Exceeding Customer Expectations—Step 2: Understand
The second step to exceeding customer expectations is to understand your customer's needs and expectations, and understand yourself, what you can and can't do in your role. One way to think about our customer's expectations is through the circles of service. The circles of service shows us what any customer using a product or service typically expects. First, we expect a basic product or service. Think about staying at a hotel. What do you expect? Most of us would say, a clean room, fresh towels, coffee maker, a TV. We can tell that even our basic expectations might differ. Some of you might even say free wifi, a cookie upon check-in. Not all of us see basic expectations the same, which is why customer service is so hard. With the basic product or service, we also expect some degree of customer support. With a hotel, we expect a friendly front desk person upon check-in, someone to help us find a restaurant for dinner, a bill that's computed correctly, or help when we need it.
Finally, we do expect above and beyond service. Maybe not all the time, but when we receive above and beyond service, we take notice. For example, I recently arrived at a hotel after traveling all day. I ate dinner at the hotel's restaurant. And after I finished, I went to the hotel gift shop to find a sweet treat. I presented my candy bar to the front desk attendant, who was also the person who checked me in. He said, "I know you've traveled all day halfway across the country. This candy bar, it's on us." Now that, to me,was above and beyond service. You can see why identifying our customer's expectations can be difficult. Every person can define these differently. What may be above and beyond service to one person could be a basic expectation of another. So, understanding starts with understanding our customer. Then we should work to understand ourselves, what we can and can't do in our roles.
This is about how empowered we are to meet our customer's needs and expectations. Do you, as an individual, feel like you have theauthority to do whatever it takes to make things right for the customer? I can think of a time I felt that my lack of empowerment, that's what we're talking about here, negatively affected our customer service. I started my career as a bank teller, and one time a customer called asking us to refund a $1 fee. I knew the customer well. I knew that refunding the customer's fee was the right thing to do. However, we had a policy that tellers couldn't refund fees of any amount. I had to tell the customer, "Sorry, I need to check with my manager on the refund." And then my manager was at lunch, so the customer's request had to wait much longer than it should have. Because I wasn't empowered to decide, the customer didn't receive above and beyond service. And the customer probably thought, "I see Libby all the time, and she's very experienced. It seems goofy that she's not trusted to make a decision on $1."
We have to create policies and procedures that make sense and empower employees. Our policies and procedures have a direct impact on our customer experience. As you seek to exceed customer expectations, don't forget to understand your customer and understand yourself.
