Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Recognize your loyal customers

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

Recently I was dining at a favorite local cafe. I’ve been going there regularly since they opened. Our server had waited on me dozens of times in the past. Yet when someone in our group asked our server if she knew me, she said (with no hesitation) she had never seen before.

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Never let your customer repeat themselves.

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

Customers understand that often you have to hand them over to other people to help them get what they want. That’s okay, But, as you do this, don’t let the customer repeat themselves.

Logically we know when customers complain, they’re giving us useful information. But emotionally we don’t like to hear it. Especially since some customers tend to be a little rough about how they deliver their feedback. And employees get tired of being beat up by customers, all the while knowing nothing will be done to prevent future complaints of the same kind.

But Frank’s boss (above) got it

Amazing Service Tip: Do something positive and unexpected

When you do something for a customer (or anyone) that is positive (something they like) and unexpected (they didn’t see it coming) then you make that event a permanent part of their memory. Because they like what you did, you created positive emotional content for the experience. And because it’s a surprise, the emotional content level is higher.

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Respect your customer’s opinion

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

Our customers come to us for our knowledge. They want our help in accomplishing something. But some employees take this to mean the customer’s opinion does not matter. They go directly into “arrogant expert mode” and act like the customer has no useful information to contribute.

Hot off the presses today is a brief note from our friends at dslreports.com. They tell us T-Mobile remains the customer service champion of the big wireless carriers.  On the other hand, AT&T didn’t do so well.

“Our in-store experience left us with one question out of three unanswered and we were shocked that one representative couldn’t help get our email up and running (though another rep at a different store was successful). Our trial of AT&T’s web support turned up similar results when one online associate told us they don’t support Slacker software, and one of our phone support calls lasted 45 minutes without resolving the last of our issues.”

Too many managers think they can plan and script and train employees how to handle every customer situation. It’s even worse with offshore call centers. As a customer you can tell when these people are forced to use scripts. It can be a painful process to participate in.  And it’s a massively ineffective way to give customers the experience they want. It does not work.

What if you met a new friend and everything they said was

Here’s why so many companies have a customer retention problem. Ironically, this customer service example is from a Los Angeles Times article about how airline customer service has improved during the recession.

United Airlines lost a customer’s bag that had medication in it. So the customer had to replace the medication for the duration of their stay, costing them $750. This was three times what United Airline’s policy allowed so they were only reimbursed $250. The airline clerk who handled this apparently

I love it when a person honestly recognizes that I’m a loyal customer. And I look for nothing more than a thanks. Because loyalty is not about money. It’s about being in a relationship that works for both people, whether it’s business or personal.

But I hate it when a company clubs me over the head with a sales pitch presented as a “reward” for being a loyal customer. I especially hate it when they try to force something on me I don’t want. Then I have to cancel it or I get charged for it after the “free” period has expired.

The large retailer J.C. Penney did this not long ago. They

We know good customer service can keep customers coming back. And most of us understand the power bad customer service has to hurt our business.

Yet this simple lesson still falls on deaf ears at some large, well- known companies. Take Abercrombie & Fitch for example. A $3.5 billion-dollar retailer known for attitude in their advertising apparently has plenty of attitude in others parts of their company. Recently they were fined $115,264 by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights for discriminating against a disabled customer in their Bloomington, MN store.

It should have been more. Much more.

First,

Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service:

Don’t spam your customers in any form

And here are some additional thoughts on this topic…

We hear a lot about spam (the technology kind, not the food product) but usually it’s in the context of email. But, we don’t typically think of spam in terms of customer service. We should though because, no matter how it’s being used, spam is dangerous and damaging to businesses that use it.

Take Blockbuster for example.

Customer Loyalty Drives Revenue, Profits and Sustainability

This is a cornerstone of Amazing Service. Everything I write and talk about flows from this. But not everyone buys it. Most people say they do. But we have all experienced examples of companies that really don’t get this.

In their book Human Sigma, Fleming and Asplund cite a stunning example of this. A consumer bank had discovered a highly loyal segment of their customers. When they presented this information to the CEO his response was: