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Category: Personal Development

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Business Needs Early Childhood Education

My work as a business coach and my radio, TV and podcasting work (Business Builders Show) are all about sharing stories and information to help business owners and business leaders build their business. I share the belief that good business can change the world. And I see and hear results from individuals and companies all the time who are leading the charge in making the world a better place. Organizations like www.consciouscapitalism.org, companies like Cascade Engineering, in Grand Rapids, and leaders like Bob Chapman at Barry-Wehmiller are setting the example we need to follow in order to improve our work places, our communities, our country and the world (I believe we set the example leaders in other countries want to follow). Other companies and leaders I suggest you learn more about, you’ll find listed at www.bcorporation.net.

However, I’m concerned that our short term thinking about tax plans, GDP, stock price and other related indicators take up too much of our thinking. Of course, I know having the right tax structure, and a solid GDP along with a steady or increasing stock price is a good thing. HOWEVER, I have been thinking a lot about early childhood education. How is that being funded? What infrastructure is in place to help us develop good citizens who are intellectually, emotionally and socially ready to build our businesses in the next few decades?

I like working with small to mid-size companies. Once again, taxes and all economic indicators are important. Yet, the companies I work with DO think about the well being of their employees, and their communities. They put plans and actions into play that help their employees take care of their families, so they can afford the early childhood education their children need. They have reading programs, financial literacy training, they LISTEN to what is needed, not only to do business today, but in the future.

The future WILL arrive. Short term gains like a one-time bonus will allow us “to go shopping” to help us feel better and to fuel government statistics, yet, how will this help us ten, twenty or thirty years from now?

If what I shared made you THINK – mission accomplished. Read, listen, watch, learn, and act on what you think is best for all of us in the LONG run. The future will be here, will it be what we planned for?

If you want you want to yell at me or agree with me, I can be reached at marty@martywolffbusinesssolutions.com

Categories
Growth Management Operations Personal Development

7 Skills Your Staff Needs to Deliver Consistently Excellent Customer Service

Take a moment right now and think about a company that’s known for providing an exceptional customer experience.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

When I pose this question to my audiences, a handful of names are shared repeatedly: Disney; The Ritz Carlton; Zappos; Chick-fil-a; Nordstrom’s.  One of the keys to their success is Consistency.  Regardless of which location you visit, or whom you speak with, your experience is consistently excellent. Every team member is striving to deliver red carpet customer service, to every customer, at every touch-point, every single time.

If you want to create this level of consistent service excellence within your organization, there are a few strategies that can help you reach that goal.

  1. Create a picture of what service excellence looks like in every area of your company. The senior leaders of each company named above created and communicate a very clear vision they are 100% committed to, and expect everyone on their team to be just as dedicated to carrying it out.

 

  1. Align all the pieces of your organization with that vision. In other words, the way you hire people, onboard and orient them, train them, treat them, reward and coach them must be in alignment with those expectations.

 

  1. Empower your team members at every level with the tools and training they need to deliver on those expectations.

While hiring people who have the innate qualities that are in alignment with your vision for customer service excellence, it’s still important to provide training. Good training will ensure the kind of consistency that will enable your company to become known for a red carpet experience. Remember, each employee a customer interacts with, makes an impression that formulates their total opinion of your entire organization. You want to make sure everyone is on the same page, and has had an opportunity to practice their skills in a safe setting.

As you create or search for the right customer service training for your staff,  here are seven skills that must be addressed in that curriculum. When it comes to interacting with customers, your team members must know how to:

  1. Make Red Carpet First and Last Impressions. When a customer interacts with any team member, are they made to feel welcomed and wanted? Soft-skills such as smiling, making eye contact and calling people by name may seem simple, but when every team member genuinely seems happy to serve the customers, it makes a huge impression! When your customers are acknowledged, remembered and thanked it’s a first step in gaining their trust and loyalty. You may have innately friendly people on your team. However, they may need the confidence that skills-practice can provide to pro-actively show that friendly personality to your customers.

 

  1. Use Confidence-Building Words and Phrases. While scripting can sometimes come across as fake and forced, teaching your team to improve their language skills can help them make a better impression. Words like “Yeah,” “Ok” and “Hang On,” can be replaced by “Absolutely,” “I’d be delighted to help,” and “Sally is the perfect person to answer that question for you. Would you mind holding for two minutes while I get her on the line?” Like anything else, getting comfortable using confidence-building phrases takes practice.

 

  1. Adjust their Approach when necessary. If there is one thing you can count on, it’s that every person is different. It takes flexibility to address the needs of your many customers. Your staff, however, may suffer from black-and-white thinking. It’s not their fault. They want to make sure they are following the rules and may not feel empowered to think for themselves when it comes to assisting a customer. Good customer service training will help your team members know how and when to adjust their approach for each customers, and when to check with a manager before going any further.

 

  1. Be Responsive, Speedy and Efficient. In a world where the answer to almost everything is at your fingertips, responsiveness is key. Your customers will quickly move on if they aren’t acknowledged and assisted in record time. Learning to be efficient and deliver goods and services quickly while, at the same time, allowing the customer the space they need to have a relaxed and happy experience is a skill that must be developed in every service professional to succeed in today’s marketplace.

 

  1. Handle and Turn Around Upset Customers. Remember the first few times you were faced with an angry customer? It wasn’t fun, was it? Especially if you weren’t equipped with the knowledge or skills to turn the situation around. Well, guess what? Your direct-line team members will undoubtedly face a disgruntled customer at some point in time. While that’s never a fun circumstance to be in, it becomes easier with tools and practice in a safe training setting.

 

  1. Be More Knowledgeable about your Products & Services. The fewer people your customers have to go through to get the answers to their questions they better. It follows that the more your direct-line team members know about your products and services, the happier your customers will be. Incorporate product knowledge into your customer service training and your on-going communication with your entire team.

 

  1. Personalize, Surprise and Delight. This is where the “red carpet service” comes in. Empower your team with a process for learning and noting customer preferences and train them to use that information to create memorable moments that will result in rave reviews online and elsewhere. These are the stories that get told and when everyone on your team is focused on created them, your customers will start telling them

When it comes to becoming known for customer service excellence, consistency is key. Have a clear vision, align your strategies with that vision and give everyone on your team time to practice these seven skills. You may find that when others are asked for the name of a company “known for exceptional customer service,” the name they give is yours.

Donna Cutting is the Founder & CEO of www.RedCarpetLearning.com., and the author of two books about customer service including her most recent, “501 Ways to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Your Customers. Follow her on Twitter at @donnacutting, and Subscribe to www.theRedCarpetWay.tv

 

 

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Entrepreneurship Marketing Operations Personal Development

Without a Brand Promise a Brand is Just a Label

Brands go back to the Roman Empire. Products were emblazoned with a mark that identified the merchant. Today, brands don’t just indicate identity; they also represent the brand’s promise. This promise covers much more than just performance—it reaches packaging, quality, price, availability, and other factors that create your consumers’ expectations!

Modern distribution and communication can bring your brand to widespread recognition and reputation that are based on both past and present behavior. But this is an intricate double-edged sword! A brand with all-star reputation and distribution can excel in the marketplace, but on the other hand, a brand can lose its charm when just one consumer necessity fades. For example, brands can continue to provide good quality, dependability, and price, but they can lose favor by breaking their promise in different ways, like environmental practices or labor relations.

The brand promise is complex. Your consumer has their own expectations based on knowledge of your brand, no matter what you want your brand promise to be. If a consumer’s recent experience doesn’t match their expectations, not only will they stop using your brand, but they’ll also be compelled to warn others (to whom they’ve previously promoted your brand) to avoid it! When it comes to reputation, your former promoters can become formidable opponents. They have more authority with your consumers than you do.

This is why it’s essential for small startups and large corporations alike to understand the unpredictable nature of a brand promise. Start with accepting that you don’t own your brand. The consumer does! You don’t even own your brand promise—the consumer does! Your brand promises certain behavior in your customer’s experience that you and your marketing team might not even notice. New competitors, changes in the market, changes in your category, or even the news can sometimes alter your brand promise in your customers’ eyes. So be cautious and pay attention!

When people trust a brand, they want to feel completely comfortable. So, they stop looking for an alternative once they’ve discovered their brand. Shopping for a new brand fosters anxiety and possible disappointment. Understanding this can be a huge advantage to brand builders who don’t disappoint their followers. The more you know about how customers see your brand promise, the better you can honor it and remain relevant in their point of view.

Your customer service and salespeople know more about marketplace dynamics and consumer perception than your marketing staff. Why? Because they talk to consumers every day! Your salespeople have the most up-to-date info on the competition, your category, and the marketplace. When you break your brand promise, your customer service people know before anyone else in your company. To live up to your brand promise and to keep your devoted customers, we suggest a regular and formal line of communication between your Customer Service and Sales teams and your Production, R&D, Marketing, and Administrative teams.

