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?

I love teaching and presenting to groups because I always learn something valuable.

I recently presented at the Florida Sterling Conference for Performance Excellence in Orlando, FL and I was able to share best practices and network with top executives from world-class companies. The annual conference focuses on business excellence and process improvement using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award framework. The week of concurrent workshops culminates with companies being honored by the Governor of Florida for attaining world-class status by aligning themselves with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award business model.

The presentation I delivered was entitled “Redefining the Customer Experience”. I have presented at this conference many times before while working as Director of Organizational Effectiveness for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. This year I had the honor of presenting on behalf of my new organization, Voalté. I was pleased to find that although I was representing a different company, many individuals who had attended my workshops in the past were able to find me and participate in the session.

As part of the workshop, we were discussing what makes service great. This quote always puts this into perspective for me. “Great service is only great if your customer thinks it is.” Many individuals in the workshop shared examples of how their organization brought this thought to life. I was particularly impressed with one individual’s comment. She described a scenario and went on to say that because she works for a governmental agency, she has many restrictions on what she can and cannot do for her customers legally. The part that really struck me was that her organization took a situation that was consistently perceived as a negative experience by the customer and turned it into customer delight. The example that she shared with me was about how they made the waiting room experience more comfortable. They provided shawls for women just in case they got cold and had extra pairs of glasses for those who weren’t able to read their paperwork.

Others went on to share similar incredible stories. I even learned that there is a city in Florida that has a car dealership with a nail salon and neck massage services inside. All of these ideas really reinforced what Voalté already knows - “Legendary service does not have to cost a lot of money!”  

What are some things your organization has done to improve customer service and enhance customer experience?