Laura Stack - The Customer Bill of Rights: The Top Four Things Customers Want

CUSTOMER BILL OF RIGHTS
THE TOP FOUR THINGS CUSTOMERS WANT

Lets start off with a very valid question: Why should youcare about customer service and what they want, anyway?

Bottom line: service is survival. We are all competing forcustomers, and if we dont provide good service to them, theyll go somewhereelse. In fact, studies show that customers will pay ten to fifteen percent morefor the same product if they are treated better.

Recently, I was in the market for general commercialliability insurance for my company. I had the names of three different agents,and it turned out that they all went through the same company, The Hartford, toprovide the policy. This meant that the product was exactly the same. Intalking with these agents, however, one acted like she didnt have time to evensend me the policy. She was fairly rude. Another acted like I was justanother face and just another number. She was sort of indifferent. And thethird was kind, pleasant, and responsive. Now, you tell me which agent isgoing to stay in business?

We can apply these lessons to all of our businesses. Afternearly twenty years of running my own speaking and training business, TheProductivity Pro, Inc., I have discovered four important things that I believeour customers want. By extension, I believe your customers will want thesetoo.

The following sections willdiscuss these four different customer needs.

The first item in our Customer Bill of Rights is that weneed to understand our customers expectations. Whatever the customerperceives to be true is true to them. Is a perception a fact? Of course not;however, it's reality to the person holding it.

Thus, perceived service quality is the differencebetween what customers expect and what they get. Every person has certainexpectations, and as a customer service agent, which we all are, its your jobto find out. Once you know the expectations, youre in a better position toexceed them, so people will perceive quality as being relatively high.

A study was done by the Strategic Planning Institute inCambridge, Massachusetts, testing thousands of variables in differentbusinesses to determine the single most important factor in determininglong-term profitability in a company. Their findings?

Perceived quality.

What does that mean for you? That means you can win andkeep customers by giving them a good deal and value for their money asthey perceive it. We have to figure out what their expectations are,so we know how to meet those expectations. We want our efforts to result in arelatively high perception of quality received, relative to what they want.

That barthe customer expectationsis always being raised. Customers expect more today because theyre spoiled. I remember when I firststarted my speaking business in 1992. I joined a public seminar firm calledCareerTrack and started traveling the country putting on seminars for them. Iremember the first time there was a coffeemaker in my hotel room. I canremember that like it was yesterday. I didnt even drink coffee then, but Imade some because it was so cool that there was a coffeemaker in my hotelroom!

Coffeemakers never used to be in hotel rooms, but somehotels started offering them. What happened? People loved it, so more startedoffering them and people got used to it. Now, if there isnt a coffeemaker inthe hotel room, people are disappointed. The bar has been raised; coffeemakersare now expected. Before, providing one used to result in highperceived customer service; now its simply expected. Now, not providingone puts you below that bar. Today, guests expect not only a coffee maker buta hair dryer, robes, ironing boards, and even a microwave.

So how do you know what to shoot for if you have hundreds ofdifferent customers? Different customers expect different things. Some wouldactually be quite content with a minimal level of service; some require themaximum. Some customers dont really even know what they expect untilthey get service, and then they know. The bottom line? Since you cant alwaysfigure out what each individual expects, you simply have to catch everyone. You have to give everyone exceptional service all the time.

When I moved to the Denver area from Colorado Springs inJune 1998, I was faced with the challenge everyone has when they move: findinga new dry cleaner, a difficult task indeed. The first place I went cleaned myclothes decently, and I never really had any problems. The owner would alwaysask, Phone number? when I went in the store. Id give her my phone number,she would pull my clothes, take my money, and Id be on my way. It was prettypainless.

After a year of giving her my business, though, you wouldthink that lady would know who I was. Nope. She would just say, Phonenumber? I tried smiling. I tried saying, Hi, how are you today! but shewas Vietnamese and didnt speak English, so we couldnt really talk, as I dontknow Vietnamese. I was getting decent dry cleaning but felt like something wasmissing. I thought, Would it be that hard to just know my first name and sayHi, Laura? I felt that she was indifferent to me and my business.

There happened to be another dry cleaner about a mile downthe road, so I decided to give that one a try. After a few months, the clerkremembered my name! She even remembered my starch preferences. One day when Iwent to pick it my clothes, my favorite white silk shirt had yellow marks onit! The dry cleaner had tagged it saying, We couldnt get out yourstain (emphasis mine). Any attempts to do it will ruin the fabric. The shirtdidnt go in stained! The yellow marks werent my fault, so I complained to myfavorite desk clerk about it. The attendant replied that Id have to talk tothe manager, and he wasnt in the store. She gave me his phone number, and Ileft five messages for the manager before he returned my call. I was finally ableto get some compensation for the damages on my shirt, but not near what Idpaid for the shirt (and didnt make up for having to toss one of myfavorites).

Back to square one: no dry cleaner. As if by divineintervention, I read an ad in the local paper for a dry cleaning deliveryservice and decided to try it out. The driver came to my door and gave me aspecial bag and a hook to hang my cleaning. I get a call every Wednesday nightreminding me to hang my cleaning on the door for his pickup Thursday morning. I put special tape on any stains, and the stains are always gone afterward. Hepicks up Thursday morning and drops off Friday afternoon. On my monthly bill,he writes a personal note. Hes always pleasant on my reminder calls, and it doesntcost any more for his service than the other dry cleaners! Finally, theproduct and the people and the value Id come to hope for.

When you have a good product but unpleasant people, it wontwork. If you have pleasant people and a poor product, that wont work either. Its only at the intersection of great products, great people, and great valuewhere you meet customer expectations. You have to give them a product thatsexceptional and provide that extra special relationship anddo it at a great value. Once you provide service at this level andcontinue to exceed those expectations, your customer will have a taste of thegood life and will never want to go back.

If your customers get a taste of the good life from one ofyour competitors, they might come back, but will expect something even better. Its your job to always find out what your customers expect, how they perceivethe service level youre providing or theyre currently receiving, and seekways to make it better and more valuable. You must seek to always take it tothat next level.