows, studies, and understands the behaviors, mannerisms, terms, and values that are specific to his or her job function.

Every job function is measured against the core service values of the organization.

The Magic of Action

At Disney, team members are trained to look for combustion points. Combustion Points are where even finely tuned, positive customer experience processes break down, creating negative customer experiences.

Where are the combustion points at your organization and within your team? What are your positive customer experience creating areas where because of break downs, system failures, or poor performance by team members, negative experiences breed?

Disney focuses on uses cast-guest communication, guest-flow, and service attention processes to eliminate or control these points.

Your customer service can be magical too!

Disney sets the customer service bar high with their attention to every detail of the customer experience. But their successes are focused around effectively implementing these keys to creating amazing and magical experiences for all of their guests. The Disney service model can be applied in any organization if management and team members are committed to creating magical experiences for their customers. The model isn’t expensive or complex. It simply requires commitment on the part of the individuals involved to creating a magical experience for each customers.