Call me boring, but I want the same thing every time—at least when it comes to customer experience.
I want it to be good. I want it to be consistent. I want to predict the experience I’m going to have with the people and places I do business with. If you ask the CEO of a big company or the owner of a small business, I bet they would say the same.
We want our customers to always have a good experience with us—one they can count on always happening every time they do business with us. We want them to find that our people are always knowledgeable, always helpful, always friendly and always respond quickly. We want our products to always work and do what they are supposed to. If, for some reason, there is a problem, we want our customers to know they can always count on us to resolve it for them.
Sounds monotonous, doesn’t it? It is, but this is good monotony—the kind of monotony our customers like. This is not about a boring experience. It is about being so focused on a consistent and predictable experience that we hear the same feedback over and over again. The same thing happening over and over? Some might call that boring, but we all know it’s not.
Think about why you like to do business with your favorite companies. By the way, it can be any type of company from any industry—from retail to hospitality to manufacturing and beyond. When you start to analyze why you like them, I’ll bet part of the answer is that you are able to predict the outcome. You have trust in the company and confidence in receiving a similar, positive experience every time. This can be summed up in one word: always.
There is a lot that goes into making something always happen. It’s hiring the right employee for the job, especially for the front line. It’s about the proper training to create the consistent experience. (By the way, that training must be ongoing and consistent, too.) It’s about a process that is proven and that people follow.
The bottom line is this: our customers may not know it, but they love boring. They love monotony—at least, as it applies to the customer experience. So be bold with your marketing, your products and your innovations, but be boring when it comes to customer service and experience.
About the Author
Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. As a professional speaker and best-selling author, Shep helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.