It’s easy for creators to get too comfortable with their brands. They think they have reached their destination, when maintaining your brand promise is actually a persistent journey. Don’t allow your brand to become just another label. When you keep your brand promise, you keep your faithful customers as promoters for your brand.

For more, read on: http://csnetworkadvis.staging.wpengine.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

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Growth Management Personal Development Women In Business

It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality: Understanding EI and Personalities at Work

I always enjoy when I get to interview successful leaders on my C-Suite radio show.  However, it was a nice change to be on the other end of the interview for a change.  I was recently showcased on The Leadership Coaching Group’s show with Liz Roney.  We discussed emotional intelligence based on my research for my book It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality.

To listen to the interview, you can go to: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/I4z2wcanddij3spem5crsgabdfu and click the play button on the top right.

The following are highlights of what he discussed in our interview:

  • What is emotional intelligence
  • Why emotional intelligence is important
  • The value of self-assessment
  • Emotional intelligence, DiSC, and Myers-Briggs MBTI
  • Can EQ be developed
  • The importance of communication
  • Kissing up and kicking down
  • The importance of corporate culture
  • The importance of engagement
  • Surviving in a toxic environment
  • Ways to improve engagement
  • Advice for younger or mid-level leaders
  • Self-assessing EQ
  • Taking the EQ-i
  • Daniel Goleman’s work
  • Generational myths
  • EI skills that helped professionally
  • Our concern for impact or how we come across to others
  • Representing the organization
  • It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality book

 

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Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Women In Business

Distractions Decay. Attention Pays

Everywhere I look there are people staring at their phones – walking down the street and through airports, at restaurants and coffee shops, networking events and family gatherings. I believe we are so distracted that we are losing the ability to connect with each other and our surroundings.

We go through the motions of day-to-day life while failing to invest any real concentrated effort into any of it. We drive from place to place, often not remembering how we got there because we are tuned out, lost in our heads, distracted with technology and suffering from mental fatigue. We finish the workday exhausted while feeling we’ve accomplish nothing of any real value. We participate in conversations and fail to remember more than a quarter of it.

Our society is overlooking what important and failing to honor what matters most. We sacrifice time with our families and friends to answer emails and messages. We give up necessary sleep to check alerts and texts. We lose lives because drivers focus their attention on a screen and not on the road.

When do we say enough?

We do we recognize technology as a tool, not as a life source?

At what point do we commit to changing our habits and realize our distractions decay and attention pays?

I believe when we commit to focusing our attention on what matters most, everything in our lives flourish. Relationships are fed, tasks are completed, profits are boosted, productivity increases and accountability is restored.  When organizational leaders commit to avoiding interruptions in order to engage in a conversation and truly connect with their employees, morale increases and profits soar. When coworkers remove daily distractions, they have time to focus on important tasks and achieve deadlines. When families commit to each other, their relationships grow and their need for superficial technological fulfillment decreases. When we as individuals realize we cannot operate in a 24×7 world and that we require rest and recovery to be our best selves, our productivity improves.

Are you ready to make a change? Are you ready to admit you’re distracted? Are you ready to recognize it’s time to pay attention to what matters most? Join me as I embark on an #AttentionRevolution where we change our habits and behaviors so our distractions no longer decay and our attention pays.

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Growth Management Operations Personal Development

Customers Matter… All of Them

I love jokes, and there’s one that is quite well-known, especially in the dental world. A client walks into the office and sits in the chair. As he is getting his teach cleaned, he asks his dentist, “Which teeth should I floss?” The dentist replies to him, “Only the ones you want to keep.”

You should look at your customers in the exact same way. 

There’s no such thing as a bad customer. They’re all good. Well, maybe not each and every customer is good. But for argument’s sake, and for this article, we are going to act as though every customer who wants to do business with you is a customer you would like to do business with. Let’s pretend this is a perfect world.

In this perfect world, all customers are good. However, there are still certain customers who are better than others. The reasons behind this vary, but it could be because they visit us more regularly, or because they spend more money each time they come in. Perhaps they are just more pleasant. Whatever the reason, some are simply a bit better than the average “good” customer.

When we use the teeth metaphor, it almost sounds ridiculous. Would you rather keep the front teeth, which are seen by everyone? Or would you like to keep the ones in the back that help you chew your food? Obviously, you want to keep them all. The same can be said of your customers. They are all valuable, they are all needed, and we should want to keep them all.

