By Lorraine Grubbs
Imagine making a one-time decision to place the fate of your entire company in the hands of your Customers. If your well-placed faith in the good relationship with your Customers is right, you get to stay in business. If not, you’re history.
Such was the case for Southwest Airlines post-9/11. They began to get requests for refunds from customers who had purchased tickets but were now afraid to fly. Their competitors decided to allow the refund, but tack on a “refund penalty” to cover their cost and lost revenue. Not Southwest. They put themselves in their customers’ shoes. They thought, “Why should we penalize people who had become fearful of flying due to circumstances beyond their control?” So, they took a risk and decided to offer full refunds to anyone who asked with no penalties. They were counting on their customers not making a “bank run” refund request. Why? Because over the years, they had developed a great relationship with their customers. And they were right. In fact, not only did many of them not ask for a refund, Southwest was overwhelmed when many of their customers sent their tickets in with notes saying “Southwest Airlines, take this ticket and keep it. I don’t want my money back…I just want you in business in five years and today you need the money more than I do.”
Where does that kind of loyalty come from? Can small businesses build that kind of loyalty?
Everyone is in the customer service industry; you just happen to provide a service or produce a product. Customer service is a mindset that should be established from the birth of any company. It’s a living, breathing philosophy that manifests itself in everything you do. It should be a way of life, a credo, and a mantra. Your employees should ooze it from their pores. Customer service should reside in your mission statement, your meetings, and your celebrations. It should start at the beginning of an employee’s time with your company and be rewarded and recognized throughout the employee’s career.
So, how do you do that? By implementing the following customer service principles in your small business.
The Keys to the Kingdom
Employees should be empowered to “do the right thing” versus doing what’s right. Empowerment is one of the most powerful tools a company can utilize to ensure that customers are taken care of when things don’t go as planned. To be comfortable giving that right to your employees, you must be confident in their ability to make good decisions. That will be the case if you have hired and trained them correctly.
With empowerment, however, comes the risk that your employee will make mistakes. How you, as the leader, handle those mistakes is paramount to whether your employees will continue making decisions or default to the rule book with phrases such as,” Sorry, there is nothing I can do.” And employees, like customers, talk. A wrong move on management’s part in reference to empowerment can demotivate not only that employee, but also others who hear the story.
The secret to empowering employees is to give them the keys to the kingdom and let them know you trust them to use the keys wisely. Give employees the ground rules, but also give them the latitude to bend the rules. Empowerment is a powerful tool that can make the employees feel like owners of the company and, after all, who takes care of a company better than an owner? With empowerment, your Employees will return positive results again and again.
We are Family
When you see your customers through the eyes of friendship and family, you start to do things for them that you usually do only for your family and friends. Specifically, send your most frequent customers a birthday card. Know your frequent customers’ names. Know their children and spouses’ names. Live the adage “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. Invite your customers to participate in company events. Ask them to judge employee contests. It will make them feel special and your employees will get to know them outside of the “work” environment.
Fun, Fun, Fun
Have fun! When people have fun on the job, they will be more apt to show up, have a great attitude and deliver great customer service.
Implement fun in your interview process. One time I was asked, “When was the last time you laughed at yourself?” You want employees who will take their jobs seriously, but not themselves.
Create a “fun” atmosphere in your workplace. Create airplane-flying contests, impromptu hake sake games, and have a Halloween contest. Invite your Customers too!
Keep Customers at the Forefront of Employees’ Minds
Be strategic about finding ways to include the customer in your daily business.
Have employees come up with ideas to recognize them. The “nicest” customer, the “funniest” customer, the customer with the ugliest driver’s license photo…
Feature your customers on your walls, in your newsletters and in your company videos.
Consider creating a MOM committee to review operational failures. Ask your employees, “If this had happened to your Mom, would you be happy with the way she was treated?” Keep an empty chair in all meetings to remind employees to always consider the customer.
Write a message “Provided by our Customers” on every employee’s paycheck to remind them of the customers’ importance. Anytime the word customer is written, capitalize it to stress their importance.
These customer service principles are the cornerstone that will help your company create customer loyalty. It’s not rocket science… it’s common sense. Start today. Empower your employees, give them the keys to the kingdom, treat your customers like family and have fun…then watch your customer loyalty go through the roof!
Lorraine Grubbs is the president of Lessons in Loyalty. You can contact Lorraine at 281-813-0305 or by email at [email protected]
www.lessonsinloyalty.com
