Creating the Delighted Customer Part 2

In part 2 of Creating the Delighted Customer, we present the next twelve Customer Commandments.

1. Customer delight requires a good product or service. Many organizations have a habit of cutting corners, believing they're still capable of building strong customer relation- ships. It's a delusion.
   Customer delight isn't a game of trickery–it comes from the heart. It must represent the genuine, underlying integrity of the organization, fully supported by quality. 
2. Customer delight requires not only the right intent, but the right words. We often choose harsh words when dealing with customer complaints. "You should" is better stated as "Would you consider" or "May I suggest." "Let me check" is better phrased as "May I check for you," etc. Work with your staff to determine the proper words to use in response to customer inquiries and complaints. Every telephone call, every customer interaction is handled more effectively when we choose the right word or phrase.
3. Protect customer productivity. A while back a traveling sales representative had a unique electrical problem with her car that required a part the dealer didn't have in stock. She had a 500 mile trip with several appointments scheduled and needed transportation. Unfortunately, the dealer she bought the car from would provide a loaner only at significant cost.
   A competing dealer responded to my request to help her. He provided an adequate car for her two day trip at minimal cost. He also gained a customer. She has since bought two new cars and a 4X4 truck from him, all because he helped her to maintain her schedule and productivity.
   Our focus on customer needs is most appreciated when the customer uses our product or service to make a living. That's when we make our strongest and most delightful customer impression. 
4. Develop specific response parameters. We need to measure customer delight. How will you know when employees achieve their customer delight goals? How will you respond to their successes? Written, objective measurements are critical to continuing excellence. Go one step further by designing incentives based on customer delight performance.
   Sometimes we meet our customer's needs but not within acceptable time limits. Provide the resolution immediately if possible. Institute a sunset policy requiring same-day response. If you can't find a solution on a same-day basis, at least call back before the day is over to give your customer an update and to communicate that you're working urgently to solve the problem. The key: respond in minutes when it takes others hours or days. 
5. Every contributor in the customer delight chain should have the occasional, yet planned opportunity to meet the customer. Achieving customer delight is a team sport. Accounting, reception, shipping everyone involved in customer delight is on the team. Provide the customer an opportunity to meet these people when the customer visits your office. Better yet, ask the various participants in your customer delight chain to accompany the salesperson to visit the customer on his or her own turf. Your employees will appreciate the opportunity as much as the customer. 
6. Reach for customer feelings. When you sense a strain in a customer relationship be proactive and initiate healing. Personalize your approach by sharing your personal concern for their account. Communicate some new ideas or approaches you think may work for them.
   Anticipating a customer's feelings is highly effective. Do it with a focus on the customer's needs, not your own. You'll find it's a wonderful tool for improving the quality of your customer relationship. 
7. Call the customer by name. This suggestion appears more than once in this book. That's not an accident. Using a customer's name is an absolute winner. And it's easy.
   A recent hospitality survey by SRI/Gallup showed that greeting customers by name and discounting prices are the two most effective ways of building traffic from existing retail patrons. This, of course, assumes the customer likes the establishment. Moreover, when the service offered was outstanding in nature, the use of customer names proved more effective for building frequency than discounting. Use the customer's name as early in the exchange as possible. It is a sure-fire way to establish rapport and good feeling.
8. Growth creates growth. We must provide satisfaction, happiness, wealth, or self-image to have a delighted customer. We will achieve success by offering a product or service that meets needs in an extraordinary way. When that occurs, customer delight is possible. When it doesn't, it isn't.
9. Customer first, employee second, profit third, community fourth. This is the priority sequence of a business tightly focused on customer delight. The business leader is the customer delight choreographer. The employee is the dancer, interfacing with the audience during each performance. Customer delight can't occur without the employee's personal caring and warmth.
   Meeting the needs of customer and employee positions the organization to meet another need–profit. Maximized profit occurs concurrently with maximized customer relationships. Here the customer delight opportunity comes full circle. The employee executes our focus on delightful customer satisfaction, the delightfully satisfied customer provides the opportunity for higher profit and the profit provides the potential for financial benefit to the employee. All these positive forces merge to offer support to the community where the participants live and work.
   The delightfully satisfied customer is the hub of a multi-spoked wheel that rolls merrily along, picking up new friends along its path. 
10. Delightful customer satisfaction is personal. It isn't simultaneously extended to the masses, but to one individual at a time. The customer you're serving now is the one you should concentrate on. Take maximum advantage of the opportunity. 
11. Delightful satisfaction requires flexibility. Since the "delightful feeling" is highly personal, what pleases one customer may not thrill the next. Delivering this feeling requires a supple, athletic flexibility adaptable to each situation. Bend with the need. Agility and adaptability, combined with sincere effort, create optimum results. 
12. Require accountability. All members of the customer delight chain should thoroughly understand their role. They need to be aware of their accountability and be well rehearsed on response parameters. 
    A delightfully satisfied customer is an appreciated customer. Here are seven everyday ways to show appreciation to your customers:
    1. Care. Really, honestly care about their success and concerns.
    2. Give. I'm not talking price concession. Give of yourself and approach your customer relationships unselfishly. Your personal attentiveness is what the customer appreciates most.
    3. Listen. The shortest distance between two communicators is active listening. Be the listener.
    4. Smile. An effective way to dress up a telephone conversation is to smile while you talk. The difference it makes in how you sound is amazing. And, of course, the same goes for smiling in person.
    5. Compliment. Compliments create magic feelings. Actively look for ways to fill your customer's emotional cup. Always look for achievements to recognize. Don't let personal and professional accomplishments go unnoticed. You can make a significant difference by looking for opportunities to pass along a compliment.
    6. Recognize. Acknowledge your customers by name every time you come into contact with them. Nothing you say sounds better to the listener than his or her name.
    7. Try. The customer knows when you bust your pick. If you really try, your effort to create customer delight will be appreciated.