Your loyal customers are most likely the ones who are connected emotionally. Perhaps they feel like the employees treat them like friends. Maybe they feel comforted knowing they will receive a predictable and consistent experience, every single time. Many things beyond product and price connect customers to a company.

On the opposite end, we all have those customers we don’t see or hear form very often. Maybe when they do give us a sale, it’s a small one. But, they still come back from time to time. That makes them good customers, just as much as the ones who come more regularly and spend more money.

I once bought a dress shirt from a salesman at a men’s clothing store. It was on sale. Realizing my purchase was small, I commented, “Maybe next time I’ll see a sport coat or suit I like.” The salesperson smiled and said, “If I had 500 customers just like you, I’d be the happiest salesperson in the store.” He told me that he likes customers who walk out of the store happy, regardless of how much they spend, because he knows they will come back. He was right. I did go back, and I bought a suit. And, I’ve been buying clothes from him ever since.

The exact lesson that I am trying to teach, this guy had figured out and mastered. It didn’t matter how much money I had spent that first time. It was that I represented one of his customers. The point here is that you should be taking care of all of your customers. The small ones matter just as much as the big ones. Everyone, regardless of how much they spend, should feel happy, respected, and appreciated.

And, remember, be sure to floss your teeth. All of them!

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Accounting Best Practices Economics Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Investing Management Marketing News and Politics Skills Taxes Technology Women In Business

How to Really Overcome a Bully Before Negotiating

“A bully is a misguided person with perceived power. Extinguish his sources of power and you extinguish the bully.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Do you know how to really overcome a bully before negotiating with him? There you are. You’re negotiating against a bully! He’s someone that’s willing to lie, cheat, and steal to come out ahead in the negotiation. You think to yourself, ‘what can I do? This son-of-a-gun is not playing fair and I don’t know how to overcome him!’ The answer to, ‘what can I do’ was hidden in what occurred before the negotiation began.

The following insights will allow you to position yourself better to overcome a bully’s ploys before you negotiate with him.

Positioning:

In every negotiation, positioning occurs. It’s shown in the way the negotiators perceive each other and themselves. Thus, positioning is important because it determines how negotiators will interact with one another.

If you know you’ll be negotiating against someone that has bullied others in the past, before entering into the negotiation, attempt to discover the demeanor of those individuals. In particular seek to define whether they were perceived to be weak by your opponent due to their short-comings, or if your opponent felt empowered due to some other factor(s) he had going for himself at the time of the negotiation(s). That information will allow you to best position yourself from a position of strength. A bully’s loathing for weakness is the reason he only picks on targets that he perceives to be weak.

Leverage: (ploys you can employ when negotiating with a bully)

  • Using Other people
    • All bullies look up to someone. If you can find a way to curry favor with the bully’s icon, you can supplant his bullying efforts against you. After all, the bully wants an easy target. If the bully’s icon has favored you, that makes you less of a target to the bully.
  • Bully’s weakness
    • All bullies have an Achilles heel. It may be how they wish to be perceived by others. It may also appear in the form of the bully being perceived in one light versus another. Whatever it is, discover it and be prepared to exploit it during the negotiation if such is called for.
  • Bully’s Persona (his vanity)
    • If you’re aware of the pride a bully takes in having himself perceived in a certain light, attempt to alter that light; have it shine on someone or somewhere else. You will have taken away his source of motivation. Hold it hostage until he dismantles his bullying ways. The point is, hit him where you’ll get the most attention and where it will hurt him the most. Remember, he despises weakness and applauds strength.

Be Stealthy:

Every good negotiator gathers information about the opposing negotiator. When you know you’ll be negotiating against a bully, drip misinformation into places that he seeks to gather information about you. The better you can use such information to misguide him, the more difficult it’ll be for him to assess the type of negotiator you are; always be willing to display a different negotiation demeanor based on the opposing negotiator.

When engaging a bully in a negotiation, there are all kinds of mind games that occur. Utilize the insights above and you’ll be in a better mental state than the bully. The better you play the game, the greater the chance that you’ll be able to overcome a bully when negotiating … and everything will be right with the world.

What are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

Remember, you’re always negotiating.

#HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #Bully

Categories
Growth Management Skills Technology

Great Leaders Are Always Transitioning

As I moved from company to company throughout my career, I rarely had a gap in between roles.  So when I was recruiting a candidate that had recently been laid off, my internal recruiter had to explain the term “in transition” to me.    I was not a big fan of the term.  Couldn’t we just say that someone was between jobs?  Transitioning has much broader and open-ended connotations.

