Marcus Straub
Take a moment to recall the last time you enjoyed an exceptional customer service experience from a company with which you chose to do business. Remember how pleasant the experience was, how satisfied you were, how good you felt and how the experience affected you and your day in a positive way? I’d venture to guess you’re extremely likely to spend your hard-earned money with this amazing company again and tell others about your experience.
Now, consider a time when you received a paltry customer service experience, one that left you feeling uncared for, unsatisfied and unhappy. Left with a bad taste in your mouth, it’s likely you won’t do business with this company again. If you haven’t already, you’ll advise your friends and family not to do business with the company, either.
As a business owner, which of these experiences do you want to provide your customers?
If you desire to become truly successful, you must grow your company through the attraction and retention of customers. If you intend to take your company to new heights — to rank among the exceptional operations — you must turn your attention to the level of care you and your team provide to the customers who grace your company with their business.
The primary ingredient in delivering a consistently exceptional customer service experience is demonstrating first and foremost you care about your customers. Revenues are important, no doubt. But if you don’t truly care about customers, revenues will evaporate. The difference between an exceptional customer experience and an awful one lies in the level of care provided to the customer by each person in your business who contributes to that experience.
Here’s the key. To earn the loyalty of faithful customers, you — as the owner — must first care deeply about customers and the quality of their experiences with your business. Caring in business is expressed in both word and deed and is a direct byproduct of the attitudes and behaviors of the people who own and operate the company. Whether you truly care about your customers or not, they can feel it.
As a business owner with a profound and innate level of caring, you’ll hire team members who also care deeply and treat other members of the team with consideration and respect. In turn, they’ll be happier at work, and their satisfaction will position them to share this same feeling of happiness with customers. The end result is an exceptional experience.
If, upon reflection, you recognize the level of care put forth by you and your team hasn’t positioned you to deliver exceptional customer service experiences on a consistent basis, it would be wise to take immediate action and seek out professional assistance to change.
Over the years, I’ve helped many business owners, managers and team members from a wide variety of companies transform their customer service experiences through the act of truly caring. This has equated to better cultures for team members, superior experiences for customers and greater success for business owners.
The more you and your team care about customers — and consistently demonstrate it — the higher their level of satisfaction will be with you and the products and services you provide. You’ll become not only the primary solution to fulfill their purchasing wants and needs, but also the well-deserved recipient of their gracious comments and referrals.
In summary, here are two main points to remember. When business owners care about people, they position their companies to create happiness and satisfaction as well as profits. When team members feel truly cared for by the owners and managers for which they work, they pass this feeling along to customers who, in turn, care about the company and provide repeat business.
The ultimate key to your lasting success lies in a simple and timeless rule: Treat people the way you want to be treated. The only way to achieve this is if you truly care. How deeply you care will determine the amount of business that comes full circle back to you.
