However, in the realm of customer experience, it is easier to work ‘unforgettable’ into their vocabulary, and there’s simply one word you should always remember: surprise.

Surprise cuts through the routine and brings fun to an otherwise boring day. It can make disappointment forgettable. It allows you to create, strengthen, and reward loyalty. Best of all, it gets you talked about.

Therefore, don’t forget to connect your unforgettable customer experience back to your brand. The last thing you want to hear is “Unforgettable! Except I can’t remember which company it was…”

Use the experience wisely; communicate your brand’s values; appreciate their patronage; introduce new product or service or endorser; raise interest in an old one.

Question: when is it best to create an unforgettable customer experience?

• When you first open your store?
• When they first walk in the door?
• After they’ve made their first purchase?
• When they’ve entered your contest for the first time?
• On their 10th visit? Third purchase? Second contest?
• When they subscribe to your email list or loyalty program?
• When they blog/tweet about you or like your page on Facebook?

The fact is, you can make any moment unforgettable, at any time, in any stage of your customer loyalty ladder, even online. Depending on whether you want to bump up a ‘prospect’ (not yet bought) to customer (bought once), or from ‘supporter’ to ‘advocate,’ you can recruit, reward, incentivize, or simply reach out to a great, surprising effect.

How easy or hard is it to  make an experience unforgettable? Well, let me answer that with another question: how well do you know your customer? We answer this question in another blog post, to help you with writing your customer satisfaction survey. 

As always, I would still recommend a full Customer Experience Management consultation. Feel free to contact us should you have any questions or inquiries!

Service Quality is a term that many know but only a few understand the true science behind it. The business environment today is so much more dynamic compared to the days of our baby boomer parents. Today, messages travel across cyber space within a fraction of a millisecond, which means businesses can flourish and can also close out very quickly. The “service” industry is often misclassified as food and beverage-related. Fact is that, any business involved in any form of selling, is considered part of the service industry. This is where the real competition comes to play.

Quite literally, comparing mangoes to mangoes, I buy mangoes from a certain “manang” (old lady) near where we live. Manang’s mangoes cost more than if I were to buy from the closest supermarket. Here is why I choose manang: manang is honest, when the mangoes are not 100% to her liking, she will inform me and present other fruits as options. Manang recognizes me as a person, not just another customer, she knows how I like my mangoes (as a peculiar practice, I like to buy my mangoes free from blemishes, which means they are not completely ripe, more like 98% ripeness). Manang is very knowledgeable about her mangoes and where they come from, the varieties and even serving suggestions! A simple buying experience will turn into a warm and fuzzy feeling — I am a valued customer. Shift in paradigm: now I am at the fancy grade supermarket, the mangoes are blemish-free, the price is 15% less than manang’s mangoes, it is a very convenient location, very comfortable atmosphere, the staff are very courteous and well-groomed. When I asked about the mangoes here, the answer is very corporate, almost as if I am prying into the industry’s secret to ask where those mangoes come from. It is a hit or miss shopping experience. I would rather pay the 15% price premium for manang’s mangoes and be recognized as a valued customer.

Manang has successfully created her own “brand” and a loyal customer base, her mangoes are sold out as soon as she puts them on display. Why businesses neglect the basic fundamentals of customer engagement is beyond my comprehension. As businesses grow and the many tiers of management are created, customer engagement level diminishes.

If you would like to share your customer service story or insights on service, please email us at mystory@satisfind.com.

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However, when we consider that employees must also take care of customer management, the systems—keeping inventory, managing the register, stocking supplies, accomplishing timesheets, expense reports, and hundreds of other minutiae—inevitably get in the way.

1. First Secret: Go beyond the routine.

Systems are based on routines, which reduce friction. They minimize effort which is useful for repeated processes. But good customer service is not a routine. It is a relationship, which requires more energy, and more effort to sustain.

