Don’t leave it to chance
I had a really great customer experience the other day My flight from Auckland to Invercargill was
delayed by fog which meant I would miss my connection in Christchurch. No, escaping a trip to Invercargill
was not the great experience. The great experience was the way the Air New Zealand staff helped me.
When the pilot said our departure was delayed indefinitely, I went forward and explained to the In-flight
Service Director (ISD) that unless there was another flight from Christchurch to Invercargill within
three hours of the one I was going to miss, there was no point in me flying. I explained I had no baggage
and might want to get off. The door to the cockpit was open and the pilot was sitting on the arm of
his seat waiting to hear a departure time from air traffic control.
The pilot overheard what I had said to the ISD. He greeted me, apologized for the delay and said he
would see what he could do. He picked up the radio and asked for the air bridge to be brought back in
case I needed to get off. Then he radioed for the time of the next plane from Christchurch to Invercargill.
When I said I would like to get on that flight, he booked me a seat and my problem was solved.
What I have told you is an abbreviated version of what happened. In reality this all took several
trips to the cockpit and several radio calls from the pilot over thirty minutes. Throughout, the pilot
and the ISD were friendly, polite, caring and helpful. It really was a great experience. But the reason
am telling you this is that when I had returned to my seat the ISD came to see me to make sure everything
was OK. I thanked her and said how wonderful she and the pilot had been. “Yes,” she said. “This
pilot is very good. Most of them would have sat in the cockpit with the door closed and we would not
have been able to talk to them.” I realized my great customer experience was due to luck not good
management. I had been fortunate to be on a flight where the pilot was a people person who instinctively
knew it was good to look after customers – or may be he was just a nice guy who liked helping
people. Either way, it was not because his bosses were managing the customer experience.
What happens in your business? Is the customer experience left to chance? If your customer happens
to deal with a member of your staff who likes helping people do they get a great experience, otherwise
is the customer experience average or poor? Frontline staff are typically blamed for delivering poor
service but in my experience, the problem is often poor management.
Here are 5 steps to managing the experience your customers get when they do business with you.
1 Define the experience.
Everyone wants to deliver great customer service but most managers cannot say what great service is.
Staff cannot be expected to deliver something nobody has defined. The more specific you can be, the
more likely staff will behave the way you want them to. The best way to define the customer experience
is to ask your customers how they want to be treated. Find out what kind of experience would make keep
coming back. This experience is affected by what happens at every point you touch your customers.
2. Review your policies and processes
One of the biggest obstacles to frontline staff delivering a great customer experience is the business’s
policies and processes. Freedom Air, for example, will not accept silver coins. That makes it very hard
for staff to deliver a great experience to a customer desperate for a coffee on the 0630 flight to Australia
who only has two 50 cent coins. Sit down with your staff and identify those policies and ways of doing
things that customer complain about or make it hard for them to do what the customer wants. Your policies
and processes should facilitate a great experience not impede it.
3. Train your staff
Make sure your staff understand what kind of experience you aim to deliver to your customers and why
it is important they do that. Then make sure they have the people skills to do this. NZ research shows
customers complain many staff do not do even very basic things such as saying please and thank you.
Do not assume your staff have been brought up to behave courteously. You must also make sure staff
have know enough knowledge about your company, and your products and services, to be able to help your
customers.
4. Get the incentives right.
Make sure your staff are rewarded for behaving in ways that create a great experience. Many businesses
incentivise staff for doing things that are best for the company, or best in the short-term, not what
is best for the customer. If you tell staff to do one thing and reward them for doing another, guess
which they will do? Make sure your rewards encourage them to care for your customers.
5. Get customer feedback.
The sole judge of your ability to create a great customer experience is the customer. Find out what
they like about what you do, what they don’t like, what they would like you to do that you do
not currently do and what you do that makes no difference to them. Make sure staff hear this feedback – preferably
directly from your customers. Then make sure you learn from it and change the way you do things. Get
feedback frequently and often.
The customer experience you deliver has a huge impact on whether customers come, pay, stay and return,
and what they tell others about you. Do not leave it to chance.
|
