In a crowded space, what can you do to make your business stand out? Have a great website? A better marketing campaign? A better price? Nobody wants to compete on price. And when someone asks you what’s so great about your company, do you really want your answer to be, “We have awesome marketing?”
Every business tries to stand out and provide something unique that differentiates it from other similar businesses. If you offer the same service, the same product, the same user experience, etc as the rest of your competitors, then you are just like everyone else. All things being equal, why would anyone choose you?
In a crowded space, outstanding customer service is a great way to differentiate yourself.
Why?
- Outstanding customer service is a great way to retain a customer. Once sales has closed a deal, they are only peripherally involved with the customer. But, customer service talks to existing customers every day.
- If your product isn’t special or unique, make your customer feel special or unique. Taking the time to solve someone’s problem, help them out or take care of them in some special way makes a huge difference.
- Almost nobody really provides outstanding customer service, so it’s a great differentiator.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Case One:
There is a car dealership with a service department directly across the street from my office. It was incredibly convenient. I used to take my car over there for service because I could drop it off and walk across the street to work.
The process of making an appointment and dropping my car off was pretty involved. First, I had to call the main phone number and wait while I was transferred to the service department. Then I explained the problem I was having with my car or type of service I wanted and scheduled an appointment.
When I arrived at the shop, I had to stand in line to drop my keys off. I had to re-explain my needs to the person dropping my keys off even though I already explained the problem when I made the service appointment (apparently the person making the appointment for me never wrote down the problem). Then, I had to wait around while the attendant typed everything in to the computer system.
I was told when my car would be ready and that I would receive a call confirming as such. In reality, I don’t think that the car was ever ready at the time they promised. And I don’t think that I ever received a call to let me know the service was done. I usually had to call them and wait on the phone while they checked on the status.
Then, when I went to pick up the car, I had to wait in line to pay and then I had to wait again while they brought my car around to the front of the building.
I think I was actively engaged with someone at the dealership for about two minutes total, but their system required that I be present at their shop for nearly an hour to drop off and pick up my car.
Case Two:
Last year, I started taking my car to a different place. It’s less convenient. I have to have someone pick me up and drive me to work, while my car is being serviced, but it still saves me time and money because I don’t have to do all the waiting.
When I call in to make the appointment, the person who answers the phone writes down what needs to be done and so it’s already noted when I drop the car off. It doesn’t have to re-type it while I stand there. And I don’t have to repeat myself.
When I drop my car off, the person at the desk drops whatever else he was doing and gets us to take my key immediately. No waiting. It literally takes me less than 30 seconds to drop my car off most of the time.
I always get a phone call when my car is ready to be picked up. And it’s almost always done sooner than promised.
When I arrive to pick up my car, the person behind the desk drops whatever else he was working on and gets out my paperwork, processes the payment and I’m back out the door and driving away in about 2 minutes flat.
I feel like I’m truly a priority and not a cog in their machine. Their whole process is built around delivering outstanding customer service.
What makes case one different from case two? In both cases, I got the same service for about the same price. The primary difference is the quality of the customer service.
Case Three:
The online shoe retailer Zappos is a great example of how exceptional customer service works. Zappos is known for excellent customer service. I’ve even read posts online from people who think there are better shoe retail websites with better selections, but that the exceptional customer service at Zappos keeps bringing them back.
In fact, Zappos whole marketing model was to provide exceptional customer service and rely on word of mouth recommendations. That model helped the company grow to $350 million in sales by 2005, to crest profitability in 2006 and to attain over $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2008.
Here is an excerpt from a business week article about the company:
At Zappos, customer-service employees don’t use scripts and aren’t pressed to keep calls short. Hsieh (the CEO) says customer loyalty is so important to the company culture that the call center and headquarters have to be in the same place — Las Vegas. Every new hire spends four weeks as a customer-service rep and a week in the Kentucky warehouse before starting work.
That warehouse is open 24/7, so customers can order shoes as late as 11 p.m. and still get next-day delivery. “If customers know that they’re going to get the best service from Zappos and they’re going to get it overnight, then anytime we’re going to add a product category, our customers will be loyal to us,” says Hsieh.
Zappos tries to treat its vendors equally well. The company’s extranet lets vendors see which shoes are selling and how profitably. “I can see my business from their point of view,” says Tom Austin, who manages the California and Nevada territories for Clarks Companies North America. “Fred [Mossler] just says, ‘I don’t want to run out of shoes, you take care of us.’ You can’t believe how pleasant they are to work with.” Zappos even holds a vendor appreciation party before the big industry trade show each year. And yes, the call center staff are all invited.
When Amazon acquired Zappos for nearly a billion dollars they went out of their way to reassure everyone that they would preserve the company culture and the drive to provide such exceptional customer service. Amazon was keenly aware that it was this culture and attitude of service that helped generate such an enormous value for Zappos.
What about you?
When I talk about providing customer service, I’m don’t just mean your call center that answers the phone. Support analysts may have more opportunities to build these sort of trust relationships with customers, but they aren’t the only ones tasked with providing outstanding customer service.
In an early stage business, nearly everyone has an opportunity to be on the phone or in contact in some way with a customer. Outstanding customer service doesn’t just come from having a set of rules to follow. (Remember that Zappos doesn’t use scripts.)
Just like Zappos, you need to build a culture that shows that you care about how people in your company are treated. Then drive the same sort of behavior from your employees as they interact with customers. Truly outstanding customer service is a team effort.
Even if you don’t have a company like Zappos today, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get there. Take a few minutes. Think of one thing you can do to cultivate outstanding customer service at your company today. Got it? Ok, then just do it.
photo credit, paul likes pics
