Do you know what your customer REALLY values?

This is a story to show how sometimes companies emphasize some aspects of service that have no value to the customer and neglect the ones that do.

Two weeks ago on a Thursday morning, I called a company where I am a client to make, what I considered, a routine request for a document. I was in a session all afternoon, but my cell phone kept ringing off the hooks, showing a number I did not know. I came to the office to find several messages. My document was ready... already! This speed was way beyond my wildest expectations for I am not now (or will ever be) a VIP client.

"You can pick it up tomorrow", they said. "Well, thank you," I said, "but picking it up is quite inconvenient for me. Can you mail, fax or email it?" "No,", they said. "For xyz reason that's not possible."

So, a few days later I went to pick it up. It wasn't there! Actually, it was there, I later learnt, but it was with the person responsible for VIP's. And it just happened that that person had gone to the bathroom when I got there.

I picked up the document last Thursday: 2 weeks later!

The lessons?

1. I didn't care to be treated like a VIP. I just wanted that document mailed, faxed, delivered, emailed to me. Or, if all else failed, not have to make the trip twice. That is what was "valuable" to me, what helps me. Do YOU know what your customer finds valuable? It's not always what you think.
2. All this investment in "speed" at the front end, and the client still got the benefit two weeks later (and is "blogging about it), because you did not control the whole delivery process. What did it cost you to control that additional step? US$ 1.30 maximum?
3. Make sure the "VIP client" knows what to do when the "employee-in-charge-of-VIP's goes to the bathroom.

Bid on a mystery shop: support hospitality scholarships and outreach

The annual auction of CHATA, the Curacao Hospitality and Tourism Association, is open, with fabulous prizes. This year is also the association's 40th anniversary. If you haven't done so before, this is your opportunity to contribute to funds for scholarships and recognition activities such as the Curacao Culinary Team (which won Caribbean Gold last year), the Starts of the Industry Program and hospitality school activities.

MarkStra has donated two (2) mystery shops: A two-day shop for hotels and one for other types of organizations. Sorry, shops can only be done in Curacao. A lot of the other prizes can be bought by anyone, though.

What can you use a mystery shop for?

1. to find out if service standards are being adhered to. Are the phones being answered as agreed? Are customers greeted and thanked appropriately? Do they get the correct information? Are complaints handled in a way that customers would find pleasant? Do employees try to up-sell and cross-sell? Do customers feel that they got the product and quality that you advertised and they paid for? Do they get receipts, without asking for one? Etc.
2. to find out what the customer's total experience is, if this is good enough or if it has that "wow" factor. Do your procedures make sense? Is the atmosphere pleasant to the customer? Do employees have a pleasant attitude? Do all these issues reflect your brand's attributes?
3. to find out how your service and experience compares with the competitor. What do you do better? Can you use this as a selling point? What might you want to copy? You may not use the CHATA bid for this type of shop, though.

Who can benefit?

• any organization with face-to-face contact, including retail stores, hotels, car rentals, banks, brokers, restaurants, airlines, touristic attractions, etc.
• call centers: reservation, help desks, information
• organizations with an online presence. How do prospects experience your site? Does it convince them to buy?

What are the "procedures" if you win?

Together with you we will:

• determine what you want to know or improve
• develop a questionnaire with ample space for comments
• send a certified representative to your location, who will pose as a true customer or guest
• within 5 to 10 days of the shop we will be ready to discuss the reports and comments with you

To clarify: if the shop involves a purchase, the deal is that we will advance the purchase and that you will reimburse us afterwards.

Hurry: Auction closes Wednesday, May 2, at 11am.

Consistent Customer Care

People often wonder how some companies achieve consistently good service. One way is through careful recruiting. Another way is by setting standards for employees. This ensures that what they say, how and to whom are within what the company finds acceptable. This, in turn, ensures a consistent level of service every time. A consistent predictable level of service is also part of your brand.

Setting standards
Does your company have standards? Do your employees know how and how fast you expect phones to be answered and within which time limit to return calls or emails? When to speak to shoppers wandering in the store and what to say? How you expect them to deal with angry customers? To thank for the business and how to do so?

You can also set standards to ensure more up-selling and cross-selling. Some companies’ associates consistently ask: “Would you like dessert with that?” Do you realize that that dessert could add 25% to the sale?

Measure, reward or retrain
Setting standards or providing training without measuring if the standards or training lessons are being applied, is throwing money down the drain. Do you measure if employees are applying what they learnt? Mystery shopping is one way to measure. The results show if you must reward or retrain your employees.

Customer feedback forms
These are also extremely useful, if you use them consistently and with specific goals in mind. For instance, it is better to make sure every customer gets a card and most fill it in on a specific day, than to have 20 cards filled out by chance over a period when you no longer remember what was going on. Do it the first way and you will know where to make changes or which changes were effective. Do it the latter way and all you have is data you don’t really want to process and analyze.

MarkStra can help

• Setting customer care and sales standards
• Setting up and executing mystery shopping programs
• Developing customer feedback programs and processing the forms