Customer Service: 6 Stunning Lessons and Their Examples

Maya Angelou once said: People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya knew a thing or two about the spirit of customer service lessons didn’t she? Her secret of course was focusing on making people feel good about themselves. And, by transference, feel good about the business that was serving them.
customer service
Customer service role.
Why is this a powerful secret? Because doing nice things for people often get talked about. A lot. And things that get talked about are at the core of word of mouth marketing. The most valuable way to execute your marketing, in our humble opinion.
There’s much to be learned from companies that place a value on the details of customer service. For the small business, there are practical lessons, such as how to increase business by developing a relationship with existing customers.
For larger corporations, there are lessons to be learned about company philosophy and brand development, and how taking a customer-first approach can benefit all aspects of an organization.  And perhaps most simply, businesses can learn how to emphasize customer service from those that are doing it best.
Regardless of what lessons there are to be learned, or whether or not businesses choose to adopt this approach, there is little doubt that for many businesses, placing customers first leads to real benefits.
As it turns out, in a world where there are ever more businesses competing for the consumer’s dollar, one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd is to make those consumers feel appreciated and wanted.

 

fundamental lessons
Fundamental lessons in social media.

Fundamental lessons from the best

Amazon,  Trader Joe’s, Ritz Carlton, Marriott, Zappos, LL Bean, Legos. These are our favorites among the best of the best when it comes to customer service. But what lessons can these companies impart?
Well, each adopts different policies in order to meet their customers’ needs but the fundamental lesson is simple: do everything possible to appease the customer, and you will earn his or her loyalty, and that means return business. So how do businesses achieve this?
Well, let’s take a look.

 

Amazon.com

When Amazon started out, the idea of doing most of your shopping online was still foreign for most. In order to convince individuals to skip the department store and shop online instead, Amazon needed to first earn their trust – and they did that in part through their now quite well-known return policy.
Nearly everything on the online giant’s website can be returned within 30 days of purchase, no questions asked. This return policy is seen by consumers as a sort of safety net, helping build trust and loyalty.

Customer service … Marriott

I have been a loyal Marriott customer from the start of my business career for over 45 years. Did quite a bit of travel throughout my career, and got sold early on with Marriott, from their Rewards Program, one of the best, if not the best in the industry.
Of course, in addition, their properties were all consistently outstanding. But since my retirement, I have not had the opportunity to stay with them very often.
But for my wife and I’s 20th anniversary, we decided to visit Miami Beach for a couple of nights. For my many years of loyalty, I am a Marriott Platinum Rewards member. The most significant benefit of this is having access to the concierge lounge and upgrade to a nicer room if available.
When I called to make a reservation, the corporate reservation desk person reminded me that he would request an ocean view upgrade, in case they were any available. A few days later, after thinking about it, I called the local hotel front desk, told them we had a reservation for 2 nights in celebration of our 20th anniversary, and asked for a special favor for the ocean view room for this special occasion. The front desk assured me they would do their best.
On our arrival at check-in, the front desk welcomed us with a warm anniversary congratulations and welcome. They said they were able to find us a very nice ocean view room. We certainly were not disappointed.
Later, after getting back from an afternoon of sightseeing and a dinner on the bay, we returned to the room to receive a very nice bottle of champagne and fresh strawberries from the front desk and hotel chef. What a great surprise and ‘wow’ customer experience.
The thing is this: the front line of any brand in the marketplace is not the advertising, packaging, or product design. It is the interaction of the customer experiences that determine the brand’s reputation to a large degree. It is human and emotion, and at that critical time when a customer engages with your employees at your touch points, your brand (your product and reputation) will either be enhanced or diminished. No doubt about our experience was there?

Ritz-Carlton

If someone told you that Ritz-Carlton Hotels was voted one of the best companies for customer service, you likely wouldn’t be surprised. Our research on them certainly didn’t surprise us. And that’s kind of the point; by making customer service a priority, the company has established a reputation as being always willing to put the customer first.
And this reputation not only engenders loyalty from existing customers, it attracts new customers as well. Ultimately, that is the promise of customer service and the point of brand reputation – to earn new business.

LL Bean

For some companies, it’s a magical return policy, while for others, it’s anticipating the customer’s needs before he or she is even aware of it. Retail giant L.L. Bean takes a simple approach; working every day to improve customer service across the board, by implementing policies and taking steps to put the customer first.
And perhaps this lesson, above all, is the one to take away from this article. If you run a business, whether it is Google or a local coffee shop, put your customers’ needs first – work hard every day to keep them satisfied, and in turn, they will give you their business.

