Recently had lunch with a client — we agreed to meet at restaurant near their office at noon.

I arrived 15 minutes early due to favourable traffic conditions — so I checked for a reservation (there was none) and asked to be seated.

About 12:10 I was a bit concerned. My client is very punctual, so my first thought was not that they were running late — but had they arrived and we had missed each other.

A quick tour of the restaurant proved me right. She was sitting at another area of the restaurant wondering the same thing. I am also habitually punctual and always call when delayed.

By the time we connected and were re-seated it was now after 12:15. Both had afternoon commitments.

The Manager came by to apologize and when the bill came, the entire lunch was complementary due to the aggravation and inconvenience.

So how did the restaurant do? Did they put the customer first? Did they create a “Woo Hoo” experience?

My Perspective: As you might guess, I feel they missed some opportunities.

Obviously there were some issues at the front desk that need to be addressed, but that is not what I want to talk about. I’d like to think about the end result — a free lunch. I should mention it was a simple meal with no alcohol, so the cost was not significant — approx $30.00.

I think the Manager gave too much away. Rather than giving us a free lunch, a significant discount would have been fine. That would have shown they appreciated the situation they had created yet they could still have made some revenue. But even that point is debatable.

The real loss was not providing us with an incentive to return and experience the type of service they were capable to providing.

They should have given us each a coupon/certificate of some kind for a discount or free appetizer with a comment something like this;

“I apologize that today we failed in our promise of an exceptional experience. In addition to the discount to address our failure today, I would like to give you each a coupon to entice you to come back again and give us the opportunity to demonstrate the exceptional service we are known for.”

With the discount we were very pleased, but had no compelling reason to return. They fixed our current problem — but weren’t thinking about the future.

With the coupon, the restaurant had now created a reason to choose their restaurant above another. They had made a commitment to do better and had created some positive pressure to get us to return to see if they were up to the challenge.

So when you are dealing with a recovery — are you just looking to correct the current situation? Or do you have an intentional plan to create a positive reason for the customer to return to your location and give you another opportunity to demonstrate that you deserve their business.

Make sure you don’t leave any lost opportunity on the table.

Recently my wife and I made a real estate investment and in the course of that transaction we were exposed to 2 banks we had no previous relationship with that caused us to re-evaluate our existing banking relationships.

We currently have accounts at 2 different banks and for simplicity were considering consolidating it with one of those banks — Bank of Montreal.

The 2 banks — TD and RBC — which we had no previous relationship, are offering a very attractive interest rate.

However, when we asked the Bank of Montreal, which we have a long standing relationship with, if they would match the offer — their answer was that we needed to submit an application and they would consider it.

My Perspective: The Bank of Montreal made us feel like I had to qualify to be their customer and that they would only treat me as a preferred customer if they felt it was worth their while. We had been their customer for over 30 years — and yet they were treating us like they knew nothing about us.

On the other hand, the TD & RBC banks both let me know they were interested in our business. Of course I knew that a preferred rate was subject to application — but without even seeing my full financial picture they were willing to let me know their best rates.

When I posed the question to the Bank of Montreal branch representative, they were embarrassed by the “head office” position, but their hands were tied.They also acknowledged that they were aware that TD & RBC were very aggressive in seeking new customers so the information was not news.

Do you have processes in place that treat your existing and potential customers like they have to apply to be your customer. Or do you welcome them with open arms.

I fully appreciate that all customers are not alike — or as profitable — but don’t insult them by making them jump through hoops before you have enough information to make a decision.

Wouldn’t it have been far better if the Bank of Montreal had indicated they did offer to match the preferred rate subject to qualification. I am sure the local bank representative could have easily determined whether we were likely to qualify based on 30 years history with that branch.

Instead, we have decided not to consolidate our banking with Bank of Montreal and are now less loyal than we were and potentially open to a relationship with a new bank that demonstrates they are interested in our business.

If you are not building loyalty with your customers everyday — beware that your competition isn’t sneaking in the backdoor with better customer service.

This is the fourth in a series of six articles that looks at different aspects of excellent customer service and how it leads to increased overall profitability. The full series will be available for download as a white paper once it is completed.

In our last article, we discussed 4 Steps to GIVE Exceptional Customer Service. Now we want to go over some of the key reasons why it is so important that customer service should be exceptional — to exceed expectations.

