When evaluating the service that our clients provide to their customers, we look at all sorts of things – from employee attitudes to knowledge, from service skills to procedures, systems, and technology. We look at navigation to and within the facilities, and we look at layout and signage and how they help to direct. We notice when expectations are set, and how expectations are met.
The reason we’re looking at all these different factors is that different customers evaluate their service experience in different ways. Consider the Millennial view v. the Boomer view. This could be a first-time customer evaluation v. a long-term client perspective. This could be the perspective of somebody who’s never utilized anyone in your industry v. those who have experienced your particular line of business in other parts of the country.
And although there are varied customers with varied evaluation points about their experiences, oftentimes Best Practices have certain key characteristics. Evaluate yourself, your team, or your organization against some of these key qualities of Best Practice Customer Experiences:
- The experience is consistently good, regardless of time-of-day, day-of-week, who the employee is, or whether it’s a call, meeting, e-mail, web visit, or online chat.
- Staff are proactive, and there is an air of positivity and pleasantness from the staff.
- Staff are patient, and processes are quick; when they’re not quick, there are frequent updates provided to customers.
- There’s more of a focus on what can be done than what cannot be done.
- Customers don’t need to know the process or know the business or know the employees to have a really good experience.
- Everything from the web to the facility to the paperwork is intuitive to customers.
- There is personalization and appreciation for the customer.
If you want to be the best you can be, then look at these characteristics of Best Practice experiences.
Make them a part of your everyday and every interaction.
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I’ve been reading a book recently about a Charlotte-based service company, and the author of the book conveys the CEO’s perspective on management, culture, and serving customers. At the back of the book, the author noted the organization’s Core Values. They are honesty, integrity, fairness, and respect. I literally did a double-take on the pages, because my company’s Core Values are respect, honesty, fairness, and integrity. Yes, the order is different, but the values are the exact same!
As a management consultant, oftentimes my job is to identify the key issues, determine the root causes, and provide solutions. We do a lot of strategy work, we conduct many research projects, and we train and train and train our clients. However, improvement usually involves pointing out what needs to be done differently, better, or more or less frequently in order to achieve the best outcomes possible.
