BILL QUISENG | Deliver the World's Best Customer Experience

English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed”. So, I encourage you to remind yourself and your colleagues of this:

QUI TAKEAWAY: In their book, The Experience Economy, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore define “Work is theater and every business a stage.” If you were an actor delivering a great live theatrical performance, the audience becomes wrapped up in the experience and as they walk out of the theater, they tell their friends that it was the best thing they’ve enjoyed in a long time.

It does not matter to the audience that the actors are performing for the 100^th time. The audience has paid very good money to see the show and expects the actors to deliver their performance with the same passion as on opening night. Your customers expect nothing less. As it is in Great Theater, you have to “act it like you mean it”. Do not confuse this with “fake it till you make it”. Your customers, like any audience, can see right through that kind of performance. Do you always feel like working every day, five days a week, 8-10 hours a day, on your birthday,  holidays, or even on scheduled days off? Of course not. But do you think the customer really cares how you feel? Absolutely not! No customer walks into your establishment and says, “Dissatisfy me now”. So you have to deliver Great Theater every day whether you feel like it or not.

When you perfect the delivery of the script, you perfect your performance. Break down your customer experience, act it like you mean it, and deliver Great Theater. For example:

ACT ONE. Scene One.

 The Customer enters from offstage.

SERVICE PROVIDER: “Good afternoon, how may I help you?”

Motivation: Never say “May I help you?” If the customer is standing in front of you, he obviously needs help or he would have bypassed you completely.

CUSTOMER: “I believe I have a reservation. Last name is Smith.”

SERVICE PROVIDER: “Yes, Mr. Smith, we’ve been expecting you. Welcome to The Best.”

Direction: Maintain eye contact for at least seven seconds and smile as you say your lines.

Motivation:

• As Dale Carnegie says in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” So start with the customer’s name.
• What do you think is the very first question running through the mind of a customer when coming up to an airline counter, front desk, host stand, or reception desk? That question is, “I wonder if they have my reservation?” So to establish a great first impression, incorporate this statement into your welcome, “We’ve been expecting you.” It immediately removes that mental dissatisfier and puts the customer at ease.
• Follow that up with the name of your business.

Let it all flow together.

“Mr. Smith” (you’re very important to us). “We’ve been expecting you.” (No need to worry about your reservation. We have it.) “Welcome to . . .” (Where did Mr. Smith feel the most comfortable in interacting with a company? With you, of course. )

Define each scene in the customer experience and practice it often offstage. Never practice on the customer. Role-play with your colleagues. Then perform your role so well that all your customers say to themselves and others that your service was the best that they have enjoyed in a long time. And when you deliver that kind of Great Theater performance consistently, you will build repeat business and customer loyalty.   

QUI QUOTE: GREAT Service is GREAT Theater. Don’t fake it till you make it. Act it like you mean it. Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!  

#customerservice #customerexperience #custserv #custexp #cx

QUI TAKEAWAY: Customers pay for their experience, not your product or service. The customer’s best value in their experience is one that is “just perfect.” Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect … for your customers. Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!

#customerservice #customerexperience #custserv #custexp #cx

On July 4, Americans celebrate Independence Day. In part, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed

• That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it … and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

With that in mind, we, as customers, proclaim our independence from the tyranny of “Profits over People” retailers who care more about revenue dollars, market share, stock prices, bottom-line profits, and even their competitors, than people – us, the customers. 

To paraphrase John DiJulius’ battle cry, it’s time for a Customer CARE Revolution! Let’s be revolutionary to express this:

We, as customers, pay for our experience, not a company’s products or services. It’s OUR experience, not theirs. We buy with emotion and justify that decision with reason. We seek the best emotional value in our entire experience, not the minutiae of a company’s logically reasonable best prices, products, or services. And the best emotional value in our experience is in each retailer’s personalized interactions, not their “cash or credit” sales transactions. To earn our loyalty, don’t get inside our heads. Get inside our hearts. Create an emotional connection. Think RELATIONSHIPS or Go Broke. Literally.

We demand that every retailer service mantra to us is:

We are Customer CARE. We don’t just serve to satisfy customers. We WOW them! We CARE.

COMMUNICATE with each customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to them.

ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to us and our company.

RESPOND empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.

ENRICH the experiences of every customer.

When we CARE, each customer feels respected, appreciated, and valued. They are WOWED and happy. 

Now is the time for our Customer CARE Revolution! Let’s be revolutionary! Let’s have our retailers not just serve to satisfy us. Let’s have them WOW us! Let’s have them CARE for us! And let’s have them be GREAT out there!

#customerservice #customerexperience #custserv #custexp #cx