O Yes! Customer Delight From O2!

I called O2 business yesterday looking for some information about our mobile phone account. The guy who I dealt with was ‘exceptional’ (wish I ‘d got his name actually). He sorted things out and did it with ‘personality’ and demonstrated an interest in me. I know, you could argue, so what, that’s his job! I agree, but my expectations of ringing call centres aren’t high, so he ‘delighted’ me.

What came next was even better. Unprompted (by me anyway) he told me that he was looking at my account and I hadn’t signed up for the Free Frequent Numbers scheme that they’d got which entitles me to free land line calls to 10 numbers of my choice. That’s my supplier telling me how I could spend less and save money with them!

Some would argue that it doesn’t make commercial sense to ‘give stuff away’. I’d say that they’ve demonstrated to me that they are striving for a long term relationship and that they are not ‘taking me for granted’.

I’d also suggest that it’s a clear strategic drive to do this. Interestingly, on the O2 website they say that they recognise that the market is crowded with competitors and ‘they aim to turn their customers into fans’ – well, they’ve done that to me!

Kayaking To Success!

I love getting real examples of businesses and leaders that actually do stuff that works… and do it well.

I’ve just come across a nice profile of Paul English of Kayak, on Inc.com. Kayak is the highly successful travel website comparison site and the article highlights the role of Paul as a leader when it comes to creating a real customer focus across his business.

In what can often be seen as the ‘faceless’ sector of web business, he seems to very much try to ‘humanise’ the business, and does it by ‘leading from the front’.

Here’s an extract from the article:

About a year ago, I bought a red telephone with a really loud ringer for the office. Whenever a customer calls the help number on our website, that phone rings. The engineers initially complained about it. They said, “That’s so friggin’ annoying!” And I’d say, “There’s a really simple solution: Answer the friggin’ phone and do whatever it takes to make that customer happy. Then hang up, unplug the phone, walk it down to the other end of the office, and plug it in down there.”

 It’s like hot potato. Except I take it seriously. When the phone rings, I literally jump over the desks just so I can get to the phone before anyone else. I love talking to customers, even angry ones. I learn a lot from them about how to make the site easier to use. When the call’s over, I’ll say, “If you have any follow-up questions, my name is Paul English; I’m the co-founder of the company.” I’ll give out my personal cell-phone number. Only one out of 20 people might actually call, but they’re blown away when I do that…….

 

The article highlights some really great examples of what I see in totally customer focused businesses:

• They’re easy to buy from and deal with
• They get ‘customers’ on the agenda…. and keep them there
• They hire for attitude, not just skill
• Leaders act as role models – they ‘walk the talk’

You can read the article here…… and after you have, ask yourself:

 ’How do we measure up against those 4 factors?’

 And then maybe work out what you need to do to ‘walk the talk’!

Are You ‘COMPLETELY’ Happy? It’s A Tough Question!

I was asked yesterday about customer feedback questions to get a feel for what they think about your service. Customer feedback is critical to maintaining and improving competitiveness. Unfortunately, I think far too many businesses don’t (or daren’t) ask the ‘tough’ questions.

I think you should avoid the ‘tick boxes’ and ’score out of 10′ questions and ask:

“Were you COMPLETELY happy with our service?” with a YES / NO answer and a follow up ‘Why / Why Not?’

Here are a few more follow up questions worth considering.  My personal view is that they should ’stretch’ customers to commit to answers, so things like:

• Was there anything / anyone that particularly ‘impressed’ you about our service?
• Was there anything / anyone that particularly ‘disappointed’ you about our service?
• If we could improve just one thing what should it be?
• Please sum up our business / service in just a few words.

The idea is to ‘provoke’ people to give an answer. For example, there is an arguement that if they don’t give an answer for the first or second questions, then things are ‘ok’, but as you know ‘ok’ is not the stuff that people tell others about. It’s not a ‘bad’ rating, but it’s not exceptional or ‘dramatically different’!

They are tough questions, but we are in ‘tough times’!

What questions do you ask?

Demonstrate You Care For Only 20p A Time!

Ecclesall Road in Sheffield is a busy retail street with lots of great independent retailers and is a major thoroughfare in and out of the city. As a result, parking is always a bit tricky. The City Council has introduced a charge to park in and around the area – not much, just 20p which I can’t imaging puts that many people off.

Mookau, one of the very distinct independent retailers there that sells gifts and homeware has introduced a nice little touch. Walk in to the shop and they’ll give you your 20p back! You don’t even have to buy anything! I often suggest that being ‘easy to buy from’ is one of the first principles of customer care.