If customers are receiving exceptional customer service, they would naturally have a tendency to return to the same store again to fulfill future needs. Although the customer may only spend a small amount in any given transaction, their loyalty is potentially worth thousands of dollars in profits to the company — which helps secure future employment for the team.

Therefore, exceeding customer’s expectations is in the best interest of all employees at all times. Here are 3 key reasons why investing in exceptional customer service is an investment in your long term success.

Differentiates you from your competition

Customer service should exceed expectations because it may be the only factor that separates you from your competitors. Your products and prices may be the same. Your hours of operation and location may be the same. The quality of your products may also be the same. So it’s the things you do differently that will make you stand out from other businesses in the eyes of your customers.

Be different in as many positive ways as possible. Be memorable for the right reasons. Your team should be cheerful when dealing with all customers, no matter what sort of day they have had. Handle customer complaints in a positive manner. Make the effort to go the extra mile at every opportunity so people are more than satisfied with your service. They are so delighted with your service experience that they wouldn’t dream of going elsewhere.

Creates loyal customers

Your end goal should be to gain as many loyal customers as possible because they’re priceless. Exceeding their expectations on a regular basis is the best way to satisfy them and retain their loyalty. Customers don’t want the stress of looking for new places to shop. If you provide excellent customer service at every opportunity, they’re more likely to keep coming back because you’re making life easier for them.

Loyal customers are much easier to service because they’re more forgiving if there are the occasional problems because generally they’re satisfied with your service. It’s five times harder to win a new customer than it is to service your existing customer base so it’s essential that your team builds long-lasting relationships with your customers so they do remain loyal.

It’s easy to become complacent when dealing with loyal customers if they’re simply coming in and spending their money. It’s vital that your team remain ever-vigilant to customer needs.

Word of mouth is powerful

If your customer service experience exceeds expectations, that’s a powerful reason for customers to tell family and friends about your company’s service. People trust personal recommendations and are more likely to try a new business rather than go through the stress of shopping around for better prices.

If the new customers are equally impressed with your service, they’re also more likely to refer you to their friends and so it continues like a domino effect, thereby increasing your profitability even more without excessive additional expenses.

Even if you have a situation when a problem arises, this can be turned into an exceptional experience. This gives your team the opportunity to really demonstrate your service experience by the careful handling of the situation (more on this in our next article) and a positive result for the customer. Even then, any word of mouth advertising is bound to be positive.

Word of mouth is the cheapest, yet most powerful form of advertising available. The faster it spreads, the better it is for your business.

People will talk about your service experience — so it is important that the conversation is positive.

In our next article we’re going to cover 5 Steps to Turn a Negative into a Positive Customer Experience and thus retain even more customers in the process.

Stopped by our local East Side Mario’s for dinner the other night. It was a nice night and since it was mid-week the restaurant wasn’t too busy, so we decided to sit on the patio. However, when we asked the hostess to be seated outside we were told that it would be 15 – 20 minutes before we could be seated. However, we could be seated immediately if we wanted to sit inside.

When I asked why we couldn’t be seated outside immediately — since approximately 50% of the tables were open — we were told that there wasn’t enough staff scheduled on the patio to serve more tables.

My Perspective: If there were enough staff in the restaurant to serve the total number of customers — then why couldn’t they simply reallocate some of the inside staff to serve outside on the patio?

It was such a nice night outside that people wanted to enjoy the evening. In fact people were waiting for tables — while servers inside stood around since their tables weren’t full.

My guess is that staff had been scheduled to stations in advance and that no one either had the authority or the initiative to adjust the staffing arrangement to address the customer desire as a result of the weather. Seemed kind of a no-brainer to the customer — but if the management hasn’t built in this type of flexibility then they will often be faced with disgruntled customers who can’t understand why there are silly rules preventing them from achieving their desired outcomes.

Is there any rules in  your business that seem silly to the customer — even though they make sense to you?

Have a look at your processes through the eyes of the customer and see if you see any areas for adjustment that can increase your opportunity to delight your customers. If you can’t see any holes — ask someone who doesn’t work in the business to have a look. They might see something you miss because they see things through fresh eyes.

Last week, Audi Canada lost a customer.

The customer currently has a 2009 A3 and 2007 A4 in their garage and was considering a Q5 for their next new vehicle. They also lost the brother-in-law of that customer who drives a Q7.

