Creating Devoted Customers with Imaginative Service

Imaginative Service: Everyday Service Grace

“Thank you for being my customers,” the shop owner said to a group of prospects who seemed to be loitering in his small mall-based store.  The uniqueness of his statement was that it was directed at three teenagers each with very loud dispositions, extremely baggy pants, and earphones hooked to their IPods.  Out of earshot of the owner, one young man remarked to his buddies, “Man, we gotta buy something!”  As they left the check-out counter, the proprietor shot point blank one final blast of benevolence: “Please visit me again.”

Grace is typically used in a religious setting —it means “unmerited favor or love.”  Applied to customer service it is generosity expressed in an unlikely context.  It is an assertion, not a response; an attitude, not a tactic.  We get a glimpse when we witness a “random act of kindness.”  Only service grace is not random it is perpetual.  It causes customers to act their best.  Like some chemical mixture, when compassion meets caustic all acidity disappears.  It tames hostility, enriches ordinary, and adds “a story to tell” to “I got my money’s worth.”  Are you delivering service grace to your customers?

Imaginative Service: Where’s Buster?

Every small town in America had a Buster.  Buster Seecoy sold Grit newspapers on Main Street and knew the birthday of everyone in town.  He worked part-time as a stocker at Moore’s feed store, the watering hole for the agricultural community.  And, when you met Buster on the street, he greeted you with your whole name, always with “Mr,” “Mrs.” or “Miss” in front of it—“Good morning, Miss Nancy Rainey,”   When the circus came to town guess who sold balloons.  Buster Seecoy made everyone smile!  

Social media like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter provide evidence we are changing the way we define marketplace—in some ways a return to the village.  Only the new village is a global community but with old village features.  In a small town merchants knew you and catered to your specific needs.  They acted on history, patterns of previous purchases.  They relied on neighborly practices.  They’d even opened the shop after hours if you needed something.  Over the last fifty years commerce has been distant, impersonal, and one-size-fits all.  Social media is helping connect customers with businesses in ways more tailored, personalized, open, around-the-clock and valued.    

But, villages need a Buster.  A village without Buster is a boring town.  Be the Buster in you commercial village.  

Does your customer service make your customers smile?  Does it have a unique imaginative twist that makes it distinctive?  Do you create experiences for your customers they would describe as lively, fun and positively memorable?  How many customers did you make laugh this week? 

Pass-I-on: Key to Imaginative Service

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”  The line is often misinterpreted to favor some macho sentiment.  The real meaning has nothing to do with being strong and everything to do with being feisty.

We are in an era of subtraction and reduction.  Those who succeed embrace such times as an opportunity for investment and generosity.  “Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you,” goes the familiar adage.   This is particularly true of passion. 

Passion is all about feistiness.  It is the source of initiative, drive and growth.  It gets people out of bed and off to work early despite the gloomy news on the tube.  It turns sleep walking and indifferent service people into joy carriers.  It puts a smile on your face and a skip in your step even in moments of uncertainty.  And, it is the expression of who you are to all around you. 

Dissect the word—it is three words in one.  Pass-I-on.  It is you passing you on to others.  When you pass on your best, you change the equation from less to more; from worry about the denominator to excitement about the numerator.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin in boldness,” wrote philosopher Johann von Goethe.  “Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”  Passion is the antidote to pessimism and fear.  So, get going!  And, when you “pass-I-on,” let others see your feistiest best.

IMAGINATIVE SERVICE: HAPPY PROCESSES

What is a service process?  A service process can be defined from two perspectives.  From the inside looking out, it is a collection of procedures and practices that govern a complete operation.  Bottom line, it is the means that organizations use to deliver service to customers.    From customers’ viewpoints, however, it is what an organization puts them through to get what they need or want.  Given the high level of importance that customers today place on their experience, making certain your processes are “happy” is critical for service success.

The term “happy process” originated with one of our international clients.  We were grappling for a way to explain the meaning of process alignment as a part of developing company wide service standards and norms.  Our client thought about the end result and suggested that one outcome of alignment might be “happy processes.”  The label proved to be a powerful metaphor that vastly contributed to understanding and efficiency in the company-wide alignment effort.  

Customers do not generally desire a service process.  Most would prefer to simply snap their fingers and instantly get the product or outcome they desire. Granted, some organizations have created processes so delightful customers look forward to going through the hoops.   Yet, the primary rationale for installing processes is to insure that service is delivered consistently, efficiently and productively.  

