Customer Service – How Companies Get It So Wrong

Tuesday, February 6, 2018—The reason most companies miss the mark on customer service is because they conflate customer service with basic competency and routine problem resolution. To most managers, "customer service" is getting the right product to the customer on time, and addressing issues on a timely basis. But this is really just basic competence – not anything particularly special – and is superior only to "bad service".

Going "above and beyond" when rectifying a service failure isn't superior – it's just the effort necessary to make up for the failure itself.

If you've been watching my videos, you've heard me talking about the customer-trading process, which is the central strategy for high profit rates. Attracting and holding a larger share of high-profit accounts is the only way to significantly and permanently boost cash-flow and profits.

Concierge Customer Service for high-profit accounts is one of the best ways to attract and retain those accounts, and is a business reason for customers to switch or stay.

Let me define what I mean by "Concierge Customer Service". If you've stayed at fine hotel, there's someone in a concierge role, whose job is to assist you by arranging transportation, getting event tickets, or recommending local attractions. In other words, engaging every resource and all local knowledge to facilitate anything you, the customer, would like to do.

For a business, this means providing access to the full power of your organization, prioritized special treatment, and dedicated problem-solving. This requires dedicated manpower, systems and process changes, and will require some investment, but the payoff is enormous. Your team will have a powerful tool to win and retain the best accounts.

Patrons of budget hotels don't get concierge service because the prices and profit levels can't support such a service. In the same way, Concierge Customer Service is exclusively for your high-profit accounts. Their high profits fund the resources, and the exclusivity is a motivator for other customers to become more efficient (and therefore, profitable) to qualify for the service.

In a fully implemented program, qualified customers get some pretty interesting benefits.

They have a desk ornament that has the direct line to the concierge group. When they call, a person answers – no entering numbers to wade through a menu. The concierge immediately knows them by name, and takes ownership of any problem. The customer can go back to what he's doing, trusting that the concierge rep will quickly resolve any issue, or get the answer to any question, and report back.

These select customers get first call on inventory, because their picking tickets are prioritized, even to the level of being generated immediately when an out-of-stock item is replenished. They likely get special pricing, because their low-costs allow lower margins, while still generating great profit levels.

These accounts get monthly reports detailing issues resolved and documenting benefits they received, so they know they were shipped that hard-to-find item, and that quantity error they reported was resolved the same day. This really helps with account retention because they're aware of the things you do for them that your competitors won't.

Why is this important?

Because high profit rates accrue to those with the highest proportion of high-profit customers. You need to attract, and then retain, all the high-profit customers you possibly can. When products are commoditized, and pricing is similar everywhere, this is the only way to really stand out.

Dr. Jeanne Hurlbert develops concierge customer service programs for WayPoint clients and other companies, and these principles are covered in detail in her book. In "You Can't Serve Them Well if You Don't Know Them", to which I was a contributor, you can get a wealth of ideas and a great roadmap to implementing a Concierge Customer Service program in your own company.

What's the take-away? Concierge Customer Service is perhaps that last great differentiator available to set your company apart. It's perfectly suited to attract the kind of customers that really matter, and can really protect your most valuable accounts from the competition. With customer mix being SO important to success, why not get it right, while your competitors are busy being average or worse?

Get the book at: http://conciergecustomerservicebook.com