We often hear organizations talk about their focus for the upcoming period — whether for the year or the quarter. I am always slightly amused when I hear an organizations talking about customer service being a key focus.

This usually a sign that they see Customer Service as a tactic to be employed at various times — much like a new ad campaign or pricing strategy.

These are usually the same organizations that think customer satisfaction is a goal (vs. outcome) and can be impacted by a training program to all their CSR’s.

Customer service is not a tactic. It needs to be a long-term strategy that is embedded into your organizational DNA or culture.

Customer service is not a tactic you employ as part of a plan — instead it should be the foundational theme that links every tactic together to provide differentiation.

My Perspective: If you find yourself talking about customer service using words like focus, initiative or tactic, you need to re-think the role of customer service within your organization. And that starts with reviewing your internal culture and values.

Customer service is not something you put on like a shirt and tie. It is an attitude you live and breathe in everything you do. Make sure it includes the language you use when you communicate it internally and externally.

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Bill is recognized as the Performance Excelerator™ because of his uncanny ability to create profound change and deliver extraordinary results with the most demanding organizations.

For additional information please visit www.billhogg.ca or email: bill [at] billhogg [dot] ca

We’ve all heard this expression, but I was reminded recently how important this adage is by an experience I had when I was a young Account Executive with one of Canada’s largest advertising agencies.

A large international client from Boston was in Toronto for a day of meetings and I was responsible for making sure that lunch was available.

In a trip to their office months earlier, the client had mentioned that he disliked chicken with bones — he preferred chicken breast and remarked that he always purchased boneless breast for his barbecue. The single exception was St-Hubert Bar-B-Q Chicken with dipping sauce which he had discovered on a trip to Montreal. He was so enamoured by their dipping sauce that he wished it was available in Boston where he would gladly picked it off the bones.

Based on this personal insight I ordered St-Hubert chicken for our lunch.

My agency President was aghast.

We were effectively serving a large international client a fast food meal rather than a traditional catered meal. He felt that we had lost an opportunity to impress this important client with our hospitality and even feared that we would be perceived as second rate versus our international cousins.

He quietly took me aside to give me some “constructive” feedback.

Fortunately, the client overhead his whispered comments.

The client indicated that he was thrilled that I had taken the time to arrange this special lunch for him and proceeded to sing my praises for remembering this small fact that he had shared with me months earlier.

He continued that this was a further demonstration of the care and attention that I applied to every aspect of his business and went so far as to state that he saw no need to replace the recently departed Account Supervisor on his business — voicing his confidence that I was ready to step into this role (a promotion that was wisely swift in coming after the meeting ).

My Perspective: Paying attention to our clients specific needs/desires allow us to tailor our products/service to their needs and build trust and confidence.

The client felt more important by the personalization of the meal choice than he would have ever felt regardless of the expense of a generic meal that may have been served to any client.

What might have been disaster for another client was pure magic for him. Are you looking for the opportunities to create a moment of magic for your clients — or just providing the same generic service o everyone?

Sign-up for my Monthly Newsletter to have 1 article with tools & techniques for excelerating high-performance cultures delivered to your inbox each month.

Bill is recognized as the Performance Excelerator™ because of his uncanny ability to create profound change and deliver extraordinary results with the most demanding organizations.

For additional information please visit www.billhogg.ca or email: bill [at] billhogg [dot] ca

Recently my wife picked up dinner for 4 on the way home from work. We had ordered online from Swiss Chalet (Canadian Rotisserie chicken franchise). Swiss Chalet is known for their dipping sauce, which is included with every signature meal.

When she arrived home, we discovered that the “special sauce” was not included in the order.

I called the order desk to report this lapse and the conversation went something like this.

First she confirmed the order by asking for my phone number.

My thought: Doesn’t every order come with Chalet sauce? Why would I be making this up?

Then she apologized — a number of times.

My thought: Good, you should. Our dinner has been ruined because Swiss Chalet didn’t execute the order correctly.

Then she indicated that I could return to the store to pick up the sauce.

My thought: But what about our dinner now getting cold in the kitchen? Not much of a solution.

I declined to return to the store, indicating the solution wasn’t very practical because our dinner wouldn’t taste very good cold, while waiting for me to head back to the store

She apologized again and offered me a $6.00 credit on my next order (the initial order was approx $30.00)

My thought: Would $6.00 really inspire me to return when the product had disappointed me. No!

My Perspective: We all know that a good recovery can actually have a positive impact on loyalty after the initial disappointing customer experience.

However, what happens if the recovery is also disappointing?

It further reinforces the negative experience and drives a further wedge between your company and a repeat visit.

Swiss Chalet clearly didn’t think their recovery process through from the customer perspective.

In my mind 2 options were appropriate.

1. First choice: Replace the entire meal and have it delivered to the customer home. Woo Hoo!
2. Provide a credit for a full meal to entice me to return and experience how great their service/food should be. At least I might give them a second chance.

Great service will make up for a miss with the product. But mediocre service will only reinforce the poor product.

Three Tips:

1. Make sure you review your recovery processes from the customer perspective.
2. Ask the customer. Do this when determining your recovery process and again after each recovery to ensure that you have indeed recovered.
3. Make sure your people are trained to ask for customer feedback and empowered to make it right. Every customer is not equal — don’t treat them like they are.

Sign-up for my Monthly Newsletter to have 1 article with tools & techniques for excelerating high-performance cultures delivered to your inbox each month.

Bill is recognized as the Performance Excelerator™ because of his uncanny ability to create profound change and deliver extraordinary results with the most demanding organizations.

For additional information please visit www.billhogg.ca or email: bill [at] billhogg [dot] ca