My wife and I recently encountered a very unhappy process from our cellular provider. I have been generally pleased with our cellular provider’s customer service so the recent experience was a bit surprising. As so often happens, the company changed a policy that impacted the customer but failed to effectively communicate the change to customers. The result?  An extreme inconvenience for my wife and I.  When I spoke with a manager about the policy change the situation got uglier. The manager instantly threw the organization “under the bus.” “I am sorry for the inconvenience,” he began. “They changed the policy and I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense.”

The secret to maintaining processes in a state of “happiness” is to remember they are means, not ends.  They are the ultimate servant in the quest for customer loyalty and devotion.  Treating them as a common slave may give you process acquiescence and ultimately customer disdain.  But treating them as a contributing partner will yield you process alignment and customer devotion.

In this case the front line and the customer agreed on the degree of unhappiness of the process. Where’s leadership? What other processes have been turned into unhappy ones? Have you analyzed your processes from the employee and customer’s perspective?  Are your processes in sync with the type of experience your organization strives to deliver?

Imaginative Service: What if Service Were a Treasure Hunt?

We had our granddaughters visit one weekend at our lake home.  There is absolutely nothing more jarringly creative than a five-year-old or more innocent than a three-year old. Grandparents wonder why their grandchildren can’t stay “puppies!!”

One morning we decided to stage an elaborate backyard treasure hunt.  The girls decorated their treasure boxes while we drew each a detailed map of the  yard.  While the two were off on a boat ride with their parents, we hid the “treasurers”—foreign coins from a business trip abroad, old costume jewelry, shells from a beach trip, etc.—and marked their locations on the respective treasure maps.  We even included a few silly treasures.  When the girls got back they took their decorated treasure boxes, their different treasure maps, and set out to locate the loot.  It was a joy to watch them squeal with each discovery.

What could you do to make your service like a treasure hunt for your customers?  How can you hide special treasures for your customers to discover?

Imaginative Service: Majoring in the Minors

Service air is the givens in a service encounter.  Like the air we breathe, we take service air for granted unless it is removed or threatened.  If the commercial plane we board lands in the right city, we don’t cheer; but, if it lands in the wrong city, we are upset.  We assume banks will be safe, hotels comfortable, and hospitals clean.  However, capitalizing on a “taken for granted” attribute can offer a competitive advantage.

The Columbia Tower Club in downtown Seattle has four stalls in the ladies restroom designed so the commodes face the outside of the building.  The exterior wall it looks out on is wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling window.  Since the Club occupies the top floor of a high-rise building, a visitor sitting on the toilet can enjoy a panoramic view of downtown!  Patrons of the club would assume the restrooms would be spotless and well-appointed.  They would not expect a “john with a view!”

When Domino’s Pizza hit the marketplace with their promise of pizza delivery in thirty minutes or the pizza was free, they quickly “owned” the pizza delivery business.  If you asked pizza delivery customers if they expected their pizza to be delivered in thirty minutes or less, they would say “yes.”  However, attaching a guarantee not only made the feature apparent, it showed the feature off to the point other pizza delivery companies scrambled to match Domino’s offering.  What aspect of your service do your customers “take for granted?”  What steps can you take to boldly show it off? 

Imaginative Service: Turning Wow into Awe!

The last decade was full of excessive customer care entreaties: Delight your customers!  Exceed expectation!  Wowie Zowie!  Many – if not most – of these over the top enthusings were accompanied by the advice to bear any burden to keep customers happy.

That was then, when resources were abundant.  We are now in belt-tightening, downsizing, budget frozen 2009, trying to do more with less and still thrill the customer.  A perfect time to regroup, look beyond the easy impulse to give something away, and distill from all that enthusiasm what it really means to surprise a customer. 

The essence of imaginative service is committing acts that are unexpected, simple and valuable.  Just like a stage magician, it is the response that leaves customers as awed as wowed.   Done properly it can increase customer devotion without decreasing company assets.   Want a taste?

A major hospital in the Midwest asks patients their favorite flower.  When a patient returns to the hospital, they arrange for a single stem of that flower to be placed on the patient’s bed stand. 

Four Seasons Hotel Austin is a pet-friendly hotel.  Should guests indicate they are bringing their cat, for instance, they are awed when they check into their hotel room and find a Four Seasons logoed pet food and water bowl on a serving place mat with a complimentary cat toy. 

A manicurist escorts customers to their car after a manicure to start their ignition for them. 

