• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Special Offers
Business Intelligence Info
  • Business Intelligence
    • BI News and Info
    • Big Data
    • Mobile and Cloud
    • Self-Service BI
  • CRM
    • CRM News and Info
    • InfusionSoft
    • Microsoft Dynamics CRM
    • NetSuite
    • OnContact
    • Salesforce
    • Workbooks
  • Data Mining
    • Pentaho
    • Sisense
    • Tableau
    • TIBCO Spotfire
  • Data Warehousing
    • DWH News and Info
    • IBM DB2
    • Microsoft SQL Server
    • Oracle
    • Teradata
  • Predictive Analytics
    • FICO
    • KNIME
    • Mathematica
    • Matlab
    • Minitab
    • RapidMiner
    • Revolution
    • SAP
    • SAS/SPSS
  • Humor

The Secrets Of Profoundly Remarkable Customer Service

February 26, 2017   SAP
customerservice The Secrets Of Profoundly Remarkable Customer Service

“When you felt really good about your work, what was going on?”

That question was the key query that unlocked the secret to the true motivation to work. Industrial psychology professor Dr. Fred Herzberg, author of the landmark book, The Motivation to Work, used that question. His article, “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees” is one of the most reprinted articles ever to a appear in the Harvard Business Review. Dr. Herzberg can help us unlock the secrets of profoundly remarkable customer service.

Herzberg learned from the answers he heard that the features leading to worker motivation were not the extreme opposites of those leading to worker dissatisfaction. They were completely different features. For example, a poor salary or lousy supervision were clearly dissatisfying to workers. But paying people more money or providing better relationships with their bosses while removing a source of dissatisfaction did not result in motivated workers. Motivation came from features like achievement, growth, recognition, and the work itself.

What if that same research approach was used with customers? Let’s assume customer loyalty comes in many forms. Loyal customers return more often, buy more, and forgive more. Some show their loyalty by wearing the brand like a Harley-Davidson jacket, a Marriott shirt, or a Bass Pro Shop cap. But the pinnacle of customer loyalty is advocacy, remarking favorably to another person face-to-face, ear-to-ear,or click-to-click.

So what insights would you gain if you asked your customers: “When you felt so good about a service experience that you told a story about it to others, what exactly was going on?”

The anatomy of profoundly remarkable customer service

Think back over the greatest service experiences of your life; the ones that impacted you so profoundly that today you still enjoy remarking about them. Not, those great experiences you enjoyed and then forgot after a week. Rather, those you will remember the rest of your life – the experiences that touched you in a deeply compelling way. What were the features of these profoundly remarkable customer service experiences? What implanted them deeply; so influentially they are enthusiastically shared?

For the last two years, my colleagues and I have asked clients and keynote/workshop audiences these Herzberg-like questions. The search was for something more than just good service. In fact, we were not particularly interested in customer delight. We sought incidents that became an integral and permanent part of a customer’s life stories. The hundreds of stories shared by customers were organized around six consistent themes.

Enchant: The core of value-unique

Customers reported some experiences that seemed enchanting and magical. These reported experiences all contained an element of unexpected surprise. They were more than the typical exceed-your-expectations, value-added experiences; they were value-unique. While a few experiences could be labeled service heroics, the great majority of the experiences were simple, yet ingenious. When customers witness unpretentious inventiveness it signaled an authenticity they could trust. Symbolically, it is the difference between store-bought and homemade. There is a piece of the server in their captivating gesture.

Enlist: Customers care when they share

Granddaughters light up the room when asked by a grandparent to help make pancakes for breakfast, especially when that task involves allowing some risk-taking and not just performing a chore. That sentiment of meaningful inclusion characterized some customers’ profoundly remarkable stories. The gesture of collaboration made them feel like an insider with special privileges. It signaled a recognition and respect for the fact that all service experiences are co-created, not “factory made.” It surfaced for them the timeless protocols of effective partnering.

Enlighten: Creating a growth emotional envelope

Author Dan Pink updated one component of Herzberg’s theory features by labeling the “growth” motivator as actually “the pursuit of mastery.” Customers today enjoy a sense of accomplishment that comes with the capacity to demonstrate confident competence in aspects of their lives. Experiences that enlighten are less about capturing a “teachable moment” and more about inviting customers into a service context of curiosity, judgment-free acceptance, and collective learning. Since learning seems like a door opened only from the inside, when a fellow learner (not just a server) serves the customer, they feel enriched, not just educated.

Ease: Focusing on the pursuit of an unconstrained solution

Flow is a word we don’t hear much about in the service world. It is very prominent when discussing athletic or artistic performances. And service is truly a performing art. Instead of flow, we talk about effortless simplicity and being easy-to-do-business-with. In reality, none of these capture what customers really desire.

Most customers are just fine with the complex and even with the difficult. What they seek is the elimination of all arbitrary, illogical, and inane constraints that prevent a service provider and customer from “flowing” to a solution, not just a task. They care as much about the elimination of angst and worry as they do about quashing bureaucracy.

Endear: Delivering the antidote to indifference

The opposite of good service is not bad service; the opposite of good service is indifferent service. In fact, customers reported that indifferent service (a signal of a lack of caring) was actually worse than bad service. Customers often explain away bad service as a careless mistake. Service that endears grows from generosity, a spirit of abundance and kindness. Part of customers’ elevation of endearment as a feature of profoundly remarkable customer service exists because of their fatigue with mechanical service reported as long on efficiency but short on emotional connection. They crave emotional connections that indicate an affinity for customers rather than the quest for closure.

When we examined the brand names of the popular service providers frequently cited as deliverers of profoundly remarkable customer service – Nordstrom, Disney, Starbucks – most had a well-known brand promise and purpose. “They know who they are,” said one customer, “and it is noticeably reflected in how they do what they do.” The takeaway was that most customers today value substance over superficial, character over cosmetic. While they may enjoy service providers with charm; they trust service providers with soul.

Customer motivation, just like worker motivation, is not a feature that is given, commanded, or directed. We unleash it!  Smart customer service providers know that the secret lies in creating remarkable customer service experiences that encourage deep loyalty to emerge.

For more strategies that boost customer engagement and build loyalty, see Achieving The Holy Grail Of Customer Loyalty Through Community-Powered Commerce.

Comments

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Digitalist Magazine

customer, Profoundly, Remarkable, Secrets, service
  • Recent Posts

    • NOT WHAT THEY MEANT BY “BUILDING ON THE BACKS OF….”
    • Why Healthcare Needs New Data and Analytics Solutions Before the Next Pandemic
    • Siemens and IBM extend alliance to IoT for manufacturing
    • Kevin Hart Joins John Hamburg For New Netflix Comedy Film Titled ‘Me Time’
    • Who is Monitoring your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Apps?
  • Categories

  • Archives

    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
© 2021 Business Intelligence Info
Power BI Training | G Com Solutions Limited