In my current role as a social media advisor and coach to C-Suite Executives, I work with a few Executives that are between jobs.  But most of my clients are fully employed Executives who are constantly looking ahead and thinking about their future.  Those in new roles hope to transition from new kid on the block to established rock star.   And almost every executive worth their salt is thinking about what’s next, both in their current role and beyond.

C-Suite tenures average around four years, so Executives have to think about their future, whether that be another C-Suite role, a Board position, philanthropic endeavors, etc.  Don’t wait until you are between jobs to set yourself up to be considered for desirable future roles.  You will have much less leverage and influence than you do now.

Do your own internal assessment.  If a merger or reorganization were to eliminate your current role in the next few months, are you ready for the transition to your next role?  Are you successful in your current role?  Are your skills up to date?  Are you perceived as having good executive presence? Are you well networked?  These are some of the questions forward thinking executives ask themselves. A good Executive Coach can help.  Having an outside perspective can identify blind spots and help you create and execute an action plan to build on strengths and address deficiencies.

Also, take an objective look at your social media presence; your Coach can provide objectivity.  A purposeful and active social media presence can help address many of the deficiencies Executives identify in their self-assessment.   While elements of executive presence have historically been in the physical world, increasingly elements must carry over into the digital and social space as well.  A powerful social presence is often viewed as a proxy for “getting digital.”  It also gives you a platform to show off your current success and demonstrate ongoing subject matter expertise and thought leadership.  Finally, it strengthens and extends your already strong network.

Supposedly, it is easier to find a job when you have a job.  Like job hunting, the time to prepare for your transition and build a strong social presence is now.  By virtue of your current C-Suite position, you command attention that translates into building a stronger presence much faster than when you are between jobs.

Now is the time to start thinking about your transition.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development

The Monotony of Success

Have you ever given up on something because it got boring? You know those goals you set, maybe a New Year resolution that shortly after starting you stop working on, maybe because it got boring or because you were not seeing the results fast enough. Maybe even a job or project for work that you quit on because it wasn’t exciting or fulfilling anymore.

In a recent interview I had on C-Suite Success Radio with Shep Hyken, Customer Experience Expert and Chief Amazement Officer, I learned that there is a monotony of success that you must withstand if you are going to be successful. That means that in order to be successful most of what you do day in and day out is going to be monotonous.

The good news is that if you are bored or less than fulfilled with some of the work you are doing because it is monotonous, as long as you keep doing it you are working towards success. It is the day in and day out little things that compound into your great achievement. That is a lesson I learned reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. In order to accomplish anything it takes time, discipline, and repeating the right behavior.

The reason I bring this up is because I think it is simple to understand yet profound its meaning. Instead of being bored or unfulfilled by some of the mundane and monotonous tasks you have to do every day, reframe those experiences into excitement for what you are building and creating in those actions.

You can apply this to losing weight, getting a degree or certification, completing a project, training for a marathon, or just about anything you want to accomplish. When I look back at all the activities I quit on before I succeeded because “they weren’t fun anymore” and realize that was a sign that I was working on my success I wonder what would have happened if I had kept going. And since I didn’t know it then I use it now to keep me working towards my current and future goals.

I bring this short message to you as we start the new year to help you reframe your thoughts as you dig into your 2018 goals. Monotony might just be the sign that you are working towards a successful outcome.

Wishing you a Successful and Happy New Year!

 

Categories
Growth Management Operations Personal Development

Want to Deliver Red Carpet Customer Experience? Here Are 3 Areas of Focus

Have you heard the phrase, “Customer Experience is the new marketing?” In a world where your customers have more choices and louder voices than ever before, providing an exceptional experience is certainly key to building a brand that attracts new and loyal customers.

A study by McKinsey shows that 70% of all buying decisions are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. Gartner found that by 2018, more than 50% of organizations will implement significant business model changes in an effort to improve customer experience.

It’s not new that people like doing business with people and companies they like. What is new, in the past decade and going forward, is that in this age of social media and review sites, word of mouth has taken on a whole new meaning.

There’s no doubt that in order to ensure “word on the street” is positive when it comes you to your business, it’s imperative that you pay attention to delivering a red carpet customer experience. So, what does that mean and where do you start?

When it comes to improving the customer experience, there are three specific areas of focus:

  • Technical
  • Warmth and Hospitality
  • WOW!

