Excellent Customer Service Courses | Make A Difference (Be A Little M.A.D.)
If you don’t make a difference you will be the same as everyone else. Be interesting instead.
When you are the same as everyone else the chances of a customer choosing you are random. However, if you make a difference with all the little things you do for customers, there is a much higher probability that the customer will choose you. This means you have to be a little M.A.D.
When people follow routine they get into automatic mode. They close down their hearts and minds with the repetitive nature of their tasks. They cease to be themselves. As a result, they become tired and jaded and any sense of creative energy drains out of their work. When you can do your job “with your eyes shut,” it probably means that you can’t see opportunities for doing exciting new things that stimulate customers.
Rather than allowing yourself to become a clone of the system, it is important that every day you create a difference for customers by expressing your unique personality and being yourself. It is this difference that helps create the buzz.
Every customer is unique and if you treat them all the same the value in the relationship will be diminished. Customers will not feel special or important because you have not treated them as such.
Creative energy is thus essential in making a difference for customers. It means experimenting with new ideas that might stimulate a customer’s interest and generate a positive experience. Customers are looking for such stimuli all the time. This is why they go shopping and take vacations. They want to get away from the routine and experience something new. It is a natural motivation. Your task in creating a buzz is to provide this creative stimulus for customers.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Jim, director of customer service at Saxon Housing, received a poem of complaint from a disgruntled tenant. He composed a poem for his reply. The customer was delighted. In response to a request from customers, Jim also installed a water cooler in the reception area.
Jasmine, when she was at Bradford bank, received a complaint that a six-year- old child had not received the special offer promised. Jasmine personally selected some children’s notepaper and wrote a handwritten letter to the child in reply. The child was delighted (as was her grandmother, who had opened the account on her behalf).
At the Shangri-La Hotel in Manila, regular guests have their names engraved on coffee mugs so that when they return their own special mug is brought out for their coffee.
At the Veranda Hotel in Mauritius, the housekeeping staff make a difference by picking flowers from the hotel’s gardens to decorate guests’ towels in the bathrooms.
Edwin Seah, a store manager with Starbucks in Singapore, organized a motivational picnic for his team. He invited some of his customers along too.
Sharon and Mathew, from the customer relations team of Bradford, organize a monthly “internal service award” for the best service provided to the team by another department.
Anne, a teller with Bank Atlantic, learnt sign language so that she could communicate effectively with a couple of customers who were deaf and dumb.
Similarly, a team at Taylors coffee shop learnt sign language so that they could converse with a deaf-and-dumb colleague who had been hired.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE PRACTICE
Become aware of all your routines and then step outside them. For example, move away from the scripted welcome to a unique personalized welcome that makes a difference.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE QUOTE
Make a difference by being yourself and doing little things differently from other people.