Plus there is all of the friends and family that will hear the story that I am about to tell you.

It seems that Audi decided that saving $1,000 — the cost to repair a leather driver seat in a 4 year old A4 — is a better financial decision that investing in the good will to stand behind their product and keep a customer loyal.

Back in 2007, when this customer was considering a new vehicle, the decision was between BMW, Lexus and Audi. The customer had been driving BMW’s since the 80′s and still had a 1990 BMW 325 convertible — which he loved to drive. But it was time for a new car for his wife. The final decision came down to the BMW, which they had a great family history with and the Audi A4.

One of the key tipping points for the Audi was the leather seats — you see BMW had started to use leatherette in the lower end models. The costs of similar vehicles were very close, but the leather seats just stuck in their minds as “going cheap”. In the end they liked the sales rep and they purchased the Audi.

They told all their family and friends about the experience with Audi and the brother-in-law also purchased a Audi Q7 when they replaced their Lincoln Navigator.

Fast forward to 2009, and the original customer needed another new vehicle. Since the sales rep was very good and the A4 was running beautifully, they decided to get an A3. There was no shopping around this time — since they now had an established relationship with Audi and the local dealership/sales rep. They were more than “satisfied”–  they were now “loyal”.

However, this past week, the wife — who was the main driver of the A4 — noticed a crack in the “leather” of the driver’s seat. The dealership was approached about this issue and they agreed that a crack of this nature was unacceptable and agreed to ask Audi Canada for some assistance although the car was no longer under warranty. After all, they were good customers who already had 2 Audi vehicles and had been bringing all their service work to the dealership (which is where the dollars are made in the car industry).

Much to their surprise, Audi Canada refused any assistance. The car was out of warranty — “too bad so sad”.

However, in an effort to salvage the deteriorating situation, the dealership offered to absorb the cost of the labour ($480) if the customer would pay the cost for the new seat cover from Audi Canada ($580). The dealership also advised the customer that if they called Audi Canada directly and complained that Audi Canada may back down and pay part or all of the claim — because the customer refused to go away.

My Perspective: Audi Canada needs to re-think their customer service policy.

They are throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales to save thousands of dollars. Their cost benefit analysis is broken.

They have turned a loyal advocate into a vocal critic who is now telling everyone who will listen to not buy Audi’s because they have cheap leather seats and refuse to stand behind poor workmanship in their vehicles.

How much smarter to look after this customer and then ask for a recommendation.

Are you looking at the short term value of a transaction against the long term value of a customer?

Do you know the long term value of a customer? What about their value as an ambassador of your organization based on the number of people they influence who might use your product or service based on their recommendation?

If you are not clear on the number, make sure you think then through. Then make sure you are making decisions for the long term vs. simply the short term.

Postscript: That customer in this story was me and will now be shared with thousands of people as a great story to illustrate my message of building long-term, profitable relationships with customers when I speak at conventions and conference across North America. Hopefully I will see you at one soon

Recently I had the occasion to visit my local Best Buy. While I was there for one purpose I decided to have a look at some of the new tablets. A very helpful young man came and provided me with excellent information about the various features and benefits to the different offerings. I wasn’t interested in purchasing that day, so I thanked him and went on my way with my other purchases.

When I went to pay, I asked if I could provide a positive comment about one of the staff who had been so helpful.

The answer was that in order to provide feedback — either positive of negative — I needed to visit their website. When I explained that I wasn’t interested in filling out a survey — I simply wanted to pass on a compliment to a manager for a job well done by a staff member — I was told they were not set up to receive comments at the store level. Of course, I could have requested that I speak with a manager or a supervisor, but it wasn’t worth my trouble.

My Perspective: It would appear that Best Buy isn’t really interested in hearing feedback.

Sure, they have a form on a website where they can track comments, but how many people never take the time to go to a website. How many times have you gone to the website on a receipt to provide comments? Too many people see this as a barrier and an inconvenience.

However, you can be sure that many people who won’t make the time to provide feedback through a website are very quick to share their experience with friends — particularly if it is a negative experience. But the organization will never hear their comments — or have the opportunity to benefit from that feedback.

So if you really want feedback, make sure it is easy to provide for the customer — not just set up so it is easy to track by the company.

This system was set up thinking about the organization — not the customer.

