Recently, I read a book entitled Excellence Wins, by Horst Schulze. It was an excellent read that I would highly recommend. I heard about the book through Craig Groeschel’s Leadership Podcast (another must for you), where he interviewed Mr. Schulze.
The biggest takeaway for me from the book was that if we are leading any type of organization, no matter the scale, we are all in the customer service business. Here are some additional book highlights.
If you want to run an organization that is excellent, you must:
1. Get into your customer’s head.
In order to deliver service that will mean something to our customers, we have to think like they think.
- They want a product or a service without defects.
- They want things done quickly and efficiently.
- They want the person with whom they’re dealing to be nice.
- They want individualization in their experience.
- They want personalization.
It’s important that our customers feel seen and heard, and the best way for that to happen is to deliver a customized, personable, excellent experience every time they interact with any part of our organization.
2. Realize excellence isn’t just for frontliners.
Our tendency is to think that the only people responsible for customer service are the people who have direct contact with the customers, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. If an executive, for instance, handed out a financial report to the Board of Directors with incorrect data, the excellence and integrity of the entire organization would be called into question. Everyone in the organization–executives, accountants, IT, facility care teams–is in the customer service business.
Schulze says, “Customer service isn’t just for those who face the public. It also extends to people inside an organization who deal with each other. Really, it’s all connected.”
3. Attend to the details.
It can be easy to think that small things don’t matter in the bigger picture. When we have this mentality, it becomes easier and easier to let the excellence of those small matters slide. Schulze says, “Many of the smallest things we do have an impact on our customers.”
Schulze uses the example that if a passenger of an airplane opens the drop-down tray at his or her seat and there is a coffee stain and some crumbs on it, the person could very likely begin to raise questions about the excellence of other areas of the airline. This small detail was overlooked on the tray, but where else has the airline cut corners and overlooked important details?
If you get the details right, you will build the trust and loyalty of your customers.
4. Go the extra mile.
There are times that our customers need to be shown a little extra care. It may be a thank-you note or extra effort to correct a mistake. Schulze wrote about a newlywed couple who had lost a wedding band while staying at the Ritz in Mexico. They were devastated, and it was sure to ruin their honeymoon.
The next day, the staff purchased a metal detector and spent time combing the beach where the couple had lost the band, and the staff ended up finding it. The couple was so moved that they wrote glowing letters to the staff, to the general manager, and even to the executives. The local news media picked it up, and it generated a huge amount of positive publicity.
The extra miles matters. I love what Zig Ziglar said: “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”
Question to Answer: What steps should you take to provide a more excellent customer experience?
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