Where is the Leadership for Customer Focus?

The most frequent question I get from clients is how do we get our people to do something differently tomorrow. They are asking about getting better execution from their top leaders, managers and front line teams. The executives have spoken of service excellence at many meetings and yet they still don’t see implementation. Or they see too much variability and not enough accountability. Eventually it always ends up the same, some people get it and others don’t. Here are three thoughts –


Start the hard-wiring process. Do this by creating metrics. Most of you have plenty of numbers but is anyone really “owning” the data. Publish your current status. Tracking and sharing the information can make a difference. A roadmap is needed but you have to start with “where are we” to move forward.


Make someone responsible. Who will be the champion? This goes back to someone owning the customer focus. The champion needs to look at the metrics as well as hiring, training, service standards, performance evaluations, coaching processes and empowerment issues. Nothing will happen until all processes are aligned with the desired customer focus.


Create service standards. As I have said to many audiences, “Without service standards everything is left to chance.” Do people know what is expected?


Exceptional customer service does not happen by just talking about it. What will you do differently tomorrow to create a culture of service?

Little things matter. Make a service experience memorable.

A few service experiences in the last few days remind me how the little things matter. My daughter and were I shopping at Target and had a 44 pound bag of dog food loaded on the bottom rack of the buggy. As we were cruising down the aisle, it started to slide a bit forward and drag the ground. We both leaned over to push and shove it back when an employee stopped what he was doing and took care of the shoving for us. It was such a simple thing but memorable.



An incident at Panera Bread Company caught my attention also. I had waited in the line and had money counted out for my iced tea. I stop often so I knew $1.92 was what I owed. Much to my surprise the price had gone up by a few pennies so I start to fumble for the additional money. The employee was quick to take my $1.92 and asked that I not give him the additional. He said he appreciated me making Panera a regular stop and wanted me to enjoy my tea one more time at the old price. Again simple and memorable.



Too often team members do not take such action. They are very much aware of the customer’s need yet do nothing about it. So many have the ability to look through us, “appear busy” and ignore our plight. It is usually a well- rehearsed act. Most service continues to be mediocre at best.



For those of you in leadership, what are you doing to inspire your team members to serve at such a caring level? Are you making it clear that this level of service is expected? Are you rewarding exceptional service when you see it or hear about it? Most of this doesn’t happen by magically motivated employees, leaders must be dedicated to creating a culture of service excellence.



Little things matter.

How much more would you pay for great customer service?

According to Strativity Group’s August 2009 research, customers will remain loyal when you exceed their expectations. Here are the highlights from their study –



1. More than 70% of customers are willing to spend 10% more with a business if that business exceeds expectations



2. Loyal customers are almost 3 times as likely to continue doing business with a company for another 10 years than a dissatisfied one



3. 52% of dissatisfied customers expect discounts of 5% or more to continue doing business with the offending organization. Loyal customers expect none.



I am not one bit surprised by these results. I am willing to pay more and will be loyal when you deliver a great experience. What is the lesson from this latest research?



- Don’t take the customer for granted. Mediocre and average service is the norm. It cost too much to attract one, don’t screw it up by offering a normal experience.



- Sit down and talk about how to exceed expectations. Make this a regular conversation at team meetings. Design experiences that matter and will keep your customers returning.



- Hire people who can think this way. Train people to exceed expectations.



- Check your systems and processes that are interfering with your employee’s efforts. Take the customer view of your processes to see the roadblocks. Our good intentions can not be demonstrated until we get brutal with eliminating the roadblocks.



Great customer service is not costly. Research continues to show customers want it enough to pay 10% more. Keep in mind you are only as good as your last interaction.

Loyalty is the only measure of your success. Now is the time to be really great.

Showing Up Is Just Not Enough!

In my daily interactions, I notice many employees are showing up for work but are totally disconnected from the job, the customer and the experience. Their behavior is rote and nearly robotic. On a recent Delta flight, the passenger seated next to me had asked for a glass of red wine. The flight attendant delivered it. Then in a few short moments the same flight attendant delivered another glass of red wine to the same passenger. He never noticed that he had just placed the first glass on the same tray table. My seatmate, a jovial Australian, was amused by the inattentiveness. And not too unhappy about having two glasses of wine! However the flight attendant was clueless.

What has happened to employee engagement?

You have certainly heard how an engaged employee leads to an engaged and satisfied customer. At a recent visit to Panera, one of my favorite on the go restaurants, I saw engagement in action. A customer was walking towards the garbage area to put away her finished meal. I watched an employee stop to take the plate and bowl from her. Upon seeing the customer had left quite a lot of food unfinished, the employee asked sincerely if anything had been wrong with the food. The customer assured her that she simply was not as hungry as she thought. I love how this employee noticed and took action to assure the customer’s satisfaction. She showed up and was engaged – how refreshing.

What is your strategy to engage your team? At team meetings talk about the power of customer satisfaction and tie it to the bottom line and their paycheck. Connect customer satisfaction to their performance appraisal. Do something to get your employees attention. Simply paying them is not working. Rote, mediocre, inattentive employees are not your ticket to customer loyalty and your success.

It is not enough to have employees show up for work, they must be engaged and connected. Seems so obvious…..now make it happen.

Jump In with Tough Questions

In these interesting times, you may be trying to figure out how to successfully weather this storm. This marketplace seems to be demanding change so it is a good time to ask tough questions. Let me add a few questions to add to your list.

1. Can you identify where it is HARD to do business with your company? Consider your website, phone system, email response time, physical layout, process and policies. It is amazing how we make it difficult for our customers to do business with us. Arrogance and ego can create systems that are convenient for the company but not for the customer.
2. What rules do you need to eliminate? Most rules are written for 3% of your customers. Then we start to think all of our customers are out to cheat us. Believe me, the majority of your customers are not a problem, stop punishing the wrong group.

3. Are you one mistake away from losing a customer?

That mistake could be a broken promise, no callback, a missed deadline or not getting it right the first time.

4. Who needs to go? The right people are crucial to your company’s success. It is a great time to hire really good people as many of them are out of jobs. Work on upgrading your team. If you are not hiring, then what cross training needs to be done so the employees are at their best to serve your customer.

5. Would you want to do business with your organization? No need for elaboration on this one.


No one likes change but it is needed and demanded. So go to the edge, jump in with both feet, hold hands and get it over with.


Make something good happen today.