This is a great example of not just ’being easy to buy from’, but actually demonstrating it to existing and potential customers!

Of course, you’re not going to dash to Mookau just for 20p, but

a) you now know that they’re thinking about their customers, and

b) like me, you might just tell others about that too.

What do you do to demonstrate you care about your customers?

Get ‘Intimate’ With Your Customers!

As Valentine’s Day approaches, it seems like a good time to get ‘intimate’!! No, don’t worry, I’m not going all ‘rude’ on you, I just thought it might be time for a little ‘prompt’ to get you to look at your ‘customer relationships’.

How well do you and your people  know your customers? How ‘intimate’ are you?

In other words, are your key customers ‘complete strangers’, ‘just good friends’, or is your business ’passionate’ about them?

Do you and your people know their ‘background’, their needs, their issues, their opinions, their problems, their plans, and their feelings about you? If you do, the key here is, do your customers know that? What do you to demonstrate that?

 No, I’m not suggesting you send them a Valentine card, but what could you do to let them know that you are ‘thinking about them’? (And…no, not just on Valentine’s Day!)

Are Your Customers ‘Happy’ or ‘Sad’?

Here’s a great idea highlighted by David Sumner Smith about a nice article on getting customer feedback. When Derek Buchanan  took over as CEO at software business Episys he introducedpre-paid  ’Happy’ or ‘Sad’ cards to get feedback from his customers. They are part of his ‘Ever Been Disappointed?’ campaign aimed at encouraging his customers to press the ‘panic alarm’ and give their thoughts, especially when things haven’t gone so well.

The pre-paid postcards are a very visible way of:

a) demonstrating to customers that their opinion counts

b) demonstrating to staff that customers’ opinions count!

There are mechanisms and systems in place to deal with the good and the ‘not so good’ feedback which again appear quite ‘visible’. As well as highlighting the successes and the results of the process improvements that result, this also includes ‘I’ve had a shocker’ T shirts for those who haven’t quite ‘delivered the goods’!

I think the example here appears to reiterate the key point:

‘customer feedback is good, but it’s what you do with it that counts’

Do you have a customer feedback process that results in ACTION?

Human Bed Warmers? Now, that IS Customer Delight!

Goodbye hot water bottles! Here’s a great idea for ‘customer delight’ by Holiday Inn:  Human bed warmers! At the Holiday Inn Kensington, you can now request a human to ‘pre warm’ your bed for you before you get in it!

Dressed from head to foot in an all-in-one sleeper suit, a member of staff will jump in your bed and get it all nicely warmed up for you! Now that is ‘customer delight’!

Customer delight is all about exceeding customer expectations – it’s about going the extra mile, it’s often about the ‘little things’, and very often, it’s ’the personal touch’ that makes customers feel special and valued.

What do you do to ‘delight’ your customers?

Why not identify one or two ‘little personalised things’ that make them feel ’special’…. And, no, you don’t have to sleep with them!

The Customer Learning Curve

Here’s an interesting presentation on the Customer Learning Curve  by Tamir Berkman (you can tell I’ve been on spending some time on Slideshare over the New Year!). the basic concept is that your customers have a different perception of you as the relationship develops and it’s key that you don’t treat them all the same. It also talks about helping them move along that curve.

Simple stuff, but well worth a look.

Free ebook – (Re)Thinking in 3D…..

I’ve written a new book! It’s all about Thinking in 3D – That means creating a business that’s 

‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different‘! 

Basically, it’s a short set of ’rants’, raves and ideas aimed at engaging, stimulating and challenging you. 

If you enjoy the blog, I’d like to think that you’ll enjoy this too. The main reason being that there will be a few bits and bobs you’ve read before here on the site – see it as ‘going back to the gym’ – you still need to work those muscles!

I’ve called it:

(re)thinking in ‘3D‘….. and the best bit is it’s FREE!

 

If you like it please send it on to others….. and let me know what you think about it too please!

You can

download it here!

Hope You Have a ’Delightful’ Christmas!

Recruiting ‘Customer Delight’ ers

Came across this today. It’s a design business in Lynwood, Washington looking for a graphic designer. Part of the application process involves submitting, as well as your cv and examples of work, an example of when you’ve ‘delighted’ a customer, how you did it and what the reaction was from that customer.

It’s simple stuff, but I think it does a number of significant things in the recruitment process:

1) It gets beyond just the ‘technical’ stuff about design and ‘doing the job’

2) It shows the prospective employee what’s important around here – you’re ‘culture’

and

3) It reinforces that to existing clients and existing employees.

What do you look for in your prospective employees? Crucially, how do you let them know that’s what you’re looking for?

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