Why striving to delight isn’t always best

Many small businesses are striving to delight their customers. They believe the foundation of a great customer experience is to give more than what they promised. They constantly work to surpass customer expectations.

In the book, “The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty,” by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi, http://amzn.to/1pTlYnV), the authors show that exceeding customer expectations does not increase customer loyalty. Loyalty increases when a company goes from below satisfaction to meeting expectations, but the loyalty curve flattens when businesses exceed what the customer originally wanted.

According to the book, customers report several ways to lose their loyalty:

• 56 percent of customers report re-explaining an issue to the company. Having to re-explain an issue to multiple people inside of a company is a big negative. Solution: The company needs to have a system in place (like a help desk database) to keep track of customer concerns.
• 62 percent of customers report repeatedly contacting the company to resolve an issue. As a customer, having to call a company to get an issue resolved, is a huge negative. Solution: The company needs to have a system that will notify the staff to follow up with a customer.
• Fifty-nine percent of customers report being transferred to another employee. Being transferred from employee to employee to get issue resolution creates a terrible experience.
   

Solution: The initial point of contact (or secondary one) should be able to handle 99 percent of the issues raised by customers, if the staff is trained correctly.

How does a small business retain loyal customers?

1. Set firm expectations.
2. Consistently meet them.
3. Empower employees to resolve customer concern the first time it arises.
    

Companies use surveys to find out if they're meeting expectations. Unfortunately, there are three types of customers that consistently tell a company what they're thinking:

1. The very happy ones. They can’t wait to explain how great the product or service is and how it changed their lives. They are falling over themselves to express gratitude.
2. The very unhappy ones. They can’t wait to explain how a product ruined their lives. They're falling over themselves to express their dismay.
3. The people who are paid. Customers love to be “bribed” for their opinion. Many retailers give a $2 or $3 discount on a customer’s next order for completing a survey.

Disgruntled customers won't say anything to a company. Instead, they sulk away and never buy from that company again. Customer loyalty may be broken and the company may not know it.

According to the Harvard Business Review (http://bit.ly/1pTnfLu):

• 25 percent of customers are likely to say something positive about their customer service experiences.
• 65 percent are likely to speak negatively about their experiences.
• 23 percent of customers who had a positive interaction told 10 or more people.
• 48 percent of customers who had negative experiences told 10 or more people.
   

Customer complaints are a gift. They've taken valuable time to give feedback to a company instead of complaining to friends. The business benefits in two ways:

1. The company gets a second chance. A dissatisfied customer whose problem is fixed can again become loyal.
2. The company gets valuable feedback. Customer service is a moving target. Customer concerns change every month.

Listen carefully in order to understand customer concerns. Try not to find blame or hide problems. Ask customers for their best solutions. Get back customers and let them know how problems will be solved. Monitor all concerns in order to spot trends that can be corrected.

So, what are you going to do to meet customer expectations and build loyalty?

Barry Moltz helps small businesses get unstuck. His new book is How to Get Unstuck: 25 Ways to Get Your Business Growing Again. Have a question? Contact Barry at
www.barrymoltz.com or (773) 837-8250.