2. Second Secret: Keep the face—eyes and ears—open to the customer

Customer management that makes a difference is face-forward, beaming its attention on each customer. Being tuned in and attentive is something that most employees will say they are. But keeping eyes and ears open means actively searching for the needs and concerns of the customer. Keeping alert to the customer’s needs means understanding that each customer is different, not a step in a routine, and each one requires different levels of assistance.

3. Third Secret: Be an expert on your own product.

Once you have mastered keeping your face oriented towards the customer, you must be able to respond fully to your customers’ needs. Knowing your company’s services or products really well translates into better presence, faster customer service, and customers that return for the excellent service and customer management.

Specificity is essential in composing surveys like a pro. I think it’s also essential to be specific in the tone and mood of your survey. 

To test the messaging of your brand, and to see whether your branding is coming through in form and function, start with the broad questions that cover the brand attitude, and move towards particulars like helpfulness, accessibility, and whether they would recommend your brand to their friends or associates.

Keep your tone causal if you are a fun and playful brand. Keep the questions formal if you are projecting luxury or maturity.

Branding

1.  When describing the Acme Brand, you would use the words: a) fun, b) active, c) conservative, d) cutting-edge, e) risque

Ease of Use

2.  From the moment you decided to hire National Services Inc., how easy was it to choose and and contract our workers?

Staff Helpfulness

3.  Please rate the helpfulness of the Smiley Staff from 1 Happy Face to 5 Happy Faces.

Comparison

4.  Please rate our product quality compared to our competitors: 1) not as good, 2) worse, 3) the same, 4) better, 5) much better

Recommendation

5.  How likely are you to recommend us to a good friend or family member? 1) never, 2) not likely, 3) neither likely nor unlikely, 4) likely, 5) very likely

Regardless of your chosen style in conducting your own customer survey, be sure to cover the important topics, and do so in a clear manner. When in doubt, never sacrifice understandability. The aim of a survey is to discover gaps in your service procedure as well as finding strengths and weaknesses in your business model.

Starting with anonymous accounts, to the various Like/Dislike, +1, ReTweets, and Favorites, customer feedback is getting more and more important to host and to guest. Companies like TripAdvisor rely mainly on guest recommendations and warnings to hostels and hotels alike. A business owner should only Google their own business name to find out what are being said about them.

A common practice some years ago was to type in “I hate (company name)” to see if that web page was constructed. But it seems to have died out in the advent of social networking sites. It seems people prefer to let their friends hear their gripes, rather than to no one in particular.

Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” I wonder if he was right?

The Philippine cafe Mary Grace makes great pasta dishes and thick hot chocolate. But the Mary Grace behind the store started out by herself with her family, baking holiday treats from her own kitchen. As the entrepreneur in her took over, and the baking went from packaging for gifting to finally going bricks, mortar, and pestle, she retained the intimacy of the Christmas spirit, and let it thrive as the heart of her business.

And it twinkles evidently in the customer feedback. Each glass tabletop has thank you notes that her customers and friends have written, and are on display underneath the glass. This heartwarming decor is a clever and sincere way of encouraging—and showing—gestures of love and appreciation for and by her customers. Sit at one of the tables, and you will be delighted.

Nothing gives you the feeling that the food and the service is crafted with love than this. It is clear that the staff are appreciative of life and generous with their smiles, not to mention an exceptional dining experience.

Old Spice broke all conventions in 2010 when it went online for its “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign (a.k.a. “I’m on a horse”)

Following the enormous success of its 30-second video (which reached millions of views in days), the wildly-quoted spot got so much twitter feedback that the creative team of Weiden+Kennedy in Portland, Oregon decided to keep the conversation going, online.

Customer feedback should be treated as currency by any business, and you should go out there and seek it. Look for it online; create promotions that ask for feedback, or simply monitor for mentions online. Start with simply excellent and surprising customer service.

Don’t stop until you get it good customer feedback—whether handwritten or online. And don’t forget, sometimes, all you need is ask your staff to spread the word; “Cc:” everyone in an email; it’s worth sharing—even internally—every time we receive a simple, “Thank You,” from a happy customer.