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Durban – If you do not have a strategy for delivering great service, your competitors will lure your customers away, warned Peter Cheales, founder of one of the biggest customer service websites in the world, HelloPeter.com.
“As products become more and more identical, retail evolves more around the service you give. Like Peter Drucker said, the object of business is not to make a profit. It is to create a customer,” Cheales said at the 19th Congress of the SA Council of Shopping Centres in Durban on Friday.
Delight your customers
Cheales listed five points that are key to creating business success.
The first is to create added value. Consumers want to feel part of a “club or family” group with a common interest. They want to experience what is so special about the retail experience a business creates.
“Delete the word ‘we’ from your business vocabulary. Make it all about ‘I’. Say ‘I will do this, I will fix this’,” explained Cheales.
The second success aspect is quality experience – about delighting customers and making them smile.
“When I come to buy from you I want to buy into your experience. I don’t want to feel distanced from you as a retailer. You need to be available and accessible all the time. What does your customer feel when he thinks of you? Does he ‘smile in his heart’?” asked Cheales.
Superior service is the third component of successful customer service. Cheales said it is better to over-deliver and under-promise than the reverse. It is also about being proactive rather than reactive.
The fourth component in his view is what he calls “lightning response”. He explained that retailers must be specific in what they promise, use self-imposed penalties if they do not deliver and make the business team act like a joint task force.
Make it happen now
“We now live in the millisecond millennium – people want things to happen now. Customer service is all about how you can get your customer to say ‘wow’,” said Cheales.
The last component is comfort. Customers want to feel in control of their environment and experience in dealing with a retailer.
“Customers want to buy into your passion, fun and determination to make a difference for them,” said Cheales.
“At the end of the day it is all about leaving behind a legacy of excellence. Ask yourself what your customers are saying about you right now.”
* Carin Smith is a guest of the SACSC at its congress.
