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If you’re not in the habit of praising employees on a regular basis, you may want to start finding sincere compliments to pay forward. The power of our positive words to employees are often perceived as priceless. One compliment can put a beat in the step of an employee for a week, a month, or maybe longer. The same goes for our customers. Pass on a sincere compliment to a customer, and then watch their reaction. Recognizing an accomplishment with genuine praise is priceless, and great for inspiring both associates and customers. Support the show

Whether we know it or not, our attitude often pours the perception foundation cement of our customers. If we are short, curt and rude, it will be very, very hard to get a potential customer to lean our way. Maybe today’s a great day to start checking your attitude at the door when you walk into the office each morning. Positive and upbeat attitudes usually translate to positive business outcomes. Negative attitudes, often morph into excess tension, issues and customer uneasiness. The keys to the bus are in your hands. How will you drive your daily interaction route? Support the show

We all need great reasons to communicate with our customers. One of the easiest exercises is to sit down and examine what important, or significant business facts have you forgotten to tell customers about? Many times, these facts can directly affect customers. Imagine if you were to discover 10, 15 or 20 bits of customer-pleasing information you could share with customers? These fresh info bites would serve as great social media content and can assist in drawing customers to you company. If you’ve never gone about this exercise… Today is a great day to start. Support the show

Imagine adopting the old restaurant management moniker of, “if you have time to lean, you have time to clean.” Without uttering a word. the way we keep the interior of our offices, the entranceway, the outside walkway, our administrative paper sorting, and the overall appearance of our offices tell customers a lot about our businesses. Imagine the impactful messaging you are communicating to customers when they consistently witness a neat, tidy and pleasant office environment? We are telling them we take care of what we are given. We are good stewards, and we will take care of customer time and money the same way we do our offices. Maybe it’s time to start cleaning when you want to start leaning. Support the show

What would happen if your company tackled every issue as an opportunity to make an improvement. In other words, the issue is a megaphone screaming out to you to make a change. Imagine how healthy our businesses would be, and how happy our customers would be, if we just recognized issues as opportunities to make a positive change? Problems are clues. Clues require investigation. Open-minded investigations can lead to eye-opening revelations about what is making a customer mad. Usually these deep-dives reveal numerous examples of the problematic occurrence. Permanently fixing repetitive problems will necessarily improve the health of your company. Support the show

I saw a commercial on television for the pain management center in my area. They were proud of their 10 years of service to the community, and they put a nice advertisement out to encourage people to use their services. It got me thinking; Do many companies attempt to mitigate, or eradicate customer pain points? Imagine what our businesses would look like if we just focused on the top three customer pain points, and then we actually eradicated them. It’s another way of promoting continuous improvement. If you’ve never engaged in anything like this, maybe it’s time to start doing it now? Support the show

The “Experience Economy” is large and in charge in today’s business world. Often times if is the “HOW” we provide services that override the “WHAT” we provide. It sounds inverted, but it is reality in many cases. Customer perceptions are now heavily leaning into the “HOW” we do business . Good perceptions provide our sails with some needed wind at our backs, while negative perceptions leave our boats at a standstill. To compete in today’s business world, we must address that “HOW” factor with as much fervor as we do the “WHAT”. The good news is that unhealthy service reveals itself in patterns that are repeated with regularity. This makes unhealthy service easy to find if we are looking. Maybe it’s time to become a pattern detective within your own company? Support the show

Customers place high value on vendors that display reliability and consistency. If so, then why do so many companies deliver service when, and how it is convenient for them. We address this in out book. Service When It Is Convenient For Us (SWIICFU) is far too common in today’s business world. It is a company-centric model versus what should be a customer-centric model. What say you? Is it time to shed your SWIICFU mindset in exchange for a model that better serves customers? Support the show

Customer issues often repeat themselves, and carry the same characteristics time over time. Knowing this, does your company address the deeper problem of why issues are repetitive and reoccurring, or do you just try and fix the current issue without a deep dive? Imagine what your business would look like if you took aim at never having the same problem happen a second time? Maybe it’s time to set up issue resolution protocols that fix the deeper problems causing customer dissatisfaction? Support the show

Expectations are a grossly overlooked aspect of modern business. Some companies never address expectations for customers, while many companies set few expectations. As a result, these types of businesses can easily go about servicing customers when, and how it is convenient for the business. However, best-in-class companies actually publish expectations, and then take aim at providing service that exceeds those stated expectations. This mindset will surprise customers, satisfy them, and pave the road ahead for healthy repeat and referral transaction rates. Maybe it’s time to start aiming at this classic best-on-class service mindset? Support the show

Search is the optimal word. Customers will very rarely tell you that they are leaving, and why they are leaving. You have to go find the information, filter it, investigate, and then fix it. The cost to reinvent a lost customer is far too expensive to do on a routine basis. The road to customer loyalty is paved by not making the same mistake twice. Your future is an four R (RRRR) proposition. Retain. Repeat. Refer. Reap. Support the show

It sounds like a funny question right? The truth is, many companies try to pass self-inflicted repair costs onto customers. This video highlights one of the many times I’ve seen it play out in real life with customers. If you want to win customers to your cause, and grow your repeat and referral business, then we suggest you pay the bill for repairing mistakes you have made. Charging the customers, and hiding the repair cost in some other line item, will only lose you positive reviews, and cripple the health of your future business. Support the show

It feels like this concept has taken a backseat over the past few decades. However, standard operating procedures are a great way to regiment your business so that you can train new associates, deliver better customer satisfaction, and create profitable guard rails for your business. If you have never sat down and mapped out the standardization of your procedures, we would highly recommend you doing so. It can be a fun project, and can really cut down on margin erosion, while creating better customer service. Support the show

If you’re groping as to how to begin and end an email, or phone conversation, following the CPA method will take the anxiety out of the process. Simply inject an opening salvo of courtesy, then outline the reason you are corresponding with the customer, and then conclude by stating the action you are asking the customer to complete. It’s simple, quick, fail safe, and admired by readers. If you stick to this simple CPA method, your business correspondence style will stand out as best-in-class. Support the show

Verbally cutting to the chase has become an acceptable business norm. However, in doing so, we often bypass opportunities to ask our customers about their lives. If we know they’ve battled illness, or tragedy, or have been on cool vacations, or have taken time off, wouldn’t it be nice just to ask them how they’re doing with any of those subject matters? Don’t you think they would appreciate that? Next time you default to start cutting to the chase, pause, and strongly consider asking a couple human interest questions to demonstrate your interest in their world. Support the show