Copyright 2020 Hank Ebeling IV
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
ISBN: 979-8-55-537956-6
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the authors imagination.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
C ustomer service has always been a key driver in my success as a personal trainer and entrepreneur. It started when I got my first job in the fitness field at Canyon Ranch spa + fitness in the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. I was a sophomore attending college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and was very impressionable and eager to soak up any new knowledge I could get my hands on. My boss was a very polished and well-spoken woman with a lovely English accent. She came from a background in the performing arts, in which she spent many years on top cruise line ships. She also had management experience at many high-end spas before Canyon Ranch.
Her background was very strong in customer service and customer experience. From day one she taught the importance of body language. As a young guy, I had no idea what body language was and what it meant to a customer. Throughout my time at Canyon Ranch she taught me body language basicsmost importantly: not crossing your arms in front of your chest and not putting your hands on your hips, both of which could be intimidating to a guest. Instead, she taught us to put our hands lightly crossed in front of our legs or behind our backs to display a more welcoming feel. She went on to teach us other customer service details like to not point but instead to lead with a hand when showing a guest where to go.
These simple, subtle skills were something that she not only taught but then kept us accountable on. Those very basic lessons stuck with me and ended up being the foundational elements of my future career as a personal trainer and business owner.
Upon graduating from college, I got my first full-time job as a personal trainer at Equinox Fitness, a luxury gym in Chicago. The clientele was of a higher endmuch like Canyon Ranch, so I understood the demographic I was going to be interacting with. As a new trainer at the gym, I quickly found that I could separate myself from the other trainers by using the basic customer service techniques I had learned and mastered at Canyon Ranch.
I would say hi to everyone: my clients, the clients of other trainers and even the non-training members of the gym. I would truly care about my clients both in the training sessions and outside the training session by sending check-in emails and sending them recipes and other content I knew they would enjoy. I was personalizing their experience often and giving them more value than expected. Using these tactics, I was able to go from a new hire with zero clients in May 2007 to being among the companys top 15 trainers by October of that year.
I was not any smarter than any trainer on the staff, but what I did was go above and beyond what we were expected to offer in terms of my service level. I would always be waiting to greet clients at the door so I could get a quick conversation in with them to understand how they were feeling that day. I would email clients regularly to check in about their business, family and health.
As my business continued to boom I understood how outstanding customer service could be a competitive advantage I needed to excel.
When I eventually opened my H4 Training gym in 2013 I made sure that outstanding customer service and customer experience were the foundation of my business culture. I know that much like me, you want to crush your competition in whatever field you are in. Well, you can! And you will by delivering outstanding customer service and customer experience using what we will cover in this book.
CRUSHING THE COMPETITION STARTS WITH UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Loyal customers, dont just come back, they dont simply recommend you, they insist their friends do business with you as well.
CHIP BELL
Throughout this book, I will throw around the terms customer service (CS) and customer experience (CX) together. Although they are separate ideas, they go hand in hand with everything a customer feels. With that said, great customer service is nothing without a great customer experience. So what are the true definitions of these terms?
CUSTOMER SERVICE ( CS ): Direct one-on-one interaction between a consumer making a purchase and a representative of the company that is selling it.
Example: Think about when you go to the movies. You walk up to the concession stand and order popcorn and a drink. The employee says hello to you, smiles, hands you your popcorn and drink, and says, Thank you, enjoy the movie! That would be an outstanding customer service moment.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ( CX ): The sum of all the interactions someone has with a business.
Using our movies example again: The process of ordering your tickets online is super-smooth with easy-to-follow steps. When you arrive at the theater you discover it has a valet service since parking is usually limited. You drop your keys with the valet and walk into the theater to be greeted by the ticket checker who scans your ticket with a smile and tells you the movie is showing on screen three to your right. You walk up to the concession stand to again be greeted with a smile. You place your order and your food comes out quickly. Once you walk into the theater you notice how clean the entire space istheres no spilled popcorn all over the floor or gum on the seats. This is outstanding customer experience.
While most businesses talk a lot about the importance of CS & CX, very few execute on delivering it. A lot of businessesjust like yoursare competing for customer dollars and customer loyalty every day in a crowded and competitive marketplace. Chances are good that youre investing in marketing and advertising efforts to bring customers through your doors. While this is extremely important, I think we often forget about investing in keeping the customers we already have. On average, it costs at least five times more to attract a new customer to your business than it costs to retain an existing customer. That is huge!
Why would you ever want to risk losing a valuable customer if you dont have to?
