I eat, sleep, and breathe customer service, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how difficult great service is to find anymore.  The wheels started turning while I was reading a Peteac Communications book that examined their personalized customer service model.  Then Voalte participated in a few Fall trade shows and, lo and behold, the theme for one was “Because it’s Personal.”  It seems ironic that everywhere I turn, people are talking about stellar, “above-and-beyond” customer service, yet it’s tough to find companies actually doing anything about it.  But not impossible… 

I was at the grocery store the other day and as I made my way through the checkout, the cashier pleasantly inquired whether I had found everything I needed.  We both chuckled at my usual response: “Yes, as well as several things that I don’t need!”  As she scanned my items, she noticed a bag of lettuce was open.  Before I could blink or ask, the gentleman bagging my groceries was off and running to fetch me an unopened one.  Now, if that’s not stellar customer service, going the extra mile, and making it “personal,” I don’t know what is.

So, how do we at Voalte make personal connections with all of our customers?  We start by providing them with their very own Voalte Care Specialist (VCS).   Each Voalte-integrated hospital has a VCS (our larger sites have two!), who not only knows and practices our Voalte values, but is also a member of the hospital’s local community and is familiar with regional nuances.  Each VCS familiarizes him/herself with the hospital’s unique policies and procedures surrounding Voalte, and gets to know staff on the units.  They make weekly site visits to orientate new Voalters, touch base with veterans, troubleshoot, and above all – listen.   The VCS takes seriously Voalte’s recognition that our users were fundamental in building the app, and are just as critical now as we continue to update and improve it.   VCSs strive to know their hospitals well enough to anticipate (and head off) problems and issues, but they also listen - to users’ suggestions, compliments, comments, and frustrations.  Then they report back to Sarasota.  VCSs play a key role in helping to make a user’s idea become a reality inside the Voalte One solution.

Regardless of the style a company chooses to provide it, excellent customer service, executed well, breeds loyalty.  Period.  Consumers want their experiences to be effortless, and provided flawlessly.  When a company exceeds expectations, not only will they keep coming back, they’ll insist that their friends and colleagues do as well.  Voalte works hard every day to earn new “raving fans.”  Coming up with the VCS program to go the extra mile for our users is just one example of how we stay in tune with their needs.

In other words, we genuinely love running to get the fresh bag of lettuce before y’all ask.  :)   

Are you engaged with your customers? More importantly…are they engaged with you? Gaining and sustaining customer loyalty is becoming more important by the day. It can be your organization’s leading edge. Simply satisfying customers is no longer enough! Satisfaction is only the foundation and the minimum requirement for a continuing relationship with your customer. It should be noted that the term “customer” could refer both to the external customer who purchases goods or services from your company as well as the internal customer, your employees, who deliver these goods or services.

As opposed to satisfaction, engagement is a better indicator of the thoughts a customer has toward your business and its offerings. Customer engagement aims at long-term relationships, encouraging loyalty and passionate advocacy. It implies a higher level of commitment to the health of an organization, while satisfaction encompasses a sequence of events with many variables. Very simply defined:

Engagement = Product X People

Sixty to eighty percent of customers who defect to the competition say they were satisfied on surveys administered just prior to their defection. So why do customers leave a business? According to a study by the American Society for Quality:

9% of customers leave because of competitors

10% of customers leave for other reasons (move away, death, etc.)

14% of customers leave because of their dissatisfaction with the product

67% of customers leave because of an attitude of indifference on the part of an employee

The impact an individual employee has on a business is staggering. I believe we all would agree that we have left a business because of the attitude of an employee, conversely I also think we would agree that we frequent a business because of our relationship with an employee. What brings you back to your favorite restaurant…the food or the individuals who serve you? So then should we focus on the human aspects of business performance?

Customers are not strictly rational. The majority of decisions to purchase a product or service and commit, long-term are purely emotional. In manufacturing companies, value is created on the factory floor. In sales and services organizations value is created through the customer/associate interaction or "moment of truth". The customer/associate encounter is the factory floor for service and sales organizations.

A customer’s degree of engagement with a company lies on a continuum that represents the strength of his investment in that company. Positive experiences with the company strengthen the investment and move the customer to passionate advocate.

A few final thoughts:

Great service is only great if your customers think it is great.

The customer is why you go to work. If they go away, you do to.

The personal relationship and value are remembered long after the price is forgotten.

Customer is King! 

So tell us, is your customer really your King?