Review your process for soliciting feedback and ask whether it is serving the customer — or just more convenient for you.

I had dinner with a friend recently. It had been some time since we got together — so he shared a recent tale of poor customer service. It seems I attract these type of stories

I don’t recall all the specifics of the situation or the company involved, but he had called the call centre to complain about the lack of functionality on their company website. Apparently, he had tried to sign-up for some feature and he had been “kicked out” twice — so in frustration he call the customer service hot-line.

The CSR informed my friend that the functionality that he was trying to access was “down” . They also indicated that it had been down for a number of days and they had no information on when it would be up.

When my friend asked why they had not posted that on the website to save him the time and aggravation of filling in the form twice — the answer was “well that’s not our department, I just tell you what I am told to say.”

My Perspective: It should come as no surprise that I would be frustrated by the lack of concern about the customer by the company for not highlighting their technology issue. But I was more surprised that the CSR would offer such an “I don’t care” attitude.

Regardless of whether we are let down by another area of our organization (which unfortunately does happen) it is never a good idea to shift the blame. Apologizing on behalf of the organization for inconveniencing the customer is not the same as accepting blame.

Our job is to act on behalf of the organization with the goal of dealing with the customer issue — not identifying who to point the finger at. Later, we can look into a long term solution, which may identify that another department needs to make an adjustment.

Surely a simple answer that my friend had made an excellent suggestion and they would pass it on to appropriate department would have been better than the “not my fault, I don’t care” answer they got.

On the positive side, at least the company had let the call centre know there was a problem rather than leaving them out on a limb — but that was cold comfort to my friend.

A customer-focused organization looks first at the customers needs and then takes action to fix the issue for future customers. It never seeks to place blame — either with the customer or another area in the organization. That type of negative thinking never encourages a positive customer-focused work environment.

Recently a reader shared an experience with their Internet Service Provider (ISP) when they changed their internet plan to facilitate a faster download speed with a new high speed plan.

Based on the changes discussed, the CSR advised that the cost would remain the same unless they exceeded 50 GB per month download allowance.

This was more than ample as the previous plan was 12 GB and they didn’t even use all of that capacity. So they authorized the change and things happened as expected – until the next bill arrived.

The bill indicated an additional $10 per month for the new plan despite assurances from the CSR there was no extra cost.

Upon calling the ISP to inquire about the discrepancy, they were advised that they had been misinformed.

Not satisfied, they asked to speak to a supervisor. However the first CSR simply transferred them to a second CSR — where they had to explain the problem all over again. And was told no again.

The second CSR finally put them through to a supervisor who also confirmed that they had been misinformed and the supervisor couldn’t do anything about the situation.

When asked if they could re-instate the old plan, they were advised that it was impossible because the old plan no longer existed. The attitude was basically “tough luck”.

In frustration, they decided to contact the complaints department and, after a few days, received a call back from a supervisor who seemed to be genuinely interested in fixing this problem. They were able to change the plan back to the original plan at the original cost. Further, they apologized for the inconvenience.

My Perspective: Why do unhappy customers have to contact a special department to get things done that just make good sense?

Too many call centres have different departments that have different authority to address customer issues. Why do companies continue to assume the front line people don’t have the capability for making good business decisions?

They seem to be playing a math game about how many customers they will lose against how many will simply tolerate bad service and stay — rather than looking for a way to give all customers a good reason to stay.

If one supervisor was so easily able to solve this problem, why couldn’t the original supervisor?

There is an issue with training here — but the bigger issue is trust. Trust that employees can and will make good business decisions based on getting good training and well defined guidelines.

Everyone within the company should receive the same training so customers can be confident they will get the same help, no matter who they speak to.

Have you had any experiences like this? Where you call a call centre, are you given the run around because people don’t seem to know what they’re doing? Or maybe they just don’t care?

Make sure that when people call your place of business, that all employees are empowered to make things right — or can quickly get the approval from someone who can.

A colleague shared a story with me about a poor customer experience they had in a restaurant. A group of co-workers had arranged to get together for lunch to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. They chose a restaurant that they hadn’t been to before but wanted to try. My colleague called ahead to made a reservation for the group of 25 people.

The group arrived at the restaurant on time. However, despite having made the reservation, they had to wait quite a while before even being seated. Once seated and menus had been handed out, the group were ignored. Everyone was hungry and ready to order — plus they also had a limited amount of time before they needed to head back to work.

