By Shep Hyken
My friend Stacy Sherman, head of customer experience at Schindler Elevator Corporation, is personally dedicated to “humanizing business.”
She is not only “in the trenches,” working in the customer service and experience world, she has also been recognized as a customer experience thought leader. She recently responded to one of my tweets, which was the creative spark for this post.
I tweeted, “Amazing customer service isn’t an over-the-top WOW level of service. Here’s the real secret. Amazing customer service is just a little better than average.”
Her response was, “There are many #CX techniques to service customers. Right now, focus on GETTING THE BASICS RIGHT to satisfy customers when they call you. Even better, contact them PROACTIVELY. My #custexp team is doing “peace of mind” calls. Authenticity & caring goes a long way.”
First, let’s talk about the basics. If someone asked me, “What are the basics of customer service?” my response would be, “Be nice. Show respect. Say please and thank you. Do what you say you will do.” We can add a few others to the mix, but you get the idea. These are soft skills. When a customer experiences them and can count on them, they develop confidence about doing business with you.
Stacy mentioned that her team is doing “peace of mind” calls. This comes from the concept of providing proactive customer service. When you proactively reach out and talk to a customer to check-in, touch base or just let them know you’re there for them, it goes a long way toward creating peace of mind, which is another form of confidence.
For example, when our clients buy our online customer service courses, we onboard them through a Zoom call. We follow up a few weeks later “just to check-in,” which is the call that offers support and gives them the peace of mind that we’re attentive to them and their needs. But it doesn’t stop there. About every 60 days, we do another peace of mind call. We want our clients to know that we’re always in the background paying attention to them. This is especially important in a subscription-based model. Our belief is that beginning the renewal process shouldn’t wait until just before it’s time to renew. It should start as soon as the client decides to do business with us. We want them to know we’re with them every step of the way, not just when we want them to renew for another year.
Peace of mind is about the comfort level a customer has with you. It gives them confidence and makes them want to continue doing business with you. If you’re not intentionally doing it already, it’s time to add a peace of mind strategy to your customer experience.