 

Trader Joe’s

We frequent Trader Joe’s when we can (none in our local area) and we like to witness their operation first hand. Our study shows them particularly adept at random acts of kindness. Here is a story to illustrate.
An elderly man, 89 years of age, was snowed in at his Pennsylvanian home around the holidays, and his daughter was worried that he wasn’t going to have access to enough food due to the bad weather in the area.
Calling multiple stores in a frantic attempt to find anyone who would deliver to her father’s home, she finally got ahold of someone at Trader Joe’s, who told her that they also do not deliver … normally.
Given the extreme circumstance, they told her that they would gladly deliver directly to his home, and even suggested additional delivery items that would fit perfectly with his low sodium diet.
After the daughter placed the order for the food, the employee on the phone told her that she didn’t need to worry about the price; the food would be delivered free of charge.
The employee then wished her a Merry Christmas.
Less than 30 minutes later the food was at the man’s doorstep—for free! In refusing to let red tape get in the way of a customer in need, Trader Joe’s shows that customer service doesn’t need to be about the fanfare, it can simply be about doing the right thing.
 
LEGO's
LEGO’s imagination

Lego’s customer service lessons

 We love many things about this brand, from their innovation to the way they engage with their customers. Here is a perfect story to illustrate.
Nothing like losing a favorite toy to wreck your day. Especially devastating to a young child. Longtime Lego fan Luka Apps spent all of his Christmas money on a Ninjago (Lego ninja) named Jay XZ. Against his dad’s recommendation, he took his Ninjago on a shopping trip … and lost it.
Luka wrote a letter to Lego explaining his loss and assuring the Lego staff that he would take extra-special care of his action figure if they sent him another one.
 Hello.
 
My name is Luka Apps and I am seven
years old.
 
With all my money I got for Christmas I
bought the Ninjago kit of the Ultrasonic
Raider. The number is 9449. It is really good.
 
My Daddy just took me to Sainsbury’s and
told me to leave the people at home but I took
them and I lost Jay ZX at the shop as it fell out
of my coat.
 
I am really upset I have lost him. Daddy said
to send you an email to see if you will send me
another one.
 
I promise I won’t take him to the shop again if you can.
 
– Luka
The response he received from a Lego customer support representative was nothing short of remarkable.
He told Luke that he had talked to Sensei Wu (a Ninjago character), writing:
He told me to tell you, “Luka, your father seems like a very
wise man. You must always protect your Ninjago minifigures
like the dragons protect the Weapons of Spinjitzu!”
 
 Sensei Wu also told me it was okay if I sent you a new Jay
and told me it would be okay if I included something extra
for you because anyone that saves their Christmas money to
buy the Ultrasonic Raider must be a really big Ninjago fan.
 
 So, I hope you enjoy your Jay minifigure with all his weapons.
  
You will actually have the only Jay minifigure that
combines 3 different Jays into one! I am also going to send
you a bad guy for him to fight!
 
 Just remember, what Sensei Wu said: keep your minifigures
protected like the Weapons of Spinjitzu!
 
 And of course, always listen to your dad.
  
It’s rare to see such a thoughtful, creative response to a distraught customer. So rare that this story went viral and repaid Lego many times for its kindness. And paraphrasing Seth Godin, ‘remarkable actions get talked about the most’.
 
Our takeaway
Remember this important fact. This is your time to create a remarkable spirit of customer service to tell the stories of what you are all about. Great way to own the moment with lots of customers.
Social isn’t a new way of marketing, it’s a new way of doing business.
build value proposition
Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer experiences?  Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?
                 
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas to make your customer experiences better.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
 
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
 
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
  
More reading on customer service and customer experience from our Library:
Customer Orientation … the Worst Customer Experience Mistakes
10 Next Generation Customer Service Practices
Customer Service Tips … How to Take Charge with Basics
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+FacebookTwitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Make Your Service Something Customers Won’t Forget

Earlier in the year, my sister was in the hospital. She had a knee replacement, a procedure she was already familiar with. So, she knew what was in store and she was not looking forward to it. She wanted service to be something customers won’t forget.

Someting customers won’t forget.

One of her concerns was the level of service in the hospital (for good reason). When you’re undergoing major surgery and recovery, there’s a lot of room for mistakes. Even if the operation is fine medically, the aftercare can make all the difference in the world.

It’s only fair here to point out that my sister, wonderful as she is, happens to be one of the world’s most demanding customers. I should know because I am too. So any hospital she chose for this surgery was going to have to be on their “A” game to win her approval.

To our surprise, she found one that passed with flying colors. They did almost everything right from start to finish. Throughout the whole situation, My sister had nothing but good things to say about the hospital and staff.

Several things about this stand out.

One is the CEO/President of the hospital. He visited my mom three times while she was recovering from surgery. He even gave her his cell phone number in case she needed anything while she was there.

I almost fell down when she told me this.

ALMOST fell down.

She explained. Prior to choosing a hospital, she had told her surgeon about her concerns regarding good care. Her surgeon felt Lourdes Hospital was a good choice. So (apparently) he made a call.

I have no idea whom he called or what he said. All we know is she got extremely good care and special attention from the CEO of the hospital.

The second thing that stood out was the staff. They all seemed to be caring and very skilled at their work. As I said, my sister knows what good service is. These people really impressed her. That’s not an easy thing to do.

The third thing that stands out is that the care she received matches the current advertising campaign being done by the Lourdessystem.