The Technical area of focus centers on the quality of products and services you deliver, and the processes that enable you to provide a seamless experience across all channels. To improve this area, consider the following:

  • Do you deliver exceptional products or services?
  • Do your customers feel they are getting their money’s worth?
  • What’s the speed of delivery?
  • How responsive is your team?
  • How many interactions (with technology or people) does it take to get an answer to a question or a resolution to a problem?
  • How knowledgeable is your team? Is there enough information at the customer’s fingertips?
  • How well trained is your staff?
  • How up-to-date are your systems?
  • How many times do customers have to repeat information?
  • How easy or difficult do you make it for a customer to do business with you?

Are you rolling out the red carpet, or the red tape? This is the question the leaders of the city of Ball Ground, GA asked themselves several years ago. At the time, they had a 3-page list of items that had to be completed before someone could establish a business in their city. They culled the list down to those procedures needed only for the safety and well being of their citizens. As a result, they’ve not only attracted new business to their community, but Hollywood as well. The Tom Cruise movie American Made was partially filmed in Ball Ground. Says city manager Eric Wilmarth, “Instead of charging them huge fees, we asked that the crews be fed locally, use local businesses, and work with the businesses to ensure they’d be made whole if they lost money during the filming process.”

How are you making it easy…or difficult…for your customers to do business with you?

The Warmth and Hospitality area of focus is all about your people. As self-sufficient as customer interactions may become in the future, at some point your customer will engage with a human being. In fact, many may prefer to work with a person and you may be making it difficult for them. (Red carpet? Or red tape?)

When they do, you want to ensure those interactions are warm, welcoming and helpful. Red-Carpet customer service is about making the person in front of you right now feel important. This comes down to the basics of genuine smiles, eye contact and learning and using customer names. You want each person they meet to exude friendliness and a sense of really wanting to be helpful.

To improve the hospitality area of focus, here are a few questions to consider:

  • Are you hiring people with empathy and an innate desire to make others feel important?
  • Are you training your team on customer service skills? While you may not be able to teach empathy or friendliness, you can train people on ways they can better show empathy or friendliness.
  • Are your team members 100% present to your customers?
  • Are your team members empowered to solve problems for your customers and go the extra mile to make them happy?
  • How is employee morale? Have you spent some time building a service culture that lifts your team up, so they are ready to lift up your customers?

Remember, each person your customer interacts with is a reflection of your brand. Ensuring those interactions are consistently positive is critical to the overall customer experience. When you’ve created a place where your customers feel important and warmly welcomed, you’ve created a place where your customers return and bring friends.

The WOW area of focus is last for a reason. While it may be fun to think of ways you can go over-the-top and delight your customers, those WOW moments don’t matter if your products aren’t up to par, your processes bog things down, and your people are surly.

However, if you’re providing a pretty seamless experience and your people are consistently warm, friendly and helpful, then you may want to look at adding some of the WOW Factor!

This is about going deep to really get to know your customers and using that information to deliver unexpected moments of red carpet awesomeness!

To improve this area of focus, consider the following:

  • Do you have a process for recording the preferences of your customers?
  • How can you add a touch of personalization to each point in your customer’s journey?
  • Are your team members encouraged and empowered to surprise and delight customers?
  • How far can a team member go to make a customer happy?
  • What tools can you provide your team so it’s easy to add a little delight to the mix?

The WOW-factor happens when you’ve got your entire team engaged and excited about making memorable moments for your customers. For instance:

  • Ruby Receptionists empowers their entire staff to send surprise cards and gifts to their customers. They even have a station with notes, wrapping paper and access to a gifting account.
  • An employee at Tampa International Airport found a stuffed tiger left by a little boy. They took the tiger on a little “airport adventure,” documenting it in photos along the way. When the child and his parents were reunited with their stuffed friend, they were also presented with a photo album of all he had “done” while they were separated.
  • ScanMyPhotos.com sends bouquets of flowers to customers on a random basis.
  • An auto mechanic noticed a customer dancing along to the music playing through their sound system. After hearing her say it was one of her favorite recordings and she had lost hers, he pressed the track on a CD for her. It began playing through her sound system as she started her car.

These are the moments that make people want to talk about, write about, and post about your business in a very positive way.

As you think about upping your game when it comes to customer experience, consider each of these three areas. Decide on the most impactful strategy you could employ from each area of focus, and implement. Keep repeating and you’ll be able to look back and see great improvements in your customer’s experience. Why bother? Because when you roll out the red carpet for your customers, they run out and tell everyone they know.

Donna Cutting is the Founder & CEO of www.RedCarpetLearning.com and the author of two books on customer service, including “501 Ways to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Your Customers.” Follow her on Twitter at @donnacutting