I’m not one of those people that believes the customer is always right. I firmly believe that my job, more often than not, is to ensure the customer makes the right decisions regardless of where their mindset currently puts them. Over at TheNextWeb they have a great article titled: The secret to super fast growth? Customer service.
The discussions follows the rise of several companies that built themselves up around customer service: Zappos, Amazon, Ritz-Carlton and Nordstrom. Companies so well known for service that it goes without saying. Each of these companies compete in highly competitive industries and each stands out because of how they treat their customers. The ensure that the experience exceeds expectations and that the details are right.
This is a lesson all of us can take away. Even if we don’t have a team of customer service specialists behind us, we can all find ways to make our customers’ lives a little better with our solutions. Surprise and delight are easy to achieve. Surprise comes from getting the unexpected – maybe an Easter Egg in your technology or a new surprise feature for free. Delight comes from pleasure – maybe we’ve made them look really good or reduced their 40 hours of reporting a month to only 1 hour. Maybe it’s as simple as we found an off-the-wall alternative solution that exceeds everything they were expecting. Maybe we simply don’t use a PowerPoint presentation and instead have an old-fashioned face-to-face conversation.
Businesses grow because they increase their revenues. Revenues increase because there are more customers. Customers spend money with you because you provide something better or different than their other options. Customer service is hard to do well consistently and to ingrain into a culture. Could it be that something you do better and differently than your competition?