Turn your company into the brand your customers can’t live without. And it shouldn’t take too much effort to do it. With the Customer Experience Cycle (CEC) as part of your company culture, you’re able to ensure consistent world-class, excellent customer experience.
Also known as journey mapping, this technique looks at every stage and touch point in that entire customer journey from start to finish and every touchpoint in between.
This is a big opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition by just spending some time focusing on providing an experience in that moment. It doesn’t have to be a boring, simple, mundane transaction. There’s a way we can elevate that by focusing on the experiential standards.
For example, if you’re in the hospitality industry, instead of the receptionist simply greeting the guests, employing the 5 E’s (eye contact, enthusiastic greeting, ear-to-ear smile, engage and educate) in every customer touchpoint makes you an indispensable brand.
4 Rules In Creating Non-Negotiable Service Standards To Become The Brand Your Customers Can’t Live Without
1. It Should Have No Or Very Little Cost.
The last thing you want is to take their non-negotiable list from four to 12 or 16 items, and they’ll never be done consistently. Then that doesn’t make it a non negotiable. So it shouldn’t add 10 seconds to an interaction.
2. It Should Be Easy.
The jobs of your employees and associate customer-facing employees are complex. A lot of times they’re understaffed, and we don’t want to burden them with a lot more.
3. No Impact On Productivity
It shouldn’t add 10 seconds to your interaction. For example, in the 5 E’s of customer experience – eye contact, enthusiastic greeting, and ear-to-ear smile only take a second to complete.
4. It’s A Wow To The Customer.
The main point is to get to those experiential standards. First, look at those service defects. Then look at those operational standards. What do you have to do in that moment? Maybe those are your standard operating procedures. Then get experiential. How do you provide an experience? How do you go above and beyond in this moment?
Spend the time with your team to intentionally focus on that because that’s something you don’t necessarily have the time to do.