So, if the economy gives your organization tough times, pull a bit of magic from your sleeve that takes your customers breath away.

Imaginative Service: When Trust Stumbles

We have had recent media examples of beloved companies leaving customers disappointed due to service hiccups. Whether the foibles were caused by a process failure, human error or unfriendly gremlins is irrelevant to customers already angry over a mean economy. Organizations that turn the oops into an opportunity are those that practice great service recovery.

Great recovery starts with recognition that disappointing service requires emotional repair, not just problem resolution. Too many organizations focus on damage control; too few practice betrayal management. Effective service recovery starts with a sincere and quick apology from the top of the organization. Apology does not mean “we goofed”; it means “I care.” It includes obvious speed and agility to stop the cause of the disappointment.

Great service recovery includes communicating empathy—words that let customers know the organization is fully aware of the impact of their service breakdown. Sometimes customers need symbolic atonement—a “gesture of sorrow” that helps dramatize the fact the organization is not treating customers’ disappointments as frivolous. They also need to know the organization has learned from the incident and is taking steps to minimize reoccurrence.

Customers do not expect service to be perfect. But, they do expect when things go wrong that organizations will demonstrate they care. Do you have an effective plan for service recovery—one that insures everyone handles the next service breakdown with confidence and consistency? Are you tracking customer complaints to determine if there are patterns pointing to a need for service process surgery, not just a band-aid for each flare-up? And in addition to tracking complaints are you assertively tracking the new and very powerful interactive social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) to insure you know very quickly what is being said about your organization?

Imaginative Service: Going Beyond the Basics

“When Business Week picks Amazon.com as the #1 best service company-- an on-line fulfillment company—it’s proof good old fashioned service is dead.”  The comment sounded like a “kids are going to the dogs” statement someone’s grandfather might make.  But, it was coming from a non-computer savvy physician in one of our client focus groups. 

Suddenly others in the room jumped into the discussion with jubilant praise for Amazon.com.   “Their website is so easy,” “I always get what I order,” “Their prices are the best,” and “Returns are a breeze.”  Their comments reflected excellence at the basics—the core expectations of all the "shoulda’s and oughta’s".  Then, someone told the story of a customer ordering a used book through Amazon.com, not getting the book expected, with zero success contacting the used book company.  Amazon not only refunded the customer’s money before the flawed book was returned but took on the rogue used book dealer on behalf of the customer.  Even the naysaying doctor was impressed.

Imaginative service creates devoted customers.  However, imaginative service only works if the basics are met.  Great service providers like Amazon.com provide only as much service as is needed---until more is required. A routine order and you get exactly what you hope for, no more no less.  But, if there is an exception or problem, you witness greatness and creativity.  We all like service with a cherry on top.  But if what’s under the cherry disappoints, the cherry won’t matter.  Are you focusing on sparkly service and letting solid service slip?

Imaginative Service: Building a Cult-Like Following

What is it that makes people pay $2.94 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, hundreds of dollars to watch the Green Bay Packers, or $20,000 to be placed on a waiting list for a Harley-Davidson?

The answer lies in the cult-like experience these brands generate in their customers—an experience that isn’t limited to coffee, football, and motorcycles, but can be applied to any industry.   How do they do it?  Three ways they use are network, identity and secret.

Network

“Network” creates ways of socializing the service experience, thus ramping up affirmation that the customer made a wise choice.  It is also a way to encourage customer storytelling––the best network glue there is.  Smart organizations often seed their networks with stories.   Walk into any large Starbucks and you will see evidence there are stories ready to spread.   Newsletters, blogs, and special takeaways can similarly be rich outlets for stories that build networks.

Identity

“Identity” involves finding ways the experience can be integrated into the customer’s individuality.  It is the principle behind all the logo-ed paraphernalia that many customers collect.  Identity might employ physical objects.  It could be a coded greeting, a special expression, a mannerism, or a style.  The key to making it effective is how easily it becomes a part of who the customer is and their style of living.

Secret

“Secret” is not about covert actions, it is about practices that help customers feel like an insider.  The tactic can range from inventing a special language or process, to making certain folklore known only to customers, to having customers become the first to find out about some new development. 

Cult-like brands have devoted customers. They don’t just recommend you; they insist to their friends that they do business with you, too. What’s more, they not only forgive you when you make mistakes, they defend you to others who have had bad experiences with you. They give you candid feedback when they spot a problem, and that’s feedback on which you can build a better business.