Three Steps to Great Service

by Brad Sugars

So, when is great service really great?

Let's say you and I go to a restaurant and sit down. The waitress is polite, greets us perfectly, and serves us so well we feel obliged to order a little more expensive wine.

It's poured and served with a great skill...

We order our meal and are having a great time...

The meal arrives and it's bad, I mean really bad. Now, no matter how good the service, a lack of delivery reminds us that customer service is about the whole experience, not just the interaction.

I had an accountant once who took me to great football games and wonderful dinners, but he kept messing up my returns and was almost always running late.

I don't care how good the WOW factor is, if you can't deliver the basics.

So, here are my three steps to great service...

#1. Deliver with consistency. Every time I call your company, the phone should be answered the same way, the orders processed systematically, the services delivered with regularity so I can trust that you know what you are doing and I can feel good about coming back and referring my friends. Remember, you can't WOW a customer until you have at least satisfied them.

#2. Make it easy for me to buy. Consistency is a start, but if you make it hard to do business with you, I can never be WOW'ed. Everything from ability to contact people, websites, emails, payment methods, delivery choices, and so on. All of these things you need to make sure are easier or at least as simple and easy as any of your competitors. Ring them, go to their websites, do as much 'market research' as you need to make sure buying from you is both simple and easy.

#3. WOW me. Satisfaction is boring; do something I don't expect. I remember when only a year or so back, having WiFi in your room was a bonus. Now I expect it and am greatly disappointed when a hotel doesn't have it. Check your industry and then check three or four others to find out what is now expected as standard so you can dream up a strategy to WOW me.

Let me give you a couple of examples:

I met with an accountant recently who has a $15,000 computer golf swing analyzer in his office. So, while chatting about my accounts (and he is billing me) I get a few practice swings in.

When I flew from Sydney to Dubai, the Emirates First Class seats had doors to each seat and I could close myself off from the rest of the cabin. The lights in the roof of the plane gradually change from day to night with a beautiful orange glow, and there was the mini-bar in my seat. All examples of WOW.

But remember, if they hadn't had the flight get to Dubai, would I have cared about all the other stuff? Or, what if I could only pay with cash, how hard would that be?

Great service is one thing. Satisfaction with what I am buying, backed up with great WOW type service is what counts.