Three steps you can do today to get ahead of your competition.

The goal of any business is to attract and retain customers to build market share. While marketing will get new customers to come the first time, customer service will bring them back again and again. It will not be the ONE BIG WOW you do that will drive loyal customers. It will be the 1001 little wows delivered consistently that will make a big difference.

For starters, remember the Rule of Three. Why only three? Because nobody can remember Number Four. So, here are just three action steps that can set you above your competitors.

1. Define and dissect each of the Moments of Truth contact points in your business’s customer experience. Jan Carlzon, when he was CEO of SAS Airlines, coined the phrase “Moment of Truth” to define anytime a customer encounters any aspect of a business and then, as a result, forms an impression of that business. Take a potentially negative Moment of Truth and make it neutral. Take a neutral Moment of Truth and make it a small wow. For example, educate your hotel front desk staff not to ask questions such as “Checking in?” (No, I carry these bags wherever I go?”) or for a restaurant server, “Are you done working on that?” (Yes, eating that steak was definitely a chore.”) Educate your customer service staff NOT to say, “May I help you?” Your customer obviously needs help if he or she is approaching the associate.?The proper response should be to greet the customer and ask, “How may I help you?”
2. Always be on the lookout for different ideas outside of your industry that you can CASE (Copy And Steal Everything) that would enhance the customer experience. For example, shopping mall food courts offer free samples of their menu to passing customers. Could you CASE that in your restaurant at lunch of your signature dinner dishes? Retail stores offer free bottled water for customers who are browsing. Auto repair shops wash vehicles after they are serviced. A local salon sends handwritten thank you cards to first-time clients. Could you have first contact customer service staff send out a note that’s not attached to a survey request just to say “We appreciate your patronage?”
3. Regularly walk through your competition’s location with a mindset to “Be the Customer”. What are some of the little things that they do better? How can you improve upon those touchpoints to enhance and differentiate them from other competitors? Too often, in our own day-to-day operation, we live in a silo mistakenly thinking that our competition just sits there with no intention of doing anything different from before. Doubletree Hotels are famous for their chocolate chip cookies upon arrival. While GM of The Inn at Bay Harbor in Michigan, I CASE’d that idea and offered our guests Michigan apple caramel cookies on Friday afternoons. While it was not as much as giving cookies out every day, it certainly made a lasting impression on our weekend family guests. So, get out there to see for yourself how “the other guys” are doing.

When you follow your Rule of Three and take appropriate corrective action, you will improve your customer service to not only meet customer expectations, but consistently exceed them, even in a small way. When you consistently exceed expectations with little wows, your customers will have an emotional connection. The more consistently you exceed their expectations, the more memorable their experiences, and the more loyal your customers are. First, you will be best for your customers. Then, you will be first among your competitors.

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