A waitress finally arrived to take everyone’s order.

After waiting for longer than seemed necessary, and observing other tables get their meals ahead of theirs, the group’s meals arrived EXCEPT for the meal ordered by the birthday guest. He didn’t receive his meal until most of the others were finished.

A complaint was lodged with the manager — but he didn’t seem to care. He offered no apology and, after being asked to comp that meal, refused to do so.

Because of this poor treatment, my colleague decided to write a letter to the head office of the restaurant chain. They detailed the experience and mentioned that in addition to the 25 customers they had lost directly — everyone would tell their friends they would not recommend visiting that restaurant as well. Ultimately, that meant that a much larger number of customers would be lost.

A few days later my colleague received a letter of apology in the mail and a $40 gift card.

However, they couldn’t find anyone willing to return to the restaurant to use it due to that bad experience.

My Perspective: Bad things happen in every business. However, the key to keeping customers happy is through honest communication and being accountable for the poor experience.

Your teams must be prepared and empowered to make things right — on the spot. Research tells us that when we fix a problem on the spot that loyalty actually increases more than if the customer is simply satisfied.

So rather than seeing a complaining customer as a problem — start seeing them as an opportunity to demonstrate your exceptional service recovery — and a way to build loyalty.

For example, if there was to be a delay in the preparation of meals, then the customer needs to be informed. Offering something to help address the situation also helps — in this case perhaps a basket of bread or something else could have been offered while they were kept waiting.

In this case, the effort was too little too late. They couldn’t regain the trust of the customers they lost through one bad experience.

The key is to take steps to rectify the problem quickly — instead of ignoring it. After all, we all know it’s easier to keep existing customers than to find new ones.

Have you ever received information from a company that was wrong? How did it make you feel about their product of service?

A reader shared an experience after having trouble with the PVR (Personal Video Recorder) for their TV.

The problem was that recorded programs would freeze in the middle of the program and the rest of the recording could not be played.

They contacted customer service about this problem as it was still under warranty. The customer service representative advised them to pack up the unit and they would arrange for a courier to pick it up to be repaired or replaced. However, the CSR couldn’t give them a time frame on the repair as there was a “backlog”.

The courier arrived as promised to pick up the unit. However, after two weeks with no news, the customer decided to call for an update.

They were told there was still a backlog and their unit was still waiting to be checked. Again no time frame was offered for the return.

Two more weeks passed — so another call. After a long discussion, the CSR indicated a new unit would be sent and would arrive within five working days.

The unit arrived, but when the customer opened the box they discovered that not only was it not a new unit, but it was the old unit returned packed in exactly the same way as when they initially sent it off.

Rather dumbfounded at this discovery, the owner called the call centre again and asked why they were given the old unit back and why hadn’t it been fixed. The reply was that the problem was actually in the programming and they were waiting for a new patch to be created that could simply be downloaded onto a memory stick and then uploaded onto the set top box.

The patch was planned to be available by the end of that week — so they were told. After numerous phone calls and emails back and forth over the course of the following four weeks, the patch was “still coming” and “wouldn’t be long now” was the basic reply, no matter who they spoke to.

Finally, six weeks after the initial call, they received the patch to download and once it was uploaded to the unit, the problem was fixed.

My Perspective: This is typical of a company that is focused more on themselves than their customers.

None of the people the customer spoke with seemed interested in taking ownership of the call or finding out the facts. They seemed more interested in getting the customer off the phone as fast as possible — possibly to keep their time/call down and call rate up.

Also, where did the initial operator get their information when they advised the customer to ship the unit back for a physical repair? Did they make it up? Was it simply an easy way to make the customer happy and get off the phone or did they actually check with someone? They wasted 2 courier charges and still ended up with an irate customer.

There are a number of issues here — but the most critical were a lack of communication about a technical problem supported by an intentional customer service strategy to deal with the issue, and secondly, employees giving customers information they don’t know to be true.

Even though the problem was eventually fixed, this customer was left with a negative experience regarding that brand and probably won’t use them again or recommend them to their friends.

Avoiding the issues and leaving employees to fend for themselves with customer service issues does no one any favours — so make sure your strategy for dealing with issues is intentional and supports the front-line team. And if your employees don’t know the answer, make sure they know how to find out before giving false information to a customer.