Achieving Customer Delight

John Paulhttp://www.associationworks.com

jpaul@associationworks.com

800-986-8472Association Works – Dallas, Texas

© Association Works, 2001

Customer Delight

Not Customer

Satisfaction, but...

Redefining The Business

• Saturn

• Amazon.com

• Titanic - The Musical

• Palm Pilot

• FedEx

• Your Organization?

It Starts At The Top

• Who is the champion for the Customer Delight initiative?

• Organizations have: Visionaries Leaders Managers

Adequate Is Not Acceptable

• Most of what we do is adequate• People talk about Customer Delight• People talk about bad service• People don’t talk about adequate service

Where Are We Now?1-5 (5=No Improvement Needed)

1) This organization is focused externally2) Staff are fully empowered to delight customers3) We are constantly looking for better

ways to delight our customers4) We listen to what our customers are

telling us and act accordingly5) We know who our customers are6) We know what our customers want7) We have an ongoing process to monitor

how delighted our customers are

8) Our staff are trusted to do the right thing9) All of our policies make sense 10) We are actively engaged in building long

term relationships with our customers11) Our plans are current and regularly updated12) Training is important to this organization13) Training is relevant to what we do14) We realize that the smallest things can have the

biggest impact 15) We treat every customer the way they want to be

treated

Where Are We Now?1-5 (5=No Improvement Needed)

The Truth About Customers

Ten times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep a current customer

- Bain & Company Research

Customers are lost primarily due to indifference (66%) versus dissatisfaction (14%) - WSJ

The Best• Woo – the ability to win others over• Empathy – the ability to understand the mood

of others• Discipline – the ability to work systematically

and consistently• Command – the ability to control a situation

through communication• Responsibility – the ability to own a problem

until it is solvedGallup Survey of Best Customer Service

Representatives

Not to organizations

Donors, volunteers, and Program participantsrelate to people

The ProblemThe problem is never how to get new innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out

Dee Hock, VISA

You do not merely want to be considered the best of the best….

You want to be considered the only one who does what you do

Jerry Garcia

Standing Out

When we did it right it was still pretty ordinary

Barry Gibbons, Burger King

We defined personality as a market niche - we seek to amuse, entertain, surprise

Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines

Create A Life Changing Experience

What we sell is the ability for a 43 year old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him.

Harley Davidson Executive

Story Telling

Do people tell positive stories about your organization?

Mayo ClinicVolvoFirestone TiresRolex

Perception is reality

What Should We Be Doing…

To stand out in the crowd?

To create a life changing experience?

To create stories about us?

Know Your Participants

• The Golden Rule doesn’t apply

• It is now the Platinum Rule

• When was the last time you asked your participants what were their

expectations?

• It doesn’t need to be complex

“Men and women don’t think the same way, don’t communicate the same way, don’t buy for the same reasons.”

“He simply wants the transaction to take place. She’s interested in creating a relationship. Every place women go, they make connections.”

Faith Popcorn

Quick Quiz

• By 2005 ____% of all firms will be female owned

• A woman opens a new business every _______

• Women influence ____% of all car purchases

• Women own ____% of all stocks

Quick Quiz

• By 2005 of all firms will be female owned

• A woman opens a new business every

• Women influence of all car purchases

• Women own of all stocks

40 %

60 seconds

90 %

53 %

Opportunities For Customer Delight

• What happens when you first interact with a customer?

• What occurs to build a relationship?

• Do you spend more to get new customers than on enhancing the relationship with current customers?

• What makes you unique?

Relationship Continuum

First InteractionEntry intoSystem

NextInteractionProactiveor Reactive

CustomerDelight

MomentsOf Truth

Customers

• Who are they?

• What do they want?

• Are we meeting their needs?

Why Should We Be Concerned?

In the average business, for each customer who complains there are 26 who feel the same way and don’t speak up.

The customers who feel poorly served will tell between 8 and 16 people about their negative experience.

» Technical Assistance Research, Inc.

Staff And Volunteers Are Partners

• Different needs exist

• A partnership isn’t always 50 - 50

• Who are your internal partners?

• What do they want?

Internal Focus

When the organization has its

face focused internally it has

its butt toward the customer.

Paraphrased from Funky Business

Partners

• Who are they?

• What do they want from me?

• What do I want from them?

Empowerment Environment

Empowerment is the

“What”

not the

“How”

The Past

No one knows what it means

Abdication

Perfectionism

Lack of trust

Espouse Theory Y – Practice Theory X

More time spent on structure instead of behavior

Lack of commitment

Why Empowerment Fails

Notes On Empowerment

Empowerment rests on trust

Don't play games

Practice “no surprises”

Hug the messenger

Decision making

Who can solve problems?

Be a coach not an expert

Fix the problem - not the blame

No more "father/mother knows best"

Empowerment must be in everything

The test: How are mistakes treated?

It encourages change & communication

Notes On Empowerment

ActuallyCustomer expectations are typically not

very high

Your job is to surprise them

Customer Delight is doing what they haven’t even imagined

What will cause them to say WOW!

You know what you can do - they don’t

Making Customer Delight A Core Value

Staff Meetings

Board Meetings

Define and visualize the ideal experience

Make a part of each agenda

What did we do right?

Missed opportunities?

Recognition

Who is the “champion” for Customer Delight?

How are we treating customers now?

Creating Customer Delight

• What’s working?– How can we do more?

• Any barriers?– How can we overcome them?

I Will

Identify crimes committed against Customers, Donors, Program Participants and Each Other

……and do SOMETHING

Two Things I Will Do…

1)

2)

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it

Michelangelo

Achieving

Customer

Delight

John Paulhttp://www.associationworks.com

jpaul@associationworks.com800-986-8472

Association Works – Dallas, Texas