When was the last time you had a profound customer service experience?
For most of us, even satisfactory customer service is often elusive. We settle for the basics because it beats poor or no service. Yet, there are those rare instances when a real live human being, or at times, even an organization, goes so above and beyond, we remember it forever.
Customer experience expert Chip Bell says, “Service can be a perfunctory act delivered with routine banter and going-through-the-motions energy. It can be the same service we get pretty much everywhere, every day. Or it can be something different."
So what makes one experience stand out above all the rest?
Bell says, “For the last two years, when I work with leaders or run training sessions, I ask people to, ‘ think about the best service experience you’ve ever had. I want you to think about one so profound you will remember it for the rest of your life.’”
Most people can only come up with one or two experiences. Think about your own experiences, how many times have you been truly touched through customer service? Now think about your organization. Would customers rate your experiences as profound or remarkable?
It’s profound when the Apple support rep comforts your sobs after she telling you your hard drive is fried and you’ve lost everything. It’s remarkable when the boat store representative takes you out for a day teaching you how to navigate the lake, even though you only bought a used boat. These experiences (both are true and happened to me) are memorable because they leave a lasting emotional impact.
Bell found when you ask people to define their own profoundly remarkable moments it is almost always a soul-based experience. Soul-based in that your interaction with someone touches you emotionally, not merely functionally, or intellectually.
In his book, Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles, Bell writes, “It’s about creating the kind of experience that profoundly touches the soul of customers, leaving them changed forever by the encounter.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have my soul touched too often when it comes to customer service. The Apple rep and the boat salesman aside, more often than not, we to protect our souls from dispiriting encounters.
Asking service people to deliver profoundly remarkable experiences that touch the human soul might seem like a tall order. Yet in some organizations, it’s the norm.
In Kaleidoscope, Bell describes how the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotels enchants their customers with a box of old fashioned toys, including wooden pick-up sticks and an antique Slinky in the box. It’s profound for people out on the road because it brings back their childhood. Not surprisingly, the guests tell everyone.
Then there’s the Courtyard by Marriott in San Antonio Texas, where the hotel manager put a handwritten sign in the lobby, “Dear guests: We need your help. The aunt of one of our housekeepers has passed away and today is the funeral. This was an important person in this housekeepers’ life; we all felt we should be at the funeral. Consequently, there will only be one employee on-site . . .at the front desk . . . between 2 and 3:30 p.m. We ask for your patience and understanding. Thanks, the manager!”
How would you feel if you read that note? Instead of being angry, you’d probably jump into help. The Courtyard guests did exactly that; they greeted arriving guests and explained what was happening. It was an experience they will remember forever because it connected on a very deep level.
Bell says his aspiration is to help people deliver who they are, at a deep level, not just the act of service. This requires service reps to be fully present with customer, not doing a myriad of other tasks. Leaders must help people understand and embrace the noble purpose of the organization, and it must come from the heart. Employees have to understand how their role affects the customers, and identify what part of themselves can they bring into their job.
As Bell says, when it comes to service, “If there is no emotional connection, it’s not memorable, it’s merely functional.”
Functionality counts. But it’s only the table stakes. Employees need to know how to process an order or route a customer through a transaction. However, that will only get you so far. Organizations who want to stand out, who want to establish true competitive differentiation must go further. Creating profound services experiences requires emotions and intention.
