$TREET $MARTS: Customer Support?🩲

June 27, 2023

$treet $mart$ (vol. 35)

Service

My wife and I had been planning a romantic night out for weeks. We wanted to find the perfect spot, somewhere that would make us feel special and provide an unforgettable experience. After reading several reviews online, we decided on a small restaurant tucked away in a quiet corner of town.

We arrived at the restaurant early to ensure we could get a good table. As soon as we stepped through the door, it felt like we were entering another world entirely – one filled with warmth and hospitality. The staff welcomed us with open arms and immediately seated us at what seemed like the best table in the house - right up against floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking lush gardens outside.

The waiter came over shortly after our arrival introducing himself as Johnathan and offering some recommendations from their menu. His enthusiasm was contagious; he knew all about each dish they served so well that it almost felt like he had cooked them himself! Johnathan’s service was impeccable throughout our entire meal; he anticipated every desire before even being asked for it - refilling drinks just when they needed topping off or delivering freshly baked bread within minutes of being requested - always with a smile on his face!

To top off this extraordinary dining experience, just when we thought it couldn’t get any better – out came a complimentary dessert platter with an assortment of sweet treats! We indulged in delight after delight until there were none left but smiles on our faces!

Ok, this exact situation didn't happen, but you get the point. An incredible dining experience leaves us amazed. Great customer service is palpable; it legitimately feels different. Yet so many fail to deliver such an incredible user experience. :(

So what's the difference?

Anticipation ...

The best customer services teams seem to anticipate what you need before you even ask.

How does one do that?

Today I Googled "How to Deliver the Best Customer Service" which returned 7,240,000,000 of the least helpful and useless results known to mankind.Upon reading the top-ranking search results one quickly discovers that they are written by someone who has never actually done it themselves.

As a result, you are left with 8 unactionable "keys" to customer service.

  1. Know your product. ...

  2. Maintain a positive attitude. ...

  3. Creatively problem-solve. ...

  4. Respond quickly. ...

  5. Personalize your service. ...

  6. Help customers help themselves. ...

  7. Focus support on the customer. ...

  8. Actively listen.

This instantly made me think of this scene from the infamous 90s movie " Billy Madison"...

So my next search query was "How to Scale Customer Service" which returned 924,000,000 search results. A little closer, but still not clear. And all of the results pointed to customer support, not customer service. 

Support? Im not looking for underwear. 🩲

Sadly, this is how most "Customer Service" training is done.

We teach employees how to respond when something goes bad, and support the customer to a resolution.

In other words, customer service training teaches you how to play defense.

But I can promise you, that this reactive approach to customer relationships will get you killed at scale.

So what's the difference?

It's actually pretty simple, Reactive customer support verse Proactive Customer Engagement.

This is why in every one of my companies we teach the following 4-part framework for 5-star Customer Experience.

Customer Experience = Offense

The 100% satisfaction formula.

1. Start by attracting the right people and deterring the wrong ones - 25%

Why are they there? Fast, Cheap, Quality, Luxury, Easy, Experience.

This piece of the puzzle is about brand, marketing and sales.

Do they align with your company values? And are they ready? Meaning are they ready for what you have to offer? Often what the customer thinks they need and what they actually need are two different things.

2. Are they matched to the appropriate solution? Sell them what they actually need - 25%

Just because they can use an aspect of your product or service, it doesn’t mean they should buy everything.

This is about meeting the right customer and product matching to their explicit (what they say) needs, while upselling to thier implcit needs (that which is understood, but unspoken).

For example, pair the perfect wine to go with the fillet Minot. Here for the steak, but really want the experience.

3. Share in the client's risk by way of a guarantee - 25%

Do you and the client both have skin in the game? If you're afraid to give a guarantee, then you need to look at steps 1 and 2. Either you are selling the wrong person, selling them the wrong thing, or you are selling something that you know you can’t deliver on. This is why you should incentivize salespeople to sell on accuracy and customer service to deliver on outcomes. If they fail to live up to the standard, then the customer can exercise the guarantee.

4. Create a predictable and repeatable process - 25%

If the product or service can’t be delivered the same way each time, regardless of who is executing it, then you can expect inconsistent customer experience. The only way to scale great customer experience is by way of a repeatable and documented process.

Best,

Samson

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