It was such little things, really. Cookies when I checked in. They used my name. When I got to the room, they called to make sure everything was up to snuff. And then later, when I returned after a long day, my bed was turned down and there were a few sweet treats on my pillowcase. Oh, and a cute little critter was sitting there waiting to say hello.
Customer Service. Towel animals aside, here’s a 2-step exercise to easily to assure you create a positive experience every time.
1. Focus on their Expectations
What are your client’s expectations? Make a list of 10 expectations you think your client has. Think of the spoken and the unspoken expectations. Once you have 10, try to expand to even more. Cultural, social, educational and economic backgrounds all affect the set of expectations each person has. Oh, and the age. I was reading this week of a church in the midwest catering to 30 and unders. They met in a warehouse. The walls were black. The music was loud. The computerization was pervasive. And apparently their target market was swarming. It all comes down to recognizing (and then meeting) those expectations.
This is a powerful discovery exercise to do with your staff. Find out if the lists match. If not, then it’s a good time to discuss it with each other. Think about this: How on earth can you meet client expectations if you don’t know what they are? By making the effort to define a concrete list of expectations you’ll be well on your way towards meeting them.
2. Create a list defining how you’re going to meet those expectations
Write down at least 2-3 behaviors you can implement that will match the expectation. For example, if you wrote down, “a pleasant greeting when clients come in the door,” then you would list, “greet client with a smile, eye contact and a pleasant hello.” You should have a “solution” for each of the expectations. If you don’t have a system in place to assure each expectation will be met, then this is a perfect time to implement the training and development required to make that happen.
When you go through this exercise of listing the expectations and then creating a pro-active action plan for meeting those expectations, you are well on your way to crating a positive customer service experience for each and every client. Oh, and no towel animal required!