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Capturing Customers' Hearts |
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by Brian Clegg Want to see more on our customer service training and consultancy? Jump straight there. As well as general creativity training we specialize in transforming customer service - and that's for a very good reason. We need creativity in every part of our business, but tend to see it applying mostly to developing products and services, or to marketing, or to improving operational processes - in fact practically everywhere but the most essential link in the business survival chain: customer service. That's why we have a range of special services, specifically oriented to customer service. The Creativity Unleashed approach - capturing customers' hearts - is about going beyond the basics. Customer service has been a crucial focus for at least 20 years now. Does this mean that we can put our feet up, say 'we've done the customer' and move onto the next big thing? Not a chance. The continued focus on customers is an imperative given the realities of the marketplace:
Survey after survey has shown that customers are deeply unhappy with service levels. When I was gathering stories to illustrate my book, it was very easy to get examples of bad customer service – but many, many people could not think of a single instance of great customer service. To make the customer relationship the driving force behind repeat business and differentiation calls for a quantum shift. From consumer friendliness to charisma. We don't want to be nice to our customers, we want them to love us. To desire our company's products. To speak to other people about our company with awe in their voices. We need to capture their hearts. If our company is the one that gets this right there’s a big opportunity. A huge opportunity. Because unlike great products, unlike low prices, great customer service is hard to copy. Differentiation is the name of the game. What about quality? Quality is wonderful. Delivering the right product to the right place at the right time is essential. That’s one of the basics of business. But it is not enough when others can do the same. Quality is one of those sad attributes that is a real problem if it is missing, but isn’t feted when it’s there. If quality is absent – if you have consistently bad products or consistently late delivery – it won’t matter how good your customer service is, the customers will become unhappy and start looking elsewhere. But quality alone isn’t enough to retain the customers. You need something more. Charisma Charisma is about inspiration. It is the property of a person that inspires enthusiasm, interest or affection in others. It is attractive. In fact, it’s just what a business needs to take those customers beyond service, beyond a relationship or an experience. A business with charisma gives the customer something very special. When you’ve dealt with a business with charisma, you want to tell others about it. You want to share your feelings. If we can imbue a business with charisma, we have something that has the brightness of a searchlight alongside the candle flame of everyday customer service. In my book Capturing Customers' Hearts I identify 12 components that can build on the foundation of quality to give your business charisma. I can only give a brief taste of these components here: 1. Going the extra light year In a way, this first component pulls all the others together. It’s an attractive trait if someone goes out of their way to help you. Equally it’s attractive if a company goes that extra mile. But for true charisma, to stand out like a beacon, you have to do more – to go the extra light year, the first component of capturing customers' hearts. 2. If it's broke, fix it We all get it wrong sometimes. Zero defect is a fantasy beloved of quality circles, but it is not a fact of human life. However good our systems and procedures and staff, things will go wrong – and then the customer measures the company's worth on how well we fix things. All too often, service recovery is grudging, set about with conditions and rules that make the hard-done-by customer feel like a criminal. If this is how you treat your customers, you are missing a huge opportunity for building up charisma. 3. I'm in love with my car There are some products and brands that produce a reaction in the customer that is wildly disproportionate to their nominal value. It’s true of some cars, for instance, which have an almost fanatical following. Often these aren’t the best products by any conventional measure – instead they have a certain quirkiness that seems to generate such affection. You can’t engineer a product to be charismatic, but you can encourage it in that direction – and make sure that you maintain the benefit once you have a product that has achieved this status. 4. They know me The whole field of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has built up around the thesis that you can give customers a better experience if you know about them and make use of that knowledge in the way you serve them. Unfortunately, all too often, CRM has been driven by systems (and systems manufacturers) rather than the realities of human relationships. But this shouldn’t be allowed to cloud the reality that the company that really makes the customer feel recognized and welcome has a big stake in the charisma game. 5. Star power Companies who don’t have a star figurehead tend to be cynical about those who do. The key figures are regarded as unrepentant self-publicists for whom the limelight is more important than the success of the business. Yet this overlooks the fact that the public like a recognizable human face for a company. You can’t identify with a corporation – you can with a famous chief executive. For that matter, you can with any famous employee – or maybe the whole team. Perhaps everyone can be a star. 6. They're people like us As a gross generalization, people like people. They like dealing with real people. They have relationships with real people, not with companies. So the more it is possible to make your customer contact staff into real people, the better. That means staff who behave like people, not like automata. It means real people with real enthusiasms – especially those that are shared with the customers. And it means people we have to trust to get it right. There can be no charisma from staff in a strait jacket. 7. Surprise, surprise! Dullness and charisma don’t go together. Once upon a time, consistency was a customer service god, but if everything is the same, if everything is predictable, there can be no excitement, no charisma. The element of surprise, provided it is a pleasant surprise is a key component to keeping your customers intrigued and coming back for more. Don’t bore them until they run over to the competition – keep the creativity and fun flowing. 8. Technical wizardry It’s often said that men don’t really grow up – they remain enthralled by toys for their whole life. Whether your customers are men or women, technical flair will appeal to their male side. Sometimes charisma needs a little gloss – used correctly, technical polish is a valuable addition. Technology needs to be optional – some customers are turned off by it – but for many it is an effective attractor. 9. They're mine, all mine To call someone parochial is usually an insult, and yet we all have a degree of positive parochialism. It doesn’t matter if it’s my town, my country or my football team – we like to see our own do well. The more we can bring customers to feel that they own the company, the more they will feel inseparable from the company and its fortunes. Make the company theirs and loyalty is no longer an issue – it’s a fait accompli. 10. Cute and cuddly If technology appeals to the male in us all, there’s something about being cute and cuddly that tugs at our female side. To be charismatic is not necessarily to be loveable, but companies that give their customers that warm glow are inevitably charismatic. 11. We keep in touch Communication is at the heart of human relationships and is equally important in fostering the relationship between a human being and a company. So often the things that go wrong are a result of a breakdown in communications. Keeping up a dialogue and making it obvious that you enjoy that communication makes it difficult for a customer to resist. You should never let up on communications. 12. The twelfth component That’s eleven out of the way, but what of the twelfth? I have to confess that consideration of a twelfth component arose initially out of a sense of order. There’s something lumpy and unsatisfactory about the number eleven, compared to the serried order of twelve. When I began to think about what a twelfth component could be, I realised it was just as well that I had undertaken the exercise, because I had missed something big. Most people would accept that some companies have attributes that make the unique. What I came to realize, however, is that this statement can be generalized. Every company has its unique attributes, and these form the twelfth component that can bring charisma. Most companies' service is like junk food, bland and uninspiring. Capturing customers' hearts transforms junk into service that inspires. It's a whole new ballgame. Brian Clegg is a best selling author of business and popular science books, and director of Creativity Unleashed Limited. To find out more about capturing customers' hearts, see our best-selling book, recommended by Harvard Business School. Want to see more on our customer service training and consultancy? Jump straight there. |
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