by Daria Steigman on August 26, 2010
What’s the most annoying thing about many mid-range and higher-end hotels?
Charges for Internet.
If you’re like me, the idea of being nickeled and dimed over something as basic as going online makes you crazy. Especially when the “cheaper” brands are factoring the cost into their room rate calculations.
The Hyatt Regency Atlanta wowed me yesterday when I checked in. They told me that the log-on fees would be waived for my stay.
Then, when I got up to my room, there was a text message on my phone from the hotel thanking me for choosing Hyatt and wishing me a great stay in Atlanta.
Now if they could just do something about getting rid of the old, clunky TV in my room…
It doesn’t always take the big gesture to make your audience happy. Sometimes it just takes doing the small things right.
What are you doing to wow your clients or customers?
Photo by Cameron Cassan (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Customer Experience,
Customer Service,
Hyatt,
Hyatt Regency Atlanta
by Daria Steigman on August 19, 2010
Have you ever let your expectations get in the way of your experience?
I was in a Healthy Back store the other day to buy an exercise ball. When I got home, I discovered that the ball might have been opened before, and the plug & stem for blowing it up and sealing it were missing.
That’s when my expectations got in my way.
You see, the last time I was in a Healthy Back store was over 10 years ago when I bought a desk chair. The experience was terrible. The store management was horrible. They ordered the wrong chair, then promised free delivery and set up when the right one finally came in. They delivered it, but set it up wrong and walked out when I asked them to fix it. I then had to maneuver a big heavy desk chair into a 2-door car and haul it all the way back to the store for help. And the whole time they treated me like a stupid girl.
This happened in the age where the Web was pretty raw, when finding someone higher up to talk to was almost impossible, and when there was no Twitter to turn to for backup support. But this time I immediately called corporate—and then reached someone very rude who asked me why I was calling the corporate office since this was obviously a store issue. That brought flashbacks to that first experience.
So I called the store, where Stephen McCleary apologized and said he’d check into shipping out another exercise ball to me. And I took to Twitter to vent my overall frustration, and Aimee DeBrandt from the corporate office reached out immediately.
You see, I was wrong. This wasn’t the same store. These weren’t the same people. This customer experience wasn’t the same.
Businesses can’t resolve past grievances, but they can sometimes give you a new customer experience if you let them.
But sometimes the problem is us.
Sometimes we need to take a deep breath and reset our expectations.
Photo by Steve Snodgrass (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Aimee DeBrandt,
Customer Experience,
Customer Service,
Healthy Back,
Stephen McCleary
by Daria Steigman on July 12, 2010
I’ve talked before about how picking up the phone is a key component to customer service. But that’s really only the starting point for building customer loyalty.
If you’re lucky, your best customers are evangelists for your brand. Here are four ways to earn that loyalty:
1. Be the solution. OneWorldHosting gets that most small business owners don’t just want a place to park their Web sites. We want (and need) tech support. So when a recent service upgrade messed up access first to my WordPress dashboard and then later to my ability to upload blog photos, I could make a call and get the problems solved.
RNJ Sports is another example. While lots of stores sell running shoes, RNJ sells peace of mind. I know that after watching me walk and run that they’ll recommend a shoe that will decrease the likelihood of injuries ranging from shin splints to hip pain.
2. Make it easy. Is it easy for customers to connect with you? I’m not talking about social media per se, just whether you’re socially accessible. If I have to jump through hoops to find someone who can talk with me, I’m going somewhere else. Companies that that have made it easy for me include Eddie Bauer, Dell, and (usually) Verizon.
3. Value me. I’m very loyal to my local GNC store because the owner knows me, remembers what I purchase, and chats with me when I stop by. Ditto for my local Robeks franchise, where the owner and employees know my name.
4. Be remarkable. You don’t have to be Zappos to wow your customers. When I mentioned to Lee Watts that I’d backed off slightly on my workouts because of ligament pain in my left tricep, he cleared time on his schedule that morning to bring me into his studio to tweak my routine. This is a guy who primarily trains elite athletes, but he made time for me. Not only does this go to #3, but he also created a wow moment.
What is your business doing to get talked about today?
Photo by PD Breen (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Brand,
Customer Service,
Dell,
Eddie Bauer,
Lee Watts,
OneWorld,
RNJ Sports,
Robeks,
Watts Performance,
Zappos
by Daria Steigman on June 14, 2010
Many years ago, I was donating money to the same organization as my parents. They were always talking about how responsive the group was, sending them updates, an annual congressional directory, and the like. When I observed that I wasn’t getting any of that, my mom suggested I call them and ask.
The response: Oh, yes, that’s because they give more money. But you can buy our congressional directory (at a price that was higher than the more-comprehensive ones put out by commercial outfits). I never gave them another penny.
Clearly, not every customer, donor, or client is the same–but don’t you want every one of them to think they’re special?
Contrast that to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has treated me like a rock star since my first donation. Their model offers three lessons for business:
- Information–SPLC routinely sends me relevant information, including progress reports, Teaching Tolerance kits (a schools-based program), and examples of why they exist and my participation matters.
- Personalization–It’s not hard these days to personalize a message, and yet many organizations forget to tie it to me. SPLC routinely thanks me, and they call me “Ms. Steigman” and don’t presume a familiarity that isn’t there.
- Results–As the photos above show, SPLC tells me what they’ve done (and thanks me for my role in it). Sure, my donation barely registers in their operating budget, but it’s good to be recognized for my support.
There’s one more thing that I suspect that SPLC knows: regular, long-term small donors are often the best prospects for planned gifts (i.e., big bucks). This is akin to the way that your regular customers are often evangelists for your brand and a good source of referrals.
Are you putting information, personalization, and results to work in your business?
Tagged as:
Business,
Customer Experience,
Customer Service,
Southern Poverty Law Center
by Daria Steigman on June 7, 2010
Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness* is a good reminder that sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and follow your passion.
Part autobiography, part tale of success-wrought-from-hard-work, part customer service bible, Delivering Happiness is a good read for entrepreneurs and business owners. There are lessons leaned about business models, core competencies, and flexibility. And Zappos’ 10 core values–and how they came about–will hopefully make you pause and assess whether you have identified and articulated your core business values.
What I liked best about Hsieh’s book was the process stuff:
- Zappos didn’t just identify problems (i.e., “We just don’t have the right products to offer our customers”), but took tough steps to change its business model to become profitable.
- Hsieh acknowledges mistakes (i.e., “As an e-commerce company, we should have considered warehousing to be our core competency from the beginning. Outsourcing that to a third party… was one of our biggest mistakes.)
- Zappos focused on three key areas (customer service, culture, and employee training and development).
If you’re looking for a dry business book, this isn’t the one to buy. But if you’re looking for a quick read, conversational style, and good takeaways, you won’t go wrong with Delivering Happiness.
Want to read Hsieh’s book? The kind Delivering Happiness book team gave me a second copy to give away to one lucky reader. Just tell me in the comments something you’ve done to wow a client or customer. The best answer (deemed by me) wins the book.
*Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for agreeing to review it and post this link–but without any restrictions on what I might say.
Tagged as:
Customer Service,
Delivering Happiness,
Entrepreneurship,
Tony Hsieh,
Zappos