As my wife and I were driving home from the hospital the first night, we noticed a billboard for Lourdes. It had a picture of a friendly-looking woman (a hospital employee). The copy on the sign read:

“I am the care I give.” “I am Lourdes”

(Or something like that.)

I hate most advertising because it’s not real. Most big corporate marketing campaigns are what the company wants us to think but not what the reality is.

This was different. Finally, I thought, a company got their marketing right. They actually seem to be delivering the same level of service and care their ad campaign suggests they are.

That is to say, consistency counts. And especially so do accuracy and honesty.

Don’t bother telling people how great you are unless you can back it up. The best marketing is what happens after you thrill someone (like having the CEO of a major hospital visit a patient).

That’s a memorable service. That’s a service that won’t be forgotten. And its what keeps your customers coming back.

Always remember:

Make sure the service you deliver is as good as or better than the service you advertise.

success

Business Survival Tips for The Digital Age

Here are some tips for how a business can succeed in the current digital age, which all companies can benefit from.

Keep Staff Engaged With OKR

Another common issue that employers find in the social media age is keeping staff engaged. Therefore, it is worth using OKR (Objective & Key Results) for setting individual, team, and company goals.

You can use OKR software to easily track and manage these targets, and this will always help you to keep the team motivated.

Keep the Website Modern

The company website is often what people encounter first when looking for a product or service, which makes it hugely important.

Therefore, you need to make regular updates to keep the site fresh and engaging.

Embrace Social Media

Of course, social media plays a huge role in business now, and this is an area that many companies find daunting or do not use correctly. This is an enormous platform and one which allows you to promote, connect, and engage, which can help your company to succeed in many ways.

Here are a few basic tips:

  • Share content which is of value to your target customer
  • Keep followers updated on company news
  • Promote your products/services
  • Respond to messages in a professional manner
  • Avoid posting anything offensive/divisive

Use A Digital Marketing Agency

Every company needs to use digital marketing to increase its visibility online, but this is challenging when it is so competitive.

Therefore, for the best results, you need to find an experienced digital agency that will help to improve your presence online.

Go Mobile

Another huge change in the world over the last 15 years has been the development of smartphones which have also changed consumer habits.

You must make sure that your website is mobile friendly and consider an app that can be effective for reaching your target customer throughout the day.

Customer Service

There is a misconception that customer service is not as important in the digital age as most business is conducted online.

A consumer needs to feel valued and may have questions so you must be able to provide fast and professional customer service with a few of the best ways of doing this being:

It can be challenging to succeed in the social media age as everything has changed so much and continues to change, but these tips should help you to modernize and compete.

Creating Customer Experience Impact with Random Acts of Kindness

David Freemantle is quoted: Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced. Random acts of kindness ideas? You can make great strides in customer service and customer experience by seemingly small but very thoughtful actions.

random acts of kindness
Random acts of kindness

Remember that customer experiences are the new marketing tactics.

new marketing tactics
Many new marketing tactics.

Check out this video on a memorable customer service experience from popular customer service speaker Ross Shafer.

Quite an impact for a simple can of Coca-Cola, isn’t it? Random acts of kindness will do it every time, yes?
Related: 10 Ways to Employ Customer Experience for Influence
Let’s take another example, this one coming from Fred Reichheld, a Fellow at the management consultancy firm Bain & Company:
One of my favorite examples of this happened at Rackspace, the managed hosting and cloud computing company. An employee on the phone with a customer during a marathon troubleshooting session heard the customer tell someone in the background that they were getting hungry.

https://digitalsparkmarketing.com/employee-empowerment/

customer experience story

An awesome customer experience story.
As the employee tells it:
 
 “So I put them on hold, and I ordered them a pizza. About 30 minutes later, we were still on the phone, and there was a knock on their door. I told them to go answer it because it was pizza! They were so excited.”
 

Our takeaway

 

 While the cost of the gifts/actions is quite small, the human mind simply cannot refuse the construct of simple reciprocity. Reciprocity can be summed up as our natural inclination to feel grateful for favors and our desire to “pay them back,” no matter how small they are.
The other thing that we consider about reciprocity is that research has shown us that the intentions of the ‘giver’ can affect the perceived value of the gift. This is why random acts of kindness ideas work so well.
Customers perceive the service as a genuine act of kindness rather than as you trying to buy their affection with costly gifts.
So remember, it doesn’t take huge expenses to win customers over!
You can’t over prepare on continually improving your customers’ experiences.
Remember, customers, create the most value for you … when you create the most value for them.

WINNING ADVERTISEmeNT DESIGN
Want to build a winning advertisement design?

 

Like this story? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
Please share a story about a creative customer experience design strategy with this community.
Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer experiences?  Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?
 
 
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas to make your customer experiences better.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
 
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
 Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
  
 
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
  
More reading on customer experience from our Library:
10 Next Generation Customer Service Practices
Handling Customer Complaints … 8 Mistakes to Avoid
7 Ways to Create a Customer Service Evangelist Business
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on FacebookTwitterQuoraDigital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.