The vast majority of small business leadership, over 80%, say they give great customer service. However, when their customers were asked if that were true, less than 10% agreed. The marketing phrase, “we give great customer service” is now an old cliche. Obviously, a discrepancy exists in the data or their is a total lack of connection between the service provider and their client.

Is customer satisfaction good enough? Is true customer delight the objective? Perhaps it depends on who is delivering what and what it is that the firm values.

The statistic shows that saying you're going to do something and actually doing it are two different things. Customer delight is the do here, not just pure satisfaction. You have no guarantees that your customers will want to stick around with you long enough to really give your business a chance. Satisfied customers will not be your advocate.
True customer delight starts with being client focused. Its components are exceeding expectations, empowering employees and making promises that can be and are kept. Giving value beyond expectations is not easy! However, it is a challenge worth accepting.

• Listen to what is not being said. Reading between the lines is an art of the wise. You don’t have to wait for your customers to tell you what they need in order to provide it for them. If you are constantly paying attention and reading between the lines, you should know what your customers need before they do. By observing first, you can stop being a reactive company and start being a proactive one. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. ~ Bill Gates
• Focus on their need rather than what you want them to know. The beauty of email is that it can be personal and scalable in mass. When delivering helpful ideas, put yourself in the customers shoes. Deliver a delightful email that doesn't pile on. Each email you craft should have an objective, and most importantly, when engaged with tell you what the need of the recipient is. If you’re using Infusionsoft, dig into their contact record to uncover what pages they’ve visited on your site, what informational resources they’ve downloaded or viewed, or emails they’ve interacted with in the past. Use these insights to gauge which topics they are most interested in, and send them content that is relevant to that area of focus. “Make a customer, not a sale”. ~ Katherine Barchetti
• Your customer must be your priority. Your employees, your products and services, your marketing plan and your financial records are just a few of every small business owners priorities. Your customer should be your number one priority. Is that really the last item on your to-do-list that you drop? Do you know your customers name, birthday, likes/dislikes and life challenges? Customer delight is about extra attention. Empower employees to bring it! Both are more expensive to replace than they are to publicly cherish.
• Technology can get in the way. There is a myriad of technology driven tools, widget and gadgets to keep you in front of your audience. How much of what you do is human touch supported by technology?  It’s important that we don’t let technology stand in the way of real, personal engagements with clients. At the end of the day, people want to do business with other people — not machines. When was the last time you picked up the phone and called your customer just to make them smile? “Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” ~ Damon Richards
• Stand and deliver. Often times you need to deliver reports to your customer. Do you hit the send button and have that delivery automated? Reports serve as an excellent conduit to customer delight. Glean your report of industry jargon, highlight key metrics that stand out as a positive gain, provide clarity and stand by your questionable numbers with confidence. Deliver the reports in person or over such services as Go-to-Meeting and Skype. “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
• Beyond the scope of work. You've delivered on your promise and you've done the work you were paid to do. Customer delight is about going beyond your product delivery. Be open and available for follow-up questions. Approach them with heart felt probing questions to gauge their experience and allow that conversation to get personal. Often times, you will find an area of additional need, that need may not have been in your scope of work and furthermore, it may not be an area you excel at – if you can help – do so.“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” ~ Donald Porter

 
Your customers have chosen to partner with you. They have also invested their time in you, beyond the financial commitment. Your customer has the ability to refer business, be a brand beacon, provide social proof to increase your credibility – but only when they are beyond satisfied. Building a loyal customer base is the key to success. The better you are at delighting your customers the less competition you will have. “The customer's perception in your reality.” ~ Kate Zabriskie
Copyright 2016 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer

We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.

Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant, a Google Partner – Certified in AdWords.